Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/218

 200 THE COMEDIANS of laughter at seeing an ass devouring some figs intended for his own eating. The names of fifty-three of his Comedies have come down to us^ Philemon was considered as superior to Menander^; and Quintilian, while he denies the correctness of this judgment^, is nevertheless willing to allow Philemon the second place. We may see a favourable specimen of his construction of plots, in the Trinummus of Plautus, which is a translation from his @7]cravp6<;'^. His plays, like those of Menander, contained many imitations of Euripides ; and he was so ardent an admirer of that poet, that he declared he would have hanged himself for the prospect of meeting Euripides in the other world, if he could have convinced himself that the departed spirits were really capable of recognizing one another^. Menander, the son of Diopeithes, the well-known general, and Hegesistrata^, and the nephew of the comedian Alexis*^, was born at Athens in B.C. 342^, while his father was absent on the Hellespont station^. He spent his youth in the house of his uncle, and received from him and from Theophrastus instructions in poetry and philosophy ^^i he may have derived from the latter, in some measure, the knowledge of character for which he was so eminent. In 321 B.C. his first Comedy came out^^; it was called 'Opyrj^^. He wrote in the whole 105^^ or 108^^ Comedies, and gained I Fabricius, il. p. 476, Harles. ^ ^^j^ Qqi^ xvii. 4 ; Quintil. iii. 7, 18. 3 X. I, 72: Philemon, qui ut pravis sui temporis judiciis Menandro Sfepe prae- latus est, ita consensu tanien omnium meruit credi secundus. Huic nomen " Greece est Thesauro fabulse ; Philemo scripsit ; Plautus vortit barbare, Nomen Trinummo fecit. 5 Fragm. 40 A, p. 48, Meineke; Anthol. Pal. Vol. II. p. i6i: El rah d]6elaiaiv ol reOvrjKOTes Madrjcriv elxov, avdpes, ws cpaaiv rive?, ^ATTrjy^d/XTjv dv ws ide?v ^vptiriSrjv. " Suidas, M^vavSpo^. ^ Suidas, "AXe^is. 8 Clinton, F. H. IL p. 143. ^ Comp. Ulpian and Demosth. p. 54, 3, with Dionys. Dinarch. p. 666. 1" Proleg. Aristoph, p. xxx ; Diogen. Laert. V. 36. II Proleg. Aristoph. p. xxx. ^2 Euseb. ad Olyn. 114, 4. 13 Apollod. ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 4: K7)(pi(ri€v$ (Jov €K Aio7r€i9eos Trarpos, Upbs ToT&iv eKarou irivTe ypdpas dpdfiaTa 'E^AtTTe, irevTTjKOVTa Kal dvoif ercDv. ^* Suidas, yey pa(pe KUficfdlcks prf.
 * Prol. Ti'inummi, 18: