No More Learning

In a memorable passage at the close of Plato's 'Symposium,' after
all the other banqueters are asleep, Socrates forces Aristophanes and
the tragic poet Agathon-much against the will of both-to concede
that their two arts are one, and that he who is a master artist in
comedy can create tragedy no less. Though this seems to us like
a marvelous foreshadowing of Shakespeare, it probably was in fact
suggested to Plato by a process which he must have seen already
far advanced; namely, the rapid approximation of the two dramatic
forms to each other, until they were practically fused in the realistic
melodrama, the comedy of manners. This creation is chiefly asso-
ciated by the Athenians themselves with the long happy career of
Philemon, though later ages preferred his younger and briefer-lived
rival Menander.


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11398
PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
These authors of comedy were right, however, in regarding as their
chief master Euripides, who brought the dramatist's art down from
its pedestal. He made his characters essentially human, realistic, even
contemporary, in all save names and costumes. With his fussy nurses
and quibbling slaves the comedy of manners begins. These later
men, to be sure,-deprived of the dramatic chorus and expensive
equipment generally, discarding the tragic cothurnus, set to face an
audience utterly weary, or incredulous, of divine and heroic myths. -
did hold the mirror up, far more frankly than Euripides dared, to the
rather artificial and ignoble social conditions about them. Euripides,
moreover, even in an age of religious doubt and political despair.
retained a generous portion of Eschylus's noble aspiration, united
with a creative fancy almost Aristophanic. Little indeed of either
could survive the final fall of Athenian freedom.
Menander and Philemon catered to the diversion of
a refined,
quick-witted, degenerate folk, with very limited political power, and
of petty social aims; perhaps best comparable, superficially, to Lon-
don under the second Charles, but quite without the latent forces
which lay dormant beneath England's ignominy. Doubtless even
the courtly life of London had always more virtue and strength than
Congreve and Vanbrugh concede. Athens, even a century after Cha-
ronea, can hardly have been so contemptible a microcosm as the
comedies depict.
These comedies are known to us chiefly through the rough and
rollicking adaptations of Plautus- the more polished, and perhaps
truer, versions of Terence. We agree heartily with Professor Lodge,
that both these Latin playwrights set before us Greek, not Roman,
life. The "gags" and local hits, in which comedy must always
indulge, make no essential exception. They are almost inevitable,
indeed, whether the mimic scene claims to represent Plato's ideal
republic or Pluto's shadowy realm.
I offer here a handful of original translations, from the copious
fragments still surviving. They will at least give a glimpse of the
infinitely greater wealth lying deep beneath "the tide whose waves
are years. " The sources from which we must draw, however, are
most unsatisfying. Athenæus in his 'Banqueters' assures us he had
read eight hundred plays of the Middle Comedy,' or transition period
alone (about 400-336 B. C. ). He cites from them hundreds of times,-
but almost solely to verify the existence of a rare tidbit or a dainty
sauce! This indicates, of course,- as J. A. Symonds reminds us,-
not that poets and people were livelong epicures, but that such a
mass of realistic drama contained abundant material to illustrate any
and every side of Athenian life. The sober Stobæus and his scrap-
book, again, would give us the impression that brief moral sermons,
--


