Note 621 — Chapter XXV · HUMANISM AND MEDIAEVALISM
Reading edition
Creizenach, i. 5; Cloetta, i. 38. One of the exceptionally learned men who really knew something about the classical drama was John of Salisbury (†1159), Polycraticus, i. 8 ‘comicis et tragoedis abeuntibus, cum omnia levitas occupaverit, clientes eorum, comoedi videlicet et tragoedi, exterminati sunt’; iii. 8 ‘comoedia est vita hominis super terram, ubi quisque sui oblitus personam exprimit alienam’ (P. L. cxcix. 405, 488). For the popular notion cf. Lydgate, Troy Book (ed. 1555), ii. 11, perhaps translating Guido delle Colonne:
‘In the theatre there was a smale aulter, Amyddes sette that was half Circuler, Which into East of custome was directe, Upon the whiche a Pulpet was erecte, And therin stode an auncient poete, For to reherse by rethorykes swete, The noble dedes that were hystoryall, Of kynges & prynces for memoryall ... All this was tolde and red of the Poete, And whyle that he in the pulpet stode, With deadly face all deuoyde of blode, Synging his ditees with muses all to rent, Amyd the theatre shrowded in a tent, There came out men gastfull of their cheres, Disfygured their faces with viseres, Playing by sygnes in the peoples syght, That the Poet songe hath on heyght, ... And this was done in Apryll and in May.’