장음표시 사용
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υπ ανθρωπου φαυλου, ουδε θεραπευεΤαι δαπαναις ουδε τραγωδιαις των λιπουμενων, καθαπερ μοχθηρος ανθρωπος τραγωδια Still retalias thesense, though it be rendered by sacrisce, of Something Sump
To this ond Sir Philip Sidney, in his Delance of Poesy,
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THE CLASSICA L COMEDY COMPARE D
know, qui sceptra saevus duro imperio regit, timet timentes,
Idcirco quidam, comoedia necne Poema Esset, quaesivere: quod acer Spiritus, ac vis, Nec verbis, nec rebus, inest; nisi quod pede certo Differt sermoni, Sermo merus. V
Cicero mahes a similar observation, Etenim haec conscia arbitror a poetis esse ut emctos nostros mores in alienis personis eXpressam imaginem nostrae Vitae quotidianae videremus.' 'l' Andthere is the fame remark in his Fragmonis: Comoedia est imitatio vitae, speculum consuetudinis, imago veritatis. ': The range of Tragedy must be, con Sequently, more narroW.It necessarily individualises, and iis occasions can be but se . Tho terribie in passion, or in late, is not os frequent experience. The eclipse and the earlhquake are aWful becaUSe they are rare.
horigon's ring. She has a theatre Whereuer there is a humanhoart. She finds an audience Whereuer there are old and yoiang. Were there no personification, Were there no comic epitome, Were there no author nor Work pretending to the name,-Were
Sat: lib. i. 4. '' Orat: pro. Sex : Roscio Amerino.: Libror : Incert: Donat: Vita Terentii.
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private spite. Let the greater tribunals be Withdra n, and weshould sind a Bavius or a Alaevius in eVery man. The intent of Comedy is good. Ιt strives only With theeviis Whicli it labours to retrievo. It breathes no Scorn of ournature, dooms it to no hopetessiaess, brands it With no inefface- able reprobation. Is it inisermix with itself the very vices itshould expose and condemn, is it degenerato into caricature, is it prove a pander instead of a monitor, is it gloat complacently in that which it should despise and deno unco, then cari We takethe olear distinction belween iis proper use and iis Wretched per- Version, und deplore that the viriue, Which should have hsalod the waters, has itself been corrupted to such a degree that it has
of tho Grocian Thalia we have but scanty record s. Fromtho oulogiums which both Cicero and Quintilian pronounce uponthe dramas of Μenander, We must de ly regret their irrecover- lo loss. Froni the light and racy wit of those Who copiedhim, We may infer no mean titie sor the original. He Wrotemore than a hundred plays. The Apostlo Paul condescendodio quote Dom him ; and in the Thais, the original of ths Eunuch of Tereiice, occurred the morat maxim Whicli is cited in the sublimo description of the Resurrection: Evil communications corrupi good manners. ' Tho only dim culty in veri-θing it is, that, ηθη υημ οπιλιαι κακαι, do not forma pure iambic. But this is by no means singUlar, sor many of the lines, yet extant of him, abound in frequent spondees. Concerning Μenander it is now impossibio for tis to form an independent judgment. We possess not a perfeci Scene or Rdialogue, in Whatever remains have come doWn to Us. We have received nothing Whicli can serve as a specimen : not a sussicient segment by Which to guess the circle. Instead os quicli, sparkling, turias of thought,-conceit, and raillery,-
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THE CLASSICA L COMEDY COMPARED
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Theso rarities of the New Comedy compei us to regret thattho standards to whicli they belonged have perished, for th certainly breathe a lito improvenient ovor the old. of this latier order, Aristophanes may be considered the prototype and Dundor. Though we do not decry him, and are sar Dom thinking lightly of him, yet What is len iis of the after comedyinduces the wisti that iis spirit had regula ted Whatever mighthoast an earlier date. Never Was improvenient more rapid and consessod. Should it be objected that Plautus and Terenco copiod most Deely froni the New Comedy, and that they osten present Very depraving pictures and immorat ideas, we have thoeViden e of those, Who Were profoundly ver sed in both, that tho Roman but se ly approached, and osten grossty corrupted, thearchetypes of the Greeh. Wo are not about to defend Aristophanes: but When WEremember the epoch in Which he flourished, the epoch of Sophoclos, Pericles, Herodotus, Phidias, Thucydides,-the reputationwhicli ho thon onjoyed, in What may be called, in imitation of
Tho physician may fini amends for this banter in Homer's panegyric onΜachaon z Ιητρος γαρ μνηρ πολλων αντα ιος αλλων-Ile lib. xi. 514. - The quotations are talien hom the extracis containet in the Poetae Μinores Graeci. Warton has some Papers on Μenander in the Adventurer.
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tho Augustan epithet os another nation, the Alcibiadean period,
--he must have been far more than the mime or the bus on.