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PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
11399
3
with an occasional thrust at the professional philosophers, were the
chief staple of the comic dialogue; but this is of course no less mis-
leading. Yet these two are our chief authorities! We again advise
the English reader to peruse first the 'Trinummus' and the 'Andria,'
at least. There he can mark for himself both sorts of passages,—
wise saws and curious sauces,- and can see also that both together
are but part of the seasoning in the general dish that was set before
the greedy Demos!
It will be noticed that the earlier fragments represent (or rather,
grievously misrepresent) contemporaries of Aristophanes, often placed
above him by the judges and by the fickle Athenians generally. It
is hard to believe their judgment well founded. Still, a single com-
edy of Eupolis, recovered from that unexhausted Egyptian storehouse,
may come, any day, to prove that much of what we have thought
was unique Aristophanic invention was but traditional commonplace
on the high table-land of Attic imagination.
SUSARION
Susarion, the father of Attic comedy, is assigned to the sixth cen-
tury B. C.
He survives only in one brief passage of doubtful authen-
ticity, which however strikes a note most characteristic of his guild
in every age.
H
WOMEN
EAR, oh ye people! This Susarion saith,
Son of Philinus out of Megara:-
We cannot without evil have a home:
For both to wed, and not to wed, are ill!
The next half-dozen passages are from fifth-century poets.
TELECLIDES
THE AGE OF Gold
IN THE first place, Peace was as plentiful then as water is now for
washing,
And the Earth no terror nor illness produced, but whatever men
craved in abundance.
For every stream ran full with wine, and the loaves with the biscuits
contended
Which first should enter the mouths of the folk, beseeching that men
would devour them,


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11400
PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
If they were desirous of dainties white; and the fishes came to the
houses,
And broiling themselves they served themselves on platters upon the
tables;
At the side of the couches ran rivers of soup, with hot sliced meat
in the current;
The quails ready broiled and laid upon toast straight into mers
mouths came flying. -
In those days men were exceedingly portly, a
terrible people d
giants.
CRATINUS
Of Cratinus we hear something from his successful rival, Aris
tophanes. A single couplet may serve to recall his notorious weak-
ness.
INE is a swift-footed steed for the minstrel, giver of pleasure:
WIN
But nothing fine a water-drinker brings to lig ren
bat
aft
HERMIPPUS
A

The following passage from Hermippus, beginning with
verse, is really important for the light it throws on Attic im
owerful
bold political allusion or two will remind us how free and p
a critic Comedy then was.
Homeric
ports. A
IMPORTS OF ATHENS
TEL
ELL me, ye Muses, now, who hold your Olympian dwellings,
Whence Dionysus comes, as he sails over wine-colored waters
What are the goods men bring in black ships hither to harb
Out of Cyrene the cauliflower comes, and hides of the oxen;
Out of Italia ribs of beef and grain in abundance;
Syracuse sends us cheese, and pork she furnishes also.
As to the Corcyræans, we pray that Poseidon destroy them
Utterly, vessels and all, for the treacherous heart that is in them! -
Rhodes provides us raisins, and figs that invite unto slumber.
Slaves from Phrygia come, but out of Arcadia, allies!
Carthage, finally, sends to us carpets, and cushions resplendent.
From the same play we have a loving disquisition on choice
wines, ending quite like our modern toast, "Champagne for our real
friends, and real pain for our sham friends! "


## p. 11401 (#625) ##########################################

PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
11401
THE BEST WINES
Ο
OVE
VER the Thasian wine there hovers the odor of apples;
This I account by far most perfect, above all others,-
Saving only the faultless and painless liquor of Chios.
Yet there is also a certain wine, men Saprian name it:
Whensoever from off its jar the cover is taken,
Then there arises the odor of hyacinth, violets, roses;
Glorious fragrance, filling the high-roofed palace entirely:-
That is a nectar indeed; ambrosia and nectar together!
This is the wine for my friends;-Peparethian proffer my foe-
men!
F
EUPOLIS
Our single citation from Eupolis again illustrates the freedom with
which the poets assailed each other, especially in the 'Parabasis,'
or interlude where they spoke in their own proper character. This
passage is supposed to be aimed at Aristophanes, as a poet not born
in Athens. Eupolis's quotation from his rival was probably accompa-
nied by a gesture, pointing out Aristophanes in the audience.
HONOR TO HOME TALENT
-
IRST I ask in my defense:
How have you been taught to think the foreign poets mas-
ters all?
But if any native-born, and noway less than they in wit,
Undertake the poet's craft, and hope to win himself a prize,
"He is mad and frenzied in his mind! " so run thy words!
Hearken unto me, my people. Change your feeling. Grudge it not
If a youth, one of yourselves, shall take delight in poesy.
EULOGY ON SOPHOCLES
F
ORTUNATE Sophocles! His life was long,-
An artist still, and happy, to the last.
Many the noble tragedies he wrought
Blessed his end. No sorrow he endured.
PHRYNICHUS
Phrynichus, the comic poet, is best known to us for his tender
tribute to Sophocles! It will be remembered that even Aristophanes,
in the 'Frogs,' dares not ridicule for a moment the lamented and
popular tragic poet.


