A Source Book in Theatrical History
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ISBN-13: 9780486205151
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Publication Date: 06-01-1959
Pages: 640
Product Dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Antiquity 1. THESPIS MEETS A CRITIC Greek tragedy had its roots in the choric dithyramb. Aristotle tells us this, and we have no reason to disbelieve his testimony; a Greek philosopher, lecturing on tragedy in the 320's B.C., was much closer to the decisive events than the modern scholar. The genius who accomplished the transition from dithyramb to drama was Thespis of Icaria. Playwright, actor, stage director, and producer, all in one, Thespis is credited with a number of innovations. He is said to have connected the chorus with a plot; he seems to have evolved the protagonist (hypokrités, the "answerer"), destined to face a tragic dilemma and forced to answer the ever-questioning chorus; he discarded the cruder dithyrambic make-up by making use of unpainted linen masks; and, if we care to trust Horace, Thespis travelled about with a company of strolling players on a wagon. Pisistratus, having seized the castle and power of Athens by a coup d'état in 560 B.C., decided to enlarge the artistic scope of the City Dionysia by including plays in the official program of the festival. He asked Thespis, the Attic peasant-artist, to participate with his troupe. The date was 534 B.C., though this hardly marks the first appearance of Thespis in Athens, as, earlier, he may have participated in the Lenaea Festival. On one such festive occasion, Solon, the legislator, came to witness one of Thespis' performances and afterward went to see the artist. Plutarch saved this oldest "backstage" scene from oblivion: Thespis, at this time, beginning to act tragedies, and the thing, because it was new, taking very much with the multitude, though it was not yet made a matter of competition, Solon, being by nature fond of hearing and learning something new, and now, in his old age, living idly, and enjoying himself, indeed, with music and with wine, went to see Thespis himself, as the ancient custom was, act: and after the play was done, he addressed him, and asked him if he was not ashamed to tell so many lies before such a number of people; and Thespis replying that it was no harm to say or do so in play, Solon vehemently struck his staff against the ground: "Ah," said he, "if we honor and commend such play as this, we shall find it some day in our business." 2. AESCHYLUS—MAN OF THE THEATER Aeschylus (525-4 B.C. - 456-5 B.C.) surpassed his predecessors and competitors not only as a dramatic poet but also as a theatrical showman. The following excerpts from an ancient biography record his theatrical accomplishments with enthusiasm. We must be aware, however, that the anonymous biographer compiled his account from rather spurious sources: In his youth Aeschylus began to compose tragedies; in his poetry, in the brilliant mounting of his plays, in the costuming of his actors, and the magnificence of his choruses, he far surpassed his predecessors. As Aristophanes said in The Frogs: "But you, O first of the Greeks, erected noble phrases and embellished tragic trumpery." A contemporary of Pindar, Aeschylus was born 525 years before our era. Of noble birth, he fought in the Battle of Marathon along with his brother, Cynegirus, and later in the Battle of Salamis with his oldest brother, Aminias. He also is supposed to have served in the Battle of Plataea. In his writing he always tended toward vigor and loftiness of tone, employing onomatopoeia, epithets, metaphors, and anything that he felt might lend power to his verse. His dramatic structure, however, was quite simple in comparison with that of the younger dramatists since he indulged in fewer peripeties and plot complications. Sublimity meant everything to him. For this reason he concentrated on the grandeur and heroic elevation of his characters, considering it altogether outside the scope of the tragic playwright to portray seemingly ingenious and sententious rogues. Aristophanes made fun of Aeschylus for what he considered the excessive austerity of his characters: in the Niobe, even up to the third part, the mother sits by the tomb of her children restraining her feelings and not uttering a sound; likewise, in the Ransoming of Hector, Achilles completely suppresses his emotions and, save for a reply or two to Hermes in the beginning, has nothing to say. While one finds many different types of artistic treatment in Aeschylus, one looks in vain for those sentiments which draw tears. He uses his dramatic and scenic devices to evoke the stronger passions. Aeschylus retired to Sicily, to the court of the tyrant Hieron, because, according to some, he was oppressed by the Athenians and defeated by the young Sophocles at the City Dionysia; according to others, because he was surpassed by Simonides in an elegy on those who fell in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that the elegy of Simonides excelled in subtlety of feeling. When, at the performance of The Eumenides, Aeschylus introduced the chorus in wild disorder into the orchestra, he so terrified the crowd that children died and women suffered miscarriage. While in Sicily, Aeschylus wrote a tragedy entitled The Aetnaean Women, in which he predicted prosperity for the city of Aetna, which had been recently founded by Hieron. He was greatly honored by the tyrant and later by the inhabitants of Gela, on the southwest coast of Sicily, where, being very old, he died. His death, however, was an accident. An eagle having seized a tortoise and not being master of his prey, dropped it against the rocks to crack the shell. It struck the poet and killed him. He had been warned of his fate by an oracle which declared: "A heavenly missile shall slay thee." The citizens of Gela buried him with great pomp in a civic monument, inscribing thereon an epitaph of the poet's