A DISSERTATION UPON THE GREEK COMEDY TRANSLATED FROM BRUMOY. ADVERTISEMENT. licentiousness of Aristophanes, their author, is I CONCLUDE this work according to my promise, the performances of a single poet, a just idea of exorbitant, and it is very difficult to draw from with an account of the Comic Theatre, and en- Greek comedy. Besides, it seemed that tragedy treat the reader, whether a favourer or an enemy was sufficient to employ all my attention, that I of the ancient drama, not to pass his censure upon the authors or upon me, without a regular of writing, which was most esteemed by the might give a complete representation of that kind perusal of this whole work. For, though it seems to be composed of pieces of which each Athenians and the wiser Greeks,* particularly by Socrates, who set no value upon comedy or may precede or follow without dependence upon comic actors. But the very name of that drama, the other, yet all the parts taken together, form which in polite ages, and above all others in our a system which would be destroyed by their disjunction. Which way shall we come at the own, has been so much advanced, that it has knowledge of the ancients' shows, but by com-clines me to think that I may be partly reproachbecome equal to tragedy, if not preferable, inparing together all that is left of them? The ed with an imperfect work, if, after having gone value and necessity of this comparison determined me to publish all, or to publish nothing. gedy, I did not at least sketch a draught of the as deep as I could into the nature of Greek traBesides, the reflections on each piece, and on comedy. the general taste of antiquity, which, in my I then considered, that it was not wholly imopinion, are not without importance, have a kind of obscure gradation, which I have care-culties which had stopped me, and to go somepossible to surmount, at least in part, the difffully endeavoured to preserve, and of which the what farther than the learned writers,† who have thread would be lost by him who should slightly published in French some pieces of Aristoglance sometimes upon one piece, and sometimes upon another. It is a structure which I have phanes; not that I pretend to make large translations. The same reasons which have hindered endeavoured to make as near to regularity as I with respect to the more noble parts of the Greek could, and which must be seen in its full extent drama, operate with double force upon my preand in proper succession. The reader who skips sent subject. Though ridicule, which is the here and there over the book, might make a business of comedy, be not less uniform in all hundred objections which are either anticipated or answered in those pieces which he might have times, than the passions which are moved by overlooked. I have laid such stress upon the tragic compositions; yet, if diversity of manners connexion of the parts of this work, that I have may sometimes disguise the passions themselves, declined to exhaust the subject, and have sup- larities! The truth is, that they are so much how much greater change will be made in jocupressed many of my notions, that I might leave changed by the course of time, that pleasantry the judicious reader to please himself by forming and ridicule become dull and flat much more such conclusions as I supposed him like to discover as well as myself. I am not here attempting easily than the pathetic becomes ridiculous. to prejudice the reader by an apology either for the ancients, or my own manner. I have not claimed a right of obliging others to determine, by my opinion, the degrees of esteem which I think due to the authors of the Athenian Stage; nor do I think that their reputation in the present time, ought to depend upon my mode of thinking or expressing my thoughts, which I leave entirely to the judgment of the public. A DISSERTATION, &c. REASONS WHY ARISTOPHANES MAY BE REVIEW- That which is commonly known by the term jocular and comic, is nothing but a turn of expression, an airy phantom, that must be caught at a particular point. As we lose this point, we in its place. A lucky sally, which has filled a lose the jocularity, and find nothing but dulness company with laughter, will have no effect in print, because it is shown single and separate from the circumstances which gave it force. Many satirical jests, found in ancient books, have had the same fate; their spirit has evaporated by time, and has left nothing to us but insipidity. None but the most biting passages have preserved their points unblunted. But, besides this objection, which extends universally to all translations of Aristophanes, and many allusions of which time has deprived us, Areopagus to write comedy. lus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Fourthly, Upon the jest which he makes upon the gods. These things will not be treated in order, as a regular discourse seems to require, but will arise sometimes separately, sometimes together, from the view of each particular comedy, and from the reflections which this free manner of writing will allow. I shall conclude with a short view of the whole, and so finish my design. HISTORY OF COMEDY. there are loose expressions