Francis- They are not
condoned
while you persist in them.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v08 - Dah to Dra
Look upon Endymion, the moon's minion,
who slept threescore and fifteen years, and was not a hair the
worse for it. Can lying abed till noon then, being not the
threescore and fifteenth thousand part of his nap, be hurtful?
THE PRAISE OF FORTUNE
From Old Fortunatus >
F
ORTUNE smiles, cry holiday!
Dimples on her cheek do dwell.
Fortune frowns, cry well-a-day!
Her love is heaven, her hate is hell.
Since heaven and hell obey her power,—
Tremble when her eyes do lower.
Since heaven and hell her power obey,
When she smiles, cry holiday!
Holiday with joy we cry,
And bend and bend, and merrily
Sing hymns to Fortune's deity,
Sing hymns to Fortune's deity.
Chorus
Let us sing merrily, merrily, merrily,
With our songs let heaven resound.
Fortune's hands our heads have crowned.
Let us sing merrily, merrily, merrily.
## p. 4526 (#304) ###########################################
4526
THOMAS DEKKER
CONTENT
From Patient Grissil'
A
RT thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?
O sweet Content!
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed?
O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed
To add to golden numbers golden numbers?
O sweet Content, O sweet, O sweet Content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace,
Honest labor bears a lovely face.
Then hey nonny, nonny; hey nonny, nonny.
Canst drink the waters of the crispèd spring?
O sweet Content!
Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?
O Punishment!
Then he that patiently Want's burden bears
No burden bears, but is a king, a king.
O sweet Content, O sweet, O sweet Content!
RUSTIC SONG
From The Sun's Darling'
H
AYMAKERS, rakers, reapers, and mowers,
Wait on your Summer Queen!
Dress up with musk-rose her eglantine bowers,
Daffodils strew the green!
Sing, dance, and play,
'Tis holiday!
The sun does bravely shine
On our ears of corn.
Rich as a pearl
Comes every girl.
This is mine, this is mine, this is mine.
Let us die ere away they be borne.
Bow to our Sun, to our Queen, and that fair one
Come to behold our sports:
Each bonny lass here is counted a rare one,
As those in princes' courts.
## p. 4527 (#305) ###########################################
THOMAS DEKKER
4527
These and we
With country glee,
Will teach the woods to resound,
And the hills with echoes hollow.
Skipping lambs
Their bleating dams
'Mongst kids shall trip it round;
For joy thus our wenches we follow.
Wind, jolly huntsmen, your neat bugles shrilly,
Hounds, make a lusty cry;
Spring up, you falconers, partridges freely,
Then let your brave hawks fly!
Horses amain,
Over ridge, over plain,
The dogs have the stag in chase:
'Tis a sport to content a king.
So ho! ho! through the skies
How the proud birds flies,
And sousing, kills with a grace!
Now the deer falls; hark! how they ring.
LULLABY
From Patient Grissil›
G
OLDEN slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
Care is heavy, therefore sleep you.
You are care, and care must keep you.
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
## p. 4528 (#306) ###########################################
4528
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
(1793-1843)
BY FREDERIC LOLIÉE
HIS French lyrical poet and dramatist, born in Havre in 1793,
and brought up at Paris, was awarded a prize by the
Académie Française in 1811, elected a member of that
illustrious body July 7th, 1825, and died December 11th, 1843. When
hardly twenty years of age he had already made his name famous by
dithyrambs, the form of which, imitated from the ancients, enabled
him to express in sufficiently poetic manner quite modern sentiments.
Possessed of brilliant and easy imagination, moderately enthusiastic,
and more sober than powerful, he hit upon
a lucky vein which promptly led him to
fame. He described the recent disasters of
his country in fine odes entitled 'Messéni-
ennes,' in allusion to the chants in which
the defeated Messenians deplored the hard-
ships inflicted on them by the Spartans.
Those political elegies were named-'La
Bataille de Waterloo' (The Battle of Water-
100); 'La Dévastation du Musée' (The Spolia-
tion of the Museum); Sur le Besoin de
S'unir après le Départ des Étrangers' (On
the Necessity of Union after the Departure
of the Foreigners). They expressed emo-
tions agitating the mind of the country.
At the same time they appealed to the heart of the "liberals» of the
period by uttering their regrets for vanished power, their rancor
against the victorious party, their fears for threatened liberty. The
circumstances, the passions of the day, as also the awakening of
young and new talent, all concurred to favor Casimir Delavigne, who
almost from the very first attained high reputation. In 1819 the
publication of two more Messéniennes, on the life and death of
Joan of Arc,-inspired like the first with deep patriotic fervor,- was
received with enthusiasm.
CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Earlier even than the day of Lamartine and Victor Hugo, Casimir
Delavigne had the glory of stirring the heart of France. He had the
added merit of maintaining, after Beaumarchais and before Émile
## p. 4529 (#307) ###########################################
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4529
Augier, the dignity of high comedy. Ingenious scenes of life, lively
and spirited details, grace and delicacy of style, save from oblivion
such pieces as 'L'École des Vieillards' (The School of Age), first per-
formed by the great artists Mademoiselle Mars and Talma; and 'Don
Juan d'Autriche' (Don John of Austria), a prose comedy. Other
dramas of his 'Marino Faliero,' 'Les Vêpres Siciliennes' (The Sicil-
ian Vespers), 'Louis XI. ,' 'Les Enfants d'Edouard' (The Children of
Edward), and 'La Fille du Cid' (The Daughter of the Cid) — are still
read with admiration, or acted to applauding spectators.
A pure
disciple of Racine at first, Delavigne deftly managed to adopt some
innovations of the romanticist school. 'Marino Faliero' was the first
of his productions in which, relinquishing the so-called classic rules,
he endeavored, as a French critic fitly remarks, to introduce a kind of
eclecticism in stage literature; a bold attempt, tempered with prudent
reserve, in which he wisely combined the processes favored by the
new school with current tradition. That play is indeed a happy
mixture of drama and comedy. It contains familiar dialogues and
noble outbursts, which however do not violate the proprieties of
academic style.
Though he never displayed the genius of Lamartine or of Victor
Hugo, and though some of his pictures have faded since the appear-
ance of the dazzling productions of the great masters of romanticism,
Casimir Delavigne still ranks high in the literature of his country
and century, thanks to the lofty and steady qualities, to the tender
and generous feeling, to the noble independence, which were the
honorable characteristics of his talent and his individuality. His
works, first published in Paris in 1843 in six octavo volumes, went
through many subsequent editions.
Prederic Police
THE CONFESSION OF LOUIS XI.
[On the point of dying, Louis XI. clings desperately to life, and sum-
mons before him a holy monk, Francis de Paula, whom he implores to work
a miracle in his favor and prolong his life. ]
―――――
Dramatis personæ : — King Louis XI. , and Saint Francis de Paula,
founder of the order of the Franciscan friars.
L
OUIS We are alone now.
-
Francis What do you wish of me?
Louis [who has knelt down]—At your knees see me trem-
bling with hope and fear.
VIII-284
## p. 4530 (#308) ###########################################
4530
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Francis - What can I do for you?
Louis Everything, Father; you can do everything: you can
call the dead to life again.
Francis-I!
Louis-To the dead you say, "Leave your graves! " and they
leave them.
―――
Francis-Who?
I?
Louis - You bid our ailments to be cured.
-
Francis-I, my son?
Louis-And they are cured. When you command the skies
clear, the wind suddenly blows or likewise abates; the falling
thunderbolt at your command moves back to the clouds. Oh, I
implore you, who in the air can keep up the beneficent dew or
let it pour its welcome freshness on the withering plant, impart
fresh vigor to my old limbs. See me; I am dying; revive my
drooping energy; stretch ye out your arms to me, touch ye those
livid features of mine, and the spell of your hands will cause my
wrinkles to vanish.
Francis - What do you ask of me? You surprise me, my son.
Am I equal to God? From your lips I first learn that I go
abroad rendering oracles, and with my hands working miracles.