## p. 11402 (#626) ##########################################

11402
PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
T
ALEXIS
The whole period of Middle Comedy is more than
the amazingly long life of Alexis, from 393 to 287 B. C.
life as a brief passing show is characteristic of the decadence, and is
repeated far more impressively by Menander.
VANITY FAIR
HIS is a mere excursion we enjoy,
We who are living, who are but released
As for some festival - from death and gloom.
For our diversion we to light are sent,-
This light of life; and whoso laughs and drinks
And loves the most, in the brief time we here
May tarry, and at the banquet wins him so
The prize,-he best contented hies him home!
covered by
His view of
The next four authors cited also belong to the fourth century.
AMPHIS
LIFE AND DEATH
H
DR
RINK, and play! for life is mortal; brief the time on earth we
spend:
But eternal death will be, when once that life shall find an end!
-
ANAXANDRIDES
HEALTH, BEAUTY, WEALTH
HOE'ER he was that made the drinking-song,
W
Who put health first, as though it were the best,
So far, was right;—but second he set beauty,
And riches third! There he, you see, was daft;
For after health is wealth the chiefest thing,—
A handsome starveling is a wretched beast!
ANTIPHANES
THE COMIC POET'S GRIEVANCES
APPY in every way the lot
Of tragic poets! First, because the tale
Is perfectly to the spectators known,
Ere aught is said. The poet only need


## p. 11403 (#627) ##########################################

PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
11403
Remind them: for if I say "Edipus,"
Why, all the rest they know.
Besides, when they have nothing more to say,
Then like a finger their machine they raise,
And that suffices for their audience.
Nothing of this have we, but everything
We must invent: new names, each circumstance,
Present conditions, the catastrophe,
The episodes. If one be overlooked,
Chremes and Pheidon hiss us from the stage.
TIMOCLES
OFFICE OF TRAGEDY
M
AN is a creature doomed to weary toil,
And many sorrows life itself contains.
As consolation to our anxious thoughts
Is this devised. The soul forgets her woes,
Led to oblivion by an alien grief.
With pleasure, and made wiser, she departs.
The tragic poets, then, consider well,
How much they help us.
For each who sees a trouble, heavier far
Than he has suffered, fall on other men,
Lamenteth less his own calamity.
PHILEMON
From Philemon's ninety-eight years and ninety-seven plays sur-
prisingly little remains. The prologue of the Trinummus,' however,
says expressly:-
"PHILEMON wrote it: Plautus rendered it
In barbarous speech. "
The Plautine 'Mercator,' also, is a translation from the Greek poet.
His gentle nature and rather commonplace yet polished style may be
indicated by the five passages here chosen.
PEACE IS HAPPINESS
T IS a question of philosophers,
I'
So have I heard, whereon much time is spent,-
One
What is the real Good. None find it.
Says Virtue; and another Prudence. I,