thrown out to the populace to raise laughter from corrupt passions, which are unworthy of the curiosity of decent readers, and which ought to rest eternally in proper obscurity. Not every thing in this infancy of comedy was excellent, at least it would not appear excellent at this distance of time, in comparison of compositions of the same kind, which lie before our eyes; and this is reason enough to save me the trouble of translating, and the reader that of perusing. As for that small number of writers who delight in those delicacies, they give III. I shall not repeat here what Madame themselves very little trouble about translations, Dacier, and so many others before her, have colexcept it be to find fault with them; and the ma-lected of all that can be known relating to the jority of people of wit like comedies that may give them pleasure, without much trouble of attention, and are not much disposed to find beauties in that which requires long deductions to find it beautiful. If Helen had not appeared beautiful to the Greeks and Trojans but by force of argument, we had never been told of the Trojan war. On the other side, Aristophanes is an author more considerable than one would imagine. The History of Greece could not pass over him when it comes to touch upon the people of Athens; this alone might procure him respect, even when he was not considered as a comic poet. But when his writings are taken into view, we find him the only author from whom may be drawn a just idea of the comedy of his age; and farther, we find in his pieces, that he often makes attacks upon the tragic writers, particularly upon the three chief, whose valuable remains we have had under examination; and what is yet worse, fell sometimes upon the state, and upon the gods themselves. THE CHIEF HEADS OF THIS DISCOURSE. history of comedy. Its beginnings are as obscure as those of tragedy, and there is an appearance that we take these two words in a more extensive meaning; they had both the same original, that is, they began among the festivals of the vintage, and were not distinguished from one another but by a burlesque or serious chorus, which made all the soul and all the body. But, if we give these words a stricter sense, according to the notion which has since been formed, comedy was produced after tragedy, and was in many respects a sequel and imitation of the works of Eschylus. It is in reality nothing more than an action set before the sight by the same artifice of representation. Nothing is different but the object, which is merely ridicule. This original of true comedy will be easily admitted, if we take the word of Horace, who must have known better than us the true dates of dramatic works. This poet supports the system which I have endeavoured to establish in the second discourset so strongly as to amount to demonstra tive proof. Horacet expresses himself thus: "Thespis is said to have been the first inventor of a species II. These considerations have determined me of tragedy, in which he carried about in carts, to follow, in my representation of this writer, the players smeared with the dregs of wine, of whom same method which I have taken in several some sung and others declaimed." This was tragic pieces, which is, that of giving an exact the first attempt both of tragedy and comedy. analysis as far as the matter would allow, from for Thespis made use only of one speaker, withwhich I deduce four important systems. First, out the least appearance of dialogue. "Eschylus Upon the nature of the comedy of that age, afterwards exhibited them with more dignity. without omitting that of Menander. Secondly, He placed them on a stage somewhat above the Upon the vices and government of the Athe-ground, covered their faces with masks, put busnians. Thirdly, Upon the notion we ought to entertain of Aristophanes, with respect to Eschy Menander, an Athenian, son of Diopythus and Hegistrata, was apparently the most eminent of the writers of the new comedy. He had been a scholar of Theophrastus: his passion for the women brought infamy upon him: he was squint-eyed, and very lively, Of the one hundred and eighty comedies, or, according to Suidas, the eighty which he composed, and which are all stated to be translated by Terence, we have now only a few fragments remaining. He flourished about the 115th Olympiad, 318 years before the Christian Era. He was drowned as he was bathing in the port of Piræus. I have told in another place, what is said of one Philemon, his antagonist, not so good a poet as himself, but one who often gained the prize. This Philemon was older than him, and was much in fashion in the time of Alexander the Great. He expressed all his wishes in two lines: "To have health, and fortune, and pleasure, and never to be in debt, is all I desire." He was very covetous, and was pictured with his fingers hooked, so that he set his comedies at a high price. He lived about a hundred years, some say a hundred and one. Many tales are told of his death; Valerius Maximus says, that he died with laughing at a little incident: seeing an ass eating his figs, he ordered his servant to drive her away; the man made no great haste, and the ass eat them all. "Well done," says Philemon, now give her some wine."