Roar'd to the god of grapes a drunken song:
Wild mirth and wine sustain'd the frantic note,
And the best singer had the prize, a goat.[175]
Thespis made several alterations in it, which Horace describes after Aristotle, in his Art of Poetry. The first[176] was to carry his actors about in a cart, whereas before they used to sing in the streets, wherever chance led them. Another was to have their faces smeared over with wine-lees, instead of acting without disguise, as at first. He also introduced a character among the chorus, who, to give the actors time to rest themselves and to take breath, repeated the adventures of some illustrious person; which recital, at length, gave place to the subjects of tragedy.
Thespis fut le premier, qui barbouillé de lie,
Promena par les bourgs cette heureuse folie,
Et d'acteurs mal oinés chargeant un tombereau,
Amusa les passans d'un spectacle nouveau.[177]
First Thespis, smear'd with lees, and void of art,
The grateful folly vented from a cart;