Athens: Its Rise and Fall Part 47

[320] Aristot., Poet. iv.

[321] "As he was removed from Cos in infancy, the name of his adopted country prevailed over that of the country of his birth, and Epicharmus is called of Syracuse, though born at Cos, as Apollonius is called the Rhodian, though born at Alexandria."--Fast. h.e.l.l., vol.

ii., introduction.

[322] Moliere.

[323] Laertius, viii. For it is evident that Epicharmus the philosopher was no other than Epicharmus the philosophical poet--the delight of Plato, who was himself half a Pythagorean.--See Bentley, Diss. Phal., p. 201; Laertius, viii., 78; Fynes Clinton, Fast. h.e.l.l., vol. ii., introduction, p. 36 (note g).

[324] A few of his plays were apparently not mythological, but they were only exceptions from the general rule, and might have been written after the less refining comedies of Magnes at Athens.

[325] A love of false ant.i.thesis.

[326] In Syracuse, however, the republic existed when Epicharmus first exhibited his comedies. His genius was therefore formed by a republic, though afterward fostered by a tyranny.

[327] For Crates acted in the plays of Cratinus before he turned author. (See above.) Now the first play of Crates dates two years before the first recorded play (the Archilochi) of Cratinus; consequently Cratinus must have been celebrated long previous to the exhibition of the Archilochi--indeed, his earlier plays appear, according to Aristophanes, to have been the most successful, until the old gentleman, by a last vigorous effort, beat the favourite play of Aristophanes himself.

[328] That the magistrature did not at first authorize comedy seems a proof that it was not at the commencement considered, like tragedy, of a religious character. And, indeed, though modern critics constantly urge upon us its connexion with religion, I doubt whether at any time the populace thought more of its holier attributes and a.s.sociations than the Neapolitans of to-day are impressed with the sanct.i.ty of the carnival when they are throwing sugarplums at each other.

[329] In the interval, however, the poets seem to have sought to elude the law, since the names of two plays (the Satyroi and the Koleophoroi) are recorded during this period--plays which probably approached comedy without answering to its legal definition. It might be that the difficulty rigidly to enforce the law against the spirit of the times and the inclination of the people was one of the causes that led to the repeal of the prohibition.

[330] Since that siege lasted nine months of the year in which the decree was made.

[331] Aristophanes thus vigorously describes the applauses that attended the earlier productions of Cratinus. I quote from the masterly translation of Mr. Mitch.e.l.l.

"Who Cratinus may forget, or the storm of whim and wit, Which shook theatres under his guiding; When Panegyric's song poured her flood of praise along, Who but he on the top wave was riding?"

"His step was as the tread of a flood that leaves its bed, And his march it was rude desolation," etc.

Mitch.e.l.l's Aristoph., The Knights, p. 204.

The man who wrote thus must have felt betimes--when, as a boy, he first heard the roar of the audience--what it is to rule the humours of eighteen thousand spectators!

[332] De l'esprit, pa.s.sim.

[333] De Poet., c. 26.

[334] The oracle that awarded to Socrates the superlative degree of wisdom, gave to Sophocles the positive, and to Euripides the comparative degree,

Sophos Sophoclaes; sophoteros d'Euripoeaes; 'Andron de panton Sokrataes sophotatos.

Sophocles is wise--Euripides wiser--but wisest of all men is Socrates.

[335] The Oresteia.

[336] For out of seventy plays by Aeschylus only thirteen were successful; he had exhibited fifteen years before he obtained his first prize; and the very law pa.s.sed in honour of his memory, that a chorus should be permitted to any poet who chose to re-exhibit his dramas, seems to indicate that a little encouragement of such exhibition was requisite. This is still more evident if we believe, with Quintilian, that the poets who exhibited were permitted to correct and polish up the dramas, to meet the modern taste, and play the Cibber to the Athenian Shakspeare.

[337] Athenaeus, lib. xiii., p. 603, 604.

[338] He is reported, indeed, to have said that he rejoiced in the old age which delivered him from a severe and importunate taskmaster.