own composing: "Here lies Aeschylus of Athens, son of Euphorion, who died in fertile Gela, and whose prowess the long-haired Mede experienced on the celebrated battlefield of Marathon." His tomb became an object of public veneration, while his tragedies as well as a dramatized version of his life were presented there. Indeed, so beloved was the poet that after his death the Athenians voted that anyone wishing to produce his plays should have a chorus. He lived sixty-nine years during which he wrote seventy tragedies and five satyric plays. He won about thirteen victories, and not a few of them after his death. Aeschylus was the first to advance tragedy by means of a more exalted passion. He introduced scenic decorations—paintings, machinery, altars, tombs, trumpets, spirits, Furies—whose splendor delighted the eyes of the audience. He also supplied the actors with sleeved and full-length robes and heightened the buskins to increase their stature. Cleander was the first actor he employed. Later he added Mynniscus of Chalcis as his second. He was also the instigator of the third actor, though Sophocles is given the credit by Dicaearchus of Messene. If we compare the simplicity of Aeschylus' dramatic compositions with those of his successors, they might be judged jejune and wanting in elaborateness. But if we consider those preceding him, we may well admire our poet for his great talent and inventiveness. Those who hold that Sophocles was a greater tragic poet are right in their opinion, but they should keep in mind that it was more difficult, after Thespis, Phrynichus, and Choerilus, to elevate tragedy to such heights of greatness than for one who wrote after Aeschylus to arrive at the perfection of Sophocles. 3. AESCHYLEAN CHOREOGRAPHY Additional information with regard to the stage director, Aeschylus, may be drawn from Deipnosaphistai (The Banquet of the Learned), which the erudite Athenaeus compiled in the third century of the Christian Era: Aeschylus, too, besides inventing that comeliness and dignity of dress which Hierophants and Torchbearers emulate when they put on their vestments, also originated many dance-figures and assigned them to the members of his choruses. For Chamaeleon says that Aeschylus was the first to give poses to his choruses, employing no dancing-masters, but devising for himself the figures of the dance, and in general taking upon himself the entire management of the piece. At any rate, it seems that he acted in his own plays. For Aristophanes, certainly (and among the comic poets one may find credible information about the tragedians), makes Aeschylus say of himself: "It was I who gave new poses to the choruses." And again: "I know about his Phrygians, for I was in the audience when they came to help Priam ransom his son who was dead. They made many gestures and poses, this way and that way and the other." Telesis, also (or Telestes), teacher of dancing, invented many figures, and with great art illustrated the sense of what was spoken by motions of his arms. Phillis, the musician of Delos, says that the harp-singers of old allowed few movements of the face, but more with the feet, both in marching and in dance steps. Aristocles, therefore, says that Telestes, Aeschylus's dancer, was so artistic that when he danced the Seven against Thebes he made the action clear simply by dancing. They say, too, that the old poets—Thespis, Pratinas, Cratinus, Phrynichus—were called "dancers" because they not only relied upon the dancing of the chorus for the interpretation of their plays, but, quite apart from their own compositions, they taught dancing to all who wanted instruction. 4. SOPHOCLES—MUSICIAN AND DANCER A Greek playwright-director of the fifth century B.C. would have been lost without a sound training in music and dancing. Another excerpt from Athenaeus' Deipnosophistai establishes Sophocles' (ca. 495B.C.—406 B.C.) proficiency in both arts: Sophocles, besides being handsome in his youth, became proficient in dancing and music, while still a lad, under the instruction of Lamprus. After the battle of Salamis, at any rate, he danced to the accompaniment of his lyre round the trophy, naked and anointed with oil. Others say he danced with his cloak on. And when he brought out the Thamyris he played the lyre himself. He also played ball with great skill when he produced the Nausicaa. 5. EURIPIDES REHEARSING Euripides' (ca. 480 B.C.—ca. 407 B.C.) struggle with staging problems is suggested in an anecdote which Plutarch preserved: Euripides the poet one day at a rehearsal instructing the chorus in a part that was set to a serious air, one of the company unexpectedly fell out a laughing. "Sir," said Euripides, "unless you were very stupid and insensible, you could not laugh while I sing in the grave Mixolydian Mode." 6. POLLUX ON SCENES, MACHINES, AND MASKS In the second century of the present era, the Greek sophist and grammarian, Iulius Pollux, compiled his encyclopedia, Onornastikon, excerpts from which have survived, among them the chapter on thephysical aspects of the Greek theater and the catalogue of tragic and comic masks. Pollux'main sources were the scholiasts and the seventeen books of King Juba's Theatrical History. No agreement has been reached as to the validity of Pollux' statements, and many of his descriptions have never been satisfactorily explained. We are not always sure whether he speaks of the theater of the Hellenistic or Periclean era, though his reference to the raised stage would indeed indicate that he is discussing the features of the Hellenistic theater: The Parts of the Theater The separate parts of the theater are a little gate, arch, apartment, wedges, scene, orchestra, stage, scene-area, scene-avenues, and scene-wings. The actors occupied the scene, and chorus the orchestra; in which was the thyméle, being a sort of eminence, or altar; and in the scene likewise before the doors stood a consecrated altar, and table with seasoned cakes, called theoris, or holy table. Whereas the eleos was an ancient table, which before Thespis' time they used to get upon and reply to the choristers. Part of the scene-wings [paraskénia], that were in sight and joined to the stage-house [skené], was ornamented with columns and paintings [pinakes?]