Louis-At least ten years, father! grant me ten more years
to live, and upon you I shall lavish honors and presents.
I shall found shrines to your name, in gold and jasper shall have
your relics set; but! -twenty years more life are too little a
reward for so much wealth and incense. I beseech you, work
a whole miracle! Do not cut so short the thread of my life.
A whole miracle! give me new life and prolong my days!
Francis-To do God's work is not in his creature's power.
What! when everything dies, you alone should last! King, such
is not God's will. I his feeble creature cannot alter for you
the course of nature. All that which grows must vanish, all
that which is born must perish, man himself and his works, the
tree and its fruit alike. All that produces does so only for a
time; 'tis the law here below, for eternity death alone shall fruc-
tify.
·
Louis-You wear out my patience. Do your duty, monk!
Work in my favor your marvelous power; for if you refuse, I
shall compel you. Do you forget that I am a king? The holy
oil anointed my forehead. Oh, pardon me! but it is your duty
to do more for kings, for crowned heads, than for those obscure
## p. 4531 (#309) ###########################################
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4531
and unfortunate wretches whom, but for your prayers, God in
heaven would never have remembered.
Francis Kings and their subjects are equal in the eyes of
the Lord; he owes you his aid as to the rest of his children; be
more just to yourself, and claim for your soul that help for
which you beg.
Louis [eagerly]-No, not so much at a time: let us now mind
the body; I shall think of the soul by-and-by.
Francis-It is your remorse, O King, 'tis that smarting wound
inflicted by your crimes, which slowly drags your body to final
ruin.
Louis- The priests absolved me.
Francis-Vain hope! The weight of your present alarms is
made up of thirty years of iniquitous life. Confess your shame,
disclose your sins, and let sincere repentance wash away your
defiled soul.
Louis-Should I get cured?
all.
―
Francis- Perhaps.
Louis-Say yes, promise that I shall. I am going to confess
Francis-To me?
Louis-Such is my will. Listen.
Francis [seating himself whilst the King stands up with clasped
hands] - Speak then, sinner, who summon me to perform this
holy ministry.
Louis [after having recited mentally the Confiteor]-I cannot
and dare not refuse.
Francis-What are your sins?
Louis-Through fear of the Dauphin, the late King died of
starvation.
Francis-A son shortened his own father's old age!
Louis I was that Dauphin.
Francis-You were!
-
Louis-My father's weakness was ruining France. A favorite
ruled. France must have perished had not the King done so.
State interests are higher than-
Francis Confess thy sins, thou wicked son; do not excuse
thy wrong-doings.
Louis-I had a brother.
Francis-What of him?
Louis-Who died
____
-
poisoned.
## p. 4532 (#310) ###########################################
4532
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Francis-Were you instrumental in his death?
Louis-They suspected me.
Francis-God Almighty!
Louis-If those who said so fell in my power!
Francis-Is it true?
Louis-His ghost rising from the grave can alone with impu-
nity accuse me of his death.
Francis-So you were guilty of it?
Louis-The traitor deserved it!
Francis [rising]-You would escape your just punishment!
Tremble! I was your brother, I am now your judge. Crushed
under your sin, bend low your head. Return to nothingness,
empty Majesty! I no longer see the King, I hear the criminal:
to your knees, fratricide!
Louis [falling on his knees]-I shudder.
Francis-Repent!
Louis [crawling to the monk and catching hold of his gar-
ments]-I own my fault, have pity on me! I beat my breast
and repent another crime. I do not excuse it.
Francis [resuming his seat]-Is this not all?
Louis-Nemours!
He was a conspirator. But his
death . . His crime was proved. But under his scaffold
his children's tears
Thrice against his lord he had
His life-blood spattered them. Yet his death
taken up arms.
was but just.
•
.
Francis-Cruel, cruel King!
Louis-Just, but severe; I confess it: I punished
but
no, I have committed crimes. In mid-air the fatal knot has
strangled my victims; in murderous pits they have been stabbed
with steel; the waters have put an end to them, the earth has
acted as their jailer. Prisoners buried beneath these towers groan
forgotten in their depths.
Francis-Oh! since there are wrongs which you
repair, come!
Louis-Where to?
Francis-Let us set free those prisoners.
Louis-Statecraft forbids.
·
can still
Francis [kneeling before the King]-Charity orders: come, and
save your soul.
Louis-And risk my crown! As a king, I cannot.
Francis-As a Christian, you must.
## p. 4533 (#311) ###########################################
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4533
for.
Louis I have repented. Let that suffice.
Francis [rising]-That avails nothing.
Louis Have I not confessed my sins?
Francis- They are not condoned while you persist in them.
Louis-The Church has indulgences which a king can pay
—
you.
Francis-God's pardon is not to be bought: we must de-
serve it.
Louis [in despair]-I claim it by right of my anguish!
O Father, if you knew my sufferings, you would shed tears of
pity! The intolerable bodily pain I endure constitutes but half
my troubles and my least suffering. I desire the places where I
cannot be. Everywhere remorse pursues me; I avoid the living;
I live among the dead. I spend dreadful days and nights more
terrible. The darkness assumes visible shapes; silence disturbs
me, and when I pray to my Savior I hear his voice say: "What
would you with me, accursed? " When asleep, a demon sits on
my chest: I drive him away, and a naked sword stabs me furi-
ously; I rise aghast; human blood inundates my couch, and my
hand, seized by a hand cold as death, is plunged in that blood
and feels hideous moving débris.
Francis-Ah, wretched man!
Louis-You shudder. Such are my days and nights; my
sleep, my life. Yet, dying, I agonize to live, and fear to drink
the last drop of that bitter cup.
Francis Come then. Forgive the wrongs others have done
you, and thus abate your own tortures. A deed of mercy will
buy you rest, and when you awake, some voice at least will
bless your name. Come. Do not tarry.
Wait!
-
Louis-Wait!
Francis-Will the Lord wait?
Louis-To-morrow!
Francis-But, to-morrow, to-night, now, perhaps, death awaits
crimes.
-
Louis I am well protected.
Francis-The unloved are ill protected. [Tries to drag the
King along. ] Come! Come!
Louis [pushing him aside]-Give me time, time to make up
my mind.
Francis-I leave you, murderer. I cannot forgive your
## p. 4534 (#312) ###########################################
4534
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Louis [terrified]-What! do you condemn me?
Francis-God may forgive all! When he still hesitates, how
could I condemn? Take advantage of the delay he grants you;
weep, pray, obtain from his mercy the softening of your heart
towards those unfortunates. Forgive, and let the light of day
shine for them once more. When you seized the attribute of
Divine vengeance they denounced your name from the depth of
their jails in their bitter anguish, and their shrieks and moans
drowned your prayers. Now end those sufferings, and God
shall hear your prayers.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature. '
## p. 4534 (#313) ###########################################
## p. 4534 (#314) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
45
## p. 4534 (#315) ###########################################
A
7!
***
## p. 4534 (#316) ###########################################
3
## p. 4535 (#317) ###########################################
4535
DEMOSTHENES
(384-322 B. C. )
BY ROBERT SHARP
HE lot of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, was cast
in evil times. The glorious days of his country's brilliant
political pre-eminence among Grecian States, and of her
still more brilliant pre-eminence as a leader and torch-bearer to the
world in its progress towards enlightenment and freedom, were well-
nigh over. In arms she had been crushed by the brute force of
Sparta. But this was not her deepest humiliation; she had indeed
risen again to great power, under the leadership of generals and
statesmen in whom something of the old-time Athenian spirit still
persisted; but the duration of that power had been brief. The deep-
est humiliation of a State is not in the loss of military prestige or
of material resources, but in the degeneracy of its citizens, in the
overthrow and scorn of high ideals; and so it was in Athens at the
time of Demosthenes's political activity.
The Athenians had become a pampered, ease-loving people. They
still cherished a cheap admiration for the great achievements of their
fathers. Stirring appeals to the glories of Marathon and Salamis
would arouse them to-pass patriotic resolutions. Any suggestion of
self-sacrifice, of service on the fleet or in the field, was dangerous.
