many "first nights," as it were, was concentrated in a single morning.
But now the contest is to begin. The magistrates and generals have arrived and taken their places in the lowest tier, the senators in the benches just above them; and many have been the remarks made on each as he came in, for in this small city every distinguished man is well known, by sight at least, to all his fellow-citizens. At length the curtain is removed, and the scene in which the action is laid is disclosed to view. Perhaps it is the outside of a temple, whose columned front the wall itself of the theatre may adequately represent; or often it is the front of a royal palace, with the statues of the three great gods standing before the gates; or it is a lonely island, where a hero is to suffer, deserted by his fellow-chiefs; or a wild mountain scene, on whose craggy cliffs Prometheus is to expiate his unlawful kindness to mankind. At the sides are painted views of the country surrounding each scene of action; the neighbouring city, if there be one, is seen upon the left, and on the right are fields or open sea. And all this is executed with consummate skill, and knowledge of perspective, such as even modern scene-painters hardly, perhaps, surpass. In such a scene the two actors appear. Their dress soon makes it clear what characters they represent,[1] and the first few sentences explain to us sufficiently the posi-
- ↑ The dress, however, of the actors was in great measure conventional, following closely that of worshippers in the rites of Bacchus. It was generally gay and bright in colour, and admitted but little distinction between men and women.
