Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/418

396 S96 HISTORY OF THE however, dramatic comedy was developed, can only be inferred from the form of this drama itself, which still retained much of its original organization, and from the analogy of tragedy : for even the ancients laboured under a great deficiency of special tradition and direct in- formation with regard to the progress of this branch of the drama. Aristotle says that comedy remained in obscurity at the first, because it was not thought serious or important enough to merit much attention ; that it was not till late that the comic poet received a chorus from the archon as a public matter ; and that previously, the choral-dancers were volunteers* The Icarians, the inhabitants of a hamlet which, accord- ing to the tradition, was the first to receive Bacchus in that part of the country, and doubtless celebrated the country Dionysia with particular earnestness, claimed the honour of inventing comedy ; it was here that Susarion was said, for the first time, to have contended with a chorus of Icarians, who had smeared their faces with wine-lees, (whence their name, rpvywSol, or "lee-singers,") in order to obtain the prize, a basket of figs and a jar of wine. It is worth noticing, that Susarion is said to have been properly not of Attica, but a Megarian of Tripodiscus.f This statement is confirmed by various traditions and hints from the ancients, from which we may infer that the Dorians of Megara were dis- tinguished by a peculiar fondness for jest and ridicvde, which produced farcical entertainments full of jovial merriment and rude jokes. If we consider, in addition to this, that the celebrated Sicilian comedian Epi- charmus dwelt at Megara in Sicily, (a colony of the Megarians who lived near the borders of Attica,) before he went to Syracuse, and that the Sicilian Megarians, according to Aristotle, laid claim to the inven- tion of comedy, as well as the neighbours of the Athenians, we must believe that some peculiar sparks of wit were contained in this little Dorian tribe, which, having fallen on the susceptible temperaments of the other Dorians, and also of the common people of Attica, brought the talent for comedy to a speedy development. Susarion, however, who is said to have flourished in Solon's time, about 01. 50, somewhat earlier than Thespis,+ stands quite alone in Attica ; a long time elapses before we hear of any further cultivation of comedy by poets of eminence. This will not surprise us if we recol- lect that this interval is filled up by the long tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons, who would feel it due to their dignity and security not to allow a comic chorus, even under the mask of Bacchic inebriety and merri- ment, to utter ribald jests against them before the assembled people of Athens ; as understood by the Athenians of those days, comedy could not be brought to perfection save by republican freedom and equality. § t See Muller's Dorians, Book IV. ch. 7. § 1. I Parian marble. Ep. 39. § See above, ch. XX. § 3,
 * Poet. 5. Comp. above, chap. XXIII. § 1.