Kephisophon (appears.) Who is there? Dikaiopolis. Is Euripides within? He is within, and yet not within, if you can understand that. How within and not within? Dikaiopolis. Kephisophon. His mind is out collecting verses,* 395 It is all very true however, old man. And not within. But he himself is aloft composing Dikaiopolis. O thrice fortunate Euripides, Who possessest a servant of such shrewd discernment. 400 Kephisophon. It is impossible. Dikaiopolis. But you must I will not go, but continue to knock at the door. Hear me if ever you heard any man. Euripides. I have not time. Dikaiopolis. Come roll yourself out.‡ Euripides. It is impossible.§ Dikaiopolis. Come consent. Euripides. Well, I will roll myself out. I have not time to come down. 405 What! you are composing aloft then, Instead of below. You are famous at representing the lame. 410 • The Greek diminutive irúna is here correctly expressed by the German verschen, but I suspect versicle would not be tolerated in English.-TRANS. Epido-in the German Euripidelein.—TRANS. A technical expression from the Encyclema, which was thrust out. § Euripides appears in the upper story; but as in an altana, or sitting in an open gallery. The dress of commiseration? You are the man for beggars! I kneel down in supplication to you, Euripides. Give me the rags of one of your old plays; I have a long speech to make to the chorus, And if I do not succeed I must expect death. Euripides. What rags do you want? Those in which old Eneus, 415 Dikaiopolis. No, it was not neus, but a person still more wretched. 420 Euripides. Not Bellerophon. The man I mean Was lame, demanded alms, garrulous, and bold of speech. Dikaiopolis (clothing himself in them). O Jupiter, who lookest down on, and seest through everything,* 425 430 435 For to-day I must look like a beggar, 440 Yet still remain who I am, though I do not appear so.f The spectators must know who I am, But the chorus stand round like fools, That I may tickle them with my rhetorical flowers. * Allusion to the holes in the mantle, while he holds it up against the light. †These two lines, and line 446, are taken from the tragedy of Telephus. Euripides. I will give it to you; for your contrivance is admirable. Dikaiopolis. Hail to thee, Telephus! as far as I can perceive, It succeeds: already I feel myself filling with elegancies of expression. But I still want the beggar's staff. Euripides. Here, take it, and depart from these stone posts. Dikaiopolis. O my mind, thou seest how I am driven from this habitation In want of many little things. Become now Tough and obstinate in beggary and praying. 445 450 Euripides, Give me a little basket in which a hole has been burnt by the lanthorn. Euripides. What occasion hast thou, O wretched man, for this basket? Dikaiopolis. No occasion at all, but still I wish to take it. Euripides. Begone now, leave the house, you become importunate. Dikaiopolis. 455 Alas! There take it and begone. Know that you are now troublesome. Dikaiopolis. Thou knowest not, by Zeus, the evils which thou occasionest, Give me a little pot filled with fungi. Euripides. O man, thou wilt carry off the whole tragedy. Take it too, and depart. Dikaiopolis. But what am I to do? I must still have one thing, or if I have it not, I am ruined. Hear me, O sweetest Euripides! When I have this I shall be gone, and not tease you longer.† Give me the refuse cabbage leaves in the basket.+ Euripides. You ruin me. See there! My whole play has disappeared. A poor retailer of vegetables. †This line is omitted in the German translation.-TRANS. 460 465 470 This and line 479 allude to the employment of the mother of Euripides. 130 LECTURES ON DRAMATIC LITERATURE. Dikaiopolis (appearing as if he wished to go.) May I perish miserably, but I must still beg one thing from you, Give me the chervil which you inherited from your mother. Euripides. The man is insulting me-shut the door on him. 475 (The Encyclema shuts, and Euripides and Kephisophon retire O my mind, we must proceed without the chervil, Why dost thou hesitate? hast thou not devoured Euripides? In readiness for the block, saying what seems best to thee. 480 485 LECTURE VII. Whether the middle comedy was a distinct species-Origin of the new comedy -A mixed species-Its prosaic character-Whether versification is essential to comedy-Subordinate kinds-Pieces of character, and of intrigue-The comic of observation, of self-consciousness, and arbitrary comic-Morality of comedy-Plautus and Terence as imitators of the Greeks here cited and characterized for want of the originals-Moral and social aim of the Attic comedy Statues of two comic authors. THE ancient critics mention the existence of a middle comedy, between the new and the old. Its distinctive peculiarities are variously stated: at one time in the abstinence from personal satire, and the introduction of real characters, and at another time in the dismissal of the chorus. The introduction of real persons under their true names was at no time an indispensable requisite. We find characters in many pieces, even of Aristophanes, in no respect historical, but altogether fictitious, with significant names in the manner of the new comedy, and personal satire is only occasionally resorted to. The right of personal satire was no doubt essential to the old comedy, as I have already attempted to show; and by losing this right the comic writers were no longer enabled to throw ridicule on public actions and the state. When they confined themselves to private life, the chorus ceased to have any longer a signification. An accidental circumstance contributed to accelerate its removal. The dress and instruction of the chorus required a great out-lay; but when comedy came to forfeit its political privileges, and consequently also its festal dignity, and was degraded to a mere source of amusement, the poet found no longer any rich patrons to defray the expense of the chorus. Platonius gives us still another trait of the middle comedy. On account of the danger of alluding to public affairs, the comic writers, he says, had turned all their powers of satire against serious poetry, both epic and tragic, and exposed its absurdities and contradictions; and the Eolosikon of Aristophanes, which was written at a late period of his life, was of such a kind. This description involves the idea of parody, which we included under the old comedy at our commencement. Platonius gives us the Ulysses of Cratinus, a burlesque of the Odyssey, as an instance. But no play of Cratinus could, in the order of time, belong to the middle comedy; for his death is mentioned by Aristophanes in his Peace. And as to the drama of Eupolis, in which he described what is called by us a Utopia, or lubberly land, what else was it but a parody of the poetical tales of the golden age? Are |