of Olymp. LXXXII. Æfchylus being then dead, Theognis, (from the coldness of his drama nicknamed Snow) was contemporary with Ion. The magiftracy of Athens in Olymp. LXXXV. when Myrrichides was archon, publifhed a decree, prohibiting the representation of comedies in Athens: This decree held in force only two years under Glaucides and Theopompus; for when Euthymenes fucceeded to that annual dignity, he found it expedient to gratify the people by a revocation of the edict, and the comic muse was reinstated on the ftage by the celebrated triumvirate of Eupolis, Cratinus and Ariftophanes; Cratinus opening the theatre with his celebrated comedy of The Winter Amusements, Eupolis with The New Moons, and Ariftophanes with The Acharnenfians. N° LXXIV. GRATINUS, Eupolis and Ariftophanes are generally claffed together as rivals and prinIcipals in what is called The Old Comedy. Cratinus was fenior in age to both his competitors, and Eupolis is charged by the old annotator upon Aristophanes of having copied from him very freely I confefs this is ftubborn authority, and yet it seems hard to believe that Eupolis, who was fo conftantly engaged in competition with his rival, fhould expofe himself to certain detection of fo difgraceful a fort; and had it been fo, I fhould rather have expected to meet with the charge in the text of Ariftophanes, than in the coinment; I muft add, that upon the clofcft fearch I can find nothing that favours this imputation in any other author which speaks of Eupolis, but many circumftances on the contrary which feem to place his pretenfions to originality on as good ground, as that of his contemporaries, with whom he is equally celebrated. These poets were in high favour with the people on account of the boldnefs and perfonality of their fatire, and for the fame reason proportionably obnoxious to the nobles and magiftrates, whom they lafhed without mercy. Aristophanes was much the least bitter of the three, and yet we have fome fmart fpecimens of his feverity. Perfius feems to make this dif tinction in the following paffage Audaci quicunque affiate Cratino, Afpice et hæc. In thefe lines he characterizes Cratinus and Eupolis by the epithets of audax and iratus, whereas he introduces Ariftophanes under the defcription only of prægrandis fenex, which is interpreted to refer to the superior gravity and dignity of his ftile. Horace, in the fourth fatire of his first book, inftances these three poets by pre-eminence from amongst all the writers of the old comedy. Eupolis atque Cratinus Ariflopbanefque poeta, The comic poets, in its earliest age, Who form'd the manners of the Grecian flage, Rake, cut-throat, thief, whatever was his crime, (FRANCIS.) It appears by this quotation, that Horace does not confider their comedy in the fame light with Ariftotle, as if they reprefented human nature in worse colours than it deferved. Quintilian exprefsly fays, that there are the chief writers of the old comedy-Plures ejus auctores; auctores; Aristophanes tamen et Eupolis, Cratinufque præcipui:-And he recommends the old Greek comedy, and these authors in particular, as the best model (Homer only excepted) for his orator to form himself upon; inasmuch as it is there only he will find the Attic stile in its purity and perfection; and though the old comedy, as he obferves, is chiefly occupied in wit and farcafm for the purpose of chastising vice, yet it has many excellences of a more general fort: It is energetic, elegant, and full of graces; so that if Homer alone (who like his own Achilles has the privilege of being always put above comparison) be excepted, no other school for oratory can come in competition with this. CRATÍNUS. Cratinus was the fon of Callimedes an Athenian; we have the titles of at least thirty comedies of his writing, fo that Suidas is mistaken in afcribing to him only twenty-one; he was a poet of ftrong imagination, and a florid lively ftile; he carried away no less than nine prizes, which is a large proportion of fuccefs, compared with others, who rank amongst the highest both in the comic and tragic line. A fecond edict came out in his time for restraining the licentioufnefs licentiousness of the ftage in point of personality, and Cratinus, in common with the reft of his contemporaries, found himself obliged to divert his fatire from the living to the dead: Sarcasms were now levelled at men's productions, not at their perfons; the tragic authors felt the chief weight of the attack, though even Homer did not escape, as may be gathered from The Ulyffes of Cratinus, in which he parodies and ridicules the Odyffey. Cratinus lived to an extreme old age, though according to the loofe morals of the Greeks he indulged his paffions both natural and unnatural without reftraint: He carried his love of wine to fuch excefs, that he got the name of Poórns, launching out in praise of drinking, and rallying all fobriety out of countenance, afferting that no author can be good for any thing, who does not love his bottle, and that dramatic poets in particular ought to drink hard, as a duty due to Bacchus for his peculiar patronage and protection of the stage. Horace, who was not very averfe from his doctrine, quotes his authority in the first lines of an epistle to Mecenas. Prifco fi credis, Mecanas docte, Cratino, Nulla placere diu nec vivere carmina possunt,· O learn'd |
