AGE OF COMEDY. [PP. 195-216, Ed. London, 1699.] 66 IN the fifty-first Epistle to Eteonicus, there is another moral sentence: Θνητοὺς γὰρ ὄντας ἀθάνατον ὀργὴν ἔχειν, ὡς φασί τινες, οὐ προσήκει “ Mortal man ought not to entertain immortal anger (a)." But, I am afraid, he will have no better success with this than the former; for Aristotle, in his Rhetoric', among some other sententious verses, cites this Iambic, as commonly known: ̓Αθάνατον ὀργὴν μὴ φύλαττε, θνητός ὢν. This, though the Author of it be not named, was, probably, like most of those proverbial gnomæ, borrowed from the Stage; and, consequently, must be later than Phalaris, let it belong to what Poet you please, Tragic or Comic. But, because it may be suspected that the Poet himself might take the thought from common usage, and 1. Lib. ii. cap. 21. (a) Bentleius in immortali ista de Phalaridis epistolis dissertatione hæc verba, Ovnτοὺς γαρ ὄντας αθάνατον ὀργὴν ἔχειν, ὡς φασί τινες, οὐ προσήκει, ex Euripide mutua sumta existimat, cui sane hactenus assentior. Verum, quod non vidit Vir summus, non sunt ista ex Euripide imitando expressa, sed sunt ipsa Tragici verba, ita legenda :— Θνητοὺς γὰρ ὄντας ἀθάνατον ὀργὴν ἔχειν Duo erant, quæ, ne Viri docti hoc perviderent, faciebant. Primum, quod nesciebant álávaτov primam producere, quod apud omnes antiquos et genuinos Græciæ Poëtas semper fieri præstabo, alias forsitan Brunckii et aliorum errores castigaturus. Deinde paulo minus grati sunt numeri, quam in plerisque Tragicorum senariis, non tamen omnino inusitati. Porson. ad Eurip. Med. 139. only give it the turn and measure of a verse, let us see if we can discover some plainer footsteps of imitation, and detect the lurking Sophist, under the mask of the Tyrant. Stobæus gives us these verses, out of Euripides' Philoctetes :— 1 Ὥσπερ δὲ θνητὸν καὶ τὸ σῶμ ̓ ἡμῶν ἔφυ, Οὕτω προσήκει μηδὲ τὴν ὀργὴν ἔχειν ̓Αθάνατον, ὅστις σωφρονεῖν ἐπίσταται. Now to him that compraes these with the words of this Epistle, it will be evident that the Author had this very passage before his pen: there is exew, and προσήκει" not only a sameness of sense, but even of words, and those not necessary to the sentence; which could not fall out by accident. And where has he now a friend at a pinch to support his sinking credit? For Euripides was not born in Phalaris's time. Nay, to come nearer to our mark; from Aristophanes the famous Grammarian (who, after Aristotle, Callimachus, and others, wrote the Aidaokaλía, A "Catalogue and Chronology of all the Plays of the Poets": a work, were it now extant, most useful to ancient History), we know that this very Fable, Philoctetes, was written Olymp. LXXXVII; which is cxx years after the Tyrant's destruction (a). 1. Τit. xx. Περὶ Ὀργῆς. 2. Argument. Medeæ Eur. 2 (a) The paragraphs here printed in a larger type were originally part of Bentley's first Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris; which, with his remarks on the Fables of Esop, was written as an appendage to Dr. Wotton's "Discourse about Ancient and Modern Learning"; a work first printed A. D. 1694. It was not, however, given to the world until the publication of Boyle's Edition of Phalaris, (January A. D. 1695), in the reprint of Wotton's Discourse. Boyle, jealous for the authenticity of his author, and suspecting Bentley's Dissertation to have been aimed purposely at his edition, attacked this treatise in his "Dr. Bentley's Dissertations Examined." It was in answer to this Examination that Bentley wrote his second and famous Dissertation; whence our extracts are made. In it, taking as text those passages against which Boyle had brought his objections, he subjoined, by way of comment, a series of remarks, wherein, with amazing learning and singular acuteness, he triumphantly refuted Boyle, step by step, whilst he fully confirmed the accuracy of the opinions which he himself had advanced.