CHAPTER IX.

OF THE ANCIENT PANTOMIMES.

The pantomimic art not properly connected with rhetorical deliveryThe gestures of an orator very different from those of the pantomime -The rise of the ancient pantomimes-Account from AthenæusAnecdotes of their art from Macrobius-From Suetonius-From Lucian-Observations of Mr. Gibbon-Division of gesture and recitation in the ancient drama―modern pantomimes—Ancient theatrical masks.

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CHAPTER IX.

Of the Ancient Pantomimes.

If the art of gesture be worthy of cultivation, it would appear that it should be cultivated in its highest perfection, and that its perfection must consist in its power of communicating the thoughts independant of language. In this view the pantomimic art should be the sole object for the investigation. and acquisition of those who study the art of gesture; for the pantomimes express entire dramas without the aid of words. Their art, however extraordinary, forms hardly any portion of the proper subject of our present enquiry; which relates to the gesture suited to the illustration and enforcement of language, not to the gesture which supersedes its use, and which in its purposes and manner of application is altogether different. In order to express his sentiments by mute action, the pantomime is obliged to avail himself of every natural and imagined connection between thought and gesture; he is of necessity confined to the representation of the most ordinary feelings and situations, such as love, hatred, jealousy, terror, pity, courage, fear, the objects of which are easily made known, and the expression of which is understood by all. If the pantomime wish in the conduct of his fable to go beyond the bounds of these expressions, he is forced upon many awkward expedients, and obliged to invent a language of signs which is

attended with the same inconvenience as every other language, that is, it is understood only so far as communicated to, admitted and studied by others. The gestures of the orator, on the contrary, are restrained within very narrow bounds as to imitation, and few of them comparatively are significant; by far the greatest number being so uncertain in their use as to be

'Nous avons dit ci-dessus que l'art du geste étoit composé de gestes naturels et de gestes d'institution. On peut bien croire, que les pantomimes se servoient des uns et des autres, et qu'ils n'avoient pas encore trop de moyens pour se faire entendre. Dubos, Réflexions, Tom. III. p. 262.

* Modern pantomimes when obliged to express what would require very peculiar gestures of institution, supply themselves with a scroll, upon which is written the nature of the situations of the dramatic characters. In the same manner Apollonius Tyanæus, when under the vow of Pythagorean silence, was forced upon the awkward expedient of writing what he might have better spoken.

The ancients used to have a sort of cryers to announce the plot of their pantomimes; this is done by us by means of printed bills and descriptions.

3 Primis temporibus saltante pantomimo, præco pronuntiabat populis Carthaginis quod saltator vellet intelligi. Quod adhuc multi meminerunt senes, quorum relatu hæc solemus audire. Quod ideo credendum est, quia nunc quoque si quis talium nugarum imperitus intraverit nisi ei dicatur ab altero quid illi motus significent, frustra intentus est. St. August. de Doct. Chr. l. ii. Quoted by Dubos, p. 263.

• Le pantomime des tems modernes n'a aucun avantage sur celui des anciens; car lorsque renonçant à des actions communes et connues, il prétend exécuter des sujets à intrigue de sa propre invention, il se trouve dans l'alternative ou de peindre par des signes aussi expressifs qu'il lui est possible de les créer, en laissant au hasard ce que leur signification vague et incertaine permettra aux spectateurs de saisir, ou d'appeller à son secours l'interprete qui doit expliquer par la parole ce que le geste, la mine, et l'attitude ne peuvent exprimer complettement. M. Noverre rejette absolument ce dernier moyen.. .. il compare ceux qui en ont besoin à ces tableaux des premiers tems de la peinture, dans lequels les peintres se servoient des rouleaux de papier qui sortoient de la bouche des figures, et sur lesquels l'action, l'expression, et la situation de chaque personnage se trouvoient écrites. Idées sur le Geste, Lettre 30.

....

The rule for forming a pantomime from a known subject, according to the celebrated M. Noverre, is this:

"Resserrez l'action, retranchez tout dialogue tranquille, rapprochez les incidens, ré"unissez tous les tableaux épars, et vous réussirez." Lettres sur la Dance, p. 63.

This is no doubt a good recipe for making a pantomime, but the detail of the composi tion exhibits the medicine in no very favourable point of view.

equally suited to a great variety of sentiments, as we shall more particularly explain hercafter. But although the pantomimic art is remote from the main object of this work, it would be deemed perhaps a blameable omission to pass over in total silence, a subject still in some measure connected with it, and which boasts of classic origin. I shall therefore give a slight sketch of the rise and progress of this art, referring those who wish for full information to the original authors, and among the moderns particularly to the Réflexions criliques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture of the late ingenious and learned Abbé Dubos, whom I shall freely quote.

According to Athenæus, the poet Eschylus was the first inventor not only of the dresses, but of theatrical gesture, and Telestes the author of the pantomimic art: he was a dancer employed by Eschylus, and "so great an artist was he, that "when he represented the seven kings before Thebes, he "rendered every circumstance manifest by his gestures in "dancing.'

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From Greece, or rather from Egypt, this art was brought to

5 Καὶ Αισχύλος δὲ & μόνον ἐξευρε τὴν τῆς σολῆς ἐυπρέπειαν καὶ σεμνότητα, ἣν ζηλώσαν τες δι ἱεροφάνται καὶ δαδἔχοι ἀμφιέννυνται, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλὰ σχήματα ορχητικὰ αυτὸς ἐξευρίσκων ἀνεδίδε τοῖς χορευταῖς. Athen. Causab. l. i. p. 21.

Τελεσὴς ὁ Αισχύλα όρχηςής ὕτως ἦν τεχνίτης, ὥς τε ἐν τῷ ὀρχεῖσθαι τὰς ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας φανερὰ ποιῆσαι τὰ πράγματα δὲ ὀρχήσεως. Athen. Causab. p. 22.

7 Suivant Athenée Thelestes avoit été l'inventeur de cette espece du jeu muct, ou de danse sans saults et sans pas élevés, et laquelle nous appellerons ici le plus souvent l'art du geste. Nous ne ferons en cela que lui donner le même nom, que lui donnoient souvent les anciens. Ils l'appelloient souvent chironomie, et ce mot traduit littéralement signifie la regle de la main. Dubos Réflex. critiques, Tom. III. p. 211.