-Apuleius and Quintilian placed this writer much below Menander, but gave him the second place. kins on their feet, dressed them in trailing robes, and made them speak in a more lofty style." Horace omits invention of dialogue, which we learn from Aristotle.§ But, however, it may be well enough inferred from the following words of Horace; this completion is mentioned while he speaks of Eschylus, and therefore to Eschylus it must be ascribed: "Then first appeared the old comedy, with great success in its beginning.. Thus we see that the Greek comedy arose after tragedy, and by consequence tragedy was its parent. It was formed in imitation of Eschylus, the inventor of the tragic drama; or, to go yet higher into antiquity, had its original from Ho mer, who was the guide of Eschylus. For, if we credit Aristotle, comedy had its birth from the Margites, a satirical poem of Homer, and tragedy from the Iliad and Odyssey. Thus the design and artifice of comedy were drawn from Homer and Eschylus. This will appear less surprising, since the ideas of the human mind Greek Theatre, part i. vol. 1. are always gradual, and arts are seldom invented but by imitation. The first idea contains the seed of the second; this second, expanding itself, gives birth to a third; and so on. Such is the progress of the mind of man; it proceeds in its productions step by step, in the same manner as rature multiplies her works by imitating, or repeating her own act, when she seems most to run into variety. In this manner it was that comedy had its birth, its increase, its improvement, its perfection, and its diversity. unsettled, or of several contemporaries, such as these which Horace quotes. We must distinguish three forms which comedy wore, in conse quence of the genius of the writers, or of the laws of the magistrates, and the change of the government of many into that of few. THE OLD, MIDDLE, AND NEW COMEDY. V. That comedy,** which Horace calls the ancient, and which, according to his account, was after Eschylus, retained something of its original state, and of the licentiousness which it practised, while it was yet without regularity, and uttered loose jokes and abuse upon the passers-by from the cart of Thespis. Thongh it was now properly modelled, as might have been worthy of a great theatre and a numerous audience, and deserved the name of a regular comedy, it was not yet much nearer to decency. It was a representation of real actions, and exhibited the dress, the motions, and the air, as far as could be done in a mask, of any one who was thought proper to be sacrificed to public scorn. In a city so free, or to say better, so licentious as Athens was at that time, nobody was spared, not even the chief magistrate, nor the very judges, by whose voice comedies were allowed or prohibited. The insolence of those perfor mances reached to open impiety, and sport was the features by which the greatest part of the compositions of Aristophanes will be known.In which it may be particularly observed, that not the least appearance of praise will be found, and therefore certainly no trace of flattery or servility. IV. But the question is, who was the happy author of that imitation, and that show, whether only one like Eschylus of tragedy, or whether they were several? for neither Horace, nor any before him, explained this.* This poet only quotes three writers, who had reputation in the old comedy, Eupolis,† Cratinus, and Aristophanes, of whom he says, "That they, and others who wrote in the same way, reprehended the faults of particular persons with excessive liberty." These are probably the poets of the greatest reputation, though they were not the first, and we know the names of many others.§ Among these three we may be sure that Aristophanes had the greatest character, since not only the king of Persia|| expressed a high esteem of him to the Grecian ambassadors, as of a man extremely useful to his country, and Plato rated him so high as to say that the Graces re-made equally with men and gods. These are sided in his bosom; but likewise because he is the only writer of whom any comedies have made their way down to us, through the confusion of times. There are not indeed any proofs that he was the inventor of comedy, properly so called, especially since he had not only predecessors who wrote in the same kind, but it is at This licentiousness of the poets, to which in least a sign, that he had contributed more than some sort Socrates fell a sacrifice, at last was any other to bring comedy to the perfection in restrained by a law. For the government, which which he left it. We shall, therefore, not in- was before shared by all the inhabitants, was quire farther, whether regular comedy was the now confined to a settled number of citizens.work of a single mind, which seems yet to be It was ordered that no man's name should be mentioned on the stage; but poetical malignity was not long in finding the secret of defeating the purpose of the law, and of making ample compensation for the restraint laid upon authors, by the necessity of inventing false names. They set themselves