faying he was a Syracufan, and afcribes to him the invention of Comedy - χώ νηρ, ὁ τὰν Κωμωδίαν Ευρών Επίχαρμος. Epicharmus, the man who invented Comedy." In the conclufion, it celebrates him for the many useful maxims which he gave for the inftruction of youth; but this I am difpofed to think may apply to the circumftance of his having been a schoolmaster at Syracuse; for if we are to take our judgment of Epicharmus's drama from his imitator Plautus, perhaps its morality, though not to be overlooked amongst other excellencies, is nevertheless not the most ftriking feature in its character. And though it is probable that Epicharmus did not launch out into that perfonality, which the frees Athenians indulged to fuch excefs, yet I can suppose him to have been not very chafte in his dialogue, from the anecdote which Plutarch gives us, of his being heavily fined and compelled to manual labour by order of Hiero for certain obfcene jefts, which he suffered to pafs in hearing of his queen: I muft ground another remark upon this anecdote, refpecting the time in which he is generally thought to have struck out out his comedy, as being long antecedent to the time of Hiero; which being admitted, it will follow that he was near the close of his life, when this fentence of manual labour was executed upon him; a kind of punishment fo very unlikely to be inflicted on a man of ninety-fix years by a prince of Hiero's magnanimity and benevolence, that if I am to take the anecdote for granted, I cannot affent to those authorities that have placed him fo high in time, for the purpose only of putting his title of firft founder of comedy out of dispute. Upon the whole, I think it likely the Athe nians wrote comedy as foon as the Sicilians, but that Epicharmus was the first, who formed his drama upon the poems of Homer: It is alfo clear, that his countryman and contemporary Phormis wrote comedy as foon, or nearly as foon as he did; for although Theocritus, in the epigram above cited, fays exprefsly that Epicharmus ftruck out comedy, yet it must be remarked that Theocritus was a Syracufan by birth, living in the time of Ptolemy Lagus ; and in giving this teftimony for his fellowcitizen, it is more than probable he spoke locally of the Sicilian comedy only, as Suidas did in after times, when he faid that Epichar mus mus and Phormis firft ftruck out comedy in Sicily. I would therefore fix Epicharmus's first comedy antecedent to Olymp. LXXV. at the lowest date, because we have it from good authority that he was teaching fcholars at Syracufe four years before the Perfian æra; and this date is confirmed by the age of Phormis, who certainly flourished in the time of Gelon, and was in great favour in the court of that prince, who was predeceffor to Hiero, and was fucceeded by him in Olymp. LXXVII, N° LXXIII EPICHARMUS was a liberal benefactor to the ftage. Porphyry fays that Apollodorus the grammarian made a collection of his plays in ten volumes; Suidas reckons fiftytwo; Lycon only thirty-five; but modern philologists have given the titles of forty, with the authorities by which they are afcertained. It is not my purpose in these papers to make a practice of loading the page with lifts of titles, which may too truly be called dead names; names; but in the inftance of an author like Epicharmus, who ftands at the head of his department, every relique feems an object of fome curiofity; and therefore, although the following catalogue may ftrike the dramatic reader as what may properly enough be called a beggarly account of empty boxes, yet I shall proceed to enumerate the titles of forty comedies, all of which are, upon good grounds of criticism, ascribed to this celebrated author. TITLES OF THE COMEDIES OF EPICHARMUS. The Hufbandman. The Halcyon. Amycus, Son The Cyclops. The Mufes. Ulyffes the The The Trojans. Philoctetes. The Chorus Troop. The fame respect, which led me to infert these titles, led me also to search with all poffible diligence for every fragment which I could find of Epicharmus.. I wish they had been more in number, and of greater importance than they are; but fuch as they are, I have reason to believe they are the whole amount of what can be picked up from the wreck of this once valuable poet. The reader must not expect, that either in this author's inftance, or that of any other Greek comedian, except in very few cafes, that the particular play can be ascertained, to which the fragments belong; for the grammarians and others, who quote them, only give the name of the author, and not that of the comedy from which they extract them. I muft in this place once for all give vent to an anxiety, which preffes on my mind respecting these fragments of the Greek comedy, whether the insertion of them will or will not be approved of by the generality of my readers: My fole object is to furnish them with rational and moral amusement, and if I fail of that object in thefe my hearty endeavours, I have taken a great deal of pains to render these paffages into : VOL. III. 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