COMEDY. 



the rise and progress of comedy, with its 

 various revolutions, in order to examine 

 the principles on which those rules are 

 founded, and to point out their various 

 applications. 



On the waggo n of Thesp is, comedy was 

 a mere tissue of ribaldry, uttered to the 

 passing- multitude by vintagers, with their 

 faces stained with wine-lees. After the 

 example of the Sicilian poets Epicoharmus 

 and Phormis, Crates gave it a more regu- 

 lar form, and raised it to a more appro- 

 priate stage. Comedy then took for its 

 model the tragedy invented by JEschy- 

 lus, or rather both were founded on the 

 poems of Homer. This epocli is, pro- 

 perly speaking, the origin of comedy 

 among the Greeks ; they divided it into 

 the old, the middle, and the new. The 

 Athenian comedians at first produced sa- 

 tires in action, that is to say, they repre- 

 sented characters known and named, 

 whose follies and vices they imitated. 

 This was the old comedy. 



To repress this licence, the laws for- 

 bad the mention of names. Neither the 

 malignity of the poets, however, nor that 

 of the spectators, lost any thing by this 

 interdict. The resemblance of masks, 

 dress, and gesture, designated public 

 characters so well, that they were recog- 

 nized at sight. Thus, in the middle co- 

 medy, the poet, having no longer to dread 

 the reproacn of personality, was embold- 

 ened in his satirical attacks ; at the same 

 time he was doubly sure of applause ; for, 

 while feeding the malice of his audience 

 by the blackness of his portraits, he af- 

 forded their vanity the gratification of 

 guessing his originals. It was in these 

 two pieces that Aristophanes so often 

 triumphed, to the shame of the Athe- 

 nians. 



Satirical comedy presented at first 

 view many appearances of advantage. 

 There are vices, against which the institu- 

 tions of a state provide no punishment. 

 Self-interestedness, or incapacity in the 

 administration of public affairs, ingrati- 

 tude, infidelity, breach of promise, the 

 tacit and artful usurpation of the merit of 

 another all these escape the severity of 

 law. Satirical comedy assigned to them 

 a punishment the more terrible, as it was 

 inflicted in a public theatre. There the 

 guilty were arraigned, and the people sat 

 in judgment. It was doubtless to main- 

 tain so salutary a species of terror, that 

 the first satirical poets were not only to- 

 lerated, but even hired by the magistracy, 

 as censors of the republic. Even Plato 

 was led away by this apparent advantage, 

 when he admitted Aristophanes into his 

 VOL. Hi 



banquet : if, indeed, the Athenian sati- 

 rist, and the Aristophanes of the banquet, 

 are one and the same person, which may 

 at least be fairly doubted. 



Such was the state of comedy at Athens, 

 when her two great tragic poets acquired 

 the glory of rendering virtue interesting, 

 and crime odious, by the most affecting 

 and terrible pictures. How singular, that 

 the same people should delight in exhi- 

 bitions so opposite and contrasted ! the 

 heroes of Sophocles and Euripides were 

 no more, but the sage calumniated by 

 Aristophanes was still living. The Athe- 

 nians could applaud with enthusiasm the 

 great men of former days, while at the 

 same time they could behold with satis- 

 faction their wisest philosopher exposed 

 to contempt and ridicule. 



The government, too late, perceived 

 that the poets had eluded, in what was 

 called middle comedy, the law which for- 

 bad the mention of names ; they enact- 

 ed another, which banished from the stage 

 all personal imitation, and restricted co- 

 medy to the general representation of 

 manners. This was the aera of new co- 

 medy : it ceased to be a direct satire, 

 and assumed the legitimate and classical 

 form which it has since preserved. Me- 

 nander shone in this department ; a poet 

 as elegant and natural as Aristophanes 

 was the reverse. We cannot but deeply 

 regret the loss of his works, when we 

 read the eulogies which Plutarch, in 

 common with all the ancients, has pro- 

 nounced on them. 



But it is easier to copy what is gross 

 and low, than what is refined and noble ; 

 hence the first Latin poets chose Aristo- 

 phanes for their model. Of this number 

 was Plautus, who, notwithstanding, does 

 not resemble him. Terence, who carne 

 after Plautus, imitated Menander, with- 

 out equalling him ; Caesar used to call 

 him a demi-Menander, and reproached 

 him with his want of the vis comica, by 

 which is meant those master-strokes 

 which fathom characters, which dive 

 into the inmost recesses ot the soul, and 

 expose its hidden vices to public derision 

 and shame. 



Plautus excels in gaiety, strength,. ?nd 

 variety : Terence in truth, delicacy, and 

 elegance: the one has the advantage of 

 imagination, unrestrained by the rv.lfts of 

 art over talents subjected to all those 

 rules ; the Other has the merit of uniting 

 sprightliness with decency, politeness 

 with pleasantry, and exactness with ease ; 

 the one amuses by the matter, the other 

 by the style ; and we wish Plautus had 



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