A law made it a capital offense to propose to use, even in meeting
any great emergency, the fund set aside to supply the folk with
amusements. They preferred to hire mercenaries to undergo their
hardships and to fight their battles; but they were not willing to pay
their hirelings. The commander had to find pay for his soldiers in
the booty taken from their enemies; or failing that, by plundering
their friends. It must be admitted, however, that the patriots at
home were always ready and most willing to try, to convict, and to
punish the commanders upon any charge of misdemeanor in office.
There were not wanting men of integrity and true patriotism, and
of great ability, as Isocrates and Phocion, who accepted as inevitable
the decline of the power of Athens, and advocated a policy of passive
non-interference in foreign affairs, unless it were to take part in a
united effort against Persia. But the mass of the people, instead of
offering their own means and their bodies to the service of their
country, deemed it rather the part of the State to supply their needs
## p. 4536 (#318) ###########################################
4536
DEMOSTHENES
and their amusements. They considered that they had performed, to
the full, their duty as citizens when they had taken part in the noisy
debates of the Assembly, or had sat as paid jurymen in the never-
ending succession of court procedures of this most litigious of peo-
ples. Among men even in their better days not callous to the
allurements of bribes judiciously administered, it was a logical
sequence that corruption should now pervade all classes and condi-
tions.
Literature and art, too, shared the general decadence, as it ever
must be, since they always respond to the dominant ideals of a time
and a people. To this general statement the exception must be
noted that philosophy, as represented by Plato and Aristotle, and
oratory, as represented by a long succession of Attic orators, had
developed into higher and better forms. The history of human
experience has shown that philosophy often becomes more subtle and
more profound in times when men fall away from their ancient high
standards, and become shaken in their old beliefs. So oratory attains
its perfect flower in periods of the greatest stress and danger, whether
from foreign foes or from internal discord. Both these forms of
utterance of the active human intellect show, in their highest attain-
ment, the realization of imminent emergency and the effort to point
out a way of betterment and safety.
Not only the condition of affairs at home was full of portent of
coming disaster. The course of events in other parts of Greece and
in the barbarian kingdom of Macedon seemed all to be converging to
one inevitable result, the extinction of Hellenic freedom. When a
nation or a race becomes unfit to possess longer the most precious of
heritages, a free and honorable place among nations, then the time
and the occasion and the man will not be long wanting to co-operate
with the internal subversive force in consummating the final catas-
trophe. "If Philip should die," said Demosthenes, "the Athenians
would quickly make themselves another Philip. "
Throughout Greece, mutual jealousy and hatred among the States,
each too weak to cope with a strong foreign foe, prevented such
united action as might have made the country secure from any bar-
barian power; and that at a time when it was threatened by an
enemy far more formidable than had been Xerxes with all his mill-
ions.
ans.
The Greeks at first entirely underrated the danger from Philip and
the Macedonians. They had, up to this time, despised these barbari-
Demosthenes, in the third Philippic, reproaches his countrymen
with enduring insult and outrage from a vile barbarian out of Mace-
don, whence formerly not even a respectable slave could be obtained.
It is indeed doubtful whether the world has ever seen a man, placed
## p. 4537 (#319) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4537
in a position of great power, more capable of seizing every oppor-
tunity and of using every agency, fair or foul, for accomplishing his
ambitious purposes, than was Philip of Macedon. The Greeks were
most unfortunate in their enemy.
Philip understood the Greek people thoroughly. He had received
his early training among them while a hostage at Thebes. He found
in their petty feuds, in their indolence and corruptibility, his oppor-
tunity to carry into effect his matured plans of conquest. His energy
never slept; his influence was ever present. When he was far away,
extending his boundaries among the barbarians, his money was still
active in Athens and elsewhere. His agents, often among the ablest
men in a community, were busy using every cunning means at the
command of the wonderful Greek ingenuity to conceal the danger or
to reconcile the fickle people to a change that promised fine rewards
for the sale of their liberty. Then he began to trim off one by one
the outlying colonies and dependencies of the Greek States. His next
step was to be the obtaining of a foothold in Greece proper.
The chief obstacle to Philip's progress was Athens, degenerate as
she was, and his chief opponent in Athens was Demosthenes. This
Philip understood very well; but he treated both the city and the
great statesman always with a remarkable leniency. More than once
Athens, inflamed by Demosthenes, flashed into her old-time energy
and activity, and stayed the Macedonian's course; as when, in his
first bold march towards the heart of Greece, he found himself con-
fronted at Thermopyla by Athenian troops; and again when prompt
succor from Athens saved Byzantium for the time. But the emer-
gency once past, the ardor of the Athenians died down as quickly as
it had flamed up.
The Social War (357-355 B. C. ) left Athens stripped almost bare
of allies, and was practically a victory for Philip. The Sacred War
(357-346 B. C. ) between Thebes and Phocis, turning upon an affront
offered to the Delphian god, gave Philip the eagerly sought-for
opportunity of interfering in the internal affairs of Greece. He
became the successful champion of the god, and received as his
reward a place in the great Amphictyonic Council. He thus secured
recognition of his claims to being a Greek, since none but Greeks
might sit in this council. He had, moreover, in crushing the Phocians,
destroyed a formidable power of resistance to his plans.
Such were the times and such the conditions in which Demos-
thenes entered upon his strenuous public life. He was born most
probably in 384 B. C. , though some authorities give preference to 382
B. C. as the year of his birth. He was the son of Demosthenes and
Cleobule. His father was a respectable and wealthy Athenian citizen,
a manufacturer of cutlery and upholstering. His mother was the
## p. 4538 (#320) ###########################################
4538
DEMOSTHENES
daughter of Gylon, an Athenian citizen resident in the region of the
Crimea.
Misfortune fell early upon him. At the age of seven he was left
fatherless. His large patrimony fell into the hands of unprincipled
guardians. Nature seems almost maliciously to have concentrated in
him a number of blemishes, any one of which might have checked
effectually the ambition of any ordinary man to excel in the pro-
fession Demosthenes chose for himself. He was not strong of body,
his features were sinister, and his manner was ungraceful,- a griev-
ous drawback among a people with whom physical beauty might
cover a multitude of sins, and physical imperfections were a reproach.
He seems to have enjoyed the best facilities in his youth for
training his mind, though he complains that his teachers were not
paid by his guardians; and he is reported to have developed a fond-
ness for oratory at an early age. In his maturing years, he was
taught by the great lawyer, Isæus; and must often have listened to
the orator and rhetorician Isocrates, if he was not indeed actually
instructed by him. When once he had determined to make himself
an orator, he set himself to work with immense energy to overcome
the natural disadvantages that stood in the way of his success. By
hard training he strengthened his weak voice and lungs; it is related
that he cured himself of a painful habit of stammering; and he sub-
jected himself to the most vigorous course of study preparatory to his
profession, cutting himself off from all social enjoyments.
His success as an orator, however, was not immediate. He tasted
all the bitterness of failure on more than one occasion; but after
temporary discouragement he redoubled his efforts to correct the
faults that were made so distressingly plain to him by the unsparing
but salutary criticism of his audience. Without doubt, these conflicts
and rebuffs of his earlier years served to strengthen and deepen the
moral character of Demosthenes, as well as to improve his art. They
contributed to form a man capable of spending his whole life in un-
flagging devotion to a high purpose, and that in the face of the
greatest difficulties and dangers. The dominant purpose of his life
was the preservation of the freedom of the Greek States from the
control of any foreign power, and the maintenance of the pre-eminent
position of Athens among these States. In this combination of a
splendid intellect, an indomitable will, and a great purpose, we find
the true basis of Demosthenes's greatness.
-
When at the age of eighteen he came into the wreck of his patri-
mony, he at once began suit against Aphobos, one of his unfaithful
guardians. He conducted his case himself. So well did he plead his
cause that he received a verdict for a large amount. He seems, how-
ever, owing to the trickery of his opponent, never to have recovered
## p. 4539 (#321) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4539
the money.
