The observer: being a collection of moral, literary and familiar essays. ... [pt.3]

N^o LXXIV.

CRATINUS, Eupolis and Aristophanes are generally classed together as rivals and prin∣cipals in what is called The Old Comedy. Cra∣tinus was senior in age to both his competitors, and Eupolis is charged by the old annotator

upon Aristophanes of having copied from him very freely: I confess this is stubborn authority, and yet it seems hard to believe that Eupolis, who was so constantly engaged in competition with his rival, should expose himself to certain detection of so disgraceful a sort; and had it been so, I should rather have expected to meet with the charge in the text of Aristophanes, than in the comment; I must add, that upon the closest search I can find nothing that favours this imputation in any other author which speaks of Eupolis, but many circumstances on the con∣trary which seem to place his pretensions to originality on as good ground, as that of his contemporaries, with whom he is equally cele∣brated.

These poets were in high favour with the people on account of the boldness and perso∣nality of their satire, and for the same reason proportionably obnoxious to the nobles and ma∣gistrates, whom they lashed without mercy. Aristophanes was much the least bitter of the three, and yet we have some smart specimens of his severity. Persius seems to make this dis∣tinction in the following passage—

Audaci quicunque afflate Cratino, Iratum Eupolidem praegrandi cum sene palles, Aspice et haec.

In these lines he characterizes Cratinus and Eu∣polis by the epithets of audax and iratus, whereas he introduces Aristophanes under the description only of praegrandis senex, which is interpreted to refer to the superior gravity and dignity of his stile.

Horace, in the fourth satire of his first book, instances these three poets by pre-eminence from amongst all the writers of the old co∣medy.

Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanesque poetae, Atque alii, quorum comoedia prisca virorum est, Si quis erat dignus describi, quod malus ac fur, Quod maechus foret, aut sicarius, aut alioqui Famosus, multâ cum libertate notabant.

The comic poets, in its earliest age, Who form'd the manners of the Grecian stage, Was there a villain, who might justly claim A better right of being damn'd to fame, Rake, cut-throat, thief, whatever was his crime, They freely stigmatiz'd the wretch in rhime.(FRANCIS.)

It appears by this quotation, that Horace does not consider their comedy in the same light with Aristotle, as if they represented human nature in worse colours than it deserved.

Quintilian expressly says, that these are the chief writers of the old comedy—Plures ejus

auctores; Aristophanes tamen e•…•… Eupolis, Crati∣nusque praecipui:—And he recommends the old Greek comedy, and these authors in particular, as the best model (Homer only excepted) for his orator to form himself upon; inasmuch as it is there only he will find the Attic stile in its purity and perfection; and though the old co∣medy, as he observes, is chiefly occupied in wit and sarcasm for the purpose of chastising vice, yet it has many excellences of a more general sort: It is energetic, elegant, and full of graces; so that if Homer alone (who like his own Achilles has the privilege of being al∣ways put above comparison) be excepted, no other school for oratory can come in competi∣tion with this.

CRATINUS.

Cratinus was the son of Callimedes an Athe∣nian; we have the titles of at least thirty co∣medies of his writing, so that Suidas is mistaken in ascribing to him only twenty-one; he was a poet of strong imagination, and a florid lively stile; he carried away no less than nine prizes, which is a large proportion of success, com∣pared with others, who rank amongst the highest both in the comic and tragic line. A second edict came out in his time for restraining the

licentiousness of the stage in point of persona∣lity, and Cratinus, in common with the rest of his contemporaries, found himself obliged to divert his satire from the living to the dead: Sarcasms were now levelled at men's productions, not at their persons; the tragic authors felt the chief weight of the attack, though even Homer did not escape, as may be gathered from The Ulysses of Cratinus, in which he parodies and ridicules the Odyssey.

Cratinus lived to an extreme old age, though according to the loose morals of the Greeks he indulged his passions both natural and un∣natural without restraint: He carried his love of wine to such excess, that he got the name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, launching out in praise of drinking, and rallying all sobriety out of countenance, asserting that no author can be good for any thing, who does not love his bottle, and that dramatic poets in particular ought to drink hard, as a duty due to Bacchus for his peculiar patronage and protection of the stage. Horace, who was not very averse from his doctrine, quotes his authority in the first lines of an epistle to Mecaenas.

Prisco si credis, Mecaenas docte, Cratino, Nulla placere diu nec vivere carmina possunt, Quae scribuntur aquae potoribus.

O learn'd Mecaenas, hear Cratinus speak, And take this maxim from the gay old Greek; No verse shall please, or lasting honours gain, Which coldly flows from water-drinker's brain.

