their connexions, can produce the least effect. It has not been my object to show that perpetual motion is an impossible action, even through human invention, as no objection stronger than analogical argument, can be urged against it. AMERICAN GALLANTRY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. THE annexed engraving represents the action between the United States sloop of war Wasp, captain Jones, of 18 guns, and the British sloop of war Frolic, captain Whinyates, of 24 guns; in which the latter surrendered after 43 minutes close engagement. The time chosen by the artist is the moment at which the Wasp ran down across the bow of the Frolic, whose bowsprit entered between the main and mizen rigging of the Wasp when she was boarded by lieutenant Biddle and carried. CLASSICAL LITERATURE-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. Vos exemplaria Græca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. OF THE GREEK COMEDY. (Continued from p. 376, vol. viii.) The subject of the Festival of Ceres is a conspiracy of women who are assembled at this solemnity, to be revenged upon Euripides for all the sarcasms which he had uttered against the sex, in his writings. All the forms of a deliberative assembly are observed. Timoclea is the President, Sysilla acts as Secretary, and Sostrata performs the part of orator: it is, in fact, a burlesque of the Areopagus. It is asked if any one wishes to speak. An orator rises and repeats all the insults which the poet has lavished on the sex. Another female takes the floor; she says that she sells crowns for the gods, and that Euripides, by his impieties, had injured her trade, by persuading men that there were no gods. If it be recollected that Eschylus was on the point of suffering a capital condemnation on an accusation of impiety, that Anaxagoras was in the same danger, and that Socrates fell a victim to such a charge, we may believe that this was an attrocious calumny and admit that Aristophanes exercised a vile trade. Another instance of impudence consists in the introduction of a man in female attire, who undertakes the defence of Euripides, and asserts that he has not said a hundredth part of what might be said, and that women should congratulate themselves that every thing had not been revealed. "We are alone: no one hears us. Why shall we make such an uproar about a few strokes which he has aimed at us, while he is silent as to the innumerable foibles of which we are guilty?" Here follows a frightful portrait which it is impossible to copy. "He is reproached," says the orator, "with having depicted many Phædras and only one Penelope. It is because we can boast but one Penelope, and we are all Phædras. Can any one imagine that such language could be heard on an Athenian stage? But we must at least do them the credit of believing that it was not approved, for this piece had no success. From these specimens and a multitude of others, particularly the frequent obscenities which occur, we may conclude that the stage kept full pace with the corruption of manners. If the reader is curious about the denoument of this farce, he may be informed that the man in disguise being detected, is about to be taken before a magistrate; but Euripides, who is his friend, interferes and threatens to reveal all their secrets to their husbands, if they detain him prisoner. On the contrary if they release him, he promised to say nothing ill of them in future. Their agreement terminates the piece. The Frogs is not less aimed at Eschylus than at Euripides. The one was recently dead; the other was about to quit the world. We may feel astonished that the Athenians would tolerate such a satire against two illustrious writers, whom they admired, and VOL. I. X whose loss they were deploring; but this people had no more delicacy than Aristophanes. Bacchus goes down to the infernal regions to seek for a good tragic poet, because he is not satisfied with those who contend for the prize at his festivals. He passes the Styx, and Charon amuses him with a chorus of Frogs -a droll notion, worthy of this author, which gives the name to his piece. The subject is a dispute between Eschylus and Euripides for the pre-eminence, which is claimed by each, in consequence of a law, providing that he who excels in poetry should have a seat near to Pluto, and be supported in the Prytanea of hell, as those men were at Athens, who had rendered any signal service to the republic. The servant of Pluto informs the servant of Bacchus, that Eschylus had long occupied the first rank, but that Euripides, since his arrival, had given lessons to the cutpurses, the robbers, and the murderers of which the number is infinite: that, by this means, he had formed a large party and would soon supplant Eschylus. Such are the jokes of Aristophanes; from which we may learn that the Athenians, at the same time that they revered the memory of Eschylus, gave the preference, with justice to Euripides. In the following manner, has the satirist, in more than one instance, inadvertently rendered due homage to the claims of merit. "But," cries the servant of Bacchus, "will they not stone the usurper?" The other answers, "No-the quarrel should be decided by the plurality of suffrages.