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 18 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 effe mortuum nihil aeftumo. The Greek trochaic we have in fome fort, but very corrupted, remaining in Sextus Empiricus, p. 54. aobaveй τεθνάναι & 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 verfes are thus to be ordered, Τῶν πόνων πωλᾶσιν ἀμῖν πάνα τἀγαθ ̓ οἱ θεόν. Μή μοι τὰ μαλακὰ μάεο, μὴ τὰ σκλῆς ἔχῃς. 'Twas ufual for him to inculcate the precepts of Pythagoras, as Jamblicus tells us, c. 36. So Theodoret Therap. I. p. 15. Κατὰ γὰρ δὴ τὸν Ἐπίχαρμον τὸν Πυθαδόρειον λέγω, Νᾶς ὁρῆ, καὶ νῆς ἀκάει· τἆλλα 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, 19 115 γένηται, δ προς δύο άνδρες ἔλεγον, εἷς ὧν ἱκανὸς yvas. An inftance of this Plato gives " foon after, according to his elegant manner. The Stoic philofophers were highly fond of this way of writing; and thus the difcourfes of Epictetus are for the most part written. Neither are inftances of this kind wanting in Shakespeare. As in the first part of K. Hen. IV. A&t. V. just before the battle Falstaff has this dialogue 20 with himself. " "What need I be fo forward with him that "calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter, ho"nour pricks me on: but how if honour pricks me off, when I come on? How then? "Can honour set to a leg! No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no fkill "in surgery 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. "Is it infenfible then? Yea, to the dead. 19 Ibid. p. 506. zo Prince Henry fhould 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. There Why? Detraction will not fuffer it. "fore, I'll none of it: honour is a meer “scutcheon, 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 almoft the fame words; and this in proper characters feems to have an air of wit: you expect fomething, and you find nothing. 21 Τόκα μὲν ἐν τήνοις ἐγὼν ἦν, τόκα 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 verfe, 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 effe iratos puto. Again in his Stichus, E malis multis, malum quod minimum eft, id minimum eft malum. 21 Ariftot. rhet. 1. 3. c. ix. Demetrius wegì 'Egp. xap. Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry wives of Windfor, is full of these elegant tautologies so proper to his character; in Act I. Sc. I. Ev. "Shall "I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do despise one that is falfe; or as I defpife one "that is not true.' So Hamlet, in a jocofe vein, fays, For if the king like not the comedy; Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. There is no reason to tire the reader with more instances, for a hint of this nature is fufficient. Xenophon in his treatife of the Athenian republic takes notice of the exceffive fcurrilities of the old comedians. But the emperor Marcus Antoninus fpeaks more favourable of them; and fays this freedom of fpeech had an air of discipline and inftruction, and by inveighing against personal vices was of ufe to humble the pride and arrogance of the great. What a reflection to come from fo great a man! The 22 old comedy, without any scruple, expofed real perfons, and brought real stories on the 22 Concerning the difference of comedy, fee Platonius, and the other writers of comedy prefixed to Kufter's edition of Aristophanes. Of the old comedy were written in all the stage, sparing neither magiftrates or philofophers, a Cleo, Hyperbolus, or Socrates, Eupolis, atque Cratinus, Aristopbánésque poètáe, While the people kept the power in their own hands, they had full scope of indulging this licentious fpirit; but when the tyranny of a few at Athens prevailed, the poets were obliged to be more circumfpect. Socrates might laugh with the laughers; but a jeft upon a corrupt magiftrate was felt to the quick. Hence arofe another fpecies of comedy, called the middle comedy, in which the names were feigned, but the ftory was real: the chorus too was dropped, becaufe here the poet more particularly indulged his ridiculing vein. 365 plays; of the middle, 617; Athenaeus fays he had red above 800 : of the new, there were 64 poets. Menan der alone wrote 108 plays. We have only now preserved a few of the plays of Ariftophanes; and these perhaps chiefly by the care of St. Chryfoftom. |