Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-07-25
TIE DRAMA.
ITS INFLUENCE UPON CIVILIZATION.
LRE Fey Il. II RloA.l

remember how we once played soldier. 0
housekeeping, or opened en- imsginar,
store, or rang bell to call our playmate
in from recess at . make believe school
Children of larger growth retain thi
desire Of imitation, and hence the drama
in which men and women, for their pleas
ure and the pleasure OF others, represen
by words and actions the comedies and tn
tragedies OF life.
So we may find traces of tie drama il
nearly all nations. But as We love rathe
to initiate that which IS above Is, we fine
the drama in early history tiourished mos
among idoiatTous nations. They had PEG
pied the spiritual world With gods anc
gOddesses, formed after the likeness Of me1
and women, with Ike thoughts and pas
sions, only greatly intensified
0. course, among the barpaTOus nations
as in Africa, there was not sufficient intel
leCtual life to produce the drama, although
the idOlatrOus materials we're not wanting
On the other hand, among mnOtheistiC
nations as the Hebrews and the FeTsians
the materials were lacking, and their higher
and more spiritual conception OF religion
created q distaste for these things Bat III
China and India and Greece. where idol
atrous polythe;sn was systeniIed and
found in connection with high intellectual
culture, the growth OF the drama WIS easy,
rapid. and in Greece very remarkable. In
all Of these countries il vas directly con
nected with id0latry On this point I
quote Donaldson's "Theater Of the Greeks. -
q standard work published IL Bohn's cole
gate series:
The dramatic art, wherever it has eE-
listed as genuine product OF the soil, has
always been connected in It's origin with
the religious rites CT al elementary WOT-
ship; that is, with those enthusiastic orgies
which spring from Il personihcation Of the
powers Of nature. This was the case in
India, and il those parts of Italy where
scenic entertainments existed before the
Of the Greek drama. But in
Greece this Was So not only IN the begin
ming but as long as the stage existed; and
the circumstance which gave to the Attic
drama its chief strength and its highest
charms vas its continued connection with
the state worship Of Bacchus. in which
both tragedy and comedy took their rise.
& s The theatrical Representations a.
Athens, even IN the days Of SophOCles and
were constituents parts Of
religi Us festival: the the2ter in which
yhey were performed was sacred 70 BAG
ehus, and the worship Of the god wa7 a.
ways IS much regaI-.-- Is the amusement
Of the s0Yran people"
Aristotle SAID " Both tragedy and com
ody originated in o rude and unpremedi
lated manner, the first from the leaders OF
The dithyramb5 and the second from those
who led of the phalIic songs" The dithy-
-amb was originally noisy dance and
chorus in honor Of Jupiter Or Bac-
chus. Archiiochus, an ancient Greek
poet. says that he knows how
to lead off the dithyramb, the beautiful
song Of Dionysius Il. Q. BaCchus the god OF
w.ue) when " his mind is dizzy with the
thunder Of wine" Epicharnius tells Us
81 there IS no dithyran5 # you drink
water"
The Phallic songs, in which comedy
according TO Aristotle, were
sung by a procession Of jewellers in the in
decent rites of the worship OF the powers
Of nature, which dealed all the ancient
heatLen nations. Dat Of this mire Of moral
iith the Greek drama rose, and the Greek
gave birth to the Roman, the Roman TO the
medieval and the lnedi@yal to the modern
During all Of these centuries the drama has
never been able TO get clear OF the charge
Of paadering to human passions Of which
Il was guilty at the beginning in Greece,
and Of which it IS guilty to-day.
There were, indeed brilliant lights in the
jrecian drama, whose influence upon
he intellectual life Of the world has been
# the highest order. and some whose
ragedies have had as GOOD moral intlu-
suce as any the world has ever seen. The
rageies Of flschylus and 5ophoCies, espe-
,ially the Prometheus" and the Electra,
ire grand in their conception, and in their
are cOnfessediy among the best
II the Greek classics. That marvellous
language did It's day well under those
masters, and their exquisite use Of
words, the complicated meters, the
srophes and antisJroPhe5 are the wonder
IF modern scholarship. But AtschylUs'
Prometheus" and Sophocle5' " Electra no
more represent the kind Of plays ordina-
lily presented on the Greek stage than
" Hamlet" represents the
Kind OF plays ordinarily presented on the
modern stage.
The intellectuG influence Of the Greek
drama upon civilization, both ancient and
modern, vas undoubtedly very great, and
Of high order, but The moral influence Of
he Greek drama wss bad both at the time
and upon subsequent history. fSschyius
grew up in q vineyard, got his first inspira-
lion from the spectacle5 at athens II honor
Of Di0nysius, which were drunken, iicen-
jous orgies, and he himself IS charged With
habits Of incompetence. Cicero refers to
sophocles in way to Indicate him 70 have
been 4 pr9Higate man.
In EuriPides the third great tTaged.an Of
lie Greeks, the drama already began TO de-
49,. T., ~ 4 -hsf-r,i1rFY-H
which are satires on the vices Of the day,
he most vulgar sentiments ere freely ez-
pressed. and so the Greek drama, ike q
brilliant meteor, flashed upon the world,
and then returned to the general moral
darkness out of which it came. The gross
est immoralitios were not only tolerated,
out demanded by the people, and the very
garments Of the actors we're made TO con
tribute TO the general effect.
In a word, the Greek stage vas simply
the platform on which Greek polytheisn
itself in all the forms of human
passion, and the stage became thus prin-
eipal cause Of the mora! decay Of the Greek
people.
The Roman drama was largely borrowed
from the Greek, and never grew into intel
Iectual prominence before the world. Many
Of their tragedies are lost, but scholars do
not gTieve over it. We have the comedies
Of Plsutus and Terence ana some others.
Morally the Roman drama became worse
than the Greek The plots Of Terence en-
brace almostalvays the adventures of prot
ligate5 and courtesans, and they are unfit
to be represented before a respectable audi
ence. In the later days Of the Roman
drama its degradation became dreadful.
The actors were not only debarred Roman
but were shut out from respect
able society, and Trsjsn banished them
from Rome. One of the worst
insults the Emperor Nero offered to his
high Office and to the Roman people was
that he appeared as an actor on the stage
OF the theater And yet the more degraded
the drama became, the more
wildly did the people rush in crowds to
the play.
A.W sohlegel, the eminent German phi
losopher and translator of Shakespeare, in
his general survey Of the drama, says
81 Among the Romans the fine arts were in
uoduced only as corruptng article of
luxury, both betokening and accelerating
the degeneracy of the times. This luxury
they carried out on so large scale, in re-
spect of the theatre, that perfection in essen
tails must have been neglected in the rage