a number almost incredible if we had not the instances 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 these successes appear difproportioned to his attempts, yet they were brilliant, inasmuch as he had to contend with such respectable rivals. We have now no other rule, whereby to measure his merit, but in the several fragments selected from his comedies by various authors of the lower ages, and these, though tolerably numerous, will scarce fuffice to give such 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 curiosity of the learned moderns, to whom so many valuable authors are lost, but we cannot contemplate them without a sensible regret to find how few amongst them comprise any such portion of the dialogue, as to open the character, stile and manner of the writer, and not often enough to furnish a conjecture at the fable they appertain to; they are like small crevices, letting in one feeble ray of light into a capacious building; they dart occasionally upon fome rich and noble part, but they cannot con vey to us a full and perfect idea of the symmetry and construction of the majestic whole. I have the titles of one hundred and four comedies under the name of this author. W No CII. HEN I find the Middle Comedy abounding with invectives againft women, I am tempted to think it was the æra of had wives. Antiphanes wrote two plays of a fatirical caft, one intitled Matrimony, and the other The Nuptials; we may venture to guess that the following passages have belonged to one or both of these plays "Ye foolish husbands, trick not out your wives; "Dress 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 * Relations, friends, and neighbours to confront "And nonfuit your complaint, till in the end "Juftice is hooted down, and guilt prevails." The second is in a more animated strain of comedy. For For this, and only this, I'll trust a woman, "That if you take life from her she will die, " And being dead she'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 supper. "A. You say you've pass'd much of your time in " Cyprus. C "B. All; for the war prevented my departure. "B. In Paphos ; << Where I faw elegance in such perfection, "As almost mocks belief. "A. Of what kind, pray you? 2 "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 "No fooner captivates the filly birds, " "Than "Than trait they flutter round him, nay, would fly "A bolder pitch, so strong a love-charm draws them, "And perch, O horror! on his facred crown, "If that fuch prophanation were permitted "Of the bye-ftanders, 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 so quick a stir, that in the conflict "His royal lungs are comfortably cool'd, "And thus he fups as Paphian monarchs should." An old man in the comedy, as it should feem, of the Γηρατάδης, reafons 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 "fomething and keep a shop open for all cuf"tomers, who want advice in points of difficulty. "Age is as it were an altar of refuge for human " distresses 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 *no spendthrifts, do not confume otir means in gluttony, run mad for a wench, or break locks "to get at her; and why then may not old age, "seeing fuch difcretion belongs to it, be allowed "it's pretenfions to happiness?" 9 A fervant A fervant thus rallies his master upon a speeies of hypocrisy natural to old age.. "Ah! good my master, you may figh for death, "And call amain upon him to release you, "But will you bid him welcome when he comes ? Not your. Old Charon has a stubborn task To tug you to his wherry and diflodge you From your rich tables, when your hour is come: " I muse the Gods fend not a plague amongst you, "A good, brisk, sweeping, epidemic plague: There's nothing else can make you all immortal." Surely there is good comedy in this raillery of the fervant-The following short passages have a very neat turn of expreffion in the original. "An honest man to law makes no resort; "His confcience is the better rule of court." "The man, who first laid down the pedant rule, "That love is folly, was himself the fool; For if to life that transport you deny, What privilege is left us but to die ?" "Cease, mourners, cease complaint, and weep no "more! "Your loft friends are not dead, but gone before, When I meet these and many other familiar sentiments, which these designers after nature abound G2 |