ets, and the avenger of violated religion, or
in sustaining all those characters at the same time according to Horace.
The coryphaeus, or principal person of the chorus, spoke for the rest.

In one of AEschylus's pieces, called the _Eumenides_, the poet represents
Orestes at the bottom of the stage, surrounded by the Furies, laid asleep
by Apollo. Their figure must have been extremely horrible, as it is
related, that upon their waking and appearing tumultuously on the theatre,
where they were to act as a chorus, some women miscarried with the
surprise, and several children died of the fright. The chorus at that time
consisted of fifty actors. After this accident, it was reduced to fifteen
by an express law, and at length to twelve.

I have observed, that one of the alterations made by AEschylus in tragedy,
was the mask worn by his actors. These dramatic masks had no resemblance
to ours, which only cover the face, but were a kind of case for the whole
head, and which, besides the features, represented the beard, the hair,
the ears, and even the ornaments used by women in their head-dresses.
These masks varied according to the different pieces that were acted. The
subject is treated at large in a dissertation of M. Boindin's, inserted in
the _Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres_.(182)

I could never comprehend, as I have observed elsewhere,(183) in speaking
of pronunciation, how masks came to continue so long upon the stage of the
ancients; for certainly they could not be used, without considerably
deadening the spirit of the action, which is principally expressed in the
countenance, the seat and mirror of what passes in the soul. Does it not
often happen, that the blood, according as it is put in motion by
different passions, sometimes covers the face with a sudden and modest
blush, sometimes enflames it with the heat of rage and fury, sometimes
retires, leaving it pale with fear, and at others diffuses a calm and
amiable serenity over it? All these affections are strongly imaged and
distinguished in the lineaments of the face. The mask deprives the
features of this energetic language, and of that life and soul, by which
it is the faithful interpreter of all the sentiments of the heart. I do
not wonder, therefore, at Cicero's remark upon the action of Roscius.(184)
"Our ancestors,"' says he, "were better judges than we are. They could not
wholly approve even Roscius himself, whilst he performed in a mask."

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