The Birds: With Notes, and a Metrical Table

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John Bartlett, 1861
 

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Page 203 - But who is this? what thing of sea or land — Female of sex it seems — That so bedecked, ornate, and gay, Comes this way sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for the isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails filled, and streamers waving...
Page 179 - So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart ; Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel ; While the same plumage that had warmed his nest Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast.
Page 179 - That eagle's fate and mine are one, Which, on the shaft that made him die, Espied a feather of his own, Wherewith he wont to soar so high.
Page iv - I have been permitted to avail myself in attempting to determine the species of gome of the birds not hitherto identified; and I have come to the conclusion that, in all cases, the character and habits of the birds are exactly and curiously adapted to the parts they perform in the comedy, showing Aristophanes to have been a careful observer of nature as well as a consummate poet Great care has been taken to illustrate the political...
Page 213 - It was the policy of the legislature to encourage the detection of crime, and a reward (such as half the penalty) was frequently given to the successful accuser. Such a power, with such a temptation, was likely to be abused, unless checked by the force of public opinion, or the vigilance of the judicial tribunals. Unfortunately, the character of the Athenian democracy, and the temper of the judges, furnished additional incentives to the informer. Eminent statesmen, orators, generals, magistrates,...
Page viii - Trochilus, a bird that waits upon Epops, appears above ; he is frighted at the sight of two men, and they are much more so at the length of his beak and the fierceness of his aspect. He takes them for fowlers ; and they insist upon it, that they are not men, but birds. In their confusion, their guides, whom they held in a string, escape and fly away. Epops, during this, within is asleep, after having dined upon a dish of beetles and berries : their noise wakens him, and he comes out of the grove....
Page viii - Pisthetaerus, a shrewd old fellow, proposes a scheme to improve it, and make them a far more powerful and considerable nation. Scene 4. Epops is struck with the project, and calls up his consort, the nightingale, to summon all his people together with her voice. They sing a fine ode : the birds come flying down, at first one by one, and perch here and there about the scene ; and at last the chorus in a whole body, come hopping, and fluttering, and twittering in.
Page 203 - Tarsus, bound for the isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails fill'd, and streamers waving, Courted by all the winds that hold them play...
Page iii - The Birds of Aristophanes has always been regarded as one of his most delightful pieces. Like the Clouds, it is comparatively free from the objectionable license of thought and language which deforms several of his plays to such a degree that they cannot be used in schools and colleges.
Page 213 - Еикофот^," says Smith (Diet, of Antiq.), " in the time of Aristophanes and Demosthenes, designated a person of a peculiar class, not capable of being described by any single word in our language, but well understood and appreciated by an Athenian. He had not much in common with our sycophant, but was a happy compound of the common barretor, informer, pettifogger, busybody, rogue, liar, and slanderer. The Athenian law permitted any citizen (rà/ ßov\o/j.evov) to give information against public...

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