As for the love of wine, it seems to have stood in the place of a merit with the Greeks; but Cratinus's excess was attended in his old age with some marks of weakness and want of re∣tention, incidental to an exhausted constitution, which gave a handle to Aristophanes, who was a younger man (and not much more abste∣mious) to bring his old competitor on the stage, and hold him up to ridicule for this infirmity. The charge was unmanly, and roused the aged veteran to return the attack: Cra∣tinus, then nearly approaching to an hundred, had left off writing, but he was not yet super∣annuated, and lived to compleat a comedy, which he appositely entitled The Flaggon. In the plot of this piece he feigns himself married to Comedy, whom he personifies, and represents the lady in disgust with her husband for his unconjugal neglect, on which account she states her charge, and roundly sues for an actual divorce: Upon this hearing, certain friends and advocates are introduced on the scene in be∣half of the party accused, who make suit to the dame to stay her proceedings, and not be over∣hasty

in throwing off an old spouse; but on the contrary recommend to her to enter calmly into an amicable discussion of her grievances: To this proposal she at length accedes, and this gives occasion to take up the charge of Aristophanes, accusing the old bard of drunken∣ness and the concomitant circumstances, which had been published with so much ill-nature to make him ridiculous at the end of life. Then follows a very pleasant refutation of all these libels, by which he contrives to turn the laugh against Aristophanes, and so concludes the co∣medy. One feels a satisfaction even at this distance of ages to know, that the old poet bore away the prize with this very comedy, and soon after expired in the arms of victory at the age of ninety-seven, in the first year of Olymp. LXXXIX.

The Athenians gave him a monument, and an epitaph, in which they omit all mention of his fine talents, and record nothing but his drunkenness. He spared no man when living, and even death itself could not protect him from retaliation.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉(STESICHORUS.)

The evil that he did liv'd after him, The good was all interred with his bones.(SHAKESPEAR.)

There is scarce a fragment of this poet, once so great a favourite, that is now to be found; the very few scraps of sentences remaining are too imperfect to merit a translation: One little spark of his genius however will be seen in the following epigrammatic turn of thought upon the loss of a statue, which being the workman∣ship of Daedalus, he supposes to have made use of its privilege, and escaped from its pedestal.

My statue's gone! By Daedalus 'twas made. It is not stolen therefore; it has stray'd.

EUPOLIS.

Eupolis became a very popular author some years before the death of Cratinus: The bold strong spirit of his satire recommended him to the public more than the beauties and graces of his stile, which he was not studious to polish. He attacked the most obnoxious and profligate characters in Athens, without any re∣gard to his personal safety; to expose the cheat, and ridicule the impostor was the glory of his muse, and neither the terrors of the magistracy, nor the mysteries of superstition

could divert him from it. He wrote two co∣medies professedly against Autolycus the Areo∣pagite, whose misbehaviour in the Chaeronen∣sian war had made him infamous, and he called them after his name The first and second Autolycus. In his famous comedy called The Baptae he in∣veighs against the effeminate turpitude of his countrymen, whom he exhibits dancing after the manner of the lascivious priests of Cotytto (viz. the Baptae) in the habits and fashion of female minstrels.

Talia secretâ coluerunt orgia tedâ Cecropiam soliti Baptae lassare Cotytto. (JUVEN.)

The prevailing account of his death is, that the persons, whom he had satirized in this play of the Baptae, suborned certain assassins to throw him into the sea, as he was passing the Hellespont with the Athenian forces then on an expedition against the Lacedaemonians; and several autho∣rities impute this revengeful deed to Alcibiades, who had been severely handled in that piece; but Cicero in his first epistle of the sixth book to Atticus speaks of this report as a vulgar error, and quotes Eratosthenes for the fact of Eupolis having written certain comedies after the time, when the event of his death is dated

—redarguit Eratosthenes; affert enim quas ille post id tempus fabulas docuerit.

Pausanias tells us, that his tomb was erected upon the banks of the Aesopus in Sicyonia, and as it is not likely this honour should be paid to his memory by the Sicyonians, he being an Athenian born, unless he had died in their country; the authority of Pausanias seems to confirm the account of Eratosthenes, and dis∣credit the fable of his being thrown into the Hellespont.

In his comedy called The People, by the fiction of the scene he raises the shades of their departed orators and daemagogues from the dead; and when Pericles, last of the troop, arises, the poet demands,

"Who it is that ap∣pears?"

The question being answered, and the spirit of Pericles dismissed, he pronounces his encomium—

"That he was pre-eminent as an orator, for man never spoke as he spoke: When he started like a courser in the race, he threw all competitors out of sight, so rapid was the torrent of his eloquence; but with that rapidity there slowed such sweetness and persuasion from his lips, that He alone of all orators struck a sting into the very souls of his hearers, and left it there to remain for ever."

I think it probable the following fragment has been the opening speech of this very co∣medy; for in it he addresses the People, and complains of the preference they are apt to be∣stow upon foreigners, to the neglect of their own countrymen—

"Receiving every thing with favour that falls from their lips, and applauding them as oracles of human wis∣dom; whereas, if any one of your own countrymen addresses you (though in no respect their inferior) you look down upon him with contempt; nay, you are ready to pronounce that the man is in his dotage; a fool who never had senses, or a madman who has lost them—but hark ye, gentlemen! let me have a word with you at starting; let me prevail with you to revoke these un∣just proceedings, and give a fellow-citizen and your humble servant a fair hearing and impartial judgment."

