be observed that Aristotle is not here speaking of the drama professedly as a chronologist, but review. ing it as an object of criticism, and under this view it can no otherwise come into contemplation than in its more advanced and perfect state, when built upon the model of Homer's fables and characters; after it had thrown off the barbarous traces of its real origin, and had quitted Bacchus and the Satyrs. Of tragedy, as a written and consistent poem, Homer may well be styled the father; for when Phrynichus and Eschylus introduced on the scene Miles xai Пán, the stories and calamities of heroes, tragedy became Homeric, or in other words assumed a dignity of tone and character, that was copied from the epic of Homer, as comedy was from his iambic; and agreeably to this Aristotle names Epicharmus as the first comic poet, who was professedly a copyist of the Margites.

Now by settling the dates of a few well-established facts we shall bring this question into closer view. Pisistratus after a broken reign of thirtythree years died in Olymp. Ixiii, whereas the Marmor Chronicon records, that the first tragedy at Athens was made by Thespis, and acted on a waggon in Olymp. Ixi. Suidas confirms this record; from the same authority (viz. Mar. Chron.) we collect that Susarion made the first comedy at Athens, and acted it on a moveable scaffold in the middle of Olymp. liv. being one year before Pisistratus established his tyranny. By these dates it appears that comedy was made and acted at Athens several years before the compilation of Homer's epic poems, and tragedy before or at that time, admitting for the present that Thespis was the first who made tragedies, and that the record above cited was the date of his first tragedy.

I am aware that these facts alone will not prove that the inventors of the drama did not copy from Homer; for it cannot be denied that Thespis and even Susarion might have resorted to his poems, before they were compiled by Pisistratus; and as for Thespis, if we were to admit the tragedies, which Suidas ascribes to him, to be genuine, it is evident from their titles that some of them were built upon Homeric fables; but good critics find strong reasons to object to this list, which Suidas has given us, and I must think it a fair presumption against their authenticity, that Aristotle, who gives Homer the credit of furnishing the first suggestions of the drama, does not instance Thespis's tragedies; for had they been what Suidas reports, it can hardly be supposed that Aristotle would have overlooked an instance so much to his purpose, or failed to have quoted Thespis, as the first tragic writer, when he names Epicharmus as the first comic one, who copied from Homer.

Plutarch in his Symposia says That when Phrynichus and Eschylus first turned the subject of tragedy to fables and doleful stories, the people said, What's this to Bacchus?'-According to this anecdote, how could Thespis, who was anterior to Phrynichus and Eschylus, be a writer of such tragedies, as Suidas has ascribed to him.

Another very ingenious argument for their confutation is drawn from a short fragment, which the same author has quoted from the Pentheus, one of those tragedies which Suidas gives to Thespis: this fragment purports that—The Deity is situated remote from all pleasure or pain: A passage of this cast can never have been part of a ludicrous drama belonging to Bacchus and the Satyrs, and therefore either Plutarch must be mistaken in his anecdote

above cited, or Suidas in his author of The Pentheus ;' but it is further urged by a sagacious critic, that this fragment bears internal evidence of a forgery, being doctrine of a later date than Thespis, and plainly of the fabrication of Plato's academy: in confirmation of this remark, circumstances of a more positive nature are adduced, and Diogenes Laertius is brought forward, who actually charges Heraclides of writing certain tragedies and fathering them upon Thespis, and this charge Laertius grounds upon the authority of Aristoxenus the musician: the credit of Aristoxenus as a philosopher, historian, and faithful relator of facts, is as well established with the learned world, as the character of Heraclides is notorious for plagiarism, falsehood and affectation; he was a vain rich man, a great juggler in literature, aspiring to rival Plato in his writings, and one who was detected in bribing the Pythia to decree a crown of gold and divine honours to him after his decease; a man as apt to palm his own productions upon others as he was to assume other men's productions to himself, which he was convict ed of by Chamæleon in his spurious treatise upon Homer and Hesiod.

This practice of fathering tragedies upon great names obtained in more instances than one; for Dionysius wrote a tragedy called Parthenopaus and palmed it upon Sophocles, a bolder forgery than this of Heraclides; and it is remarkable, that Heraclides himself was caught by this forgery, and quotes the Parthenopæus as genuine.

Plato speaking of The Deity uses these wordsΠοῤῥω ἡδονῆς καὶ λύπης ἕδρυται τὸ θεῖον- The Deity is situated remote from all pleasure and pain :' A sentiment so coincident with the fragment quoted by Plutarch from the Pentheus ascribed to Thespis,

seems to warrant the remark before made, which supposes it to have been fabricated in the academy of Plato: This with the authority of Aristoxenus for the general forgery, and Plutarch's assertion that tragedy was satiric before Phrynichus and EschyJus, will have its weight against the titles of Thespis's tragedies, as they are given in Suidas; and accordingly I find that the editor of Suidas, commenting upon this very article, in effect admits the error of his author: this argument moreover accounts for the silence of Aristotle as to Thespis's tragedies.

I am aware that it has been a question with some critics, whether tragedy originated with Thespis, notwithstanding the record of the Marmor Chronicon, and Suidas states the pretensions of Epigenes the Sicyonian prior to Thespis; but in this he is single and unsupported by any evidence, except what Plato asserts generally in his Minos That tragedy was extremely ancient at Athens, and that it is to be dated neither from Thespis, nor from Phrynichus ;'-some authorities also place Thespis's first tragedy in a higher period then Olymp. Ixi, as it stands in the Marmor; for Laertius saysThat Solon hindered Thespis from acting his tragedies, believing those feigned representations to be of no use.'-And Plutarch tells us- That Solon saw one of Thespis's plays, but disliking the manner of it, forbade him to act any more.'-I need not observe that this must have passed before Pisistratus established his tyranny, which did not take place till the last year of Olymp. liv. but if thesc facts be admitted, they seem to be decisive as to the tragedy's being allusive to Bacchus and the Satyrs in its first instance at least; because it can hardly be supposed that so profest an admirer of Homer as

Solon was known to be, and himself a poet, would have objected to any drama formed upon his model.

As to Plato's general assertion with respect to the high antiquity of the Athenian tragedy, it seems thrown out as a paradox, which he does not attempt to illustrate or support, and I cannot think it stands in the way of Thespis's pretensions to be considered as the father of tragedy, confirmed by so many authorities.

All these sceming difficulties will be reconciled, if we concur with the best opinions in the following particulars, viz. that tragedy, which was concerned about Bacchus and the Satyrs, was in no instance committed to writing: that Thespis's first tragedy, which Solon saw and disliked, was of this unwritten and satiric sort that in process of time the same author actually wrote tragedy, and first acted it on a waggon in Olymp. Ixi. within the era of Pisistratus, and according to the record of the Marmor Chronicon, so often referred to.

I will not disguise that Dr. Bentley, whose criticism is so conclusive for the forgery of those tragedies quoted by Plutarch and enumerated by Suidas, Julius Pollux and Clemens of Alexandria, is of opinion Thespis himself published nothing in writing; but as there are so many testimonies for his being the father of tragedy in general, and some which expressly say he was the first writer of tragedy, I hope I shall not trespass too far on my reader's patience, if I lay the chief of these autho rities before him.

The Arundel Marble, which is of date as high as Olymp. cxxix. sets forth, that "Thespis was the first who gave being to tragedy.' The epigram of Dioscorides, printed in Mr. Stanley's edition of Eschy