by the appearance of Thetis, who directs him to bestow Andromache in marriage on Helenus, the son of Priam; the crown of Epirus is to be conferred on her son Molossus, from whom a long succession of princes is to descend. This tragedy was probably written to gratify the feelings of the Athenians, by exhibiting the chiefs of Sparta in an unamiable light; the baseness of Menelaus, the cruelty and insolence of Hermione, and the malignantly revengeful spirit of Orestes, are all unfavourable pictures. The modest virtue and conscious dignity of Andromache are here rewarded, while her fame has been rendered immortal in the writings of Homer, Euripides, Virgil, and Racine.

The Cyclops.'-Ulysses on his return from the Trojan war is driven on the eastern coast of Sicily, near Mount Ætna, where he finds Silenus and his sons slaves to Polyphemus, the king of the Cyclops. This monster is a cannibal, and determines to feast on Ulysses and his companions: after devouring several of them, he is made tipsy with some wine which Ulysses had brought in his ship, and falling asleep his eye is put out with a firebrand; Ulysses taking advantage of his blindness escapes, carrying off his companions. This tragedy is valuable as a specimen of the burlesque dramas, or Mimes, the features of which were satire and coarse drollery, in very homely language. The Pantomimes consisted solely of gesticulation, and were carried to a considerable degree of perfection.

1 The Cyclops, a race of men of gigantic stature, supposed to be the sons of Cœlus and Terra; they had but one eye in the middle of their forehead, whence their name. From their vicinity to Mount Etna they were supposed to be the workmen of Vulcan, and to have fabricated the thunderbolts of Jupiter. The most solid walls and strongest fortresses are styled by the ancients Cyclopean, to give an idea of more magnificence.

2 Pantomimes-it was among the Romans, however, that they advanced to perfection; they will be again mentioned in the second volume of this work.

CHAPTER VIII.

GREEK COMEDY.

THE ANCIENT, THE MIDDLE, AND THE NEW-COMIC FOETSEUPOLIS, CRATINAS, ARISTOPHANES, AND MENANDER

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The precise period when comedy took its rise among the Greeks is not known with certainty; its antiquity is about the same as that of tragedy. The Parian chronicle says, "Since comedies were carried in carts by the Icarians, Susarion being the inventor; and the first prize proposed was a basket of figs and a small vessel of wine." Susarion was a native of Megara, and contemporary with Thespis, about 562 B. C. A comparison cannot fairly be instituted between the state of tragedy and comedy in Greece; the latter never advanced in any high degree towards the perfection to which the former was carried, indeed the state of society hardly permitted its existence; few of the familiar relations which give rise to comic sentiments and situations, were known in those times. The Athenians had strong and lively notions of the ridiculous, and whilst they listened with rapture to the strains of Sophocles and Euripides, they laughed and were amused at the sarcastic drolleries of Aristophanes. The influence of women was not sufficiently ascendant to confer grace and dignity on comedy, and the enlightened sensibility to moral delicacy and beauty was defective.

The Greek comedy is divided into the ancient, the middle, and the new. Eupolis and Cratinas, who flourished about 450 B. C., were writers of the first species; we have no remains of it, although we know that it was a bitter satire, and mimicry of real personages exhibited by name upon the stage, which became so intolerable, that the law

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was called in to repress its licentiousness. It gave birth to the middle comedy, which continued the satirical delineation of real characters, but under fictitious names. The last improvement, the new comedy, consisted in banishing all personal satire, and confining it to a delineation of manThe comedies were performed by public authority three or four times a year; at the feasts of Bacchus called the Dionysia, which were celebrated towards the spring; at the Panathenea, or feast of Minerva, every fifth year; and at the feasts of the Lenaan Bacchus, annually at the end of autumn. Besides these it is believed there was another festival held particularly in honour of Bacchus, named Anthesteria, and divided into three, called the feasts of the Tuns, the Cups, and the Pots.

Aristophanes flourished 435 B. C.

