1462. A.D. volous garrulity, a superstitious enumeration of unimportant phenomena, and a manifestation of prejudices towards the factions of the church or state. These annalists of the middle ages can, in fact, be regarded not as supplying history itself, but materials for its composition; and necessity alone has given them popularity and importance, since they are the sole sources of information which we possess regarding those remote and gloory periods. Those of them who pretended to originality in composition, generally speaking, possessed neither judgment, taste, nor critical acumen; their style sinking at one time into puerile simplicity, and at others bursting forth into an affectation of sublimity as ludicrous as contemptible. Where their language is free from grammatical barbarisms, the imagination of the reader is tortured by involved phraseology, undefined epithets, and obsolete expressions; or his patience is exhausted by a profusion of tasteless ornament or inapplicable imagery. Of those who confined themselves to the humbler walk of compiling from the labours of others, the only object seemed to be, an anxiety to amass material, however gross, and congregate incidents, however ill-attested. • Boeclerus, sec. P. C. xv. p. 106. Harles, sec. v. p. 586. Schoell, l. vi. c. 86. Gibbon, c. lxvi. A.D. Truth and fable, the sacred and profane, super- 1462. stition and historical veracity, are promiscuously blended throughout their volumes; and not unfrequently, in their quotations, the accuracy of the original is destroyed and defaced, in order to conceal the thefts of the plagiarist.* In reviewing this period, from Constantine the Great to the overthrow of the empire, we cannot avoid being struck with the small proportion of authors who owe their birth to what may be properly denominated, Greece. Athens, Thebes, and the Peloponnesus, have furnished comparatively none, whilst the great body have issued from Alexandria, Byzantium, or the provinces. During this long era, too, the progress of the human mind, which in Italy and the West was perpetually, however slowly, advancing, appears to have been almost stationary at Constantinople. During nearly twelve centuries, no new discovery calculated to promote the dignity or happiness of mankind, no fresh idea to cast a light over the speculative pursuits of their fathers, no high production of discerning judgment, no grand effusion of creative genius, was added to the patrimony which • Saint Croix, Examen des Histo. d'Alexandre le Grand, p. 153, in Schoell, vol. v. p. 356. Gibbon, c. liii. 1462. A.D. they had derived from their ancestors.* But the spurs to emulation and advancement had long been withdrawn from the genius of the Greeks surrounded by illiterate nations, standing as it were in insulated civilization, amidst surrounding barbarism, their ambition was aroused by no comparison with foreign merit, exertion was suspended by vanity and selfsatisfaction, and apathy and decay were gradually engendered by misfortunes and despair.+ * I have omitted in this sketch any mention of the fate of the Drama in Greece. As the remarkable perfection to which this art attained at Athens, was in a great degree at. tributable to the honours conferred by the people on its distinguished cultivators, so one of the first incidents which may be regarded as having contributed to hasten its decline, was the stigma cast by the Romans on the person and profession of an actor. When thus abandoned to a worthless and dishonoured caste, the caustic satire and loose pantomime of the Greeks quickly degenerated into vulgar farce and gross obscenity; and as the genius of the nation declined, the classic productions of the tragic and comic muse were abandoned, for the performance of dancers, wrestlers, and buffoons. The sublimities, or graces of poetry, gave way + Gibbon, c. liii. As the genius of the theatres of Rome and Greece were, after the conquest of the latter, nearly similar, I shall in this note treat of their decline in the same terms, the history of the one being, in fact, merely that of the other. For a detailed account of these popular performances, 1462. Towards the close of their political existence, A.D and under the government of a family whose before the allurements of processions and melo-dramatic effect; the powers of a Roscius or a Paris, yielded to those of a pyrotechnist,† or a rope-dancer; and morality declining with taste, the theatres gradually became the haunts of vice, and the temples of depravity.§ This new passion, too, was encouraged by the satiety arising from the endless repetition of the productions of the early dramatic writers; whilst the talentless authors of the age could furnish no fresh variety, nor aspire to the produc see the 29th and 30th chapters of Julius Cæsar Bulenger, de Theatro, &c. lib. i. "Media inter carmina poscunt Aut ursum aut pugiles: his nam plebecula gaudet. Horace, Ep. ii. lib. ii. v. 185. Claudian, Paneg. 8. "An magis oblectant animum jactata petauro Corpora, quique solent rectum descendere funem.” Juvenal, Sat. xiv. v. 265. § Juvenal, Sat. vi. v. 61.-For authorities of the ancients on the depravity of the theatres under the Romans, see c. xlii. of Bulenger, the Histrio-mastix of Prynne, where they are collected ad nauseam, and Collier's invective against the stage. The author of this last-mentioned work has selected all his authorities from Prynne; but his volume is grossly deficient, both in talent, judgment, and candour. 1462. A.D. talents and melancholy fate alike entitle them to regret, taste, if not genius, seemed in some tion of any thing beyond the plot of a pantomime.* The evil at length rose to so great a height as to become alarming; and in the reign of Tiberius, the number of dancers and musicians was so excessive, and the expense at which they were supported so enormous, that legislative enactments were necessary for their salutary restriction. As the empire declined, the progress of corruption was hastened by the example of the Emperors; Caligula did not hesitate, in his rapturous admiration, publicly to reward with kisses the inimitable dancing of the pantomime Lepidus Mnester, and to flog with his own hand those who presumed to disturb the breathless silence of the theatre during his performances ;‡ and so ardent a patron was he of these exciting amusements, that he occasionally conferred on his histrionic buffoons the government of valuable provinces and elevated offices in the state. This popular depravity at last attracted the indignation of the Christian church,§ and the pens of Cyprian and Cyril, of Tertullian, Lactantius, and a host of others, were directed * Gibb. xxxi. Signorelli Storia deʼ Teatri, l. i. c. viii. p. 174. + Suetonius, in vitâ Tiber. c. 34. The vast and magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by 3000 female dancers and by 3000 singers, with the masters of the respective choruses. Such was the popular favour which they enjoyed, that in a time of scarcity, when all strangers were banished from the city, the merit of contributing to the public pleasures exempted them from a law which was strictly executed against the professors of the liberal arts.-Gibbon, c. xxxi. and Signorelli, p. 173; from Ammianus, l. xiv. c. 6. Suetonius in vita Calig. c. 55. § Schlegel's Lectures on Dramatic Lit. vol. i. p. 24. Arti |