We have already referred to the statement that the Comedy of the Greeks arose from the Phallic processions, just as their Tragedy did from the Dithyramb". Its progress, however, and its successive advances from rudeness to perfection, are involved in so much obscurity, that even Aristotle is unable to tell us any thing about it; but he is willing to concede that it was started in Sicily, or primarily in Megaris'. And this appears very probable, for not only was Susarion, who is generally admitted to have been the earliest comic poet', a native of Tripodiscus in Megaris, but continual allusions are made in ancient writers' to the coarse humour of the Megarians and their strong turn for the ludicrous, qualities which they seem to have imparted to their Sicilian colonists. But whatever may have been the birth-place of Greek Comedy, it is quite certain that it originated in a country festival: it was in fact the celebration of the vintage, when the country people went round from village to village, some in carts, who uttered all the vile jests and abusive speeches with which the Tragedy of Thespis has been most unjustly saddled; others on foot, who bore aloft the Phallic emblem, and invoked in songs Phales the comrade of Bacchus. This custom of going round from village to village suggested the derivation of Comedy from kúμŋ, and Aristotle has been misled by his own learning into an apparent approbation of this, on many 8 Above, p. 10. Thus we read that Antheas the Lindian xwpoiaç iπoin kai ἄλλα πολλὰ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ τῶν ποιημάτων, ἃ ἔξηρχε τοῖς μετ ̓ αὐτοῦ φαλλοpopovo. (Athen. p. 445, B.) 9 Αἱ μὲν οὖν τῆς τραγῳδίας μεταβάσεις, καὶ δι' ὧν ἐγένοντο, οὐ λελήθασιν. ἡ δὲ κωμῳδία, διὰ τὸ μὴ σπουδάζεσθαι ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ἔλαθε. Καὶ γὰρ χορὸν κωμφδῶν ὀψέ ποτε ὁ ἄρχων ἔδωκεν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐθελονταὶ ἦσαν· ἤδη δὲ σχήματά τινα αὐτῆς ἐχού σης, οἱ λεγόμενοι αὐτῆς ποιηταὶ μνημονεύονται· τίς δὲ πρόσωπα ἀπέδωκεν, ἢ λόγους, ἢ πλήθη ὑποκριτῶν, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, ἠγνόηται. Τοῦ δὲ μύθους ποιεῖν ̓Επίχαρμος καὶ Φόρμις ἦρξαν· τὸ μὲν οὖν ἐξαρχῆς ἐκ Σικελίας ήλθε. Aristot. Poet. v. 1 Τῆς μὲν κωμῳδίας οἱ Μεγαρεῖς, οἵ τε ἐνταῦθα, ὡς ἐπὶ τῆς παρ ̓ αὐτοῖς δημοκρατίας γενομένης, καὶ οἱ ἐκ Σικελίας. Poet. iii. 5. 2 Proleg. Aristoph. Küst. p. xi. τὴν κωμῳδίαν ηὑρῆσθαί φασι ὑπὸ Σουσαρίωνος. 3 See Müller's Dorians, iv. 7, § 1. ✦ Schol. Lucian. Zɛvc rpaywdóc. (vi. p. 388, Lehmann.) 'Ev rỷ doprỹ tõv Διονυσίων παρὰ τοῖς ̓Αθηναίοις ἐπὶ ἁμαξῶν καθήμενοι ἔσκωπτον ἀλλήλους καὶ ¿λoidoρovνTO TOMλá. See the passages in Creuzer's note on Lydus de Mens. p. 127, ed. Röther. The reader will see these particulars in Aristoph. Acharn. 240, seqq. 8 accounts, absurd etymology. One reason which has been advanced in defence of this etymology is extraordinarily ridiculous. We are told' that the word cannot be derived from κμoç, because one of the meanings of that word is ἡ μετ' οἴνου ᾠδή. This would scarcely be an argument if it were the only signification of the word kuoç: but this is so far from being the case, that it is not even the primary or most usual meaning of the word. Kuoç signifies a revel continued Κώμος ® after supper. It was a very ancient custom in Greece for young men, after rising from an evening banquet, to ramble about the streets to the sound of the flute or the lyre, and with torches in their hands; such a band of revellers was also called a кμоç. Thus Æschylus says, very forcibly, that the Furies, although they had drunk their fill of human blood in the house of the Pelopidæ, and though it was now time that they should go out like a κμoç, nevertheless obstinately stuck to the house, and would not depart from it. Hence the word is used to denote any band or company. In a secondary sense, it signifies a song sung either by a convivial party or at the Bacchic feasts, (not merely in honour of the god, but also to ridicule certain persons,) or lastly, by a procession in honour of a victor at the public games. By a still further transition, κuoç is used for a song in general; and a peculiar flute tune, together with its corresponding dance, was known by this name. It was in the second sense of the word that the Bacchic reveller was called a kwμydós, namely, a comus-singer, according to the analogy of τραγωδός, ἱλαρῳδός, &c., in which the first part of the compound refers to the performer, the second to the song, and as тpaywdía signifies a song of satyrs, so kwμdía means a song of the comus. 