[191] The slovenliness in this regard of many modern actors is mostly due to “long runs”. After saying the same thing hundreds of times, an actor naturally tends to mechanical diction. The writer has heard a performer in an emotional crisis suddenly (as it appeared) call for champagne. Feeling sure that “Pommery” could not be right, he reflected, and discovered that the mysterious syllables meant “Poor Mary!” Even actors at the head of the profession are guilty of such things as “the lor of Venice”. [192] See Haigh³, p. 279 _sq._, for some highly interesting extracts. [193] _Poetic_ 1456_a_ (tr. Butcher). [194] _Ibid._ [195] This was the normal mode of entry, but the plot sometimes demanded others. In the _Eumenides_ the Chorus rush in pell-mell; so probably in the _Bacchæ_; in the Euripidean _Supplices_ they are discovered grouped around the Queen. [196] See pp. 344 _sq._ [197] ὥστ’ εἴ τις ὀρχοῖτ’ εὖ, θέαμ’ ἦν· νῦν δὲ δρῶσιν οὐδέν, ἀλλ’ ὥσπερ ἀπόπληκτοι βάδην ἑστῶτες ὠρύονται. [198] Haigh³, p. 318. Both the gestures described sound like a curious anticipation of the gestures favoured by the performers of “coon-songs”. [199] This was not always an advantage when comedy held the scene. There is a delightfully impudent passage in the _Frogs_ (v. 297) where Dionysus to escape a hobgoblin appeals to his own priest for protection. [200] For a detailed description of the seating see Haigh³, pp. 94-101. [201] It is a fact familiar to students of comparative religion that obscenity is often a part of ritual. This is true of several Greek worships, including that of Dionysus. Hence even tragedy retained its satyric complement, though satyric drama regularly showed obscene features. [202] Puchstein would date it earlier (end of the fifth century). [203] Plutarch, _Liber Amatorius_, 756 B, C. [204] ἐκσυρίττειν (“to hiss off”). [205] Demosthenes, _De Falsa Legatione_, § 337. [206] _Ethics_, X, 1175 B. [207] _Date_: uncertain. Professor Tucker thinks the year 492-1 probable; Æschylus was then thirty-three years old. Historical considerations are here of doubtful value, but the technique of the play seems to prove beyond question that it is an early work. _Arrangement_: protagonist, Danaus, Egyptian herald; deuteragonist, King of Argos. [208] In the centre of the orchestra, as always. [209] Danaus is necessarily dismissed so that the actor who impersonates him may appear as the Egyptian herald. [210] vv. 991-2. [211] vv. 994-1013. [212] Ζεύς (or words derived therefrom) occurs about sixty times. [213] vv. 91-5 (Professor Tucker’s translation). [214] vv. 230-1. [215] _Date_: 472 B.C. _Arrangement_: protagonist, Atossa and Xerxes; deuteragonist, Messenger and Darius. [216] The actor who presents the queen has now to present the king. [217] This was a satyric play, and must not be confused with the extant _Prometheus_. [218] See Patin, _Eschyle_, p. 211. [219] _Henry V_, IV, viii. [220] vv. 361-2.