Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/433

411 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 411 tume,* Dicrcopolis is driven to have recourse to arrptmcnla ad hominem, and he impresses on the old people who form the chorus, that they are obliged to serve as common soldiers, while young braggadocios, like La- machus, made a pretty livelihood by serving as generals or ambassadors, and so wasted the fat of the land. This produces its effect, and the chorus shows an inclination to do justice to Dicreopolis. This catastrophe of the piece is followed by the parabasis, in the first part of which the poet, with particular reference to his last play, takes credit to himself for being an estimable friend to the people ; he says that he does not indeed spare them, but that they need not fear, for that he will be just in his satire, f The second part, however, keeps close to the thought which Dicseopolis had awakened in the minds of the chorus ; they com- plain bitterly of the assumption of their rights by the clever, witty, and ready young men, from whom they could not defend themselves, espe- cially in the law-courts. The second part of the piece, after the catastrophe and parabasis, is merely a description, overflowing with wit and humour, of the blessings which peace has conferred on the sturdy Dicreopolis. At first he opens his free market, which is visited in succession by a poor starving wretch from Megara, (the neighbouring country to Attica, which, poorly gifted by nature, had suffered in the most shocking manner from the Athenian blockade and the yearly devastations of its territory,) and by a stout Boeotian from the fertile land on the shore of the Copaic lake, which was well known to the Athenians for its eels. For want of other Avares, the Megarian has dressed up his little daughters like young pigs, and the honest Dicacopolis is willing to buy them as such, though he is strangely surprised by some of their peculiarities; — a purely ludicrous scene, which was based, perhaps, on the popular jokes of the Athenians; a Megarian would gladly sell his children as little pigs, if any one would take them off his hands : — we could point out many jokes of this kind in the popular life, as well of ancient as of modern times. During this, the dealers are much troubled by sycophants, a race who lived by indictments, and were especially active in hunting for violations of the customs' laws ; they want to seize on the foreign goods as contraband, but Dicrcopolis makes short work with them ; one of the house of Diesropolis -was in the middle, on the one side that of Euripides, on the other that of Lamachus. On the left was the place which represented the Pnyx ; on the right some indieation of a country house : this, however, occurs only in the scene of the country Dionysia, nil the rest takes place in the city. •f v. 655. «XX' vftiT; fin titi ^tiffrj' us xaf/.ui'&iirii to. ^Ixaia. A hen we find such open professions as this, we may at least he certain that Aristophanes intended to direct the sting of his comedy against that only which appeared to him to be really had. 1 The sycophants, no doubt, derived their names from a sort of £««•<?, i. c. public information against those who injured the state in any of its pecuniary interests.
 * Consequently, the house was also represented on the stage ; probably the town