6 ποιούμενοι τὰ ὀνόματα σημεῖον. οὗτοι μὲν γὰρ (Πελοποννήσιοι) κώμας τὰς περιοικίδας καλεῖν φασίν, Αθηναῖοι δὲ δήμους. ὡς κωμῳδοὺς, οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ κωμάζειν λεχθέντας ἀλλὰ τῇ κατὰ κώμας πλάνῃ ἀτιμαζομένους ἐκ τοῦ ἄστεος. Poet. c. iii. 7 By Schneider (de Orig. Com. p. 5). 8 See Welcker in Jacobs' edition of Philostratus, p. 202. The remarks in the text are an abstract of what he says on the signification of this word. He supposes, however, that wμdóg is derived from the secondary sense of the word, in which he agrees with Kanngiesser. (Kom. Bühn, p. 32.) 9 Agamemnon 1161, Wellauer. Καὶ μὴν πεπωκώς γ ̓ ὡς θρασύνεσθαι πλέον Δύσπεμπτος ἔξω συγγόνων Εριννύων. It is clear, from the manner in which the Athenian writers speak of the country Dionysian procession, that it was considered as a comus'; and we think this view of the case is confirmed by the epithet úуkwμos, which Dicæopolis applies to Phales as the companion of Bacchus. 6 The Phallic processions from which the old Comedy arose, seem to have been allowed in very early times in all cities; Aristotle tells us that they still continued in many cities even in his time, and the inscriptions quoted above* prove that a lyrical comedy had developed itself from them. In the time of the orators, the 10úpadλo were still danced in the orchestra at Athens, and we learn from the speech of Demosthenes against Conon, that the riotous and profligate young men who infested the streets delighted to call themselves by names derived from these comic buffooneries. But probably they were always more common in the country, which was their natural abode; and if a modern scholar' is right in concluding from the words of the Scholiast on Aristophanes, that there were two sorts of Phallic processions, the one public, the other private, we cannot believe that the private vintage ceremonies ever found their way into the great towns. Pasquinades of the coarsest kind seem to have formed the principal part of these rural exhibitions, and this was probably the reason why Comedy was established at Athens in the time of Pericles; for the demagogues, wanting to invent some means of attacking their political opponents with safety, could think of no better way of effecting this than by introducing into the city the favourite country sports of the lower orders, and then it was, and not till then, that the performance of 1 Thus in an old law quoted by Demosthenes (c. Mid. p. 517), we have ò kwμos καὶ οἱ κωμῳδοί. 2 Acharn. 263 : Φαλῆς, ἑταῖρε Βακχίου, Ξύγκωμε. 3 τὰ φαλλικὰ ἢ ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἐν πολλαῖς τῶν πόλεων διαμένει νομιζόμενα. Aristot. Poet. c. iv. ▲ Above, p. 32, sqq. Hyperides apud Harpocrat. v. Ἰθύφαλλοι. They termed themselves '10úpaλλoi and Avroλýкvool. Demosth. Conon, 194 (1261). Cf. Athen. xiv. p. 622. Lucian, ii. 336. 7 Schneider de Orig. Com. p. 14. 8 Acharn. 243. (p. 775, 1. 32. Dind.) πεισθέντες οὖν τοῖς ἠγγελμένοις οἱ ̓Αθη ναῖοι φάλλους ἰδίᾳ καὶ δημοσίᾳ κατεσκεύασαν καὶ τούτοις ἐγέραιρον τὸν θεόν. 9 Platonius, περὶ διαφορᾶς κωμῳδιῶν: Ὑποθέσεις μὲν γὰρ τῆς παλαιᾶς κωμφδίας ἦσαν αὗται τὸ στρατηγοῖς ἐπιτιμᾷν, κ. τ. λ. Comedies became, like that of Tragedies, a public concern'. When it was formally established as a distinct species of Drama at Athens, the old Comedy was supplied, like Tragedy, with a Chorus, which, though not so numerous or expensively attired as the Tragic, was as carefully trained, and as systematic in its songs and dances. In effect, it was the same modification of an original comus as that which performed the Epinicia of Pindar. It appears from several passages that the comic actors were originally unprovided with masks, but rubbed their faces over with winelees as a substitute for that disguise 2. The Tragedy and Comedy of the Greeks had, therefore, an entirely different origin. We must in the next place consider what were their distinctive peculiarities, how far they differed intrinsically, and whether any of the remaining Greek Plays cannot be considered as belonging strictly either to Tragedy or Comedy. We shall do this more satisfactorily, if we first set forth the definitions which have been given by Plato and Aristotle. Plato has rather alluded to, than expressed, the distinction between Tragedy and Comedy in their most perfect form, but his slight remarks nevertheless strike at the root of the matter. Comedy, he considers to be the generic name for all dramatic exhibitions which have a tendency to excite laughter; while Tragedy, in the truest sense of the word, is an imitation of the noblest life, that is, of the actions of gods and heroes. As a definition, however, this account of Tragedy, although excellent as far as it goes, is 3 1 Xopòv kwμydŵr ¿fé Tote ¿dwкev ò apxwv. Aristotle, above, p. 57, note 9. Gruppe labours under some extraordinary mistake in supposing (Ariadne, p. 123) that Comedy was not originally connected with religion. 