[See Dr. Monk's Life of Bentley, pp. 45, &c.] I had said that the Iambic verse quoted by Aristotle, ̓Αθάνατον ὀργὴν μὴ φύλαττε, θνητός ὤν, "was probably borrowed from the Stage." This does not please the Examiner; for he comes upon me with this gravelling question, "Why more probably borrowed from the Stage than from Archilochus' Iambics, the fragments of which are full of those proverbial sentences?" I will tell you, sir, why more probably from the Stage than from Archilochus (a). First, because in Aristotle's time there were a thousand Iambics of the Stage for one of Archilochus. The plays of the old Comedy were CCCLXV1; of the middle Comedy, DCXVII: nay, Athenæus says, That he himself had read above Dccc plays of the middle Comedy. Add to these all the Tragedies, which in all probability were more than the others, and it will be reasonable to suppose, that there were as many whole Plays in Aristotle's days, as there were single Iambic verses in all Archilochus' Poems. And, secondly, because Aristotle, in the very same place where he cites this sentence, brings several others; all of which, except one, we are sure are fetched from the Stage, out of Euripides and Epicharmus: and even that one is very likely to be taken from the same place. And now, I would beg leave, in my turn, to ask the Examiner a question: What he means when he says "The Fragments of Archilochus' Iambics are full of those Proverbial Sentences ?" for I believe there are not ten Iambics of Archilochus now extant; and but two of them are Proverbial Sentences. He tells me, in another place, "That collecting Greek Fragments is a fit employment for me, and I have succeeded well in it." But when he pleases to produce those Iambics of Archilochus, full of such sententious sayings, I will acknowledge his talent at that employment to be better than mine. My inference was, that if this Iambic came from the Stage, "it must be later than Phalaris, let it belong to what Poet soever, Tragic or Comic." "This consequence," says Mr. B. "I can never allow, because I am very well satisfied that there were both Tragic and Comic Poets before the days of Phalaris.” The age of Tragedy he (a) The invention of Iambics is ascribed to Archilochus by Horace: Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo. Art. Poet. 79. reserves for another section; but for Comedy, he produces Susarion, who is said to have invented it before the tyranny of Pisistratus. It is the Examiner's good fortune to be never more in the wrong than when he talks most superciliously, and with the greatest assurance. He can never allow my inference; and he is very well satisfied. But I must tell him, to his farther satisfaction, that, though we suppose Plays were acted a little before, or in Phalaris's time, yet it does not presently follow as a consequence that Phalaris could cite that verse out of a Poet, whether Tragic or Comic. First, because it is an Iambic verse; and it was a good while after the invention of Comedy and Tragedy before that measure was used in them. Aristotle assures us of this, as far as it concerns Tragedy: "The measure," says he, "in Tragedy was changed from Tetrametres to Iambics; for at first they used Tetrametres, because the Trochaic foot is more proper for dancing1." And the same reason will hold for Comedy too, because that, as well as Tragedy, was at first "nothing but a Song, performed by a Chorus dancing to a pipe." It stands to reason, therefore, that there also the Tetrametre was used, rather than the Iambic; which, as the same Aristotle observes3, was fit for business rather than dancing, and for discourse rather than singing. And secondly, because both Comedy and Tragedy, in their first beginnings at Athens, were nothing but extemporal diversions, not just and regular poems; they were neither published, nor preserved, nor written; but, like the entertainments of our Merry Andrews on the stages of mountebanks, were bestowed only upon the present assembly, and so forgotten. Aristotle declares it expressly: "Both Tragedy and Comedy," says he, "were at first made EX TEMPORE1;"—and another very good writer, Maximus Tyrius, tells us, "That the ancient Plays at Athens were nothing but Choruses of boys and men; the husbandmen in their several parishes, after the labours of seed-time and harvest, singing EXTEMPORAL 1. Poet. c. iv. Tò μèv τρŵτov teтpaμéтpw expŵvтo. So also in Rhet. iii. 1. 2. Donatus, "Comoedia fere vetus, ut ipsa quoque olim Tragœdia, simplex carmen fuit, quod Chorus cum Tibicine concinebat." 3. Poet. c. xxiv. et iv. 4. Poet. c. iv. Γενομένη οὖν ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς; ΑΥΤΟΣΧΕΔΙΑΣΤΙΚΗ, καὶ αὐτὴ καὶ ἡ Κωμωδία. |