Of this high honor not to be deprived?
When Chalcas at the hallow'd rites declar'd

That to Diana thou must sacrifice

Thy daughter, and the Grecians then should sail,
With joy thy thoughts were heighten'd, willingly
The virgin as a victim didst thou promise,
And freely, not by force, (urge not that plea,)
Dost thou despatch a message to thy wife
To send thy daughter hither, the pretence
Her nuptials with Achilles. But thy mind
Was soon averse, and secretly devised
Letters of different import; now in sooth,

Thou wilt not be the murderer of thy daughter.

When informed by a messenger of the arrival of his daughter, the unhappy father laments his hard fate in the following beautiful and pathetic language:

In what a chain of fate

Am I enfolded? Fortune, wiser far

Than all my vain designs, hath closely wrought
Beneath me. What advantages attend
Ignoble birth? They are allowed to weep,
And utter sad complaints; but to the noble
This is denied; led by the pride of rank
Which rules us, to the people we are slaves.
how shall I address

My wife, or how receive her? For all my former ills,
Coming unbidden, she hath added weight
Of new distress: yet decency required
Her presence with her daughter, to attend
Her nuptials, and present the dearest gifts:
There will she find me false. But thee, O thee,

Unhappy bride, (bride call I thee! how soon

To Pluto to be wedded!) how I pity!

Methinks I hear her suppliant voice thus speak:

"My father, wilt thou kill me? May'st thou make

Thyself such nuptials, and whoe'er to thee

Is dear."

Unhappy me! what ruin hath the son

Of Priam brought on me!

There is much of the simplicity of nature in the first interview between Agamemnon and Iphigenia:

Iph. My father, to thy arms I wish to run,
Clasp'd to thy bosom; dear to me thy sight
After such absence: be not angry with me.
Aga. Enjoy thy wish: of all my children thou
Hast of thy father been most fond.

Iph. Absent so long, with joy I look on thee.
Aga. And I on thee: so this is mutual joy.

Clytemnestra having learnt from a servant of her house, the determination of Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter, to appease the rage of the goddess Diana, endeavors to dissuade him from his purpose, but without effect, although aided by the pa thetic and eloquent appeal of Iphigenia:

Had I, my father, the persuasive voice

Of Orpheus, and his skill to charm the rocks
To follow me, and soothe whome'er I please
With winning words, I would make trial of it;
But I have nothing to present thee now,
Save tears, my only eloquence, and these
I can present thee.

Ah! kill me not in youth's fresh prime,
Sweet is the light of heaven: compel me not
What is beneath to view. I was the first
To call thee father, me thou first didst call
Thy child: I was the first that on thy knees
Fondly caress'd thee, and from thee received
The fond caress: This was thy speech to me:
Shall I, my child, e'er see thee in some house
Of splendor, happy in thy husband, live
And flourish as becomes my dignity?

My speech to thee was, leaning against thy cheek,
Which with my hand I now caress, and what
Shall I then do for thee? Shall I receive

My father when grown old, and in my house
Cheer him with each fond office, to repay
The careful nurture which he gave my youth?
These words are on my memory deep impress'd,
Thou hast forgot them and wilt kill thy child.

To this speech so affecting, and so well calculated to touch the heart of the most obdurate, Agamemnon replies:

to dare this, is dreadful to me,

And not to dare it, is as dreadful. I perforce

Must do it. What a naval camp is here
You see, how many kings of Greece array'd
In glittering arms; to Illium's towers are these
Denied to advance, unless I offer thee

A victim; thus the prophet Chalcas speaks.

Iphigenia is led to the altar, and as Chalcas is about to strike the fatal blow, she suddenly disappears, and a goat of uncommon size and beauty, is found in her stead.

the sons of Atreus stood,

And all the host, fix'd on the ground their eyes.
The priest then took his sword, preferr'd his prayer,
And with his eye mark'd where to give the blow,

when sudden to the view

A wonder; for the stroke each clearly heard,
But where the virgin was none knew; aloud
The priest exclaims, and all the host with shouts
Rifted the air, beholding from some god

A prodigy, which struck their wondering eyes
Surpassing faith when seen; for on the ground
Panting was laid a hind of largest bulk,
In form excelling; with its spouting blood
Much was the altar of the goddess dew'd.

