M E N 
85 
M E N 
—my wifdom, my aullerities, my firm refolution, all dc- 
flroyed at once by a woman ! Seduced by the crime in 
which Indra delights, am I llripped of the advantages 
arifing from all my aullerities !” In this manner we oc- 
cafionally find found morality inculcated by the wild fables 
of the Hindoos. If we objecil to the warmth of language 
lometimes obfiervable in fuch writings, welhould recolleit 
that in fairnefs we ought not to eftimate them by any 
ftandard of European criticifm; but lhould advert to the 
ufages of the people, the times, and the countries, for 
whom and wherein they were promulgated. 
MENAL'CAS, the name of a ihepherd in Virgil’s 
Eclogues. 
MENALIP'PE, a woman’s name ; the filler of Antiope 
queen of the Amazons, taken by Hercules when that hero 
made war againll this celebrated nation. She was ran- 
fomed, and Hercules received in exchange the arms and 
belt of the queen. Juv. viii. 229.—A daughter of the cen¬ 
taur Chiron, beloved and ravilhed by JEolus Ion of Hellen. 
She retired into the woods to hide her difgrace from the 
eyes of her father; and, when Ihe had brought forth, Hie 
entreated the gods to remove her totally from the pur- 
fuits of Chiron. She was changed into a mare, and called 
Ocyroe. She became a conllellatiqn after death, called 
the Horfe. Some authors call her Hippe or Evippe. Hygin. 
—Menalippe is a name common to other perfons ; but it is 
generally fpelt MELANirpEby the bell authors. See p. 41. 
MENA'MEN, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Natolia, 
fituated on the north coall of the Gulf of Smyrna: fix 
miles north-weft of Smyrna. 
ME'NAN. See Mecon, vol. xiv. p. 797. 
MENANCABO', a kingdom of Sumatra, near the cen¬ 
tre of the illand ; the power of which formerly extended 
almoltover the whole illand; atprefent confined to about 
fixty miles on each fide of the equinoctial line. The 
religion is Mahometan. In this country are mines of 
gold. 
MENAN'DER, an ancient Greek comic poet, was born 
at Athens in the fame year with Epicurus, which was the 
third of the 109th Olympiad, being 342 B. C. His hap- 
pinefs in introducing the new comedy, and refining an art 
which had been fo grofs and licentious in former times, 
quickly fpread his name over the world. Pliny informs 
us, that the kings of Egypt and Macedon gave a noble 
tellimony of his merit, by lending ambalfadors to invite 
him to their courts, and even fleets to bring him over; 
but that Menander was fo much of a philolopher, as to 
prefer the free enjoyment of his lludies to the promifed 
favours of the great. Of his works, which amounted to 
108 comedies, we have had a double lofs ; the originals 
being not only vanilhed, but the greatell part of fhem, 
when copied by Terence, having unfortunately perilhed 
by Ihipwreck before they faw Rome. Yet the four plays 
which Terence borrowed from'him before that accident 
happened, are Hill preferved in the Roman habit; and it 
is chiefly from Terence that moll people form their judg¬ 
ment of Menander, the fragments that remain of him, of 
which we fhall presently fpeak, not being fufficient to ena¬ 
ble them to do it. The ancients have laid high things of 
Menander; and we find the old mailers of rhetoric re¬ 
commending his works as the true patterns of every beauty 
and every grace of public fpeaking. Quintilian declares, 
that a careful imitation of Menander only, will fatisfy all 
the rules he has laid down in his inllitutions. It is in 
Menander that he w r ould have his orator fearch for a co- 
pioufnel’s of invention, for a happy elegance of expreflion, 
and efpecially for that univerfal genius which is able to 
accommodate itfelf to perfons, things, and affections. 