He became now a professional writer of speeches for
clients in private suits of every kind, sometimes appearing in court
himself as advocate.
In 355-354 B. C. he entered upon his career as public orator and
statesman. He had now found his field of action, and till the end of
his eventful life he was a most prominent figure in the great issues
that concerned the welfare of Athens and of Greece. He was long
unquestionably the leading man among the Athenians. By splendid
ability as orator and statesman he was repeatedly able to thwart the
plans of the traitors in the pay of Philip, even though they were led
by the adept and eloquent Eschines. His influence was powerful in
the Peloponnesus, and he succeeded, in 338 B. C. , in even uniting the
bitter hereditary enemies Thebes and Athens for one final, desperate,
but unsuccessful struggle against the Macedonian power.
Demosthenes soon awoke to the danger threatening his coun-
try from the barbarian kingdom in the north, though not even he
understood at first how grave was the danger. The series of great
speeches relating to Philip-the First Philippic; the three Olynthiacs,
'On the Peace,' 'On the Embassy,' 'On the Chersonese'; the Second
and Third Philippics-show an increasing intensity and fire as the
danger became more and more imminent. These orations were deliv-
ered in the period 351-341 B. C.
When the cause of Greek freedom had been overwhelmed at Chæ-
ronea, in the defeat of the allied Thebans and Athenians, Demos-
thenes, who had organized the unsuccessful resistance to Philip, still
retained the favor of his countrymen, fickle as they were. With the
exception of a short period of disfavor, he practically regulated the
policy of Athens till his death in 322 B. C.
In 336 B. C. , on motion of Ctesiphon, a golden crown was voted
to Demosthenes by the Senate, in recognition of certain eminent
services and generous contributions from his own means to the needs
of the State. The decree was not confirmed by the Assembly, owing
to the opposition of Eschines, who gave notice that he would bring
suit against Ctesiphon for proposing an illegal measure. The case did
not come up for trial, however, till 330 B. C. , six years later. (The
reason for this delay has never been clearly revealed. )
When Ctesiphon was summoned to appear, it was well understood
that it was not he but Demosthenes who was in reality to be tried,
and that the public and private record of the latter would be sub-
jected to the most rigorous scrutiny. On that memorable occasion,
people gathered from all over Greece to witness the oratorical duel
of the two champions- for Demosthenes was to reply to Eschines.
The speech of Eschines was a brilliant and bitter arraignment of
Demosthenes; but so triumphant was the reply of the latter, that his
## p. 4540 (#322) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4540
opponent, in mortification, went into voluntary exile. The speech of
Demosthenes 'On the Crown' has been generally accepted by ancients
and moderns as the supreme attainment in the oratory of antiquity.
It is evident that a man the never-swerving champion of a cause
which demanded the greatest sacrifice from a people devoted to self-
indulgence, the never-sleeping opponent of the hirelings of a foreign
enemy, and a persistent obstacle to men of honest conviction who
advocated a policy different from that which seemed best to him,
would of necessity bring upon himself bitter hostility and accusations
of the most serious character. And such was the case. Demosthenes
has been accused of many crimes and immoralities, some of them
so different in character as to be almost mutually exclusive. The
most serious charge is that of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, the
absconding treasurer of Alexander. He was tried upon this charge,
convicted, fined fifty talents, and thrown into prison. Thence he
escaped to go into a miserable exile.
How far and how seriously the character of Demosthenes is com-
promised by this and other attacks, it is not possible to decide to
the satisfaction of all. The results of the contest in regard to the
crown and the trial in the Harpalus matter were very different; but
the verdict of neither trial, even if they were not conflicting, could
be accepted as decisive. To me, the evidence,-weighed as we weigh
other evidence, with a just appreciation of the source of the charges,
the powerful testimony of the man's public life viewed as a whole,
and the lofty position maintained in the face of all odds among a
petulant people whom he would not flatter, but openly reproved for
their vices, the evidence, I say, read in this light justifies the con-
clusion that the orator was a man of high moral character, and that
in the Harpalus affair he was the victim of the Macedonian faction
and of the misled patriotic party, co-operating for the time being.
When the tidings of the death of Alexander startled the world,
Demosthenes at once, though in exile, became intensely active in
arousing the patriots to strike one more blow for liberty. He was
recalled to Athens, restored to his high place, and became again the
chief influence in preparing for the last desperate resistance to the
Macedonians. When the cause of Greek freedom was finally lost,
Demosthenes went into exile; a price was set upon his head; and
when the Macedonian soldiers, led by a Greek traitor, were about to
lay hands upon him in the temple of Poseidon at Calauria, he sucked
the poison which he always carried ready in his pen, and died
rather than yield himself to the hated enemies of his country.
It remains only to say that the general consensus of ancient and
modern opinion is, that Demosthenes was the supreme figure in the
brilliant line of orators of antiquity. The chief general characteristics
## p. 4541 (#323) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4541
in all Demosthenes's public oratory are a sustained intensity and
a merciless directness. Swift as waves before a gale, every word
bears straight toward the final goal of his purpose. We are hardly
conscious even of the artistic taste which fits each phrase, and sen-
tence, and episode, to the larger occasion as well as to each other.
Indeed, we lose the rhetorician altogether in the devoted pleader,
the patriot, the self-forgetful chief of a noble but losing cause. His
careful study of the great orators who had preceded him undoubt-
edly taught him much; yet it was his own original and creative
power, lodged in a far-sighted, generous, and fearless nature, that
enabled him to leave to mankind a series of forensic masterpieces
hardly rivaled in any age or country.
Robert Shank
THE THIRD PHILIPPIC
THE ARGUMENT
This speech was delivered about three months after the second Philippic,
while Philip was advancing into Thrace, and threatening both the Chersonese
and the Propontine coast. No new event had happened which called for any
special consultation; but Demosthenes, alarmed by the formidable character of
Philip's enterprises and vast military preparations, felt the necessity of rous-
ing the Athenians to exertion.
M*
ANY speeches, men of Athens, are made in almost every
Assembly about the hostilities of Philip, hostilities which
ever since the treaty of peace he has been committing as
well against you as against the rest of the Greeks; and all, I
am sure, are ready to avow, though they forbear to do so, that
our counsels and our measures should be directed to his humili-
ation and chastisement: nevertheless, so low have our affairs
been brought by inattention and negligence, I fear it is harsh
truth to say, that if all the orators had sought to suggest and
you to pass resolutions for the utter ruining of the common-
wealth, we could not methinks be worse off than we are. A
variety of circumstances may have brought us to this state; our
affairs have not declined from one or two causes only: but if
you rightly examine, you will find it chiefly owing to the orators,
who study to please you rather than advise for the best. Some
of whom, Athenians, seeking to maintain the basis of their own
## p. 4542 (#324) ###########################################
4542
DEMOSTHENES
power and repute, have no forethought for the future, and
therefore think you also ought to have none; others, accusing
and calumniating practical statesmen, labor only to make Athens
punish Athens, and in such occupation to engage her that Philip
may have liberty to say and do what he pleases. Politics of this
kind are common here, but are the causes of your failures and
embarrassment. I beg, Athenians, that you will not resent my
plain speaking of the truth. Only consider. You hold liberty of
speech in other matters to be the general right of all residents
in Athens, insomuch that you allow a measure of it even to
foreigners and slaves, and many servants may be seen among
you speaking their thoughts more freely than citizens in some
other States; and yet you have altogether banished it from your
councils. The result has been, that in the Assembly you give
yourselves airs and are flattered at hearing nothing but compli-
ments; in your measures and proceedings you are brought to the
utmost peril. If such be your disposition now, I must be silent:
if you will listen to good advice without flattery, I am ready to
speak. For though our affairs are in a deplorable condition,
though many sacrifices have been made, still if you will choose
to perform your duty it is possible to repair it all. A paradox,
and yet a truth, am I about to state. That which is the most
lamentable in the past is best for the future. How is this?