I suspect this to be a fly blow at Aristophanes, who was not an Athenian born, and perhaps at this time had not his adoption. He proceeds to lament the state of public affairs, and the degeneracy of the times; for in the old co∣medy it was usual for the poet to harangue the theatre, either in the opening of the piece, or at any convenient interval between the scenes,

sometimes in his own person, sometimes by the mouth of the chorus. We cannot wonder if such sentiments as the following, delivered from the stage, should render Eupolis obnoxious to men in power.

Address to the Audience by Eupolis.

Of many things, which offer themselves to my consideration, I cannot find words to speak, so penetrated am I with affliction, when I turn my thoughts to the condition of the commonwealth; for you must be conscious, O citizens, it was not so admi∣nistered in times past, when men of high birth, men, whose rank, fortune and merit gave them a consideration in the state, filled the first offices of government: To such we deferred, as to the deities themselves; for they merited our respect, and under their protection we enjoyed security: Now we have no other guide in our election but blind ignoble chance, and on whatsoever head it falls, though he be the worst and meanest of mankind, he starts up a great man at once, and is installed with all proper solemnity a rogue in state.

Here the poet speaks out of the rostrum

rather than from the stage: This is plain bold language; and tempts me to call our country∣man Ben Jonson on the scene, who was deep in all these remnants of the old Greek poets, and frequently talks the very language of the Athenian theatre.

Asper, in character of Presenter of the play, thus opens the comedy of Every Man out of his Humour.

Address to the Audience by B. Jonson.

Away! Who is so patient of this impious world, That he can check his spirit, or rein his tongue?— Who can behold such prodigies as these, And have his lips seal'd up? Not I; my soul Was never ground into such oily colours, To flatter vice and dawb iniquity: But with an armed and resolved hand I'll strip the ragged follies of the time, Naked as at their birth— I fear no mood stampt in a private brow, When I am pleas'd to unmask a public vice. I fear no strumpet's drugs, nor ruffian's stab, Should I detect their hateful luxuries: No broker's, usurer's, or lawyer's gripe, Were I dispos'd to say, They're all corrupt. I fear no courtier's frown, should I applaud The easy flexure of his supple hams. Tut! these are so innate and popular,

That drunken custom would not shame to laugh In scorn at him, that should not dare to tax them. &c. &c.

This is the very spirit of the old Greek co∣medy, speaking through the organs of our English Aristophanes, and old Ben fills the character of the praegrandis senex, as well as he for whom it was designed. It is the Co∣moedia, vocem tollens, and asserting her deter∣mination to keep up her rights according to antient custom of her founders—Siquis erat dignus describi.—In the third year of Olymp. LXXXIX. which was two years after the de∣cease of Cratinus, Eupolis acted his comedy called The Flatterers, Alcaeus being archon. I cannot doubt but the following is a frag∣ment of this comedy; it is a part of the speech of a parasite, and runs over a few of the arts, by which he gulls the rich boobies that fall in his way.

The Parasite of Eupolis.

Mark now, and learn of me the thriving arts, By which we parasites contrive to live: Fine rogues we are, my friend (of that be sure) And daintily we gull mankind.—Observe! First I provide myself a nimble thing To be my page, a varlet of all crafts;

Next two new suits for feasts and gala-days, Which I promote by turns, when I walk forth To sun myself upon the public square: There if perchance I spy some rich dull knave, Strait I accost him, do him reverence, And, saunt'ring up and down, with idle chat Hold him awhile in play; at every word, Which his wise worship utters, I stop short And bless myself for wonder; if he ventures On some vile joke, I blow it to the skies, And hold my sides for laughter—Then to supper With others of our brotherhood to mess In some night-cellar on our barley cakes, And club inventions for the next day's shift.

The Parasite of Ben Jonson.

MOSCA.

—Oh! your parasite Is a most precious thing, dropt from above, Not bred 'mongst clods and clot-poles here on earth. I muse the mystery was not made a science, It is so liberally profest. Almost All the wise world is little else in nature But parasites and sub-parasites. And yet I mean not those, that have your bare town-art, To know who's fit to feed them; have no house, No family, no care, and therefore mould Tales for men's ears, to bait that sense—nor those, With their court dog-tricks, that can fawn and fleer, Make their revenue out of legs and faces, Echo, My Lord, and lick away a moth;

But your fine elegant rascal, that can rise, And stoop almost together like an arrow, Shoot thro' the air as nimbly as a star, Turn short as doth a swallow, and be here, And there, and here, and yonder all at once; Present to any humour, all occasion, And change a visor swifter than a thought; This is the creature had the art born with him.

Lucian's Parasite, which is a masterpiece of character and comic writing, and Horace's dialogue between Tiresias and Ulysses (which is the fifth satire of the second book) might perhaps be traced in passages of this comedy of Eupolis, if we had it entire.

Eupolis in his Lacedaemonians attacks both the public and private character of Cimon, charging him with improper partiality for the Lacedaemonians, with drunkenness, and even with an incestuous commerce with his own sister Pnyce: Plutarch takes notice of this at∣tack, and says it had a great effect in stirring up the populace against this celebrated com∣mander.

He wrote his comedy, intitled Marica, against the orator Hyperbolus, whom Thucy∣dides mentions to have been banished by Ostra∣cism.

We have the titles of upwards of twenty plays of this author's composition.