The Sun.
London, England, 1821-01-20 00:00:00

mology : the word tragedy is evidently derived
from tragos, a goat) and ode, a song ; and when
the antients say that the song of the goat took its
origin from, a )yric festival in honour of Bacchus,
in consequence of a goat- which was sacrificed to
this god, we comprehendtperfectly the possibility
and even the probability of such au etymology.
We are therefgre 'disposed to give crediCto this
story, on the evidence 4 the 'ancients, until a-
more certain, or at least a more probable, origin
be given to us of the word tragedy-. It is not
enough for M. Raoul-Rochette to say, this his-
tory is false ; he should also add, here is another
which is true.
If.M. Raoul-Rochette pretends to assert, with
some modern Authors, that the name of tragedy
originated in the circumstance of a goat having
been sometimes given as a prize for the best
Poem, we are constrained to say that this argu-
ment is by no means convincing to our minds. Is
it not more reasonable to suppose that the goat
preceded the song of the goat, than to imagine
that 'the song took its name from the prize with
which it was rewarded ? Does not the word tra-
gedy signify a song with relation to a goat rather
than a goat with relation to a song ? This is a
great question which may perhaps take a long
time in deciding, at which we are concerned, as
we are very -desirous of -haying this contested
point settled.
M. Raoul-Rochette is not satisfied with deny-
ing this poor Oat the glory of having:given birth
to tragedy, but he also wishes to deprive Thespis
of the honours decreed• to him by antiquity, as
the first inventor of tragic exhibitions. On this
subject he says :
" How can we reconcile the idea the Scholiasts
" give us of the plays of Thespis, with the pro-
" gress of preceding ages, and the state of the
" age itself in which he composed his tragedies ?
" Men, whose faces were bedaubed with mire or
'' covered with a mask, mounted on a table or in

" a cart, amused the passengers by representa-
" tions sometimes grand, and at other times lu-
" dicrous, in language either serious or familiar,
66 according to the caprices of their own imagina-
" tions or the taste of their hearers. Such was,
64 no doubt, the spectacles exhibited in the in-
" fancy of the tragic muse, but certainly not in
" the age of Thespis. The titles of some of his
44 pieces, the only wrecks of his great renown
" which have reached us, prove that he must have.
" been acquainted with the true principles of the
" art, and the subject of Alcestis which he has
" treated successfully, cannot be reconciled with
" the idea of the gross scenes attributed to him
by Horace. We know that at the first per-
formances of Thespis, the wise Solon, alarmed
at the enthusiasm with which they inspired the

Athenians, was compelled to prohibit an exh
bition which disguised ancient traditions b

agreeable fictions; Is it to be conceived, that
the legislator of Athens, in the most enlightened
age and country of Greece, should have treated
with so much severity a spectacle which only
presented, according to Horace, lies without
wit, humour, delicacy, or object"-
We shall confire our observations in refutation

of this passage to the testimony afforded by the
works of the ancients. In the first place, Aris-
totle declares, in express terms, that Eschylus,
who lived fifty years after Thespis, made great
improvements in tragedy. Thespis disguised
the faces of his actors with false colours. Eschy-
lus covered them with a mask. Thespis carried
them about in a cart. Eschylus established
them in a theatre. He introduced a more grave
and austere style into his choruses, in place,
of the burlesque style of Thespis. Aristotle
adds, what is more important, that Eschylus
began by adding an actor to that of Thespis ;
that he abridged the songs of the choruses, and
that he invented the first part of a play, or the
protagonist. Philostratus, in his Life of Eschy-
lus, says, that this poet provided his actors with

masks and dresses suited to their parts, and ob-
tained a theatre furnished with machines, and
embellished with decorations. Here the sound
of the trumpet was reverberated incense
was seen to burn on the altars the shades
of the dead to arise from the tomb— and

the Furies to rash from the gulfs of Tartarus.
Pausanias observes, that PhrynicUs, the pupil of
Thespis, first introduced a Woman's part on the
stage; Neophron, of Sicyon, that of the peda-
gogue ; an actor of Megara those of the valet
and cook; and that Eichvlus invented the
hideous masks of the Eumenides, &c. All these
authorities, that of Plutarch and many others,
which might be cited, agree in attributing to
Thespis the honour of first inventing tragic exhi-
bitions. To deprive him of it, more is required
than inferences drawn from the titles of his
plays. At the first commencement,. what was
then denominated the pieces of Thespis, was only
an heroic song recited by an actor. The art was
yet in its infancy ; and it is precisely because
these imperfect sketches were produced in the
" most enlightened country and age of Greece,"
that we must conclude Thespis was the. inventor.
If he had composed his performances from any
models, he would have carried the art of tra-
gedy to greater perfection.

e are at a loss to know from what antient
authorities-M. Raoul•Roebette has attributed to

Thespis the-tragedy of Alcestis. We have only
the titles of four plays ascribed to this Father of
Tragedy, which are, Phorbas, Sacerdotes, Ado.
lescentes, and Pentheus. To Phrynicusi his pu-
pil, antiquity ascribes this tragedy of Alcestis,
with those of Acteon, the Persae, the Danaides,
and five others. This observation is in other
respects of little importance.
M. Raoul-Rochette remarks, that Solon pro-
scribed the Tragedies of Thespis. This observa-
tion may be cited against him, for Archilochus,
who lived in the time of Solon, and who never
composed any _Tragedies, was also banished on
account of his licentious and satirical dithyram-
bics. If Thespis incurred the same disgrace
from the Athenian Legislator, we are justified
in supposing that it was because he sang in the
streets, before the assembled populace, hymns
to Bacchus, in which .decency was often out-

raged, as is reported by the Ancients ; indeed,
it is not at all probable that Thespis would have
been exiled, if he had performed in a Theatre,
or had known how to restrict his recitations to