play on the exodus from Egypt, with the same
motive as the mystery plays,--the edification of the faithful. Herod
Atticus ([Symbol: cross] c. 180 A.D.), having caused the death of his
wife, Regilla, was not satisfied with the expiations in the usual
funeral rites. He built, as a monument to her, a theater with a
roof.[2039] Ezekiel's play on the exodus was presented in Herod's
theater. Nicholas of Damascus (b. 74 B.C.) is said to have written a
play on the story of Susanna.[2040]

+635. Roman _mimus_.+ The _mimus_, in the Greco-Roman empire,
stereotyped its figures for a period, since of course they did not
change suddenly or greatly. In the Roman _mimus_ the recurring features
were the pursuit of legacies, the impotency of men, the stupidity of the
clown, blows and other physical violence. The fixed types were: old
women as drunkards, sorceresses, go-betweens, peddlers, and panders; men
as _scholasticus_ (the pedant and learned imbecile), Ardalio (a
character introduced by Philistion), the fatuous, fussy old man, and
then the Christian, a type which was kept up for several
centuries.[2041] These personages, remaining unchanged in character,
were put in various assumed positions and conjunctures. The actors had
to invent the dialogue and work out the situation. The characters have
come down to us as Punch, Harlequin, Pantaloon, etc.[2042] Punch
(=Pulcino, Pulcinella) is only a Neapolitan rendering of Maccus, a
character in the atellans. "Maccus," in Etruscan, meant a little
cock.[2043] Christian antiphonal singing, like the Greek mystery acts of
Dionysus, helped to develop the drama.[2044] In the first centuries of
the Christian era "obscenity dominated the theater." "It was no longer a
school of patriotism, recalling the heroes of the early ages or
criticising the misdoings of contemporaries. It was a scene of vice and
corruption for actors and spectators. There was nothing represented but
the adventures of deceived husbands, adulteries, intrigues of
libertines, incidents in lupanars. The only characters represented were
shameless women and effeminate men. The most shameful things were
exhibited. Everything which ought to be respected was there degraded.
Virtue was mocked and the gods were derided. The actor caused the taste
for evil things to penetrate the mind of the spectator; he stimulated
ignoble and criminal passions, and, familiar as he was with vice, he
blushed sometimes at the shameful role which he was forced