COMEDY. 
•at first produced satires in action, that is 
to say, they represented characters known 
and named, whose follies and vices they 
imitated. This was the old comedy. 
To repress this licence, the laws forbad 
tlie mention of names. Neither the ma- 
lignity of the poets, however, nor that of 
the spectators lost any thing by tliis inter- 
dict. , The resemblance of masks, dress, 
and gesture, designated public characters 
so well, that they were recognized at sight. 
Thus, in the middle comedy, the poet hav- 
ing no longer to dread the reproach of 
personality, was emboldened in his satirical 
attacks; at the same time he was doubly 
sure of applause, for while feeding the ma- 
lice of his audience by the blackness of his 
portraits, he afforded their vanity the gra- 
tification of guessing his originals. It was in 
these two species that Aristophanes so often 
triumphed to the shame of the Athenians. 
Satirical comedy pi esepted at first view 
many appearances of advantage. There 
are vices against which the institutions of 
a state provide no punishment. Self inte- 
restedness, or incapacity, in the administra- 
tion of public aftairs, ingratitude, infidelity, 
breach of promise, the tacit and artful usur- 
pation of the merit of anotlter— all these 
escape the severity of law. Satirical co- 
medy assigned to them a punishment the 
more terrible as it was inflicted in a pub- 
lic theatre. There the guilty were ar- 
raigned and the people sat in judgment. 
It was doubtless to maintain so, salutary 
a species of terror, tliat the first satirical 
poets were not only tolerated, 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 banquet; if, indeed, 
the Athenian satirist, and the Aristophanes 
of the banquet are one and the same per- 
son, which may at least be fairly doubted. 
Such was the state of comedy at Athens 
when her tvvo 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 exhibi- 
tions so opposite and contrasted ! the heroes 
of Sophocles and Euripides were no more, 
but the sage calumniated by Aristophanes 
was still living. The Athenians copld ap- 
plaud with enthusiasm the great men of 
former days, while at the same time they 
could behold with satisfaction their wisest 
philosopher exposed to contempt and ridi- 
cule. 
The government, too late, perceived that 
the poets liad eluded, in w’hat was called 
middle comedy, the law which forbad the 
mention of names; they enacted another 
which banished from the stage all personal 
imitation, and restricted comedy to the 
general representation of manners. This 
was the ana of new comedy : it ceased to 
be a direct satire, and assumed the legiti- 
mate and classical form which it has since 
preserved. Menander shone in tiiis depart- 
ment, a poet as elegant and natural as 
Aristophanes was the reverse. We can- 
not 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 Ai istophaiies 
for their model. Of this number was 
Plautus, who, notwithstanding, does not re-, 
semble him. Terence, who came after 
Plautus, imitated Menander without equal- 
ling him ; Caesar used to call him a demi- 
Menander, and reproached, liini M'itli his 
want of the vis comica, by which is meant 
those master-strokes which fathom cha- 
racter ; which dive into the inmost recesses 
of the soul, and expose its hidden vices to 
public derision and shame. 
Plautus excels in gaiety, strength, and 
variety : Terence in truth, delicacy, and 
elegance ; the one has the advantage of 
imagination umestrained by the rules of 
art over talents subjected to all those rules ; 
the other has the merit of uniting sprightli- 
ness with decency, politeness witli plea- 
santly, and exactness with ease; the one 
amuses by tlie matter, tlie other by the 
style, and we wish Plautus had the refine- 
ment of Terence, and Terence tlie humour 
of Plautus. 
The modifications of comedy in its first 
stages, and the varieties observable in it 
at the present day, all originate in the pre- 
dominating character of each particular 
people, and in their respective forms of 
government. Thus, in a dcmocratical state, 
the administration of government, and the 
conduct of the leading men, being the chief 
objects of animadversion and censure, the 
Athenian people, ever discontented and 
restless, delighted in theatrical satires, 
which exposed not only the vices of indi- 
viduals, but the concerns of government, 
the prevarications of orators, the faults of 
generals, and even their own facility to be. 
duped and corriiptecj. Hence their ap- 
