La tragédie, informe et grossière en na’ssant, N’étoit qu’un simple chœur, où chacun en dansant, Et du dieu des raisins entonnant les louanges, S’éfforçoit d’attirer de fertiles vendanges. Là, le vin et la joie éveillant les esprits, Du plus habile chantre un bouc étoit le prix. Formless and gross did tragedy arise, A simple chorus, rather mad than wise; For fruitful vintages the dancing throng 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; And as his tawdry actors drove about, The sight was new, and charm’d the gaping rout. (M1) Thespis lived in the time of Solon.(178) That wise legislator, upon seeing his pieces performed, expressed his dislike, by striking his staff against the ground; apprehending that these poetical fictions and idle stories, from mere theatrical representations, would soon become matters of importance, and have too great a share in all public and private affairs.