90 



D R A M A. 



Drona. gedy. Comedy, (as an eloquent living writer has obser- 

 ^^~. "^^ ved,) requires a muc-li deeper anil more extensive know- 

 ledge of the human hcait limn tragedy : il is li"-s . : illi- 

 rtilt to pomtiay what so frequently strikes the ii 

 tion as the picture ; it may also be admitted, 



tliat tragic characters benr a certain resemblance towards 

 Cch other, which excludes critic.il observation, and the 

 models of heroic history have clearly pointed out the path 

 which they should pursue. But it was the pi.x-ess of ages 

 to bring the understanding to that requisite degree of 

 taste and superior philosophy which distinguished the dra- 

 matic w .liere; and even had as great u genius as 

 this author existed among the Athenians, they would not 

 have understood the beauty of his productions. The 

 taste of the Greeks, (that sensible authoress continues to 

 remaik,) was only good when it was annexed to the ima- 

 gination -to objects of enthusiasm but defective when 

 .rose from morality and sentiment. The exclusion of 

 women from the Greek theatres, was one of the chief 

 causes of its imperfections ; the authors having no mo- 

 tive for concealment, there was no restriction of language 

 necessary to be observed ; they were consequently de- 

 ficient in grace, elegance, and modesty. The use of 

 masks, and speaking trumpets, and all the fantastical 

 customs of the ancient theatre, disposed the mind, like 

 caricatures in drawing, to study the grotesque and un- 

 natural. Aristophanes sometimes availed himself of the 

 gross jests and buffoonery of the populace he likewise 

 presented the reverse of what was vulgar and inelegant, 

 but it was never a clear representation of situations, or 

 an accurate description of characters, that he explained. 

 The greater part of his dramatic works were relatively 

 connected with the events of the times in which they 

 were written. The ait of inciting popular curiosity by a 

 romantic intrigue was yet unknown; but it was always an 

 easy matter to please the people, by turning their chiefs 

 into derision. The comedies of Menander and Theo- 

 phrastus made a great progress in dramatic decency, and 

 in the knowledge of the human heart; both these writers 

 had the advantage of living a century after the time of 

 Aristophanes, when the licentiousness of an Athenian de- 

 mocracy must have been so unfavourable to the fine 

 spirit of comedy. The high character of Menander, 

 which is giver, by Plutarch, leaves us room to lament, 

 that only fragments of his works have been preserved. 



That idolatry which we pay to Shakespeare seems to have 

 been paid to Menander by antiquity. " Oh ! Menander 

 and Nature," says Aristophanes the grammarian, " which 

 of you copied from the workmanship of the other?" and 

 Julius Caesar, in giving Tcience the name of half Me- 

 tiander, and at the same time lamenting his deficiency 

 in tbe viscomica, implies that the Greek dramatist pos- 

 ,1 the latter gift in common with the qualities so 

 much admired in the Roman. Besides their regular co- 

 medy, the Giccks had dramatic SATTPIKA,* or farces, 

 which were probably the most ancient species of dramatic 

 writing. These satires were so called from their acti us, 

 w ' 10 personified tnc Satyrs, the imaginary attendants of 

 !uis. The only specimen winch we have of this 

 species of entertainment, is the Cyclops of Euripides, 

 which is, in fact, like Tom Thumb, a tragedy bur- 

 lesqued. They were performed, says Mr Pinkerton, be- 

 tween the acts of the comedies or tragedies. Mr Pinker- 

 ton should have known, that the Greek drama had no 

 -.cts nor intervals. 



Masters as the Romans were of the ancient world, they Drum, 

 were in literature onlv the scholars of the Greeks. It s "^-~"~' 

 aji|x.ars iml.-ed, from a passage in Varia, wh. t l)u . |( ' m , p 



an author of Tuscan tragedies, that the dramatic art was drum*, 

 known in Italy at a very early period ; but we run no 

 more judge of the progress of the art, in such distant 

 times by t! . than WP can gather the histoi 



the kings of Babylon by the fragments of Sanconiathon. 

 The Romans, while extending their arms over Italy, left 

 to Etruria her drama and theatre such as it was. On 

 one occasion, we are informed, that, during a j>esiilenre 

 at Rome, the S_ billinc oracle predicted, that it could not 

 be stopped without some sta-v-playcrs |>eiiig vent for 

 from Etruria. The performers accouliiifjly came; I 

 the pestilence did not subside, they were dismissed with 

 discredit for having belied the oracles, while the oracles 

 themselves were never blamed lor their false prediction. 

 Horace informs us, that in the repose and leisme which 

 followed the Punic wars, the Romans began to study the 

 tragic and comic poets of Greece, and made attempts to 

 transfer their beauties in translation. This, in fact, was 

 the origin of the drama at Rome; but with regard to the 

 epoch, one is tempted to believe, that the text of Horace 

 has been vitiated. The reign of genuine corned}' at 

 Rome appears to have been during, not utter, the Punu 

 wars, from Ncevius to Terence and Afranius, about the 

 space of a century. It was in this interval that Licinius, 

 Cajcilius, Plautus, Lucilius, and Turpilius flourished. 

 Terence died thirteen years l>efore the destruction of Car- 

 thage. It was not then, as Horace has said, post Punica 

 bella, that the Romans began to copy the Greeks. Of 

 the only two whose works remain to us, Plautus and 

 Terence, the one has copied Cratinus, and the other 

 Menander. It has been said, that Plautus imitated Aris- 

 tophanes, which is assuredly unfounded. An imitation 

 of Aristophanes would not have been tolerated by a Ro- 

 man audience. The genius of Roman manners, which 

 communicated a decency find dignity to the lowest orders, 

 would have revolted at such atrocious personalities. The 

 new comedy alone, that which contained no personal sa- 

 tire, was fit to be received among a people so proud and 

 austere. There is some room, indeed to susjject, that 

 \;i'vius, the first of the comic Latin poets, tried the ex- 

 periment of personality ; and it was probably on that ao- 

 count that he was chased out of Rome by the aristocratic 

 faction. If so, his example was a caution to succeeding 

 poets ; for though it was permitted to comedy to represent 

 all classes of society, from the lowest to those of consular 

 lank, there is no appearance of its having dealt in indivi- 

 dual abuse or allusion. The age of Augustus does not 

 seem to have produced a single celebrated comic poet ; 

 and in the degeneracy of manners w Inch succeeded to the 

 loss of Roman liberty, the iage for pantomime destroyed 

 all genuine relish for the diama. Plautus and Terence, 

 we are told, borrowed from the Greeks. At the bare 

 mention of imitation and borrowing, the fancy is apt to 

 be much impressed in disfavour of the writer to which it 

 is imputed. If we possessed not the works of Homer, 

 and only heard in general, that Virgil was a copyist of 

 the Grecian epic poet, we should not be able to give cre- 

 dit to the author of the Eneid, for the spirit of beauty 

 that breathes in his writings, independent of all obliga- 

 tions to the Iliad. It is always to the disadvantage of an 

 ingenious writer, who may be taxed with plagiarism, not 

 to have his work confronted with his alleged model. This 



Cauubon in his treatise on the satirical poetry of the Greeks and Romans, has established a distinction between tbe satires of tK 

 Those of the Creek* were little pieces for the stage; those of tbe Romans were moral iiircctive pocmc. 



