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This poet supports the system which I have endeavoured to establish in the second discourse* so strongly as to amount to demonstrative proof.

He

Horace † expresses himself thus, "Thespis is said to have been the first inventor of a species of tragedy, in which he carried about in carts, players smeared with the dregs of wine, of whom some sung and others declaimed." This was the first attempt both of tragedy and comedy; for Thespis made use only of one speaker, without the least appearance of dialogue. "Eschylus afterwards exhibited them with more dignity. placed them on a stage, somewhat above the ground, covered their faces with masks, put buskins 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 Homer, who was the guide of Eschylus. For, if we credit Aristotle,§ comedy had its birth from the Margetes, a satirical poem of Homer, and tragedy from the Iliad and Odyssey. Thus the design and arti

*Greek Theatre, part i. vol. i.
+ Poet. ch. 4.

Hor. Poet. v. 275.
§ Poet. ch.4.

of Comedy..

fice of comedy were drawn from Homer and who is authorEschylus. This will appear less surprising, " since the ideas, of the human mind 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 nature 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.

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

*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 number of the actors, and joined all the other things which now belong to it. The first that thought of forming comic fables, were Epicharmus and Phormys, and consequently this manner 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 flourished in the 82d. Olympiad, four hundred and fifty years before our Æra, twelve or thirteen years before Aristophanes.

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 ambas sadors, as of a man extremely useful to his country, and Plato | rated him so high, as to say, that the graces resided 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 come

* 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 mentioned; he says (book x. Of Animals) that one Augeus of Eleusis, made Eupolis a present of a fine mastiff, whe 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 staid by his tomb till he perished by grief and hunger.

Cratinus of Athens, who was son of Callimedes, died at the age of ninety seven. He composed twenty comedies, of which nine had the prize; he was a daring writer, but a cowardly warrior.

GREEK COM

ely so called, especiall decessors who wrote in the sign, that he had contribu

+ 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 Achar niens.

Epigram attributed to Plato.

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This history of the thre daracters, is taken in part f

dy, properly so called, especially since he had not only predecessors who wrote in the same kind, but it is at least a sign, that he had contributed more than any other to bring comedy to the perfection in which he left it. We shall, therefore, not inquire farther, whether regular comedy was the work of a single mind, which seems yet to be unsettled, or of several contemporaries, such as these which Horace quotes. We must distinguish three forms which comedy wore, in consequence 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.

dle, and new

That comedy,* which Horace calls the an- The old, midcient, and which, according to his account, comedy. 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. Though 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

* This history of the three ages of comedy, and their different characters, is taken in part from the valuable fragments of Platonius.

voice comedies were allowed or prohibited. The insolence of those performances reached to open impiety, and sport was made equally with men and gods.* These. are 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..

free, who was compr xamples in some of ferwards called th

The ex comedy, or that & refinement, pres than had before forb terwards real subjec tomach given to ab s reduced to the ne and subjects upon and enriched the the

was no longer a fury and innocent mirror

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This licentiousness of the poets, to which in some sort Socrates fell a sacrifice, at last was restrained by a law. For the government which was before shared by all the inhabitants, was now confined to a settled number of citizens. 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 themselves 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 others 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 before; and the art, which was expected would be confined within the limits of duty, was only partly transgressed with more ingenuity. Of this

*It will be shown how and in what sense this was allowed.

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