in order to
command the stage, or, perhaps, the whole chorus advanced to the front of
the orchestra, and thus put themselves in ideal connection, as it were,
with the _dramatis personae_ there acting. This _thymele_ was in the centre
of the whole edifice, all the measurements were calculated, and the
semi-circle of the amphitheatre was drawn from this point. It had a double
use, a twofold purpose; it constantly reminded the spectators of the
origin of tragedy as a religious service, and declared itself as the ideal
representative of the audience by having its place exactly in the point,
to which all the radii from the different seats or benches converged.

In this double character, as constituent parts, and yet at the same time
as spectators, of the drama, the chorus could not but tend to enforce the
unity of place;--not on the score of any supposed improbability, which the
understanding or common sense might detect in a change of place;--but
because the senses themselves put it out of the power of any imagination
to conceive a place coming to, and going away from the persons, instead of
the persons changing their place. Yet there are instances, in which,
during the silence of the chorus, the poets have hazarded this by a change
in that part of the scenery which represented the more distant objects to
the eye of the spectator--a demonstrative proof, that this alternately
extolled and ridiculed unity (as ignorantly ridiculed as extolled) was
grounded on no essential principle of reason, but arose out of
circumstances which the poet could not remove, and therefore took up into
the form of the drama, and co-organised it with all the other parts into a
living whole.

The Greek tragedy may rather be compared to our serious opera than to the
tragedies of Shakespeare; nevertheless, the difference is far greater than
the likeness. In the opera all is subordinated to the music, the dresses,
and the scenery;--the poetry is a mere vehicle for articulation, and as
little pleasure is lost by ignorance of the Italian language, so is little
gained by the knowledge of it. But in the Greek drama all was but as
instruments and accessaries to the poetry; and hence we should form a
better notion of the choral music from the solemn hymns and psalms of
austere church music than from any species of theatrical singing. A single
flute or pipe was the ordinary accompaniment; and it is not to be
supposed, that any display of musical power was all