Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/465

443 LITERATURE OE ANCIENT GREECE. 443 and is willing to squander it away in lavish extravagance on the amiable courtesans of Athens ; who is always talking of his services, and has thereby habituated himself to continual boasting and bragging : conse- quently he is a demi-barbarian, overreached by his parasite and cheated at pleasure by some clever slave, and with many other traits of this kind which may easily be derived from the Roman comedies, but can only be viewed in their right light by placing the character about 100 years earlier.* § 9. This was the world in which Menander lived, and which, accord- ing to universal testimony, he painted so truly. Manifestly, the motives here rested upon no mighty impulses, no grand ideas. The strength of the old Athenian principles and the warmth of national feelings had gradually grown fainter and weaker till they had melted down into a sort of philosophy of life, the main ingredients of which were a natural good temper and forbearance, and a sound mother-wit nurtured by acute observation ; and its highest principle was that rule of " live and let live," which had its root in the old spirit of Attic democracy, and had been developed to the uttermost by the lax morality of subse- quent times. t It is highly worthy of observation, as a hint towards appreciating the private life of this period, that Menander and Epicurus were born in the same year at Athens, and spent their youth together as sharers in the same exercises (awityiifioi) : and an intimate friendship united these two men, whose characters had much in common. Though we should wrong them both if we considered them as slaves to any vulgar sensu- ality, yet it cannot be doubted that they were both of them deficient in the inspiration of high moral ideas. The intention with which each of them acted was the same : to make the most of life as it is, and to make themselves as agreeable as they could. They were both too refined and sensible to take any pleasure in vulgar enjoyments; Menan- der knew so well by experience the deceitfulness vt' these gratifications, and felt so great a weariness and disgust of their charms, that he had of comedy (as Theophrastus's characters in general arc related to those of Menan- der), hut' he is an Athenian citizen who is proud of his connexion with Mao, and not a mercenary soldier. f The aristocratic constitutions at that time in Greece were connected with a stricter superintendence of morals (censura morum); the leading principle of the Athenian democracy, on the other hand, was to impose in. further restraint <>n the private HIV of the citizen than the immediate interests of the state required. How- ever, the writings of the new comedy were nut altogelhi r without personal invec- tives, and there were still questions with regard to the freedom of the comic stage (Plutarch Demetr. 12. Meinekc Hist. Crit, Cum, Grac, p. t3G.) The Latin come- dians also occasionally introduced personal attacks, which were mosl hitler in the comedies of Ntevius. t Straho XIV. p. 526. .Meinekc, Maintain ri Philemoidsfragm., p. xxv>
 * The «X«£uv of Theophrastus {Characl. 23) has some affinity with the Thraso