than from their prize. Such "Epicharmus found comedy, when he preserved its original name, but altered the form and nature of it; and took, for the fubject of his 16 imitation, thofe follies and vices of mankind, which render 15 Τὸ δὲ μύθος ποιεῖν, Επίχαρμα καὶ Φόρμις ἦρξαν. Ερίpharmus and Phormis were the firft who made a fable or plot in their comedies. Phormis, not Phormus, as he is wrongly called, in the introduction to Every Man out of his Humour, by Johnson. n 16 Aristot. chap. 2. speaking of the subjects of imitation observes, that men must be represented, either as they are, or better, or worse; and instances of painters, then of poets. Homer, he fays, has made men better, other poets worse, others again as they are. In this very thing lies the difference between tragedy and comedy; for comedy endeavours to reprefent men worse, and tragedy better than they are. Ἐν αὐτῇ [leg. Ἐν ταυτῇ] δὲ τῇ διαφορᾷ, καὶ ἡ τραίῳδία πρὸς τὴν κωμῳδίαν διέςηκεν· ἡ μὲν γὰς χείρας, ἡ δὲ βελτίες μιμεῖ σθαι βέλεται τῶν νῦν. Again in chap. v. Ηδὲ κωμῳδία ἐσὶν, ὥσπερ εἴπομεν, μίμησις φαυλοτέρων μὲν, ὦ μένιοι καλὰ πᾶσαν κακίαν, ἀλλὰ τῷ αἰσχοῦ ἐςὶ τὸ γελοῖον μόριον· τὸ γὰς γελοῖον, ἐςὶν ἁμάρτημα τι καὶ αἴσχω. ἀνώδυνον καὶ ἐ φθαρτικόν· οἷον εὐθὺς, τὸ γελοῖον πρόσωπον αἰσχρόν τι καὶ διεσραμμένον ἄνευ ὀδύνης. Comedy is, as I have faid, an imitation of the worst, but not worft in all fort of vice, [for fome vices raise indignation, horror, or pity, which are tragic paffions] but only what has a ridiculous fhare of what is base: for the ridiculous is a fort of defect and baseness, neither causing pain nor deftruction to the subject in which it exifts. As for example [sú0ùs, ex. 2 gr] a der them ridiculous. Theocritus fays of his 17 17 countryman, “Α τε φωνὰ Δώριο, χωνὴρ ὁ τὰν κωμῳδίαν And presently after, Πολλὰ γὰρ πολλὰν ζωἂν τοῖς ΠΑΙΣΙΝ εἶχε χρήσιμα. Μεγάλα χάρις αὐτῷ. There is a fmall corruption in the last line but one, ПAIZIN, children, instead of ПAZIN, all mankind. The philofophic comedian spoke what was useful for all mankind to know, and fitting for gr.] a deformed and distorted countenance, without any pain to the perfon, is a ridiculous countenance. Proper fubjects of comic mirth are the vices which make men mean, contemptible, and ridiculous; fuch are lovers, drunkards, the vain-glorious, the covetous, the coward, fops, fine ladies, and fine gentlemen, &c. These have no feeling of their own baseness; their deformity is avaduvov, as the philofopher fays; and they are therefore ridiculous characters. 17 He came to Sicily when an infant from the ifland Cos, and is therefore called a Sicilian. Laert. VIII, 78. Cicero in epift. ad Attic. I. 19. Ut crebro mihi vafer ille Siculus infufurrat Epicharmus cantilenam illam fuam, Νάβι καὶ μέμνασ' ἀπιτεῖν· ἄρθρα ταῦτα τῶν φρενῶν. for common life. 'Twas ufual for him to make one person enter into a dialogue with himself, and sustain the parts of two perfons. So "Plato teaches us in his Gorgias, ἵνα μὴ τὸ τῇ Επιχάρμα And in his Tufculan queftions, I, 8. Sed tu mihi videris Epicharmi, acuti nec infulfi hominis, ut Siculi fententiam fequi.*** Emori nolo, fed me esse mortuum nihil aeftumo. The Greek trochaic we have in fome fort, but very corrupted, remaining in Sextus Empiricus, p. 54. á≈olaveîv ǹ τεθνάναι ἐ μοι διαφέρειν. Omitting the gueffes of others, I think it may easily be thus reftored, Μοῦ γ' ἀπῇ θανεῖν· ὅμως δὲ τεθνάν ̓ ἐχι διαφέρει. which exactly answers to Cicero's verfion. The philofophers Plato and Xenophon were very fond of Epicharmus. The latter cites him in his Socratic memoirs, L. II. c. 1. where the verses are thus to be ordered, Τῶν πόνων πωλᾶσιν ἀμῖν πάνα τἀγαθ ̓ οἱ θεόι. Μή μοι τὰ μαλακὰ μώεο, μὴ τὰ σκλῆς ἔχῃς. 'Twas ufual for him to inculcate the precepts of Pythagoras, a Jamblicus tells us, c. 36. So Theodoret Therap. I. p. 15. Κατὰ γὰρ δὴ τὸν Ἐπίχαρμον τὸν Πυθαδόρειον λέγω, Νᾶς ὁρῆ, καὶ νῆς ακέει· τάλλα κωφὰ καὶ τυφλά. From these and many other inftances, the reader may fee the propriety of the change in Theocritus of ПAIZIN into ΠΑΣΙΝ. 18 Plato in Gorg. p. 505. edit. Steph. γένηται, 115 γένηται, ἃ προϊε δύο ἄνδρες ἔλεῖον, εἷς ὧν ἱκανὸς yérpa. An inftance of this Plato gives 19 foon after, according to his elegant manner. The Stoic philofophers were highly fond of this way of writing; and thus the discourses of Epictetus are for the moft part written. Neither are instances of this kind wanting in Shakespeare. As in the first part of K. Hen. IV. A&. V. just before the battle Falstaff has this dialogue 20 with himself. 66 1 "What need I be fo forward with him that "calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter, honour pricks me on: but how if honour. "pricks me off, when I come on? How then? "Can honour fet to a leg! No. Or an arm ? No. Or take away the grief of " a wound? No. Honour hath no fkill "in furgery then? No. What is honour? "A word. What is that word honour ? ‹‹ Air. A trim reckoning? Who hath it? "He that dyed a wednesday. Doth he feel "it ? No. Doth he hear it? No. "Is it infenfible then? Yea, to the dead. 19 Ibid. p. 506. 20 Prince Henry should leave the stage after Falstaff says, " 'Tis not due yet: I would be loth to pay him before "his day." "But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not fuffer it. There"fore, I'll none of it: honour is a meer "fcutcheon, and fo ends my catechifm." I will mention one inftance more of this old comedian's manner, which was fometimes to repeat the fame thing in almost the fame words; and this in proper characters seems to have an air of wit: you expect fomething, and you find nothing. 21 Τόκα μὲν ἐν τήνοις ἐγὼν ἦν, τίκα δὲ παρὰ τήνοις ἐδών. Tunc quidem inter illos ego eram, tunc autem apud illos. Plautus was a great imitator of Epicharmus, as Horace informs us in that well-known verse, Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi Dicitur. In his Curculio, A&t V. Scene IV. he has this imitation of his Sicilian mafter, Quoi bomini dii funt propitii, ei non esse iratos puto. Again in his Stichus, E malis multis, malum quod minimum eft, id minimum eft malum. xx. 21 Ariftot. rhet. 1. 3. c. ix. Demetrius wegì ‘Egu. xıQ. |