## p. 11404 (#628) ##########################################

11404
PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
Who in the country dwell, and dig the earth,
Have found it: it is Peace! O dearest Zeus,
How loving is the goddess, and how kind!
Marriages, festivals, kin, children, friends,
Food, wine, health, riches, happiness, she gives.
And if of all these things we are deprived,
Dead is the life of men while yet they live!
TEARS
F LAMENTATION were the cure of grief,
I
And he were freed from sorrow who laments,
Then would we proffer gold to purchase tears!
But now, our destiny doth pay no heed
Thereto, my lord, but ever goes its way,
The same, if thou give way to grief or no.
What boots it? Nothing! Yet our sorrow brings
The tear, as fitly as the tree her fruit!
TYRANNY OF CUSTOM
H, TREBLY blessed, trebly happy are
The beasts, who have no thought of things like
these!
For never one of them is criticized,
Nor have they any artificial woes.
Unlivable the life we men must live:
The slaves of custom, subject unto law,
Bound to posterity and ancestry,—
So have we no escape from misery.
O"
DIVERSITY OF CHARACTER
HY, pray, did he who made us, as 'tis told,
And all the beasts besides,- Prometheus,— give
To other animals one nature each ?
WHY
For full of courage are the lions all,
And every hare, again, is timorous.
One fox is not of crafty spirit, one
Straightforward; but if you shall bring together
Three times ten thousand foxes, you will find
One character is common to them all.
But we, so many as our bodies are,
No less diverse our natures you will find.


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PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
11405
MENANDER
In his interesting chapter on the lost comedies, Mr. Symonds ex-
pressly renounces the attempt to translate from Menander, whom he
gives an extremely lofty place as the "Sophocles of comedy. " This
is perhaps an allusion to Matthew Arnold's famous characterization of
the tragic poet,
"Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole. »
Menander, as was almost inevitable in his age, saw life as a rather
trifling and swift-passing show, hardly worth any violent expression
of delight or grief. It was an age of outlived enthusiasm and lost
ideals. Even in this fading twilight, Athens was still the fairest and
richest of cities, a true university of books, statues, and temples: but
her heroic men were only a memory.
All Terence's comedies, save the Phormio,' are based on lost plays
of Menander. Of direct Roman allusion they contain hardly anything.
The one plot is, to be sure, in several cases, skillfully framed from
two Greek dramas; but the adapter's own contribution need have
been little more than a graceful Latin style. Professor Lindsay seems
to claim much more originality for the Roman author; and the prob-
lem cannot be definitely solved, save by the recovery of Menander's
own scrolls.
In his comparatively brief life Menander surpassed his chief rival
in fruitfulness, leaving a hundred comedies. His popularity also must
have come quickly after death. Though he gained only eight prizes,
the fragments from his plays are by far the most copious of all,
amounting to two thousand four hundred verses. Tantalizing as these
bits are, they fully justify the exclamation of a famous Alexandrian
scholar: "O Menander, and Life, which of you has imitated the
other? " Goethe, also, counted the tolerant, philosophic Greek poet
among his chief teachers.
DESERT A BEGGAR BORN
F SOME divinity should say to me,-
I'
www
"Crato, when you have died, you shall again
Be born; and shall be what you please,- dog, sheep,
Or goat, man, horse,- but live again you must:
That is your destiny. Choose what you will:"
"Anything rather," I methinks would say,
"Make me, but man! Unjustly happiness
And sorrow fall to him, and him alone.
The horse that's excellent has better care
Than does another; if a dog prove good,
He is more prized than is the baser hound.


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11406
PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
The valiant cock hath better sustenance,
The ignoble is in terror of the brave.
But man, if he be good, yea, excellent
And noble,- that avails not, nowadays.
The flatterer fares the best of all, and next
The sycophant; while third the rogue is found.
Rather an ass I'd spend my life, than see
Men worse than I in higher honor set! "
MONOTONY
THA
HAT man I count most happy, Parmeno,
Who, after he has viewed the splendors here,
Departeth quickly, whither he hath come.
This common sun, I mean, stars, waters, clouds,
And fire, these shall he see if he abide
A century, or if his years be few;
Nor aught more glorious shall he see than they.
O
_______
THE CLAIMS OF LONG DESCENT
UR family! 'Twill be the death of me!
Pray, if you love me, mother, harp no more
Upon our family! 'Tis they to whom
Nature accords no other excellence
Who trust to monuments, or high descent,
And count how many ancestors were theirs!
Nor have they more than all men:
Who doth live
That had not grandsires? Else how came he here?
And if he cannot name them, 'tis some change
Of home, or lack of friends, accounts for this;
And wherein is he worse than those who boast?
He who is fitted for heroic deeds,
Mother, although he be an African,
Or savage Scythian,- he is noble born.
Was Anacharsis not a Scythian?
THE POOR RELATION GOES A-VISITING
I
HAD supposed that rich men, Phanias,
Who pay no interest, did not thus lament
The whole night through, nor tossing to and fro
Cry "Woe is me"; but sweetly took their rest,
While only beggars had such miseries.


