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Show 116 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. the Atellanes formerly represented at Averso. These authors were termed mimographers, from the Greek words mi-mos an imitator, and grapho I write. T h e name of mime was afterwards given to those performers who imitated, by their gestures only, what was spoken by the kistriones, or comedians and singers, or declaimers, both in tragedy and comedy*. These performers in the sequel, degenerating into frivolity, bombast and indecency, were merely regarded as buffoons and jugglers. The men were treated with the utmost contempt2, and the women regarded only as concubines and prostitutes. Some time afterwards, two celebrated actors, in the reign of Augustus, gave the art of mimicry a new birth, which they brought to much perfection and distinction. It was under these skilful hands that it acquired a splendour and importance unknown even to the brilliant ages of Greece. Their dexterity, in representing sentiment by gesture, became at length astonishing3. The Romans gave the name of pantomimes (from the Greek pantos, all, and mimeomai, to counterfeit) to those performers who expressed all kinds of things by means of gestures. The arts of Pantomime and dancing were afterwards called saltatio. T h e word Tripudium was also used to signify dancing. The Greeks termed both, when united, Orchestica 4. Lucian, in his celebrated dialogue upon dancing, raised that art to much dignity, by presenting it in its true light. H e pointed out its utility ; the many advantages derived from it; presented all the charms with which it abounds, and confirmed the judgment of those who decreed it an equal rank with tragedy and comedv. Scipion Maffei very erroneously believed that Lucian * Anciently, declamation was a species of recitative. |
