[123]
Slapping the
thigh, which Clean is said to have been the first to
introduce at Athens, is in general use and is becoming
as a mark of indignation, while it also excites the
audience. Cicero1 regrets its absence in Calidius,
“There was no striking of the forehead,” he complains, “nor of the thigh.” With regard to the
forehead I must beg leave to differ from him: for it
is a purely theatrical trick even to clap the hands or
beat the breast.
1 Brut. lax. 278.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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