--Athen., lib. 12, p. 510. But the poet, nevertheless, appears to have retained his amorous propensities, at least, to the last.--See Athenaeus, lib. 13, p. 523.

[339] He does indeed charge Sophocles with avarice, but he atones for it very handsomely in the "Frogs."

[340] M. Schlegel is pleased to indulge in one of his most declamatory rhapsodies upon the life, "so dear to the G.o.ds," of this "pious and holy poet." But Sophocles, in private life, was a profligate, and in public life a shuffler and a trimmer, if not absolutely a renegade. It was, perhaps, the very laxity of his principles which made him thought so agreeable a fellow. At least, such is no uncommon cause of personal popularity nowadays. People lose much of their anger and envy of genius when it throws them down a bundle or two of human foibles by which they can climb up to its level.

[341] It is said, indeed, that the appointment was the reward of a successful tragedy; it was more likely due to his birth, fortune, and personal popularity.

[342] It seems, however, that Pericles thought very meanly of his warlike capacities.--See Athenaeus, lib. 13, p. 604.

[343] Oedip. Tyr., 1429, etc.

[344] When Sophocles (Athenaeus, i., p. 22) said that Aeschylus composed befittingly, but without knowing it, his saying evinced the study his compositions had cost himself.

[345] "The chorus should be considered as one of the persons in the drama, should be a part of the whole, and a sharer in the action, not as in Euripides, but as in Sophocles."--Aristot. de Poet., Twining's translation. But even in Sophocles, at least in such of his plays as are left to us, the chorus rarely, if ever, is a sharer in the outward and positive action of the piece; it rather carries on and expresses the progress of the emotions that spring out of the action.

[346] --akno toi pros s' aposkopois' anax.--Oedip. Tyr., 711.

This line shows how much of emotion the actor could express in spite of the mask.

[347] "Of all discoveries, the best is that which arises from the action itself, and in which a striking effect is produced by probable incidents. Such is that in the Oedipus of Sophocles."--Aristot. de Poet., Twining's translation.

[348] But the spot consecrated to those deities which men "tremble to name," presents all the features of outward loveliness that contrast and refine, as it were, the metaphysical terror of the a.s.sociations.

And the beautiful description of Coloneus itself, which is the pa.s.sage that Sophocles is said to have read to his judges, before whom he was accused of dotage, seems to paint a home more fit for the graces than the furies. The chorus inform the stranger that he has come to "the white Coloneus;"

"Where ever and aye, through the greenest vale Gush the wailing notes of the nightingale From her home where the dark-hued ivy weaves With the grove of the G.o.d a night of leaves; And the vines blossom out from the lonely glade, And the suns of the summer are dim in the shade, And the storms of the winter have never a breeze, That can shiver a leaf from the charmed trees; For there, oh ever there, With that fair mountain throng, Who his sweet nurses were, [the nymphs of Nisa]

Wild Bacchus holds his court, the conscious woods among!

Daintily, ever there, Crown of the mighty G.o.ddesses of old, Cl.u.s.tering Narcissus with his glorious hues Springs from his bath of heaven's delicious dews, And the gay crocus sheds his rays of gold.

And wandering there for ever The fountains are at play, And Cephisus feeds his river From their sweet urns, day by day.

The river knows no dearth; Adown the vale the lapsing waters glide, And the pure rain of that pellucid tide Calls the rife beauty from the heart of earth.

While by the banks the muses' choral train Are duly heard--and there, Love checks her golden rein."

[349] Geronta dorthoun, phlauron, os neos pesae.

Oedip. Col., 396.

Thus, though his daughter had only grown up from childhood to early womanhood, Oedipus has pa.s.sed from youth to age since the date of the Oedipus Tyrannus.

[350] See his self-justification, 960-1000.

[351] As each poet had but three actors allowed him, the song of the chorus probably gave time for the representative of Theseus to change his dress, and reappear as Polynices.

[352] The imagery in the last two lines has been amplified from the original in order to bring before the reader what the representation would have brought before the spectator.

[353] Mercury.

[354] Proserpine.

[355] Autonamos.--Antig., 821.