to work upon known and real characters, so that they had now the advantage of giving a more exquisite gratification to the vanity of poets, and the malice of spectators. One had the refined pleasure of setting others to guess, and the other that of guessing right by naming the masks. When pictures are so like that the name is not wanted, nobody inscribes it. The consequence of the law, therefore, was nothing more than to make that done with delicacy, which was done grossly be fore; and the art, which was expected would be confined within the limits of duty, was only partly transgressed with more ingenuity. Of this Aristophanes, who was comprehended in this law, gives us good examples in some of his poems. Such was that which was afterwards called the middle comedy. "The alterations which have been made in tragedy, were perceptible, and the authors of them unknown; but comedy has lain in obscurity, being not cultivated, like tragedy, from the time of its original; for it was long before the magistrates began to give comic choruses. It was first exhibited by actors who played voluntarily, without orders of the magistrates. From the time that it began to take some settled form, we know its authors, but are not informed who first used masks, added prologues, increased the numbers of the actors, and joined all the other things which now belong to it. The first that thought of forming conic fables were Epicharmus and Phormys, and consequently this manter came from Sicily: Crates was the first Athenian that adopted it, and forsook the practice of gross raillery that prevailed before." Aristot. ch. 5. Crates flouri-le in the 82nd Olympiad, 450 years before our era, twelve or thirteen years before Aristophanes. Eupolis was an Athenian; his death, which we shall mention presently, is represented differently by authors, who almost all agree that he was drowned. Elian adds an incident which deserves to be inentioned: he says, (book x. Of Animals,) that one Augeas of Eleusis, made Eupolis a present of a fine mastiff, who was so faithful to his master as to worry to death a slave who was carrying away some of his comedies. He adds, that when the poet died at Egene, his dog stayed by his tomb till he perished by grief and hunger. Cratinus of Athens, who was son of Calimedes, died at the age of ninety-seven. He composed twenty come dies, of which nine had the prize: he was a daring writer, but a cowardly warrior. Hertelius has collected the sentences of fifty Greek poets of the different ages of comedy, Interlude of the second act of the comedy entitled The Acharnian = " Epig am attributed to Plate. The new comedy, or that which followed, was again an excellent refinement, prescribed ** This history of the three ages of comedy, and their different characters, is taken in part from the valuable fragments of Platonius. It will be shown how and in what sense this was a lowed. by the magistrates, who as they had before forbid the use of real names, forbade afterwards real subjects, and the train of choruses* too much given to abuse; so that the poets saw themselves reduced to the necessity of bringing imaginary names and subjects upon the stage, which at once purified and enriched the theatre; for comedy from that time was no longer a fury armed with torches, but a pleasing and innocent mirror of human life. Chacun peint avec art dans ce nouveau miroir S'y vit avec plaisir, ou crut ne s'y pas voir! L'avare des premiers rit du tableau fidelle D'un avare souvent tracé sous son inodelle; Et mille fois un fat finement exprimé Méconnut le portrait sur lui-même formé.† The comedy of Menander and Terence is, in propriety of speech, the fine comedy. I do not repeat all this after so many writers, but just to recall it to memory, and to add to what they have said, something which they have omitted, a singular effect of public edicts appearing in the successive progress of the art. A naked history of poets and of poetry, such as has been often given, is a mere body without soul, unless it be enlivened with an account of the birth, progress, and perfection of the art, and of the causes by which they were produced. THE LATIN COMEDY. Trabeata,* from Trabea, the dress of the consuls in peace, and the generals in triumph. The second species introduced the senators not in great offices, but as private men; this was called Togata, from Toga. The last species was named Tabernaria, from the tunic, or the common dress of the people, or rather from the mean houses which were painted on the scene. There is no need of mentioning the farces which took their name and original from Atella, an ancient town of Campania in Italy, because they differed from the low comedy only by greater licentiousness; nor of those which were called Palliates, from the Greek, a cloak, in which the Greek characters were dressed upon the Roman stage, because that habit only distinguished the nation, not the dignity or character, like those which have been mentioned before. To say truth, these are but trifling distinctions; for, as we shall show in the following pages, comedy may be more usefully and judiciously distinguished by the general nature of its subjects. As to the