The materials wherewith the masks were constructed varied, no doubt, considerably in different ages;[[1050]] but that they were ever manufactured of bronze or copper is scarcely credible, if we reflect upon the weight of so voluminous an apparatus, covering the entire head and neck, composed of either of those metals. Such metallic specimens as have come down to us are to be regarded simply as model-masks, or as works of art, designed by the statuary as ornaments. The intention, at first, of this disguise being to give additional boldness and self-confidence to the actor, by concealing from his neighbours the shamefacedness which a raw performer would sometimes naturally feel while strutting about in imperial robes, and pouring forth the sesquipedalia verba of Pelias and Telephos, they were contented to cover the face with a piece of linen, having openings for the eyes and a breathing-place.[[1051]] To this appears to have succeeded a mask manufactured from the flexible bark of certain trees,[[1052]] shaped, of course, and coloured to resemble the human countenance. The next step was to employ wood, some kinds of which, while possessing the advantage of extreme lightness, might be wrought with all the delicacy and fineness of a statue, while, better than any other material, it would receive that smooth and polished enamel by which were represented the texture[[1053]] and complexion of the skin. Specimens of masks of this kind have been found among nations in a very rude state; among the inhabitants, for example, of Nootka Sound, whose dress, we are told,[[1054]] “is accompanied by a mask representing the head of some animal: it is made of wood, with the eyes, teeth, &c., and is a work of considerable ingenuity. Of these masks they have a great variety, which are applicable to certain circumstances and occasions. Those, for example, which represent the head of the otter or any other marine animals, are used only when they go to hunt them. In their war expeditions, but at no other time, they cover the whole of their dress with large bear-skins.”
But while the above improvements were going on in the national theatre,[[1055]] the rustic drama continued to preserve its original simplicity, the actors to prevent their being recognised, shading their brows with thick projecting crowns of leaves, and daubing their faces[[1056]] with lees of wine. Thus disguised they chanted their songs upon the public roads, sitting in a waggon,[[1057]] whence the proverb, “he speaks as from the waggon,” i. e. he is shamelessly abusive, which was in fact the case with the comic poets.
The masks were divided into three kinds, the Tragic, the Comic, and the Satyric. Those belonging to Tragedy were again subdivided into numerous classes, representing every marked variety of character, and every stage of human life from childhood to extreme old age. In the highly varied range of countenances thus brought into play, the mask-maker enjoyed abundant opportunities of exhibiting his skill. The hair, of course, was real and adjusted on the mask like a wig,[[1058]] differently fashioned and coloured according to the age, habits, and complexion of the wearer. In some cases it was gathered together and piled up on the forehead,[[1059]] in a triangular figure,[[1060]] adding many inches to the actor’s stature; at other times it was combed smoothly downwards, from the crown, twisted round a fillet and disposed like a wreath about the head as we sometimes find it in the figures of Asclepios and the philosopher Archytas. Some characters were represented wholly bald, with a garland of vine-leaves or ivy wreathed about the brow,[[1061]] others were simply bald in front, while a third class exhibited a bushy fell of hair, something like a lion’s mane. Young ladies displayed a profusion of pendant curls, kept in order by the fillet or sphendone, or gathered up in nets, or twisted about the head in braided tresses. In representing certain characters the eye-sockets were left open, so that the actor’s eyes could be seen moving and flashing within;[[1062]] but on other occasions, when the part of a squinter was to be acted by a performer who did not squint or vice versa, as in the case of Roscius Gallus, the mask-maker must have represented the eyes by glass or some other transparent substance, through which the actor could see his way. This was necessarily the case in the part of the poet Thamyris,[[1063]] who, like our own Chatterton, had eyes of different colours, one blue, the other black, which, as Aristotle informs us, was common among the horses of Greece.
The time of acting, as is well-known, was during the Dionysiac and Lenæan festivals, in the spring and autumn.[[1064]] The theatres being national establishments, in the proper sense of the word, were therefore open, free of expense, to all the citizens, who were not called together as with us by playbills,[[1065]] but for the most part knew nothing of what they were going to see till they were seated in the theatre, and the herald[[1066]] commanded the chorus of such and such a poet to advance. Previously to the commencement of the performance the theatre was purified by the sacrifice of a young hog, the blood of which was sprinkled on the earth.[[1067]]
[964]. Cf. Ficorini, Degli Masch. Scen. p. 15.
[965]. On the importance afterwards attached to the training of the chorus, see the substance of an inscription in Chandler, ii. 72.
[966]. Sch. Aristoph. Av. 1404. Schneid. de Orig. Trag. Græc. c. i. p. 2. The Dithyrambic ode was said to have been invented by Arion at Corinth. Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 25, seq. The first choral songs were improvisations. Max. Tyr. Dissert. xxi. p. 249.
[967]. Poll. iv. 108. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 210.
[968]. Cf. Schol. ad Æschin. Tim. Orator. Att. t. xii. p. 376. Tzetz. ad Lycoph. p. 251, sqq. See also Müller, Dissert. on the Eumenides of Æschylus, p. 54. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 587.—“Nous savons que sur les Théâtres Grecs les femmes dansaient dans les chœurs.”—Winkel. Mon. Ined. iii. p. 86. I have found no proof in any ancient author that this was the practice among the Greeks.