To follow, for my subject, this reasoning a little further, if there was
music (which, doubtless, there was) there must also have been dancing,
and, if dancing, there must, in the Antediluvian age, as a form of
entertainment, have also been Pantomime. On the other hand, even
supposing that man, at this period, was nothing else but a complete
savage, the words of Darwin, that I have quoted on a previous page,
conclusively proves, I think (on a common-sense like basis), of the
existence of dancing, a rude form of music, and, of course, Pantomime at
this epoch.
Ingersoll's doctrine was that "The distance from savagery to Shakespeare
must be measured not by hundreds, but by millions, of years."
Finally, why, and for what reason, should the Lord God, in His
all-seeing goodness and mercy, punish the inhabitants of the
Antediluvian world if they were only poor unenlightened savages? Was it
not because they were idolaters and worshippers of idols, "And that
every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) heart was only evil
continually," as the sixth chapter and fifth verse of Genesis tells us?
This then being so, we know also that in every ancient form of religion
dancing was one of the acts of worship, and if dancing, there must as
previously stated, have also been Pantomime.
CHAPTER II.
Origin of Tragedy and Comedy--Mythology--The meaning of the word
Pantomime--The origin of Harlequin, Columbine, Clown, and
Pantaloon--Grecian Mythology--Transformation Scenes--The rise of Grecian
Tragedy and Comedy--The Satirical Drama.
In the year 2347 B.C., in Chapter 9, verse 20, in Genesis, there occurs:
"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard." This is
one of the first acts that Noah did after the Deluge, and it is, as
history tells us, from the rites and ceremonies in celebration of the
cultivation of the vine, that we owe the origin of Tragedy and Comedy.
After the Deluge God placed His bow in the heavens as His covenant with
man that the world should no more be accursed; and in the first ages of
this world's history, Noah and his descendants celebrated their
deliverance from the Ark, the return of the seasons, and the promise of
plenty in their several religious rites and ceremonies. The children of
Shem had in general Asia as their portion; Japhet had Europe; and Ham,
Africa.
Soon, however, religion began to lose its purity, and it then began to
degenerate very fast. Men began to repair to the tops of mountains,
lonely caves and grottoes, where they thought resided their gods. To
honour them they erected altars and performed their vows. Amongst the
Ancients their Mythology went no further than the epoch of the Deluge,
and in honour of which, and also of the Ark, they erected many temples
called Aren, Theba, Argus (from whence was probably derived the Argo of
the Argonauts, and the sacred ship of Osiris), Cibotus, Toleus, and
Baris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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