-Euripides is very cunning-but what then-has not Eschylus likewise his party? No-for there are scarcely more honest men in these regions, than there are at Athens. It is very evident that the dispute between the two poets, which continues during two act, and is carried on by means of criticisms on each other's writings, contains a great deal of falsehood and more of ridicule than just remark. Euripides reproaches Eschylus with his bombast, his extravagant fictions, his unnatural portraits, and his outrageous expressions-and, in return, he is ridiculed for the feebleness of his style and the subtlety of his arguments. But Euripides is so unfortunate in his censures, that he not only condemns where there is no fault, but even where there is real merit-such as the circumstance of his depicting monarchs and heroes in misfortune and indigence and representing the weakness of humanity on the stage. This is sufficient to show that Aristophanes is a bad judge. The discussion concludes with a burlesque: it is proposed to weigh the verses in a balance. Eschylus defies Euripides to put in the scale not only all his writings, but himself, his wife, his children, and his great actor, Clitophron: [the same, probably, that Aristophanes gives him as a valet]-and he asks but two of his great words to balance the whole. Pluto refers the decision to Bacchus, who declares in favour of Eschylus, observing, however, that his rival is not destitute of merit. It is probable that Aristophanes would not have entertained this opinion of the living Euripides. It is impossible to convey any idea of the Birds, an allegory which is entirely political. It arises from a dispute between Athens and Lacedæmon about a city. This object of contention is represented by a city which is beaten about in the air by birds. Hence the title of the piece. Lysistrata is of the same kind. Its object is to persuade the Athenians to terminate the tedious Peloponnesian war, which exhausted both parties. Lysistrata, the wife of one of the principal magistrates of Athens, devises a means of compelling the contending parties to make peace. Her project is that all the married women shall separate from their husbands until peace is concluded. She seizes upon the citadel, in concert with the Athenian ladies; and being thus mistress of the public treasury, they resolve that nothing shall be drawn for the expenses of the war. They stand a regular siege. Ambassadors are sent, and Lysistrata makes a treaty. A conspiracy of women is likewise the ground work of the Female Orators. These are women of Athens who have taken it into their heads to expel the men from the government of Athens and take the reins into their own hands. This piece contains the most spirit and affords the best specimen of satire. It is filled with piquant sarcasms levelled against the government of Athens. It is here also that the author has been most severe against the sex. Euripides has nothing to compare with it. Plutus is a cold allegory, from which, however, some hints have been borrowed for the Italian stage. In the piece entitled Peace, the author reverts to his favourite system; and the more so as Cleon is dead. It also is allegorical. War and peace are personified in it. A vintner called Trygens, appears mounted on a beetle, proclaiming that he is going to intreat Jupiter to be more favourable to the Greeks. We may imagine what the rest of the piece is, after such an introduction. On one occasion Peace asks what has become of Sophocles, since he quitted Attica. She is answered " he has become as greedy and avaricious as Simonides." This is quite in the way of Aristophanes, but not of wit. Sophocles was then very old, and the poet had praised him in other pieces; but it was not right that he should except him from all the great men whom he had abused. There remain two pieces upon which we must make a short pause, because the one has been imitated by Racine and the other hastened the death of Socrates. The Wasps gave the author of Britannicus the first idea of his Plaideurs. Philocleon imagines himself to be a Judge: and his son, in order to flatter his malady, proposes that he shall exercise the functions of his office in his own house. A process is immediately instituted against a dog that had stolen a cheese. The cause is managed with all the proper forms. There is a dog prosecutor against the dog accused, and each growls in his turn. Such is the humour of Aristophanes. They bring the puppies of the latter in order to mollify the heart of the judge, who makes a mistake in the choice of his beans, by which means an acquittal takes place instead of a condemnation.* This is what Racine has imitated: to which he has added some inferior details and stage tricks. The Plaideurs is a comedy of the second order, which descends to farce in the scene of the two puppies: its principal merit consist in the style, which is embellished with melodious verses and expressions which have become proverbial. It is however but just to say that notwithstanding the great distance between this piece and that which suggested it, there is in each an excellent vein of ridicule against the vices and follies of the *This, Osrick would pronounce "a hit-a very palpable hit." Swift, somewhere, has an arch sneer at the profession, when he describes a fortuneteller, who, for a compensation, will foretell the event of a lawsuit. |