Because you performed no part of your duty, great or small, and
therefore you fared ill: had you done all that became you, and
your situation were the same, there would be no hope of amend-
Philip has indeed prevailed over your sloth and negli.
who slept threescore and fifteen years, and was not a hair the
worse for it. Can lying abed till noon then, being not the
threescore and fifteenth thousand part of his nap, be hurtful?
THE PRAISE OF FORTUNE
From Old Fortunatus >
F
ORTUNE smiles, cry holiday!
Dimples on her cheek do dwell.
Fortune frowns, cry well-a-day!
Her love is heaven, her hate is hell.
Since heaven and hell obey her power,—
Tremble when her eyes do lower.
Since heaven and hell her power obey,
When she smiles, cry holiday!
Holiday with joy we cry,
And bend and bend, and merrily
Sing hymns to Fortune's deity,
Sing hymns to Fortune's deity.
Chorus
Let us sing merrily, merrily, merrily,
With our songs let heaven resound.
Fortune's hands our heads have crowned.
Let us sing merrily, merrily, merrily.
## p. 4526 (#304) ###########################################
4526
THOMAS DEKKER
CONTENT
From Patient Grissil'
A
RT thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?
O sweet Content!
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed?
O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed
To add to golden numbers golden numbers?
O sweet Content, O sweet, O sweet Content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace,
Honest labor bears a lovely face.
Then hey nonny, nonny; hey nonny, nonny.
Canst drink the waters of the crispèd spring?
O sweet Content!
Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?
O Punishment!
Then he that patiently Want's burden bears
No burden bears, but is a king, a king.
O sweet Content, O sweet, O sweet Content!
RUSTIC SONG
From The Sun's Darling'
H
AYMAKERS, rakers, reapers, and mowers,
Wait on your Summer Queen!
Dress up with musk-rose her eglantine bowers,
Daffodils strew the green!
Sing, dance, and play,
'Tis holiday!
The sun does bravely shine
On our ears of corn.
Rich as a pearl
Comes every girl.
This is mine, this is mine, this is mine.
Let us die ere away they be borne.
Bow to our Sun, to our Queen, and that fair one
Come to behold our sports:
Each bonny lass here is counted a rare one,
As those in princes' courts.
## p. 4527 (#305) ###########################################
THOMAS DEKKER
4527
These and we
With country glee,
Will teach the woods to resound,
And the hills with echoes hollow.
Skipping lambs
Their bleating dams
'Mongst kids shall trip it round;
For joy thus our wenches we follow.
Wind, jolly huntsmen, your neat bugles shrilly,
Hounds, make a lusty cry;
Spring up, you falconers, partridges freely,
Then let your brave hawks fly!
Horses amain,
Over ridge, over plain,
The dogs have the stag in chase:
'Tis a sport to content a king.
So ho! ho! through the skies
How the proud birds flies,
And sousing, kills with a grace!
Now the deer falls; hark! how they ring.
LULLABY
From Patient Grissil›
G
OLDEN slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
Care is heavy, therefore sleep you.
You are care, and care must keep you.
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
## p. 4528 (#306) ###########################################
4528
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
(1793-1843)
BY FREDERIC LOLIÉE
HIS French lyrical poet and dramatist, born in Havre in 1793,
and brought up at Paris, was awarded a prize by the
Académie Française in 1811, elected a member of that
illustrious body July 7th, 1825, and died December 11th, 1843. When
hardly twenty years of age he had already made his name famous by
dithyrambs, the form of which, imitated from the ancients, enabled
him to express in sufficiently poetic manner quite modern sentiments.
Possessed of brilliant and easy imagination, moderately enthusiastic,
and more sober than powerful, he hit upon
a lucky vein which promptly led him to
fame. He described the recent disasters of
his country in fine odes entitled 'Messéni-
ennes,' in allusion to the chants in which
the defeated Messenians deplored the hard-
ships inflicted on them by the Spartans.
Those political elegies were named-'La
Bataille de Waterloo' (The Battle of Water-
100); 'La Dévastation du Musée' (The Spolia-
tion of the Museum); Sur le Besoin de
S'unir après le Départ des Étrangers' (On
the Necessity of Union after the Departure
of the Foreigners). They expressed emo-
tions agitating the mind of the country.
At the same time they appealed to the heart of the "liberals» of the
period by uttering their regrets for vanished power, their rancor
against the victorious party, their fears for threatened liberty. The
circumstances, the passions of the day, as also the awakening of
young and new talent, all concurred to favor Casimir Delavigne, who
almost from the very first attained high reputation. In 1819 the
publication of two more Messéniennes, on the life and death of
Joan of Arc,-inspired like the first with deep patriotic fervor,- was
received with enthusiasm.
CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Earlier even than the day of Lamartine and Victor Hugo, Casimir
Delavigne had the glory of stirring the heart of France. He had the
added merit of maintaining, after Beaumarchais and before Émile
## p. 4529 (#307) ###########################################
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4529
Augier, the dignity of high comedy. Ingenious scenes of life, lively
and spirited details, grace and delicacy of style, save from oblivion
such pieces as 'L'École des Vieillards' (The School of Age), first per-
formed by the great artists Mademoiselle Mars and Talma; and 'Don
Juan d'Autriche' (Don John of Austria), a prose comedy. Other
dramas of his 'Marino Faliero,' 'Les Vêpres Siciliennes' (The Sicil-
ian Vespers), 'Louis XI. ,' 'Les Enfants d'Edouard' (The Children of
Edward), and 'La Fille du Cid' (The Daughter of the Cid) — are still
read with admiration, or acted to applauding spectators.
A pure
disciple of Racine at first, Delavigne deftly managed to adopt some
innovations of the romanticist school. 'Marino Faliero' was the first
of his productions in which, relinquishing the so-called classic rules,
he endeavored, as a French critic fitly remarks, to introduce a kind of
eclecticism in stage literature; a bold attempt, tempered with prudent
reserve, in which he wisely combined the processes favored by the
new school with current tradition. That play is indeed a happy
mixture of drama and comedy. It contains familiar dialogues and
noble outbursts, which however do not violate the proprieties of
academic style.
Though he never displayed the genius of Lamartine or of Victor
Hugo, and though some of his pictures have faded since the appear-
ance of the dazzling productions of the great masters of romanticism,
Casimir Delavigne still ranks high in the literature of his country
and century, thanks to the lofty and steady qualities, to the tender
and generous feeling, to the noble independence, which were the
honorable characteristics of his talent and his individuality. His
works, first published in Paris in 1843 in six octavo volumes, went
through many subsequent editions.
Prederic Police
THE CONFESSION OF LOUIS XI.
[On the point of dying, Louis XI. clings desperately to life, and sum-
mons before him a holy monk, Francis de Paula, whom he implores to work
a miracle in his favor and prolong his life. ]
―――――
Dramatis personæ : — King Louis XI. , and Saint Francis de Paula,
founder of the order of the Franciscan friars.
L
OUIS We are alone now.
-
Francis What do you wish of me?
Louis [who has knelt down]—At your knees see me trem-
bling with hope and fear.
VIII-284
## p. 4530 (#308) ###########################################
4530
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Francis - What can I do for you?
Louis Everything, Father; you can do everything: you can
call the dead to life again.
Francis-I!
Louis-To the dead you say, "Leave your graves! " and they
leave them.
―――
Francis-Who?
I?
Louis - You bid our ailments to be cured.
-
Francis-I, my son?
Louis-And they are cured. When you command the skies
clear, the wind suddenly blows or likewise abates; the falling
thunderbolt at your command moves back to the clouds. Oh, I
implore you, who in the air can keep up the beneficent dew or
let it pour its welcome freshness on the withering plant, impart
fresh vigor to my old limbs. See me; I am dying; revive my
drooping energy; stretch ye out your arms to me, touch ye those
livid features of mine, and the spell of your hands will cause my
wrinkles to vanish.
Francis - What do you ask of me? You surprise me, my son.
Am I equal to God? From your lips I first learn that I go
abroad rendering oracles, and with my hands working miracles.
Louis-At least ten years, father! grant me ten more years
to live, and upon you I shall lavish honors and presents.
