he patterns of the scenes, in comedy, the most
considerable building was in the centre; that on the right side was a
little less elevated, and that on the left generally represented an inn.
In the satirical pieces they had always a cave in the middle, a wretched
cabin on the right, and on the left an old ruined temple, or some
landscape. In these representations perspective was observed for
Vitruvius remarks (C. 8) that the rules of it were invented and
practised from the time of Aeschylus, by a painter named Agararchus, who
has even left a treatise upon it. After the downfall of the Roman
Empire, these decorations of the stage were neglected, till Peruzzi, a
Siennese, who died in 1536, revived them.

There were three entries in front, and two on the sides; the middle
entry (termed the Royal door) was always that of the principal actor;
thus, in tragedy, it was commonly the gate of a palace. Those on the
right and left were destined to the second-part players, and the two
others, on the sides, one to people from the country, the other to those
from the harbour, or any public place.

Pollux informs us, that there were trap-doors for ghosts, furies, and
the infernal deities. Some under the doors, on one side, introduced the
rural deities, and on the other the marine. The ascents or descents were
managed by cords, wheels, and counter-weights. Of these machines none
were more common than those which descended from heaven in the end of
the play, in which the gods came to extricate the poet in the
_denouement_. The kinds were chiefly three; some conveyed the performer
across the theatre in the air; by others, the gods descended on the
stage; and a third contrivance, elevated, or supported in the air,
persons who seemed to fly, from which accidents often happened. (It is
from this that the well-known phrase "_Deus ex machina_" has its
origin.) As the ancient theatres were larger than ours, and unroofed,
there was no wheel-work aloft, but the performer was elevated by a sort
of crane, of which the beam was above the stage; and turning upon
itself, whilst the counter-weight made the actor descend or ascend,
caused him to describe curves, jointly composed of the circular motion
of the crane, and the vertical ascent. The _anapesmata_ were cords for
the sudden appearance of furies, when fastened to the lowest steps; and
to the ascension of rivers, when attached to the stage. The
_ceraunoscopium_ was a kind of moveable tower, whenc