. Of the three scene-doors likewise the middle opened either into a palace, grotto, hall, or whatever was of first distinction in the play; the right-hand door was a retreat for the next in rank; and the left, which had a very miserable aspect, led to some desolate temple, or had no house. In tragedy, strangers entered at the right-hand door; and the left was a prison.... At each of the two doors, which stood in the middle, were likewise two others, on each side one, to which were fastened the wheel-machines [triangular prisms calledperiaktoi]; the right showing a prospect into the country, the left a distant view of the city; but chiefly for bringing things forward from the port, seagods, and whatever else was too unwieldy for the vehicle [ekkyklema] to bear. By turning the machine the right actually shifts the spot, and both of them change the prospect. Of the avenues too, the right leads from the country, port, or city; but persons, coming on foot from other parts, enter at the left; and crossing the orchestra, go up stairs into the scene; the stair-rows are called steps. We must also reckon as parts of the theater the vehicle, chariot, machine, watch-tower, wall, turret, light-house, doubleroof, lightning-tower, thunder, celestial scaffold, funeral-state-couch, semicircle, Charon's Steps and trap doors. The vehicle [ekkyklema] is an high seat, upon wooden steps, adjoining to which is a throne: it brings forth to view secret transactions in the subscenery apartments; and the term for this operation is wheeling out. ... As for the scaffold [mechané] it shows gods and heroes that are in the air (such as Bellerophon and Perseus); and it is fixed at the left avenue aloft above the stage-house.... The watch-tower was on purpose for watchmen or others who kept an observation. The wall and turret were likewise for a distant prospect. As for the light-house, its use is evident from the very name. But the double-roof was, on one occasion, either two separate apartments in a royal palace, such as from whence, in the tragedy, Phoenissae [by Euripides], Antigone views the army; and on another, a ridge for pelting with tiles. But the double-roof in comedy was a peeping place for procurers, or for any old or poor woman in the play to look down. The lightning-tower and thunder were, the former an high periaktos, and the other backwards under the skene, bags full of pebblestones poured into a brazen vessel. From the celestial scaffold [theologeion] which is over the stage-house, appear the gods, Jupiter and those about him, all in deception. The crane [geranos] is a kind of mechané let down from above for taking up a body, the same which Aurora made use of in seizing the body of Memnon. The ropes which were let down from the upper parts for lifting up heroes or gods, who seemed to be carried in the air, you might call them fly tackles. The representation of scenery on the periaktoi was done either by means of tapestries or of painted panels [pinakes] with figures on them, adapted to the necessities of the play; and they were let down upon the periaktoi, representing either a mountain, the sea, a river, or any such thing. The semicircle is so called from its shape; the situation of it is in the orchestra, and its use to show afar off any particular place of the city or persons swimming in the sea. The funeral-state-couch [stropheion\, in which were the heroes, shows those who are transformed to divinity or persons who had perished in a tempest or in war. Likewise Charon's Steps, situated at the avenues of the benches, are for the conveyance of ghosts. The anapiesmata [evidently trap doors] were partly in the stage-house for the lifting up of a river, or any such appearance, and partly round the stairs by which the furies were raised. The Tragic Masks Moreover with respect to masks: the tragic might be a smooth-faced man, a white, grisled, black-haired, flaxen, more flaxen, all of them old: and the smooth-faced oldest of these, having very white locks, and the hairs lying upon the prominence [onkos]. By prominence I mean the upper part of the countenance rising above the forehead, in shape of the Greek letter lambda. With respect to beard, the smooth-faced should be very closely shaven, and have thin lantern jaws. The white-haired is all hoary with bushy locks about the head, has an ample beard, jutting eyebrows, and the complexion almost white, but the onkos short. The grisled denotes the hoary hairs to be a mixture of black and grey. But the black-haired, deriving his name from the color, has a curled beard and hair, rough face and large prominence. The flaxen has yellowish bushy hair, lesser prominence, and is fresh-colored. The more flaxen has a sameness with the other, but is rather more pale to represent sick persons.Read an Excerpt
A Source Book in Theatrical History
By A. M. NAGLER Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1952 A. M. Nagler
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ISBN: 978-0-486-31554-6
CHAPTER 1
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface,
Introduction,
I. ANTIQUITY,
II. THE MIDDLE AGES,
III. THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPAIN,
IV. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE,
V. TUDOR AND STUART PERIODS,
VI. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV,
VII. THE RESTORATION THEATER,
VIII. VENETIAN COMEDY,
IX. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE,
X. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND,
XI. WEIMAR CLASSICISM,
XII. NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND,
XIII. THE AMERICAN THEATER,
XIV. EUROPEAN NATURALISM,
Acknowledgments,
References,
Index,
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