I shall found shrines to your name, in gold and jasper shall have
your relics set; but! -twenty years more life are too little a
reward for so much wealth and incense. I beseech you, work
a whole miracle! Do not cut so short the thread of my life.
A whole miracle! give me new life and prolong my days!
Francis-To do God's work is not in his creature's power.
What! when everything dies, you alone should last! King, such
is not God's will. I his feeble creature cannot alter for you
the course of nature. All that which grows must vanish, all
that which is born must perish, man himself and his works, the
tree and its fruit alike. All that produces does so only for a
time; 'tis the law here below, for eternity death alone shall fruc-
tify.
·
Louis-You wear out my patience. Do your duty, monk!
Work in my favor your marvelous power; for if you refuse, I
shall compel you. Do you forget that I am a king? The holy
oil anointed my forehead. Oh, pardon me! but it is your duty
to do more for kings, for crowned heads, than for those obscure
## p. 4531 (#309) ###########################################
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4531
and unfortunate wretches whom, but for your prayers, God in
heaven would never have remembered.
Francis Kings and their subjects are equal in the eyes of
the Lord; he owes you his aid as to the rest of his children; be
more just to yourself, and claim for your soul that help for
which you beg.
Louis [eagerly]-No, not so much at a time: let us now mind
the body; I shall think of the soul by-and-by.
Francis-It is your remorse, O King, 'tis that smarting wound
inflicted by your crimes, which slowly drags your body to final
ruin.
Louis- The priests absolved me.
Francis-Vain hope! The weight of your present alarms is
made up of thirty years of iniquitous life. Confess your shame,
disclose your sins, and let sincere repentance wash away your
defiled soul.
Louis-Should I get cured?
all.
―
Francis- Perhaps.
Louis-Say yes, promise that I shall. I am going to confess
Francis-To me?
Louis-Such is my will. Listen.
Francis [seating himself whilst the King stands up with clasped
hands] - Speak then, sinner, who summon me to perform this
holy ministry.
Louis [after having recited mentally the Confiteor]-I cannot
and dare not refuse.
Francis-What are your sins?
Louis-Through fear of the Dauphin, the late King died of
starvation.
Francis-A son shortened his own father's old age!
Louis I was that Dauphin.
Francis-You were!
-
Louis-My father's weakness was ruining France. A favorite
ruled. France must have perished had not the King done so.
State interests are higher than-
Francis Confess thy sins, thou wicked son; do not excuse
thy wrong-doings.
Louis-I had a brother.
Francis-What of him?
Louis-Who died
____
-
poisoned.
## p. 4532 (#310) ###########################################
4532
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Francis-Were you instrumental in his death?
Louis-They suspected me.
Francis-God Almighty!
Louis-If those who said so fell in my power!
Francis-Is it true?
Louis-His ghost rising from the grave can alone with impu-
nity accuse me of his death.
Francis-So you were guilty of it?
Louis-The traitor deserved it!
Francis [rising]-You would escape your just punishment!
Tremble! I was your brother, I am now your judge. Crushed
under your sin, bend low your head. Return to nothingness,
empty Majesty! I no longer see the King, I hear the criminal:
to your knees, fratricide!
Louis [falling on his knees]-I shudder.
Francis-Repent!
Louis [crawling to the monk and catching hold of his gar-
ments]-I own my fault, have pity on me! I beat my breast
and repent another crime. I do not excuse it.
Francis [resuming his seat]-Is this not all?
Louis-Nemours!
He was a conspirator. But his
death . . His crime was proved. But under his scaffold
his children's tears
Thrice against his lord he had
His life-blood spattered them. Yet his death
taken up arms.
was but just.
•
.
Francis-Cruel, cruel King!
Louis-Just, but severe; I confess it: I punished
but
no, I have committed crimes. In mid-air the fatal knot has
strangled my victims; in murderous pits they have been stabbed
with steel; the waters have put an end to them, the earth has
acted as their jailer. Prisoners buried beneath these towers groan
forgotten in their depths.
Francis-Oh! since there are wrongs which you
repair, come!
Louis-Where to?
Francis-Let us set free those prisoners.
Louis-Statecraft forbids.
·
can still
Francis [kneeling before the King]-Charity orders: come, and
save your soul.
Louis-And risk my crown! As a king, I cannot.
Francis-As a Christian, you must.
## p. 4533 (#311) ###########################################
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4533
for.
Louis I have repented. Let that suffice.
Francis [rising]-That avails nothing.
Louis Have I not confessed my sins?
Francis- They are not condoned while you persist in them.
Louis-The Church has indulgences which a king can pay
—
you.
Francis-God's pardon is not to be bought: we must de-
serve it.
Louis [in despair]-I claim it by right of my anguish!
O Father, if you knew my sufferings, you would shed tears of
pity! The intolerable bodily pain I endure constitutes but half
my troubles and my least suffering. I desire the places where I
cannot be. Everywhere remorse pursues me; I avoid the living;
I live among the dead. I spend dreadful days and nights more
terrible. The darkness assumes visible shapes; silence disturbs
me, and when I pray to my Savior I hear his voice say: "What
would you with me, accursed? " When asleep, a demon sits on
my chest: I drive him away, and a naked sword stabs me furi-
ously; I rise aghast; human blood inundates my couch, and my
hand, seized by a hand cold as death, is plunged in that blood
and feels hideous moving débris.
Francis-Ah, wretched man!
Louis-You shudder. Such are my days and nights; my
sleep, my life. Yet, dying, I agonize to live, and fear to drink
the last drop of that bitter cup.
Francis Come then. Forgive the wrongs others have done
you, and thus abate your own tortures. A deed of mercy will
buy you rest, and when you awake, some voice at least will
bless your name. Come. Do not tarry.
Wait!
-
Louis-Wait!
Francis-Will the Lord wait?
Louis-To-morrow!
Francis-But, to-morrow, to-night, now, perhaps, death awaits
crimes.
-
Louis I am well protected.
Francis-The unloved are ill protected. [Tries to drag the
King along. ] Come! Come!
Louis [pushing him aside]-Give me time, time to make up
my mind.
Francis-I leave you, murderer. I cannot forgive your
## p. 4534 (#312) ###########################################
4534
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Louis [terrified]-What! do you condemn me?
Francis-God may forgive all! When he still hesitates, how
could I condemn? Take advantage of the delay he grants you;
weep, pray, obtain from his mercy the softening of your heart
towards those unfortunates. Forgive, and let the light of day
shine for them once more. When you seized the attribute of
Divine vengeance they denounced your name from the depth of
their jails in their bitter anguish, and their shrieks and moans
drowned your prayers. Now end those sufferings, and God
shall hear your prayers.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature. '
## p. 4534 (#313) ###########################################
## p. 4534 (#314) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
45
## p. 4534 (#315) ###########################################
A
7!
***
## p. 4534 (#316) ###########################################
3
## p. 4535 (#317) ###########################################
4535
DEMOSTHENES
(384-322 B. C. )
BY ROBERT SHARP
HE lot of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, was cast
in evil times. The glorious days of his country's brilliant
political pre-eminence among Grecian States, and of her
still more brilliant pre-eminence as a leader and torch-bearer to the
world in its progress towards enlightenment and freedom, were well-
nigh over. In arms she had been crushed by the brute force of
Sparta. But this was not her deepest humiliation; she had indeed
risen again to great power, under the leadership of generals and
statesmen in whom something of the old-time Athenian spirit still
persisted; but the duration of that power had been brief. The deep-
est humiliation of a State is not in the loss of military prestige or
of material resources, but in the degeneracy of its citizens, in the
overthrow and scorn of high ideals; and so it was in Athens at the
time of Demosthenes's political activity.
The Athenians had become a pampered, ease-loving people. They
still cherished a cheap admiration for the great achievements of their
fathers. Stirring appeals to the glories of Marathon and Salamis
would arouse them to-pass patriotic resolutions. Any suggestion of
self-sacrifice, of service on the fleet or in the field, was dangerous.
