CHAPTER XIII.
THE ART OF "MAKING-UP." When, to heighten the effect of their theatrical exhibitions, Thespis and his playfellows first daubed their faces with the lees of wine, they may be said to have initiated that art of "making-up" which has been of such important service to the stage.

Paint is to the actor's face what costume is to his body--a means of decoration or disguise, as the case may require; an aid to his assuming this or that character, and concealing the while his own personal identity from the spectator.

The mask of the classical theatre is only to be associated with a "make-up," in that it substituted a fictitious facial expression for the actor's own.

Roscius is said to have always played in a vizard, on account of a disfiguring obliquity of vision with which he was afflicted.

It was an especial tribute to his histrionic merits that the Romans, disregarding this defect, required him to relinquish his mask, that they might the better appreciate his exquisite oratory and delight in the music of his voice.