Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/300

 274 EEPRESENTATION OF GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. by the audience with figs, grapes, and olives, that it was worth his while to collect these missiles, and to find some compensation for the wounds which he had received in this way by living on the fruits of other men's orchards ^ These insulting allusions, which were afterwards repeated in part by Demochares, the nephew of Demosthenes^, had in all probability little more tlian a foundation on fact^. But if they were sustained in every respect by the dramatic history of ^schines, it is clear that they affect only his personal reputation as an actor, and do not derogate from the general respectability of the histrionic art. In some cases, the actors were not only recognized by the state, but controlled and directed by special enactments. Thus, according to the law brought forward by the orator Lycurgus, the actors were obliged to compare the acting copies of the plays of the three great tragedians, with the authentic manuscripts of their works, preserved in the state archives; and it was the duty of the public secretary to see that the texts were accurately collated^. 1 Be Corona, p. 314, 10. The true explanation of this passage is that given by- Mr C. K. Kennedy, in the note to his translation, p. 97. 2 Apud Harpocrat. s. v. "laxai'Syoos. Anonym. Vit. ^sch. p. 11. ^ The theatrical career of ^schines has been carefully examined by Arnold Schaefer, Demosthenes und seine Zeit, i. pp. 213 — 226. He falls into the old mistake of supposing that ^Eschines himself habitually imitated the manner of Solon (p. -z^S, note). More accurate scholarship would have led him to notice that Demosthenes uses the aorist efiitiricxaTO, and that an imperfect would have been employed had he meant to imply habitual imitation. We have shown elsewhere that the statue from Hercu- laneum represents Solon, and not ^schines ("On the Statue of Solon mentioned by ^schines and Demosthenes," Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. X. Part i). On the exaggerations or fabrications of Demosthenes in these attacks on ^schines, see Hist. Lit. of Gr. Vol. II. p. 365. TTOvrrCiv, Alax^^ov, ^0(p0K€0vs, ISivpnriSov, Kat ras rpayc^Sias avrCop iu kolv<^ ypaxpa- fj-ivovs (pvXaTTeiv, koL rbv rrjs 7r6ews ypa/JL/jLaria irapavayL-yvibcTKeLV TOis inroKpivo/x^uois' ovK i^etvuL yap avras [aWws] viroKpiveadaL.
 * Vitce X. Oratorum, p. 841 D, p. 377 Wyttenb. : ws xaX/cas eUSva^ avadeivai tQ>v