A law made it a capital offense to propose to use, even in meeting
any great emergency, the fund set aside to supply the folk with
amusements. They preferred to hire mercenaries to undergo their
hardships and to fight their battles; but they were not willing to pay
their hirelings. The commander had to find pay for his soldiers in
the booty taken from their enemies; or failing that, by plundering
their friends. It must be admitted, however, that the patriots at
home were always ready and most willing to try, to convict, and to
punish the commanders upon any charge of misdemeanor in office.
There were not wanting men of integrity and true patriotism, and
of great ability, as Isocrates and Phocion, who accepted as inevitable
the decline of the power of Athens, and advocated a policy of passive
non-interference in foreign affairs, unless it were to take part in a
united effort against Persia. But the mass of the people, instead of
offering their own means and their bodies to the service of their
country, deemed it rather the part of the State to supply their needs
## p. 4536 (#318) ###########################################
4536
DEMOSTHENES
and their amusements. They considered that they had performed, to
the full, their duty as citizens when they had taken part in the noisy
debates of the Assembly, or had sat as paid jurymen in the never-
ending succession of court procedures of this most litigious of peo-
ples. Among men even in their better days not callous to the
allurements of bribes judiciously administered, it was a logical
sequence that corruption should now pervade all classes and condi-
tions.
Literature and art, too, shared the general decadence, as it ever
must be, since they always respond to the dominant ideals of a time
and a people. To this general statement the exception must be
noted that philosophy, as represented by Plato and Aristotle, and
oratory, as represented by a long succession of Attic orators, had
developed into higher and better forms. The history of human
experience has shown that philosophy often becomes more subtle and
more profound in times when men fall away from their ancient high
standards, and become shaken in their old beliefs. So oratory attains
its perfect flower in periods of the greatest stress and danger, whether
from foreign foes or from internal discord. Both these forms of
utterance of the active human intellect show, in their highest attain-
ment, the realization of imminent emergency and the effort to point
out a way of betterment and safety.
Not only the condition of affairs at home was full of portent of
coming disaster. The course of events in other parts of Greece and
in the barbarian kingdom of Macedon seemed all to be converging to
one inevitable result, the extinction of Hellenic freedom. When a
nation or a race becomes unfit to possess longer the most precious of
heritages, a free and honorable place among nations, then the time
and the occasion and the man will not be long wanting to co-operate
with the internal subversive force in consummating the final catas-
trophe. "If Philip should die," said Demosthenes, "the Athenians
would quickly make themselves another Philip. "
Throughout Greece, mutual jealousy and hatred among the States,
each too weak to cope with a strong foreign foe, prevented such
united action as might have made the country secure from any bar-
barian power; and that at a time when it was threatened by an
enemy far more formidable than had been Xerxes with all his mill-
ions.
ans.
The Greeks at first entirely underrated the danger from Philip and
the Macedonians. They had, up to this time, despised these barbari-
Demosthenes, in the third Philippic, reproaches his countrymen
with enduring insult and outrage from a vile barbarian out of Mace-
don, whence formerly not even a respectable slave could be obtained.
It is indeed doubtful whether the world has ever seen a man, placed
## p. 4537 (#319) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4537
in a position of great power, more capable of seizing every oppor-
tunity and of using every agency, fair or foul, for accomplishing his
ambitious purposes, than was Philip of Macedon. The Greeks were
most unfortunate in their enemy.
Philip understood the Greek people thoroughly. He had received
his early training among them while a hostage at Thebes. He found
in their petty feuds, in their indolence and corruptibility, his oppor-
tunity to carry into effect his matured plans of conquest. His energy
never slept; his influence was ever present. When he was far away,
extending his boundaries among the barbarians, his money was still
active in Athens and elsewhere. His agents, often among the ablest
men in a community, were busy using every cunning means at the
command of the wonderful Greek ingenuity to conceal the danger or
to reconcile the fickle people to a change that promised fine rewards
for the sale of their liberty. Then he began to trim off one by one
the outlying colonies and dependencies of the Greek States. His next
step was to be the obtaining of a foothold in Greece proper.
The chief obstacle to Philip's progress was Athens, degenerate as
she was, and his chief opponent in Athens was Demosthenes. This
Philip understood very well; but he treated both the city and the
great statesman always with a remarkable leniency. More than once
Athens, inflamed by Demosthenes, flashed into her old-time energy
and activity, and stayed the Macedonian's course; as when, in his
first bold march towards the heart of Greece, he found himself con-
fronted at Thermopyla by Athenian troops; and again when prompt
succor from Athens saved Byzantium for the time. But the emer-
gency once past, the ardor of the Athenians died down as quickly as
it had flamed up.
The Social War (357-355 B. C. ) left Athens stripped almost bare
of allies, and was practically a victory for Philip. The Sacred War
(357-346 B. C. ) between Thebes and Phocis, turning upon an affront
offered to the Delphian god, gave Philip the eagerly sought-for
opportunity of interfering in the internal affairs of Greece. He
became the successful champion of the god, and received as his
reward a place in the great Amphictyonic Council. He thus secured
recognition of his claims to being a Greek, since none but Greeks
might sit in this council. He had, moreover, in crushing the Phocians,
destroyed a formidable power of resistance to his plans.
Such were the times and such the conditions in which Demos-
thenes entered upon his strenuous public life. He was born most
probably in 384 B. C. , though some authorities give preference to 382
B. C. as the year of his birth. He was the son of Demosthenes and
Cleobule. His father was a respectable and wealthy Athenian citizen,
a manufacturer of cutlery and upholstering. His mother was the
## p. 4538 (#320) ###########################################
4538
DEMOSTHENES
daughter of Gylon, an Athenian citizen resident in the region of the
Crimea.
Misfortune fell early upon him. At the age of seven he was left
fatherless. His large patrimony fell into the hands of unprincipled
guardians. Nature seems almost maliciously to have concentrated in
him a number of blemishes, any one of which might have checked
effectually the ambition of any ordinary man to excel in the pro-
fession Demosthenes chose for himself. He was not strong of body,
his features were sinister, and his manner was ungraceful,- a griev-
ous drawback among a people with whom physical beauty might
cover a multitude of sins, and physical imperfections were a reproach.
He seems to have enjoyed the best facilities in his youth for
training his mind, though he complains that his teachers were not
paid by his guardians; and he is reported to have developed a fond-
ness for oratory at an early age. In his maturing years, he was
taught by the great lawyer, Isæus; and must often have listened to
the orator and rhetorician Isocrates, if he was not indeed actually
instructed by him. When once he had determined to make himself
an orator, he set himself to work with immense energy to overcome
the natural disadvantages that stood in the way of his success. By
hard training he strengthened his weak voice and lungs; it is related
that he cured himself of a painful habit of stammering; and he sub-
jected himself to the most vigorous course of study preparatory to his
profession, cutting himself off from all social enjoyments.
His success as an orator, however, was not immediate. He tasted
all the bitterness of failure on more than one occasion; but after
temporary discouragement he redoubled his efforts to correct the
faults that were made so distressingly plain to him by the unsparing
but salutary criticism of his audience. Without doubt, these conflicts
and rebuffs of his earlier years served to strengthen and deepen the
moral character of Demosthenes, as well as to improve his art. They
contributed to form a man capable of spending his whole life in un-
flagging devotion to a high purpose, and that in the face of the
greatest difficulties and dangers. The dominant purpose of his life
was the preservation of the freedom of the Greek States from the
control of any foreign power, and the maintenance of the pre-eminent
position of Athens among these States. In this combination of a
splendid intellect, an indomitable will, and a great purpose, we find
the true basis of Demosthenes's greatness.
-
When at the age of eighteen he came into the wreck of his patri-
mony, he at once began suit against Aphobos, one of his unfaithful
guardians. He conducted his case himself. So well did he plead his
cause that he received a verdict for a large amount. He seems, how-
ever, owing to the trickery of his opponent, never to have recovered
## p. 4539 (#321) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4539
the money.
He became now a professional writer of speeches for
clients in private suits of every kind, sometimes appearing in court
himself as advocate.
