and to have carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain strollers], who had their faces besmeared with lees of wine, sang and acted. After him Æschylus, the inventor of the vizard mask and decent robe, laid the stage over with boards of a tolerable size, and taught to speak in lofty tone, and strut in the buskin. To these succeeded the old comedy, not without considerable praise: but its personal freedom degenerated into excess and violence, worthy to be regulated by law; a law was made accordingly, and the chorus, the right of abusing being taken away, disgracefully became silent.
Our poets have left no species [of the art] unattempted; nor have those of them merited the least honor, who dared to forsake the footsteps of the Greeks, and celebrate domestic facts; whether they have instructed us in tragedy, of comedy.[1] Nor would Italy be raised higher by valor
- ↑ Vel qui prœtextas, vel qui docuere togatas. There hath been much difficulty here in settling a very plain point. The question is, whether prœtextas means tragedy or a species of comedy. The answer is very clear from Diomedes, whose account is, in short, this: "Togatæ is a general term for all sorts of Latin plays adopting the Roman customs and dresses; as Palliatæis for all adopting the Grecian. Of the Togatæ, the several species are, 1. Prætexta or prætextata, in which the Roman kings or generals were introduced, and is so called because the prætexta was the distinguishing habit of such persons; 2. Tabernaria, frequently called Togata, though that word, as we have seen, had properly a larer sense. 3. Atellana. 4. Planipedis." He next marks the difference of these several sorts of the Togatæ from the similar corresponding ones of the Palliatæ, which are these: 1. "Tragœdia, absolutely so styled. 2. Comœdia. 3. Satyri. 4. Μίμος. (These four sorts of the Palliatæ were also probably in use at Rome; certainly, at least, the two former.) It appears then fromth ence, that prætextata was properly the Roman tragedy. But he adds, "Togata prætextata à tragœdiâ differt;" and it is also said. "to be only like tragedy, tragœdiæ similis." What is this difference and this likeness? The explanation follows. "Heroes are introduced into tragedy, such as Orestes, Chryses, and the like. In the prætextata, Brutus, Decius, or Marcellus." So then we see when Græcian characters were introduced, it was called simply tragœdia; when Roman, prætextata; yet both, tragedies. The sole difference lay in the persons being foreign or domestic. The correspondence in every other respect
the chorus, during which he came forward and recited with gesticulation a mythological story. Comp. note Epist. ii. 1. 163. M'Caul The date is thus given by the Par. Chron. Boeck.: Ἀφ οὖ Θέσπις ό ποιητής [έφύνη] πρώτος ὅς έδίδαξε [δρ]ᾶ[μα έν ἄ]στ[ει καί ἐ]τέθη ὁ [τ]ράγοος [ἄθγον] ἔτη ΗΗΠ[ΔΔ] – ἄρχοντος Ἀθ[ήνησι] ... ναίου τοῦ προτέρου. "Quod ad annum attinet, consistendum sane in Olymp. 61, eiusque tribus prioribus annis." Boeck. in Chr. Wheeler.
