The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-03-10

several characters he represented.
T When the play was peopled by sew
eral characters. even tho they were
presented one after the other and new
/ er, two together a plot was possible
however slight. When the poet leader
developed into an actor the chorus
! raised another Of their members to
take his place as leader. In time these
| plays ceased to be improvised on the
! spur Of the moment and were care
fully written out and committed to
memory both by actor and by the
chorus. So this vintage festival be-
! gan to be work of art and literature
came to the aid Of Che theater. At
about the same time it gave up its
nomadic career and established itself
in Athens. In time the state took
over the control of the drama.
When these choruses first began
they performed around an altar to
Dionysius in the market place, when
a leader was put up for him in the
center of the circle. and at the side Of
however slight. When the poet leader
an actor booth of skins was erected
behind the platform so that he could
change his masks and costumes out Of
, ..s hhc Of spectators. In front Of the
platform was an open space for the
chorus known as the orchestra. The
seats for the audience were not unlike
the tiers in our travelling circus. Lat
err the market place was abandoned for
a hollow Of the hill that lowered high
over the city. At the bottom a cir
cular space was made to serve as an
orchestra and above it in rows up the
side of the curving slope seats of wood
or stone were arranged. Many Of the
earliest Greek actors are mere myths
but Aeschylus is a fact. It was he
who first introduced second actor
He diminished the Importance of the
chorus and assigned the leading part
to dialogue.
He now had the power to put before
the spectator the two opposing char
acters in whom was embodied the
struggle which was the back bone of
the plot. Aeschyluns paved the way
for the greatest of all Greek drama
fists, Sophocles, who first made use OF
third actor and diminished the es-
sential parts Of the chorus.
Sophocles sought to bring perfec-
ton Of beauty before his audiences by
the delivery Of the phrase. the rhythm
Of the line, the beauty of the speech
and the structure of the plot. He
drilled the chorus in their movements
and saw that their gestures were
graceful, and the groupings harmon
ious. In the plays Of the third great
Greek dramatists, Uripides, we see the
beginning Of decline.
The Greek dramas differed from the
English dramas in that they held to
the unity of time and place. We dis
criminate between tragedy and COM
edy in this manner; if the object
against which the will of the hero
finally breaks itself is absolutely in
surmountable, the Greek idea Of fate
for example, the Christian decree of
Providence, or the modern scientific
doctrine of heredity, then we have
tragedy. If the obstacle is not abso
lutely insurmountable, being no more
than. the social law, then we have SER
ious drama. If the obstacle is only
the desire of another human being
then the result of the contention of
these two characters is likely to give
US comedy. Aristophanes was the
greatest of the Greek comedians.
When the Romans conquered the
Greeks the Roman theaters were aban-
doned to the vulgar who preferred the
fierce joy of the chariot race. the
-
poignant ecstasy of the gladiatorial
combat, to the artistic dramas of a
Sophocles. ..5,-.a .,.
After the conversion of Constantine
the lustful and bloody spectacies were
accurst by the Church. When Con-
stantinople supplanted Rome as the
capital of civilization dramatic liter
ature which had been the glory of
Athens ceased from off the earth. For
a thousand years or more the history
of the drama is all darkness and va
cancy. /
The fifteenth and sixteenth centur-
les were a time Of great intellectual
and spiritual activity in Europe The
long night of the Dark Ages had pass
ed and the dawn of the new era had
come. Everywhere there was intellect
ual and spiritual impulse. the thirst
for knowledge. the craving for mental
freedom, the spirit of free inquiry
Men chafed under the limitations i'm
posed on them by the scholastic phil
osophy, the prevalent ancient the
ology. the current ideas Of the time
This impulse led to the reformation
in Germany. England, Holland, Switz-
Ill ~ IN CT, lor re ole
where. ~ @
This great movement of mind was |
greatly assisted by the invention of
printing. Up to this time few. except
the clergy, were able to read or write.
were few and costly, But
the new art brought ideas within the
reach Of everybody. A new era of
popular intelligence began.
Another event, which seemed on the
face of it to be retrograde movement
in the worlds progress and a detri-
ment to advancing civilization in Eu-'
rope, really contributed much to the