ridicule were literary rather than political. If, therefore, we were called upon to give to the Old and Middle Comedy their distinctive appellations, we should call one Caricature, and the other Criticism, and if we wished to illustrate the difference by modern instances, we should compare the former to the Lampoon, the latter to the Review. The New Comedy commenced, as is well known, in the time of Alexander, and we can see in Plautus and Terence, who translated or imitated the Greek writers of this class, satisfactory specimens of the nature of this branch of Comedy. It corresponded as nearly as possible to our own Comic Drama, especially to that of Farquhar and Congreve, which Charles Lamb calls the Comedy of Manners, and Hurd the Comedy of Character. It arose in all probability from an union of the style and tone of the Euripidean dialogue, with the subjects and characters of the later form of the Middle Comedy. It is not our intention to speak of the dramas and quasidramas of a later age: it may, however, be of some assistance to the student, if we subjoin a general tabular view of the rise and progress of the proper Greek Drama. CHAPTER V ON THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. SECTION I. CHERILUS, PHRYNICHUS, AND PRATINAS. Use begets Use. GUESSES AT TRUTH. As soon as Tragedy had once established itself in Greece, it made very rapid advances to perfection. According to the received dates, the first exhibition of Thespis preceded by ten years only the birth of Eschylus, who in his younger days contended with the three immediate successors of the Icarian. CHERILUS began to represent plays in the 64th Ol. 523 B.C.' and in 499 B.C. contended for the prize with Pratinas and Eschylus. It is stated that he contended with Sophocles also, but the difference in their ages renders this exceedingly improbable, and the mistake may easily have arisen from the way in which Suidas mentions the book on the chorus which Sophocles wrote against him and Thespis. It would seem that Tragedy had not altogether departed from its original form in his time, and that the chorus was still satyric, or tragic in the proper sense of the 1. Χοιρίλος, Ἀθηναῖος, τραγικός, ξδ' ολυμπιάδι καθεὶς εἰς ἀγῶνας καὶ ἐδίδαξε μὲν δράματα πεντήκοντα καὶ ρ', ενίκησε δὲ ιγ'. Suidas. 2. See Nake's Charilus, p. 7. Suidas. Σοφοκλῆς ἔγραψε λόγον καταλογάδην περὶ τοῦ χοροῦ πρὸς Θέσπιν καὶ Χοιρίλου ἀγωνιζόμενος, word1. He is said to have written 150 pieces', but no fragments have come down to us. The disparaging remarks of Hermeas and Proclus do not refer to him, but to his Samian namesake3, and he is mentioned by Alexis' in such goodly company, that we cannot believe that his poetry was altogether contemptible. One of his plays was called the Alopë, and it appears to have been of a strictly mythical character3. Some improvements in theatrical costume are ascribed to him by Suidas and Eudocia. PHRYNICUS was the son of Polyphradmon, and a scholar of Thespis. The dates of his birth and death are alike unknown: it seems probable that he died in Sicily. He gained a tragic victory in 511. B.c.o, and another in 476, when Themistocles was his choragus: the play which he produced on this occasion was probably the Phoenissæ, and Eschylus is charged" with having made use of this tragedy in the composition of his Perse, which appeared four years after, a charge which Eschylus seems to rebut in "the Frogs" of Aristophanes1. In 494 B.C. Miletus was taken by the Persians, and Phrynichus, unfortunately for himself, selected the capture of that city as the subject of a historical tragedy. The skill of the dramatist, and the recent occurrence of 1. ἡνίκα μὲν βασιλεὺς ἦν Χοιρίλος ἐν Σατύροις. Anonym. 9. The numbers in Suidas are, however, in this instance not to be depended on, as they are not the same in all the MSS. 3. See Näke's Charilus, p. 92. 4. Athen. iv. p. 164. C. Ορφεὺς ἔνεστιν, Ἡσίοδος, τραγωδία, Χοιρίλος, Ομηρος, Επίχαρμος, συγγράμματα 5. Pausan. i. 14. § 3. Χοιρίλῳ δὲ Ἀθηναίῳ δράμα ποιήσαντι Αλόπην ἐστ ̓ εἰρημένα Κερκύονα εἶναι καὶ Τριπτόλεμον ἀδελφούς, κ.τ.λ. 6. οὗτος κατά τινας τοῖς προσωπείοις καὶ τῇ σκευῇ τῶν στολῶν ἐπεχείρησεν. 7. Φρύνιχος, Πολυφράδμονος, ἢ Μινύρου· οἱ δὲ Χοροκλέους Αθηναῖος, τραγικός, μαθητής Θέσπιδος. Suidas in Φρύν. The first of the names mentioned here for the father of Phrynichus is the correct one. See Schol. Arist. Av. 750. Pausan. x. 31, 2. The name also appears under the form Phradmon. Prol. Arist. p. xxix. 8. Clinton, F. H. vol. II. p. xxxi. ; note (t). 