In 355-354 B. C. he entered upon his career as public orator and
statesman. He had now found his field of action, and till the end of
his eventful life he was a most prominent figure in the great issues
that concerned the welfare of Athens and of Greece. He was long
unquestionably the leading man among the Athenians. By splendid
ability as orator and statesman he was repeatedly able to thwart the
plans of the traitors in the pay of Philip, even though they were led
by the adept and eloquent Eschines. His influence was powerful in
the Peloponnesus, and he succeeded, in 338 B. C. , in even uniting the
bitter hereditary enemies Thebes and Athens for one final, desperate,
but unsuccessful struggle against the Macedonian power.
Demosthenes soon awoke to the danger threatening his coun-
try from the barbarian kingdom in the north, though not even he
understood at first how grave was the danger. The series of great
speeches relating to Philip-the First Philippic; the three Olynthiacs,
'On the Peace,' 'On the Embassy,' 'On the Chersonese'; the Second
and Third Philippics-show an increasing intensity and fire as the
danger became more and more imminent. These orations were deliv-
ered in the period 351-341 B. C.
When the cause of Greek freedom had been overwhelmed at Chæ-
ronea, in the defeat of the allied Thebans and Athenians, Demos-
thenes, who had organized the unsuccessful resistance to Philip, still
retained the favor of his countrymen, fickle as they were. With the
exception of a short period of disfavor, he practically regulated the
policy of Athens till his death in 322 B. C.
In 336 B. C. , on motion of Ctesiphon, a golden crown was voted
to Demosthenes by the Senate, in recognition of certain eminent
services and generous contributions from his own means to the needs
of the State. The decree was not confirmed by the Assembly, owing
to the opposition of Eschines, who gave notice that he would bring
suit against Ctesiphon for proposing an illegal measure. The case did
not come up for trial, however, till 330 B. C. , six years later. (The
reason for this delay has never been clearly revealed. )
When Ctesiphon was summoned to appear, it was well understood
that it was not he but Demosthenes who was in reality to be tried,
and that the public and private record of the latter would be sub-
jected to the most rigorous scrutiny. On that memorable occasion,
people gathered from all over Greece to witness the oratorical duel
of the two champions- for Demosthenes was to reply to Eschines.
The speech of Eschines was a brilliant and bitter arraignment of
Demosthenes; but so triumphant was the reply of the latter, that his
## p. 4540 (#322) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4540
opponent, in mortification, went into voluntary exile. The speech of
Demosthenes 'On the Crown' has been generally accepted by ancients
and moderns as the supreme attainment in the oratory of antiquity.
It is evident that a man the never-swerving champion of a cause
which demanded the greatest sacrifice from a people devoted to self-
indulgence, the never-sleeping opponent of the hirelings of a foreign
enemy, and a persistent obstacle to men of honest conviction who
advocated a policy different from that which seemed best to him,
would of necessity bring upon himself bitter hostility and accusations
of the most serious character. And such was the case. Demosthenes
has been accused of many crimes and immoralities, some of them
so different in character as to be almost mutually exclusive. The
most serious charge is that of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, the
absconding treasurer of Alexander. He was tried upon this charge,
convicted, fined fifty talents, and thrown into prison. Thence he
escaped to go into a miserable exile.
How far and how seriously the character of Demosthenes is com-
promised by this and other attacks, it is not possible to decide to
the satisfaction of all. The results of the contest in regard to the
crown and the trial in the Harpalus matter were very different; but
the verdict of neither trial, even if they were not conflicting, could
be accepted as decisive. To me, the evidence,-weighed as we weigh
other evidence, with a just appreciation of the source of the charges,
the powerful testimony of the man's public life viewed as a whole,
and the lofty position maintained in the face of all odds among a
petulant people whom he would not flatter, but openly reproved for
their vices, the evidence, I say, read in this light justifies the con-
clusion that the orator was a man of high moral character, and that
in the Harpalus affair he was the victim of the Macedonian faction
and of the misled patriotic party, co-operating for the time being.
When the tidings of the death of Alexander startled the world,
Demosthenes at once, though in exile, became intensely active in
arousing the patriots to strike one more blow for liberty. He was
recalled to Athens, restored to his high place, and became again the
chief influence in preparing for the last desperate resistance to the
Macedonians. When the cause of Greek freedom was finally lost,
Demosthenes went into exile; a price was set upon his head; and
when the Macedonian soldiers, led by a Greek traitor, were about to
lay hands upon him in the temple of Poseidon at Calauria, he sucked
the poison which he always carried ready in his pen, and died
rather than yield himself to the hated enemies of his country.
It remains only to say that the general consensus of ancient and
modern opinion is, that Demosthenes was the supreme figure in the
brilliant line of orators of antiquity. The chief general characteristics
## p. 4541 (#323) ###########################################
DEMOSTHENES
4541
in all Demosthenes's public oratory are a sustained intensity and
a merciless directness. Swift as waves before a gale, every word
bears straight toward the final goal of his purpose. We are hardly
conscious even of the artistic taste which fits each phrase, and sen-
tence, and episode, to the larger occasion as well as to each other.
Indeed, we lose the rhetorician altogether in the devoted pleader,
the patriot, the self-forgetful chief of a noble but losing cause. His
careful study of the great orators who had preceded him undoubt-
edly taught him much; yet it was his own original and creative
power, lodged in a far-sighted, generous, and fearless nature, that
enabled him to leave to mankind a series of forensic masterpieces
hardly rivaled in any age or country.
Robert Shank
THE THIRD PHILIPPIC
THE ARGUMENT
This speech was delivered about three months after the second Philippic,
while Philip was advancing into Thrace, and threatening both the Chersonese
and the Propontine coast. No new event had happened which called for any
special consultation; but Demosthenes, alarmed by the formidable character of
Philip's enterprises and vast military preparations, felt the necessity of rous-
ing the Athenians to exertion.
M*
ANY speeches, men of Athens, are made in almost every
Assembly about the hostilities of Philip, hostilities which
ever since the treaty of peace he has been committing as
well against you as against the rest of the Greeks; and all, I
am sure, are ready to avow, though they forbear to do so, that
our counsels and our measures should be directed to his humili-
ation and chastisement: nevertheless, so low have our affairs
been brought by inattention and negligence, I fear it is harsh
truth to say, that if all the orators had sought to suggest and
you to pass resolutions for the utter ruining of the common-
wealth, we could not methinks be worse off than we are. A
variety of circumstances may have brought us to this state; our
affairs have not declined from one or two causes only: but if
you rightly examine, you will find it chiefly owing to the orators,
who study to please you rather than advise for the best. Some
of whom, Athenians, seeking to maintain the basis of their own
## p. 4542 (#324) ###########################################
4542
DEMOSTHENES
power and repute, have no forethought for the future, and
therefore think you also ought to have none; others, accusing
and calumniating practical statesmen, labor only to make Athens
punish Athens, and in such occupation to engage her that Philip
may have liberty to say and do what he pleases. Politics of this
kind are common here, but are the causes of your failures and
embarrassment. I beg, Athenians, that you will not resent my
plain speaking of the truth. Only consider. You hold liberty of
speech in other matters to be the general right of all residents
in Athens, insomuch that you allow a measure of it even to
foreigners and slaves, and many servants may be seen among
you speaking their thoughts more freely than citizens in some
other States; and yet you have altogether banished it from your
councils. The result has been, that in the Assembly you give
yourselves airs and are flattered at hearing nothing but compli-
ments; in your measures and proceedings you are brought to the
utmost peril. If such be your disposition now, I must be silent:
if you will listen to good advice without flattery, I am ready to
speak. For though our affairs are in a deplorable condition,
though many sacrifices have been made, still if you will choose
to perform your duty it is possible to repair it all. A paradox,
and yet a truth, am I about to state. That which is the most
lamentable in the past is best for the future. How is this?
Because you performed no part of your duty, great or small, and
therefore you fared ill: had you done all that became you, and
your situation were the same, there would be no hope of amend-
Philip has indeed prevailed over your sloth and negli.