But Julius Caefar has left the loftiell as well as the jullell 
praife of Menander’s works, when he calls Terence only 
a Half-Menander. For, while the talents of the Latin poet 
are fo defervediy admired, it is impoflible we lhould raife 
a higher notion of excellency than to conceive the great 
original Hill fhining with half its luftre unrefleCted, and 
VoL. XV No. 1056. 
preferving an equal part of its graces above the power of 
the bell copier in the world. He is indeed represented as 
poflefling every part of a perfect dramatic writer, viz. ele¬ 
gance of language, force and delicacy of fentiment, and 
the true and humorous delineation of character. He was 
fo much the poet of nature, that the grammarian Arillo- 
phanes once exclaimed, “ O Menander and Nature, which 
of you copied from the workmanlhip of the other 1” 
Ovid predicts that the fame of Menander would be im¬ 
mortal. Aufonius couples our poet with Homer; and he 
is extolled by all thole who had accefs to his works with 
an enthufiafm not inferior to that with which the name 
of that prince of poets is mentioned. 
The name of Menander, from the praifes lavilhed on 
him by his contemporaries, fuggells to our minds the molt 
complete model of gaiety and voluptuoufnefs of any au¬ 
thor before or fince his time. In the language of Plutarch, 
he was “ the conllant worlhipper, the chief priell, of the. 
god of love, w r ho, like fonie univerfal fpirit, pervaded and 
connected all his works.”' Yet his love was 16 refined* 
and his voluptuoufnefs fo guarded by delicacy, that he 
was placed, without fcruple or danger, in the hands of 
youths and virgins: 
Fabula jucundi nulla ell fine amore Menandri, 
Et lolet hie pueris virginibulque legi. Ovid. 
Many ages after his death, a llatue was erected to his 
memory, and placed by the fide of the image of Cupid. 
Two or three epigrams made upon this llatue, are pre¬ 
ferved, which difplay, in the figurative but forcible lan¬ 
guage of his countrymen, the eftimation in which he was 
held, and give him a diltinguilhed rank among the gay 
and amorous poets of antiquity. 
1. erottoov E^wro?, &C. 
Behold Menander, fyren of the llage, 
Who charm’d, with love allied, a happier age ; 
Light wanton wreathes, that never fhall be dead. 
Are curl'd luxuriant o’er the poet’s head, 
Who drefs’d the feene in colours bright and gay, 
And breath’d enchantment o’er the living lay. 
2. yuv r'/iaai aw EgW7(. 
Menander, fweet Thalia’s pride, 
Well art thou plac’d by Cupid’s fide; 
Priell to the god of foft delights, 
Thou fpread’ll on earth his joyous rites; 
And lure the boy himfelf we lee 
To fmile and pleafe and breathe in thee ; 
For, muling o’er yon imag’d Hone, 
To fee thee and to love are one. 
Now it will appear very extraordinary, that, of an au« 
thor fo much elteemed for amorous gaiety, nothing has 
come down to our time except fiome fragments, chiefly of 
the fentimental kind, and generally of a gloomy and que¬ 
rulous tenour. But it will be laid that thel'e, perhaps, 
were chara&erillic only of the perfons into whole mouth 
they were put; and what remains of him does not mark 
fo llrongly his own peculiar genius, as the talle of thofe 
feleftors who have chofen his w'ords toiliuilrate their own 
ideas. Thus, to the melancholy feleftor we owe the lur- • 
vival of the fad and pee villi complaints on the many lor- 
rows to which flelh is the natural heir. On the other 
hand, the Itrikingly moral paiiages with which his works 
abounded alone caught the attention ot the fathers of the 
primitive church, who found in the Greek comedian a 
llrain of piety fo nearly approaching to their own-faith 
and feelings, that all ideas of a preponderance of fatire 
over moral precept mull yield to evidence fo irreliltible as 
the approbation of Clemens Alexandrinus and Euiebius. 
It may not be amil’s to introduce a few inllances from his 
works of the palfages which have been, by this means, 
tranfmitted to us, in however imperfeCt or mutilated a 
ftate; 
Zr Ei 