Romans, whether they had or had not, reason for these names, they have left us so little upon the subject which is come down to us, that we need affords us no solid satisfaction. Plautus and not trouble ourselves with a distinction which Terence, the only authors of whom we are in possession, give us a fuller notion of the real nature of their comedy, with respect at least to their own times, than can be received from names and terms, from which we have no real exemplification. THE GREEK COMEDY IS REDUCED ONLY TO VI. To omit nothing essential which concerns this part, we shall say a word of the Latin comedy. When the arts passed from Greece to Rome, comedy took its turn among the rest: but the Romans applied themselves only to the new species, without chorus or personal abuse; VII. Not to go too far out of our way, let us though perhaps they might have played some translations of the old or the middle comedy, return to Aristophanes, the only poet in whom for Pliny gives an account of one which was rewe can now find the Greek comedy. He is the presented in his own time. But the Roman cosingle writer whom the violence of time has in medy, which was modelled upon the last species some degree spared, after having buried in darkof the Greek, hath nevertheless its different ness, and almost in forgetfulness, so many great ages, according as its authors were rough or men, of whom we have nothing but the names polished. The pieces of Livius Andronicus, and a few fragments, and such slight memorials more ancient and less refined than those of the as are scarcely sufficient to defend them against writers who learned the art from him, may be the enemies of the honour of antiquity; yet said to compose the first age, or the old Roman these memorials are like the last glimmer of the comedy and tragedy. To him you must join setting sun, which scarcely affords us a weak and Nevius his contemporary, and Ennius, who lived fading light: yet from this glimmer we must ensome years after him. The second age com- deavour to collect rays of sufficient strength to prises Pacuvius, Cecilius, Accius, and Plautus, form a picture of the Greek comedy, approachunless it shall be thought better to reckoning as near as possible to the truth. Plautus with Terence, to make the third and highest age of the Latin comedy, which may properly be called the new comedy, especially with regard to Terence, who was the friend of Lelius, and the faithful copier of Menander. But the Romans, without troubling themselves with this order of succession, distinguished their comedies by the dresses of the players. The robe, called Prætexta, with large borders of purple, being the formal dress of magistrates in their dignity and in the exercises of their office, the actors who had this dress gave its name to the comedy. This is the same with that called Of the personal character of Aristophanes little is known; what account we can give of it must therefore be had from his comedies. It can scarcely be said with certainty of what country he was: the invectives of his enemies so often called in question his qualification as a citizen, that they have made it doubtful. Some said, he was of Rhodes, others of Egena, a little island in the neighbourhood, and all agreed that he wa a stranger. As to himself, he said that he was the son of Philip, and born in the Cydathenian quarter; but he confessed that some of his fortune was in Egena, which was probably the original seat of his family. He was, however, for mally declared a citizen of Athens, upon evi ✦ Perhaps the chorus was forbid in the middle age of dence, whether good or bad, upon a decisive the comedy. Platonius seems to say so. + De-preaux Art. Poet, chant S. The year of Rome 514, the first year of the 135th pred. Pratcata, Togatæ, Tabernaria. judgment, and this for having made his judges *Suet, de Claris Crammat, says that C. Gelissus, libra rian to Augustus, was the author of it. merry by an application of a saying of Telema- | the personages which he brings upon the stage. chus, of which this is the sense: * I am, as my To conclude: Plutarch, in his comparison of mother tells me, the son of Philip; for my own these authors, says, that the Muse of Aristopart, I know little of the matter, for what child phanes is an abandoned prostitute, and that of knows his own father?" This piece of merri- Menander a modest woman.'" ment did him as much good as Archias received from the oration of Cicero,t who said that that poet was a Roman citizen. An honour which, if he had not inherited by birth, he deserved for his genius. It is evident that this whole character is taken from Plutarch. Let us now go on with this remark of Father Rapin, since we have already spoken of the Latin comedy, of which he gives us a description. "With respect to the two Latin comic poets, Plautus is ingenious in his designs, happy in his conceptions, and fruitful of invention. He has, however, according to Horace, some low jocu larities, and those sinart sayings, which made the vulgar laugh, made him be pitied by men of higher taste. It is true that some of his jests are extremely good, but others likewise are very bad. To this every man is