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PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
11407
But now I see you, who are called of men
The fortunate, behaving like ourselves.
Is Worry, then, to life so close akin?
She clings to luxury; the illustrious man
She leaves not; - with the poor she waxes old!
Ο
THE MISERY OF TYRANNY
H, UTTERLY accurst!
How pitiful the life they waste, their guards
Always about them, pent in citadels,
And ever ready to suspect that each
Who comes hath in his hand a dagger hid:
How bitter are the penalties they pay!
KNOWLEDGE
F
OR many reasons 'tis unwisely said
To know thyself: more profitable it is
To know thy neighbors!
APHORISMS
TH
HE boldest man, if conscious of his guilt,
Is by that conscience made most cowardly.
THE heavy stone that from the hand is hurled
We cannot check, nor word that leaves the tongue.
THE envious man is foeman to himself;
In self-wrought worriment fast-bound he stands.
HE WHO Condemns before he fairly hears,
Himself is guilty-for credulity.
IF ALL to each would lend a helpful hand,
Good fortune would be lacking then for none.
GRIEVOUS indeed has been our error, when
We are ashamed to tell the deed we do.
THRICE wretched, who by his economies
Hath hoarded hatred doubling all his wealth.
I NEVER envied much the wealthy man,
Who nothing can enjoy of what he keeps.
'Tis not the quantity we drink that marks
The drunkard, but our own capacity!


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11408
PHILEMON, MENANDER, ETC.
THERE is no remedy for wrath, it seems,-
Unless it be a friend's unflinching word.
WHO would command, and is not soldier-bred,
Leads forth but sacrifices to the foe.
The total mass of these comic fragments (chiefly from the Mid-
dle and New Comedy) is extremely large. They are most accessible
in two volumes of the Didot series, Fragmenta Comicorum' and
'Aristophanes, etc. ' The latter volume includes most of Menander
and Philemon. There is added a Latin translation, with helpful
These estrays have not been translated into English,- and as
a whole perhaps hardly deserve to be; but a most vivid picture of
the Attic fourth century could be reconstructed from them, and num-
berless exquisite bits of pure poetry still glimmer in the dust.
notes.
Altogether, there is hardly another terra incognita so rich as this,
lying so close outside the beaten track of classical scholarship. F. A
Paley, toward the end of his laborious life, made a rather flippant
little volume of rhymed versions from the 'Fragmenta Comicorum. '
Symonds, in the chapter mentioned above, has some good versions.
Of Menander many of the finest sustained passages were rendered
by Francis Fawkes, in the free Johnsonian fashion of the last century.
But the field lies fallow.
The term "comedy" is, as we have tried to illustrate in the cita-
tions, rather too narrow. Plautus's 'Rudens,' a romantic tale of ship-
wreck, may well remind us of Shakespeare's 'Tempest' or 'Winter's
Tale'; his 'Captives' is in its essential plot a story of heroic sacri
fice for friendship's sake, like the 'Merchant of Venice. ' The Greek
originals of such plays may have formed a transitional class of roman-
tic dramas, not precisely tragic, and by no means essentially comic.
This was doubtless especially true of the "Middle" period, when
Athens had not forgotten her more heroic past, nor renounced her
freedom forever. Agathon's 'Flower,' again, may have been rather
a melodramatic opera than a drama. In general, our traditional types
are entirely too few and too rigid to include the numberless master-
pieces of the Attic imagination.
Wizziam
Cranston Lawions


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