In the second place some of the words assigned to the chorus were actually delivered by the coryphaeus. There is no direct testimony to this effect, but the matter hardly admits of doubt. On a great many occasions the chorus drops the tone of lyrical exaltation, and converses with the persons on the stage in an easy and familiar manner. It plays the part of an ordinary actor. In all such cases it is evident that the chorus must have been represented by the coryphaeus alone. The dialogues between the actors and the coryphaeus were a peculiar and distinctive feature of the old Greek drama. They were, in fact, a direct survival from the early period, when there was only a single actor upon the stage, and when the dramatic element in a play was necessarily confined to conversations between the actor and the chorus. In addition to the dialogues just mentioned, there are several other portions of the chorus which may be assigned to the coryphaeus with a fair amount of certainty. Such are the anapaests with which the approach of a new personage is announced at the end of a choral ode in tragedy. These anapaests, being delivered in recitative, would make a gentle transition from the song of the chorus to the speech of the actors. Then again, it is probable that in comedy all the anapaestic tetrameters were spoken by the coryphaeus, including the speech to the people at the commencement of the parabasis, and speeches such as that which is inserted in the parodos of the Frogs.[924] In comedy also the coryphaeus had frequently to address words of exhortation and remonstrance to the rest of the chorus.[925] As regards the anapaests at the beginning and the end of a play, the question is far more doubtful. It was the old fashion in tragedy for the entrance song of the chorus to commence with a series of anapaests. The custom is retained in the Persae, Supplices, and Agamemnon of Aeschylus, and the Ajax of Sophocles. Most Greek plays also conclude with a few anapaests. It has been suggested that the verses in each case were delivered by the coryphaeus alone; but the suggestion is hardly a plausible one. If chanted in combination by the whole body of the chorus they would make its entrance and departure much more impressive. It need hardly be remarked that, when the chorus was divided into half-choruses, the part generally taken by the coryphaeus was in this case taken by the leaders of the two halves. For example, throughout the Lysistrata the chorus of men and the chorus of women were represented in the dialogue by their respective leaders. In the Seven against Thebes the concluding anapaests would be spoken by the leaders of the hemichoria. It is also highly probable that the two sets of trochaic tetrameters, which come at the end of the parabasis, were recited, not by the half-choruses, but by their leaders.