This poet was born about 460 B. C.; it is doubtful whether the place of his birth were Athens, or Ægina. At his commencement as a comic author, he used much caution in the composition of his plays, with the view of reducing the vague construction of the old comedy, to a more correct and useful form. It is asserted that his piece on the subject of Cocalus, king of Sicily, furnished Menander with the groundwork on which he erected the structure of his dramas. The works of Aristophanes are highly valuable as the only complete specimens of the Greek comedy which exist, and as the standard of Attic writing in its purity. His comedies are of a mixed species, sometimes personal, at others inclining to parody, according to the character of the middle comedy, on some occasions elevated, grave, and highly polished, at others sinking into humble dialogue, coarse indecency, puns, and quibbles. The versatility of his genius is great, for he exhibits to our view every rank and description of his countrymen: that he possessed splendid talents for the stage there can be no doubt, the lightness and grace of his trochaic metres, and the

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majestic swell of the anapastic tetrameter, which has taken its name from him, are fraught with music the most eloquent, even under all the disadvantages of neglected accents, and modern pronunciation. Schlegel observes, "that in many passages of serious and earnest poetry, here and there introduced, Aristophanes shows himself to be a true poet, and capable had he chosen it of reaching the highest eminence, even in the more dignified departments of his art."

In regard to the character and moral bearing of the writings of this poet, much diversity of opinion has been expressed, both in ancient and modern times; some authors have blamed him with unmitigated severity, others have gone nearly as far in his praise, fascinated by the wit of his pieces; it may not therefore be uninteresting to take a brief view of the state of society in Athens when he rose into notice, indeed it is only justice to his memory to do so, in order to arrive at a candid and fair opinion. A fatal compact had been silently, although not the less effectually made, between the Athenian people and Pericles; the former bargaining for amusement, pay, outward splendour, and nominal sovereignty, the latter contenting himself with the possession of unostentatious but real power, and the agreement had been sealed by acts of gross corruption. Retribution, however, almost immediately followed; war without the walls of the city, and the plague within, commenced their deadly work on both parties. The children of Pericles fell victims to the pestilence, the father soon followed them, and the reins of government held by his firm, but not tyrannical hands, (those of a man of rank, of talent, of splendid taste, a scholar, and a gentleman,) were usurped by a series of low, corrupt, and profligate demagogues-Cleon, a tanner, Hyperbolus, Eucrates, the vender of flax and tow, Lysicles, a cattle dealer, &c.: these men disappeared, "another and another succeeded, the last knave as welcome as the first." Cleon and Hyberbolus were followed by

Cleophon, originally a maker of musical instruments, not of true Attic origin, and, as it is stated, unable even to speak the language with correctness; the innate vices of the Athenian constitution had placed this man at the head of public affairs, and for a time the life and fortunes of the citizens depended on his nod, and were equally insecure. What the actual position of the people was under such a domination, is best learned from the pages of Xenophon, and the legal speeches of Isocrates and Lysias: violent party spirit, heart-burnings, and jealousies; the disruption of all family and social ties, treacheries, commotions, exile, assassinations, all the worst features of disorganized society, meet us at every turn, and present a most melancholy picture. If therefore, Aristophanes, as the public censor, an office with which he found himself virtually invested, had confined himself to pointing out the above abuses, and lashing with the keenest edge of his wit the authors of them, he would not only have been blameless but entitled to great praise. It was his wanton and unjust attacks, however, on the characters of the most excellent citizens, Socrates, Euripides, and others, which have left so foul a stain on his memory. It is true that Socrates never went to the theatre, except to see the tragedies of his intimate friend Euripides, whose productions he admired for their morality; he disliked the comic poets, being shocked at the licentiousness of the old comedy; it was only when Critias or Alcibiades compelled him by earnest entreaties that he ever condescended to appear. It was his sentiments of disapproval that gave Aristophanes a disgust to Socrates, and led him to seek opportunities for revenge. There is another charge against this poet, the gross indecency which frequently appears in his works. Taking therefore, a dispassionate view of his character and conduct, exhibited in his writings, allowing him all due praise for wit and ability, the most judicious opinion appears to be, that Aristophanes was a vicious man, of revengeful and malig