Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/212

 194 ARISTOPHANES. In the very brief sketch which we have .given of the general objects of Aristophanes' Comedies, we have confined ourselves to their external and political references. It must not, however, be supposed, because Aristophanes was a Pantagruelist, a fabricator of allegorical caricatures, giving vent at times to the wildest buf- foonery, and setting no bounds to the coarseness and plain-spoken- ness of his words, that his writings contain nothing but a political gergo ; on the contrary, we find here and there bursts of lyric poetry, which would have done honour to the sublimest of his Tragical contemporaries. The fact is, that Aristophanes was not merely a wit and a satirist ; he had within himself all the ingre- dients which are necessary to form a great poet ; the nicest discri- mination of harmony, a fervid and active imagination drawing upon the stores of an ever-creating fancy, and a true and enlarged per- ception of ideal beauty. This was so notorious even in his own time, that Plato, who had little reason to speak favourably of him, declared that the Graces, having sought a temple to dwell in, found it in the bosom of Aristophanes and it is very likely in conse- quence of Plato's belief in the real poetical power of Aristophanes, that he makes Socrates convince him in the Banquet, that the real artists of Tragedy and Comedy are one and the same 2. Of the pri- vate character of Aristophanes we know little, save that he was, like all other Athenians, fond of pleasure; and it is intimated by Plato ^ that he was not distinguished by his abstinence and sobriety. That coarseness of language was in those times no proof of moral depravity, has already been sufficiently shown by a modern admirer of Aristophanes^: the fault was not in the man, but in the manners of the age in which he lived, and to blame the Comedian for it, is rpaxoi. XV. ^'EiKKK-qcnd^ovaai. XVI. IIXoOtos bevrepos. XVII. KioKociKWV Trporepos. XViii. AloXoa-LKojv de6T€pos. XIX. Kci/caXos. These are arranged in the supposed order of their appearance. The remaining names are alphabetically arranged, i. 'Avd- yvpos. II. Vecjopyol. III. Yrjpas. IV. T7]pvTd87]s. V. AaidaXos. vi. Aavatdes. Vll. Apd/j-ara rj Keuravpos. VIII. Apd/xara 7} 'Nlo^os. IX. 'Elprji^T] deuripa. X. "Upcoes. XI. Qeap-ocpopid^ovcrai Seiyre/aai. XII. Arj/ixviac. XIII. lli^avayos, or Ais 'Navayos. XIV. Ne0eat BevrepaL. XV. '^ijaoL. XVI. 'OX/cdSes. XVII. IleXapyoL. XVIII. Uott^aLS. XIX. IloXuetSos. XX. 2iK7)pds KaTaa/xj3duov(rai. XXI. T ay T]via-Tai. XXlt. TeX/xicrarji. XXIII. TpLcpdXrjs. XXIV. ^oivLaaai. XXV. "^Opai. See Dindorf's Collection of the Fragments. Bergk, p. 901. On the Yripas, see Silvern 's essay on that play; and on the Tpi(pdXr]s, Silvern, iiber die Wolken, pp. 62 — 65. 1 Apud Thorn. Mag. : At x'^P'-'^^^ Tep^evos ti Xa^eTv owep ovxl Treaetrai ZrjTOucrat, "^pvxw ^vpov 'ApLCTTocpdvovs. 2 Sympos. p. 223 D. 3 -pQ-p instance, see Symp. 176 b.
 * Person's Review of Brunck's Aristophanes, Mus. Crificum, ii. pp. 114, 115.