Literary Remains, vol 2 | Page 8

produced a sort of rude comedy. It becomes an
inviting treat to the populace, and gains an additional zest and
burlesque by following the already established plan of tragedy; and the
first man of genius who seizes the idea, and reduces it into form,--into a
work of art,--by metre and music, is the Aristophanes of the country.
How just this account is will appear from the fact that in the first or old
comedy of the Athenians, most of the 'dramatis personæ' were living
characters introduced under their own names; and no doubt, their
ordinary dress, manner, person and voice were closely mimicked. In
less favourable states of society, as that of England in the middle ages,
the beginnings of comedy would be constantly taking place from the
mimics and satirical minstrels; but from want of fixed abode, popular
government, and the successive attendance of the same auditors, it
would still remain in embryo. I shall, perhaps, have occasion to observe
that this remark is not without importance in explaining the essential
differences of the modern and ancient theatres.
Phænomena, similar to those which accompanied the origin of tragedy
and comedy among the Greeks, would take place among the Romans
much more slowly, and the drama would, in any case, have much
longer remained in its first irregular form from the character of the
people, their continual engagements in wars of conquest, the nature of
their government, and their rapidly increasing empire. But, however
this might have been, the conquest of Greece precluded both the

process and the necessity of it; and the Roman stage at once presented
imitations or translations of the Greek drama. This continued till the
perfect establishment of Christianity. Some attempts, indeed, were
made to adapt the persons of Scriptural or ecclesiastical history to the
drama; and sacred plays, it is probable, were not unknown in
Constantinople under the emperors of the East. The first of the kind is,
I believe, the only one preserved,--namely, the [Greek (transliterated):
Christos Paschon], or "Christ in his sufferings," by Gregory
Nazianzen,--possibly written in consequence of the prohibition of
profane literature to the Christians by the apostate Julian. [1] In the
West, however, the enslaved and debauched Roman world became too
barbarous for any theatrical exhibitions more refined than those of
pageants and chariot-races; while the spirit of Christianity, which in its
most corrupt form still breathed general humanity, whenever
controversies of faith were not concerned, had done away the cruel
combats of the gladiators, and the loss of the distant provinces
prevented the possibility of exhibiting the engagements of wild beasts.
I pass, therefore, at once to the feudal ages which soon succeeded,
confining my observation to this country; though, indeed, the same
remark with very few alterations will apply to all the other states, into
which the great empire was broken. Ages of darkness succeeded;--not,
indeed, the darkness of Russia or of the barbarous lands unconquered
by Rome; for from the time of Honorius to the destruction of
Constantinople and the consequent introduction of ancient literature
into Europe, there was a continued succession of individual
intellects;--the golden chain was never wholly broken, though the
connecting links were often of baser metal. A dark cloud, like another
sky, covered the entire cope of heaven,--but in this place it thinned
away, and white stains of light showed a half eclipsed star behind it,--in
that place it was rent asunder, and a star passed across the opening in
all its brightness, and then vanished. Such stars exhibited themselves
only; surrounding objects did not partake of their light. There were
deep wells of knowledge, but no fertilizing rills and rivulets. For the
drama, society was altogether a state of chaos, out of which it was, for a
while at least, to proceed anew, as if there had been none before it.

And yet it is not undelightful to contemplate the eduction of good from
evil. The ignorance of the great mass of our countrymen, was the
efficient cause of the reproduction of the drama; and the preceding
darkness and the returning light were alike necessary in order to the
creation of a Shakspeare.
The drama re-commenced in England, as it first began in Greece, in
religion. The people were not able to read,--the priesthood were
unwilling that they should read; and yet their own interest compelled
them not to leave the people wholly ignorant of the great events of
sacred history. They did that, therefore, by scenic representations,
which in after ages it has been attempted to do in Roman Catholic
countries by pictures. They presented Mysteries, and often at great
expense; and reliques of this system still remain in the south of Europe,
and indeed throughout Italy, where at Christmas the convents and the
great nobles rival each other in the scenic representation