exposed who is too much determined to make sallies of merriment; they endeavour to raise that laughter by hyperboles, which would not arise by a just represen tation of things. Plautus is not quite so regular Aristophanest flourished in the age of the great men of Greece, particularly of Socrates and Euripides, both of whom he outlived. He made a great figure during the whole Peloponnesian war, not merely as a comic poet by whom the people were diverted, but as the censor of the government, as a man kept in pay by the state to reform it, and almost to act the part of the arbitrator of the public. A particular account of his comedies will best let us into his personal character as a poet, and into the nature of his genius, which is what we are most interested to know. It will, however, not be amiss to prepossess our readers a little by the judg-as Terence in the scheme of his designs, or in ments that have been passed upon him by the critics of our own time, without forgetting one of the ancients that deserves great respect. ARISTOPHANES CENSURED AND PRAISED. manner so natural and so judicious, that though he was then only a copy, he is now an original. No author has ever had a more exact sense of pure nature. Of Cecilius, since we have only a few fragments, I shall say nothing. All that we know of him is told us by Varrus, that he was happy in the choice of subjects." the distribution of his acts, but he is more simple in his plot; for the fables of Terence are com monly complex, as may be seen in his Andria, which contains two amours. It was imputed as a fault to Terence, that, to bring more action VIII. "Aristophanes," says Father Rapin, upon the stage, he made one Latin comedy out "is not exact in the contrivance of his fables; of two Greek; but then Terence unravels his his fictions are not probable; he brings real plot more naturally than Plautus, which Plautus characters upon the stage too coarsely and too did more naturally than Aristophanes; and openly. Socrates, whom he ridicules so much though Cæsar calls Terence but one half of in his plays, had a more delicate turn of bur- Menander, because, though he had softness and lesque than himself, and had his merriment delicacy, there was in him some want of sprightwithout his impudence. It is true, that Aristo-liness and strength; yet he has written in a phanes wrote amidst the confusion and licentiousness of the old comedy, and he was well acquainted with the humour of the Athenians, to whom uncommon merit always gave disgust, and therefore he made the eminent men of his time the subject of his merriment. But the too great desire which he had to delight the people by exposing worthy characters upon the stage, made him, at the same time, an unworthy man; and the turn of his genius to ridicule was disfigured and corrupted by the indelicacy and outrageousness of his manners. After all, his pleasantry consists chiefly in new-coined puffy language. The dish of twenty-six syllables, which he gives in his last scene of his Female Orators,' would please few tastes in our days.His language is sometimes obscure, perplexed, and vulgar, and his frequent play with words, his oppositions of contradictory terms, his mix-racter of comedy. ture of tragic and comic, of serious and bur- "No man has ever had a greater genius for lesque, are all flat; and his jocularity, if you comedy than Lopes de Vega the Spaniard. He examine it to the bottom, is all false. Menander had a fertility of wit, joined with great beauty of is diverting in a more elegant manner; his style conception, and a wonderful readiness of compo is pure, clear, elevated, and natural; he persuades sition; for he has written more than three hunlike an orator, and instructs like a philosopher; dred comedies. His name alone gave reputation and if we may venture to judge upon the frag- to his pieces; for his reputation was so well ments which remain, it appears that his pictures established, that a work which came from his of civil life are pleasing, that he inakes every hands, was sure to claim the approbation of the one speak according to his character, that every public. He had a mind too extensive to be subman may apply his pictures of life to himself,jected to rules, or restrained by limits. because he always follows nature, and feels for Homer, Odyssey. Orat. pro Archia Poeta. Rapin omits many others for the same reason, that we have not enough of their works to quality us for judges. While we are upon this subject, it will perhaps not displease the reader to see what that critic's opinion is of Lopes de Vega and Moliere. It will appear, that with respect to Lopes de Vega, he is rather too profuse of praise: that in speaking of Moliere, he is too parsimonious. This piece will, however, be of use to our design, when we shall examine to the bottom what it is that ought to make the cha For that reason he gave himself up to his own ge nius, on which he could always depend with confidence. When he wrote, he consulted no In the Sath year of the Olympiad, 437 years before other laws than the taste of his auditors, and our era. and 317 of the foundation of Rome. regulate his manner more by the success of his |