9. ἐνίκα ἐπὶ τῆς ξζ' ὀλυμπιάδος. Suidas. 10. Ενίκησε δὲ [Θεμιστοκλῆς] καὶ χορηγῶν τραγῳδοῖς, μεγάλην ήδη τότε σπου τὴν καὶ φιλοτιμίαν τοῦ ἄγωνος ἔχοντος. Καὶ πίνακα τῆς νίκης ανέθηκε, τοιαύτην ἐπιγραφὴν ἔχονται Θεμιστοκλῆς Φρεάριος ἐχορήγει, Φρύνιχος ἐδίδασκεν, Αδείμαν τος ήρχεν.--Plutarch. in 'Themist. v. 11. By Glaucus, in his work on the subjects of the plays of Eschylus, see Arg. ad Persas. 12. ἀλλ ̓ οὖν ἐγὼ μὲν ἐς τὸ καλὸν ἐκ τοῦ καλοῦ ἤνεγκον αὖθ', ἵνα μὴ τὸν αὐτὸν Φρυνίχω λειμώνα Μουσῶν ἱερὸν ὑφθείην δρέπων. Ran. 12941296. the event, affected the audience even to tears, and Phrynichus was fined 1000 drachmæ for having recalled so forcibly a painful recollection of the misfortunes of an ally'. We have already mentioned the introduction of female characters into Tragedy by Phrynicus: he seems, however, to have been chiefly remarkable for the sweetness of his melodies, and the great variety and cleverness of his figure dances. The Aristophanic Agathon speaks generally of the beauty of his dramas', though of course they fell far short of the grandeur of Æschylus, and the perfect art of Sophocles. The names of seventeen tragedies attributed to him have come down to us, but it is probable that some of these belonged to the other two writers who bore the same name. 1. Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν γὰρ δῆλον ἐποίησαν ὑπεραχθεσθέντες τῇ Μιλήτου ἁλώσει, τῇ τε ἄλλῃ πολλαχῆ, καὶ δὴ ποιήσαντι Φρυνίχῳ δράμα Μιλήτου ἅλωσιν, καὶ διδάξαντι, ἐς δάκρυά τε ἔπεσε τὸ θέητρον, καὶ ἐζημίωσάν μιν, ὡς ἀναμνήσαντα οἰκηία κακα, χιλίησι δραχμῇσι· καὶ ἐπέταξαν μηκέτι μηδένα χρᾶσθαι τούτῳ τῷ δράματι.-Herod. vi. 21. 2. Ενθεν, ὥσπερ ἡ μέλιττα, Φρύνιχος ἀμβροσίων μελέων ἀπεβόσκετο καρπόν, ἀέι φέρων γλυκεῖαν ᾠδαν. Aristoph. Αν. 748. Philocleon, the old Dicast, as we are told by the chorus of his brethren ἡγεῖτ ̓ ἂν ἄδων Φρυνίχου· καὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἀνήρ φιλωδός. Vesp. 269. And a little before, these fellow-dicasts are represented by Bdelycleon as summoning their aged colleague at midnight, .... μινυρίζοντες μέλη ἀρχαιομελησιδωνοφρυνιχήρατα. ν. 219. Παρὰ τά μέλη καὶ τὴν Σιδῶνα καὶ τὸν Φρύνιχον καὶ τὰ ἐρατὰ ἔμιξεν, οἷον ἀρχαῖα μέλη Φρυνίχου έρατα καὶ ἥδεα.. Φρύνιχος δέ ἐγένετο τραγῳδίας ποιητής, ὃς ἔγραψε δρᾶμα Φοινίσσας, ἐν ᾧ μέμνηται Σιδωνίων. τὰ δὲ μέλη εἶπε διά τὴν γλυκύτητα τοῦ ποιητοῦ. Schol. in loc. 3. Plutarch (Symp. iii. 9.) has preserved part of an epigram, said to have been written by the dramatist himself, in which he thus commemorates the fruitfulness of his fancy in devising figure-dances: Σχήματα δ' ὄρχησις τόσα μοι πόρεν, ὅσσ ̓ ἐπὶ πόντω 4. Thesmophor. 164. seqq. 5. The difference between Phrynichus and Eschylus is distinctly stated in several passages of the Ranæ. τοὺς θεατάς ἐξηπάτα, μωροὺς λαβὼν παρὰ Φρυνίχῳ τραφέντας. 909. Upon which the Scholiast remarks, ἀπατεῶν γὰρ, ὡς ἀφελέστερος ὁ Φρύνιχος. The same fact is also forcibly declared in the address of the Chorus to Eschylus in the same comedy, ἀλλ ̓ ὦ πρῶτος τῶν Ἑλλήνων πυργώσας ῥήματα σεμνά καὶ κοσμήσας τραγικόν λῆρον. 1004. That the word Añpos does not imply any thing merely comical and ludicrous in the tragedies before Eschylus, is clear from the use of the word ληρεῖν in v. 923. We learn from Suidas the following particulars respecting PRATINAS. He was a Phliasian, the son of Pyrrhonides or Encomius, a tragedian, and the opponent of Chœrilus and Eschylus, when the latter first represented. He was the first writer of satyrical Dramas. On one occasion, while he was acting, his wooden stage gave way, and in consequence of that accident, the Athenians built a stone theatre. He exhibited fifty dramas, of which thirty-two were satyrical. The Phliasians seemed to have taken great delight in these performances of their countryman', and according to Pausanias, erected a monument in their market-place in honor of "Aristias, the son of Pratinas, who with his father excelled all except Eschylus in writing satyrical Dramas." Pratinas also wrote Hyporchemes3. 1. See Schneider De Orig. Trag. p. 90. 2. II. 13. 3. Athen. xiv. p. 617. C. Πρατίνας δὲ ὁ Φλιάσιος, αὐλητῶν καὶ χορευτῶν μισθοφόρων κατεχόντων τὰς όρο χήστρας, ἀγανακτεῖν τινας ἐπὶ τῷ τοὺς αὐλητὰς μὴ συναυλεῖν τοῖς χοροῖς, καθάπερ ἦν πάτριον, ἀλλὰ τοὺς χορούς συνάδειν τοῖς αὐληταῖς· ὃν οὖν εἶχε θυμὸν κατὰ τῶν ταῦτα ποιούντων ὁ Πρατίνας ἐμφανίζει διὰ τοῦδε τοῦ ὑποοχήματος. Τίς ὁ θύρυβος δε, κ.τ.λ. |