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a number almoft incredible if we had not the inftances of Calderon and De Vega too well authenticated to admit of a doubt in modern times to refer to. Antiphanes bore off the prize with thirty comedies; and if thefe fucceffes appear difproportioned to his attempts, yet they were brilliant, inafmuch as he had to contend with fuch refpectable rivals. We have now no other rule, whereby to measure his merit, but in the feveral fragments felected from his comedies by various authors of the lower ages, and thefe, though tolerably numerous, will scarce fuffice to give fuch an infight into the original, as may enable us to pronounce upon it's comparative excellence with any critical precision: True it is, even these small reliques have agitated the curiofity of the learned moderns, to whom so many valuable authors are loft, but we cannot contemplate them without a fenfible regret to find how few amongst them comprise any fuch portion of the dialogue, as to open the character, ftile and manner of the writer, and not often enough to furnish a conjecture at the fable they appertain to; they are like fmall crevices, letting in one feeble ray of light into a capacious building; they dart occafionally upon fome rich and noble part, but they cannot convey to us a full and perfect idea of the fymmetry and conftruction of the majestic whole.

I have the titles of one hundred and four comedies under the name of this author.

No CII.

HEN I find the Middle Comedy

W abounding with invectives against wo

men,

I am tempted to think it was the æra of had wives. Antiphanes wrote two plays of a fatirical cast, one intitled Matrimony, and the other The Nuptials; we may venture to guess that the following paffages have belonged to one or both of these plays

"Ye foolish husbands, trick not out your wives; Drefs not their perfons fine, but cloath their minds. Tell 'em your fecrets?—Tell 'em to the crier, "And make the market-place your confidante!”— "Nay, but there's proper penalties for blabbing”. "What penalties! they'll drive you out of them; "Summon your children into court, convene

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Relations, friends, and neighbours to confront “And nonfuit your complaint, till in the end "Juftice is hooted down, and guilt prevails.”

The fecond is in a more animated ftrain of comedy.

For

For this, and only this, I'll trust a woman, "That if you take life from her the will die, "And being dead fhe'll come to life no more; "In all things else I am an infidel.

"Oh! might I never more behold a woman! “Rather than I should meet that object, Gods! "Strike out my eyes-I'll thank you for your mercy.”

We are indebted to Athenæus for part of a dialogue, in which Antiphanes has introduced a traveller to relate a whimsical contrivance, which the king of Cyprus had made use of for cooling the air of his banquetting-chamber, whilft he fate at fupper.

"A. You fay you've pafs'd much of your time in
"Cyprus.

"B. All; for the war prevented my departure.
"A. In what place chiefly, may I ask?

"B. In Paphos ;

༈**

"Where I faw elegance in fuch perfection,

"As almost mocks belief.

"A. Of what kind, pray you?

"B. Take this for one-The monarch, when he sups,

"Is fann'd by living doves.

"A. You make me curious

"How this is to be done; all other questions

"I will put by to be refolv'd in this..

"B. There is a juice drawn from the Carpin tree, "To which your dove instinctively is wedded "With a most loving appetite ;' with this

"The king anoints his temples, and the odour "No fooner captivates the filly birds,

VOL. IV.

G

* Than

"Than frait they flutter round him, nay, would fly "A bolder pitch, fo ftrong a love-charm draws them, "And perch, O horror! on his facred crown, "If that fuch prophanation were permitted "Of the bye-standers, who with reverend care Fright them away, till thus, retreating now "And now advancing, they keep fuch a coil "With their broad vans, and beat the lazy air "Into fo quick a ftir, that in the conflict "His royal lungs are comfortably cool'd,

"And thus he fups as Papliian monarchs should."

An old man in the comedy, as it fhould seem, of the Tnparádns, reasons thus

"I grant you that an old fellow like myself, if "he be a wife fellow withal, one that has feen ❝ much and learnt a great deal, may be good for ἐσ fomething and keep a fhop open for all cuf"tomers, who want advice in points of difficulty.

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Age is as it were an altar of refuge for human "diftreffes to fly to. Oh! longevity, coveted by "all who are advancing towards thee, curs❜d by "all who have attained thee; railed at by the

wife, betray'd by them who confult thee, and "well spoken of by no one. And yet what is "it we old fellows can be charged with? We are K no fpendthrifts, do not confume our means in

gluttony, run mad for a wench, or break locks "to get at her; and why then may not old age, 66 feeing fuch difcretion belongs to it, be allowed "it's pretenfions to happiness?"

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A fervant thus rallies his mafter upon a fpeeies of hypocrify natural to old age..

"Ah! good my mafter, you may figh for death,
And call amain upon him to release you,

But will you bid him welcome when he comes ?
Old Charon has a stubborn talk

Not your. To tug you to his wherry and diflodge you From your rich tables, when your hour is come: I mufe the Gods fend not a plague amongst you, "A good, brifk, fweeping, epidemic plague: "There's nothing else can make you all immortal."

Surely there is good comedy in this raillery of the fervant-The following fhort paffages have a very neat turn of expreffion in the original.

"An honeft man to law makes no refort; "His confcience is the better rule of court."

"The man, who first laid down the pedant rule,
That love is folly, was himfelf the

fool;

For if to life that tranfport you deny,
What privilege is left us-but to die?"

Ceafe, mourners, ceafe complaint, and weep no
"more!

"Your loft friends are not dead, but gone before,

Advanc'd a ftage or two upon that road, "Which you must travel in the steps they trode; In the fame inn we all fhall meet at last,

"There take new life and laugh at forrows past."

When I meet thefe and many other familiar fentiments, which thefe defigners after nature

G 2

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