Euripides having incurred the displeasure of his own countrymen, retired to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, who honored him with his favor and friendship. His end was unfortunate, having been devoured by dogs in the seventy-eighth year of his age. When the news of his death was received at Athens, Sophocles, who was about to exhibit one of his tragedies, notwithstanding their mutual enmity, appeared in mourning, and made his actors come on the stage without crowns. The Athenians requested his bones from Archelaus, that they might bestow upon them the rites of an honorable burial. Archelaus, desirous of preserving in Macedonia the remains of so distinguished a man, refused their request. The Athenians afterwards raised a cenotaph to his memory.*

After the time of the three great poets, we have thus briefly noticed, no other tragic poet of distinction rose in Greece. The poetic talents of succeeding writers appear to have been exclusively directed to comedy, and Thalia assumed the seat of Melpomene.

* Potter's trans. of the works of Eschylus and Euripides. Anachar. Travels, vol 6. Potter's Grec. Ant. Cours de Litterature par La Harpe. Francklin's Sophocles. Lempreire's Class. Dic. Gillie's Greece. Mitford's Greece. Plutarch's Lives.

CHAPTER IV.

Literature of the Greeks. Greek comedy-the old, the middle and the new: Eupolis, Cratinus, Aristophanes, Crates, Alexis, Antiphanes, Menander, Philemon. Pastoral poetry: Theocritus, Appolonius Rhodius.

WHAT is properly called comedy, is supposed to have been invented by Epicharmus, a Pythagorean philosopher of Syracuse, who flourished about four hundred and sixty years before the birth of Christ. Although a philosopher, he cultivated the garden of polite literature, and was the author of about forty comedies, most of which were distinguished for a refined morality, and were selected as models for imitation by Plautus, a celebrated Roman comic writer.

Greek comedy was divided into the old, the middle and the new. In the first it was common to represent on the stage known individuals by name, who happened to be remarkable either for their follies or their vices, any peculiarity of outward demeanor, or for their moral doctrines and opinions in philosophy. To repress this license, thus freely indulged, in which, to gratify personal feeling, the most illustrious and distinguished characters were introduced in ludicrous situations, laws were enacted, forbidding the mention of the names of living persons, which gave rise to what was called the middle comedy. The comic poets, being thus prohibited from introducing and holding up to ridicule, the names and characters of living individuals, adopted a plan, that by means of masks, dress and imitation of gesture and manner, they so plainly designated the persons intended to be satirized, that they were at once recognised. This was distinguished by the name of the middle comedy. The public rulers perceiving that the poets thus eluded the law which forbade the mention of names, and which was designed to protect the characters and feelings of individuals from wanton and malicious attacks, found it necessary to enact another, banishing from the stage all allusion to individuals, and restricting the representation to the delineation and exposition of general manners. This was called the new comedy. We now design to notice the most distinguished

poets, in these several departments or divisions of ancient comedy.

In the old comedy, Cratinus, Eupolis, and Aristophanes, were contemporaries and competitors for the comic wreath. They each enjoyed a high reputation, but Aristophanes appears to have been the most successful candidate, having been distinguished by the title of "Prince of the old comedy." During the period of their rivalship, the magistracy prohibited the representation of comedies at Athens, which was in force two years. When.' Enthymenas was chosen archon, he revoked the edict, and Thalia was reinstated in her honors by the abovementioned comic poets, who were in high favor with the people, on account of the boldness with which they attacked, and the severity with which they lashed, the vices and follies of the times, and particularly of certain elevated individuals.

Eupolis atque Cratinus, Aristophanesque poetæ,
Atque alii, quorum comœdia prisca virorum est,
Si quis erat dignus describi, quod malus, aut fur,
Quod mœchus foret, aut sicarius, aut alioqui
Famosus; multa cum libertate notabant.

The comic poets in its earliest age,

Who form'd the manners of the Grecian stage.
Was there a villain who might justly claim
A better right of being damn'd to fame;
Rake, cut-throat, thief, whatever was his crime,
They freely stigmatized the wretch in rhyme.

Hor. Lib. 1, Sat, 4.

Francis

Cratinus was an Athenian by birth; he composed thirty comedies, which were distinguished for a lively and highly ornamented style; scarcely a single fragment, however, is now to be found. He lived to the great age of ninety-seven, notwithstanding he led a dissipated life. He was greatly addicted to wine, so much so, that he asserted no author could be good for any thing, who did not love his bottle, and offer frequent libations to Bacchus. It is to him Horace alludes in his epistle to Mæcenas:

Prisco si credis, Mæcenas docte, Cratino,
Nulla placere diu nec vivere carmina possunt,
Quæ scribuntur aquæ potoribus.

To sage Cratinus if you credit give,

No water-drinker's verses long shall live,
Or long shall please.-

Hor. Ep. 19.

Francis.