Page:Euripides the Rationalist.djvu/98

82 these days a new thought upon any subject of pressing interest is rapidly bandied about in volume, article and paragraph, nothing of the sort, it is needless to say, had been dreamed of. Nor was the stage available as a daily expedient; for theatrical exhibitions were commonly confined to the rare and solemn performance of the regular festivals. Under these circumstances the colossal advertisement obtained by exhibiting at these festivals before the assembled folk was an overpowering advantage in circulation. Everything goes to show that next to that ancient epic literature which the city of Athens had in the preceding century taken under her particular patronage, that 'Homer' which was recited on holidays and taught in the schools, no literature was half so well or so widely known as the favourite bits from the dramatists. It was not therefore likely to be tolerated, that out of respect for a local and temporal association between tragedy and the traditional theology, which was only a historic accident, due in great part to the personal inclinations of one creative genius, this unique advantage should be appropriated entirely by a section of the community, the sincere supporters of traditional theology, who throughout the century, in spite of their legal superiority, were continually losing ground. Although tragedy had been founded or re-founded by Aeschylus, yet a generation, of whom (we have it from the Aeschylean Aristophanes) only a small minority were Aeschyleans, would scarcely condemn themselves for this reason to hear nothing but Aeschylism from the orchestra which he had magnified; and this especially when, by another historic accident, it happened that the man who of all living Athenians was perhaps the most richly endowed with the talents required for dramatic composition had espoused the contrary opinions with the zeal of a missionary.

For more reasons than one it was not in comedy, as comedy was practised at Athens in that age, that the new spirit, the spirit of philosophical criticism, could effectively make itself heard. To our habitual feelings it is somewhat odd to see Aristophanes, while in the very act of exhibiting in postures of farce or harlequinade the patron-god of the sacred theatre,