stage, acoustic principles observed, by which those who spoke from the interior—as from within a house or a room—might be heard more distinctly. And improvements in these matters were made from time to time by those to whom the equipment of plays was assigned. So when the names of such and such men are mentioned as probable competitors, it is these furnishers of the chorus who are meant, though the success of any one of them would no doubt be considered the more probable if he had Æschylus or Sophocles for his poet.
On such matters the crowd are now exchanging rumours. Cimon, they say, is rich and liberal, and his play will be put on the stage with every advantage of art and machinery that money can procure, and he has a piece written by a favourite poet; but then Lysias has secured the best dancers, and the great actor is retained by Xenocles. "But after all," says some one, "not much depends upon the actor; he is little more than a mouthpiece; any one who can strike a good attitude and walk with dignity, and who has good lungs, will make an excellent Agamemnon." Some one has heard that the ghost of Clytemnestra is actually to appear and talk; another beats that piece of news by the information that the whole band of the Furies is to be brought upon the stage. With such conversation the time is beguiled till the first play begins; conversation for which topics were never wanting, since the entertainment provided for each festival was quite new, or rather there was always a series of entertainments to be expected, so that the interest of