His diction is on ali haniis admired for iis purity and taste. His wit is exuberant, though it is frequently mischievous. For
Same polsoned draught. For What can be more irreverent than
his colloquies of the Gods, and his banter of tho Alysteries ΘBesides, had he committed suci, a deed, would Plato havo admittod him into his Convivium, assigned him the place of an interlocutor, and put two speeches into his molith 8 Should wonot havse heard of the fury of the populace against him, Whenthoy relented of that cruel execution 8 3Iust he not have been
and were universalty shunned 8 It was an injustice, indubit ly, that ho had practised upon the philosopher, an unWorthy impertinenco; but there is no presumption of hatred or appearance of spite. The personality Would recoli on himself, and Socrates bo the si si to enjoy iti Severat years intervened belWeen therepresentation Os the Νεφελαι, and the philosopher 's death. The tornis in whicli Plutarch condemiis this Writer are notonly ill-advi sed and coarse, but even truculent. In his Epitome of the comparison of Aristophanes With Μenander, he Says:
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as a chain, a current of electrio sparks is constantly flowing
A certain imitation, though very a musing, of animal cries and vulgar Sotan is, by no means enhances the versification and intellectual stamp of his poenis. This is, a8Suredly, a Very Strong, and, not infrequently, a very gross license. In America thereare Frog-conceris,--d he has introduced one in the Βούραχοι. The school-boy will alWays delight in the choruS, So self-interpreting, So far more tunesul to his ear by being so much morosimple than most of the χοροι, Which seems to defy the use of syntaX and the help of leXicon, and hoW, in after ii , it brealis iapon iis froin the sedgy lahe of Acherusia, Wafting ali our fortiter recollections and associations Willi iti κοαξ, κοαξ.-In the Ορνιθες a Similar mimicry occurs, only it is notso perfeci, birds having many inflections of Volce, Dogs having
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Nor can it bo disputed that his Comedy onen abandons iis more proper ground, degenerating into ParOdy, traVestie, and farce. I mu si despuir of giving a just and satisfacto account of any of his productions. Ηe is dissiculi to translato; and his
qui ch, versatile, faculties are So Sudden in their transitions, sovariegated in their liues, that none of his di amas move weli in amodern dress. One, neverthel ess, it may be expected that Iinould shotch. Ι might incline to one or tWo otherS, but per-haps ερ the FrogsV is the most entertaining.
It must be borno in mind that Euripides was tho object ofour Poecs fiorce distilio, and the buit of his Leenest sarcasm. This seems to be a ruling passion in him. The destre to abuseand mortify that beautiful and pro und writer is ever presentio his mind. The attachment of Socrates toWards the tragedian, his constant attendance upon his performances, excited the enuyof Aristophanes: While his known prejudice against ali comedy, along with his presumed interferetice in iis suppression altogethersor three years, may haVe embittered en vy into rage. In this play it is too apparent. Ηere We shali bo reminded of thoincomparabie Aλκ11σὸς, but only to be disgusted at iis profane burtesque. Another motive may have prevalled With him, a wish to loosen the hold whicli tho Eleusinian initiations hadupon the popular mind. AS . Schylus Was suspected of havingbetrayed them, and but narroWly escaped, it Was not unnaturalto treat him as an Hly, and but too gratio ing to his halred tooxtol that Hly at the cost os his successor and competitor. Ulian, in his Second Book of the Various History, hesitates not to asseri that Aristophanes in his lampoons on Socrates Wassuborned by his enemies, and doenis it probable that he received thoir bribe. All this is, hoWever, unSUPPOrted.
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Xanthias has, in the mean While, been frequently lamenting that no notice Was ta ken of him. UnWilling to bear tho hoavyWallet any longer, master and mari seem delighted to belloidilis funerat that is passing by. The corpse is asked what is his charge for conveying it belo . But as he refusos to do it
and Charon is seen in his boat. Bacchus is talien on board, but Xanthias being a flave, and not having been privileged in consequence of any Shure in the navat action of the Arginusae, is
necessitated to run round to the Sione of Ausenus. Bacchus,
trusting to his fare or passage, stand8 up and looks abolit hina, but is Soon roughly ordered by the grim boats ain to sit down and ply an Oar. The signat for the Strohe is no Sooner given, than swelis the chorus os incessant croaks t Uneasy and blis- tered, this monotorious found greatly offends him. He clamoui sagainst their un eling repetition : Nothing olso but coax lv Landed on the other fide, after a contest With these inhabitanis and choristers of the fen and reed, in Whicli they have come ossmost victorious, his boastful valour is suddenly damped by the report of Xanthias, who has mei him here, and who seems determinod to play a litile on his fears. Turning pale at thethought of a horribie apparitiora, ali the dastard botrays itsolfin him. Ηρ will neither be known as Hercules nor Bacchus. Whon suddenly there is heard the cry of Iacchus, Iacchus, o,