66 2 Hence a Comedian is called τρυγῳδός, a lee-singer." It does not appear that masks were always used even in the time of Aristophanes, who acted the part of Cleon in the IT without one. In later times, however, it was considered disreputable to go in any comus without a mask. Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 433: rov καταράτου Κυρηβίωνος ὃς ἐν ταῖς πομπαῖς ἄνευ τοῦ προσώπου κωμάζει. 3 Legg. vii. p. 817: ὅσα μὲν οὖν περὶ γέλωτά ἐστι παίγνια, ἃ δὴ κωμῳδίαν πάντες λέγομεν . · μίμησις τοῦ καλλίστου καὶ ἀρίστου βίου ὃ δή φαμεν πάντες γε ὄντως εἶναι τραγῳδίαν τὴν ἀληθεστάτην. The κάλλιστος καὶ ἄριστος Biog signifies the life of a man who is in the highest degree caλоkayałóg, and this term exactly expresses the persons who figured in the plays of Eschylus and Sophocles; for, as Dr. Thirlwall remarks, in his beautiful paper On the Irony of Sophocles, "None but gods or heroes could act any prominent part in the Attic Tragedy." (Phil. Mus. ii. p. 493.) And this is perhaps the reason why Plato, in another passage (Gorgias, p. 502, ▲), talks of ʼn oɛμvý kai Davμaorý ǹ tñs Tрayφδίας ποίησις. altogether incomplete. Aristotle's, on the other hand, is quite perfect. He makes the distinction, which Plato leaves to be inferred, between the objects of tragic and comic imitation, and adds to it the constituent characteristic, of Tragedy, namely, that it effects by means of pity and terror the purgation of such passions. Aristotle's definition of Tragedy is so full and comprehensive, that it has been adopted even by modern writers as a description of what modern Tragedy ought to be'; there is one particular, however, which he has not expressly stated, and which is due rather to the origin of Greek Tragedy than to its essence, we mean the necessity for a previous acquaintance on the part of the audience with the plot of the Tragedy: this it is which most eminently distinguishes the Tragedies of Sophocles from those of Shakspeare, and to this is owing the poetical irony with which the poet and the spectators handled or looked upon the characters in the piece. Aristotle is supposed by his commentator Eustratius, to allude to this in a passage of the Ethics': we are disposed to believe on the contrary, that he is referring to the different effects which events related in a Tragedy, as having taken place prior to the time of the events represented, and those events which are represented by action, produce on the minds of the spectators: for example, the calamities of Edipus, when alluded to in the Edipus at Colonus, do not strike us with so much horror as when they are represented in the Edipus at Thebes. If, however, all the prominent characters in the true Tragedy were gods or heroes, it follows that the Пlépoaι of Eschylus, and the Μιλήτου ἅλωσις and Φοίνισσαι of Phrynichus, were not 4 ἡ δὲ κωμῳδία ἐστίν, ὥσπερ εἴπομεν, μίμησις φαυλοτέρων μὲν οὐ μέντοι κατὰ πᾶσαν κακίαν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ αἰσχροῦ ἐστι τὸ γελοῖον μόριον. Poet. c. v. ἔστιν οὖν τραγωδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας μέγεθος ἐχούσης ὁρώντων καὶ οὐ δι' ἀπαγγελίας, δι ̓ ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τοιούτων aðŋμáτwv кáðapoiv. Poet. c. vi. Below, Part II. pp. 8, 9. 5 Hurd's definition (On the Province of the Drama, p. 164) is a mere copy of Aristotle. Schiller, who has a better right to declare ex cathedrá what Tragedy ought to be, than any writer of the last century, thus defines it: "That art which proposes to itself, as its especial object, the pleasure resulting from compassion, is called the Tragic Art in the most comprehensive sense of the word." Werke in einem Bande, p. 1176. See Dr. Thirlwall's Essay "On the Irony of Sophocles." 7 i. 11. § 4 : διαφέρει δὲ τῶν παθῶν ἕκαστον περὶ ζῶντας ἢ τελευτήσαντας συμβαίνειν πολὺ μᾶλλον ἢ τὰ παράνομα καὶ δεινὰ προϋπάρχειν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις ἢ πράττεσθαι. |