Pompeii, its history, buildings, and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations, and also an itinerary for visitors . Comic Scene from a Painting at Pompeii. Devoted as the Greeks were to beauty, an ugly or plebeianPrometheus, or Agamemnon, or Achilles, would have beenintolerable, but an ugly Apollo would inevitably have beenhooted off the stage. Many imitations of masks carved in THE THEATRES. 201 marble still exist, which display great beauty and excellenceof workmanship. We know much less of the minutiae of t
Pompeii, its history, buildings, and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations, and also an itinerary for visitors . Comic Scene from a Painting at Pompeii. Devoted as the Greeks were to beauty, an ugly or plebeianPrometheus, or Agamemnon, or Achilles, would have beenintolerable, but an ugly Apollo would inevitably have beenhooted off the stage. Many imitations of masks carved in THE THEATRES. 201 marble still exist, which display great beauty and excellenceof workmanship. We know much less of the minutiae of theRoman than of the Greek theatre. It appears from a passagein Cicero that the celebrated Roscius sometimes playedwithout his mask, and that this was preferred by hisaudience. It is evident that the heads of the actors, when coveredwith a mask, must have appeared disproportionately remedy this, and to raise their stature to the heroic. Tragic Scene from a Painting at Tompeii. standard, a thick-soled boot was invented, called kfiftas, andKoOopvos, from which the words buskin and cothurnus havebecome almost convertible with tragedy in the Augustan ageof Latin, and that which has been called the Augustan age ofEnglish literature. Distinguished from these was the comicshoe, eppdrrjc, in Latin, soccus, which word is in like mannerused to denote comedy. Both the cothurnus and the ojkoqabove-mentioned are represented in the annexed outlineof a painting found in the house of Castor and Pollux atPompeii. The proportion of the figure, thus increased inheight, was preserved by lengthening the arms with glovesand by stuffing and padding the body, so as to convey theidea of superhuman size and strength. How all this was 202 POMPEII. consistent with anything like natural speech or action, it isnot easy to imagine. Distance certainly at once renderedthe increase of bulk more necessary, and softened the awk-wardness of such made-up
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