STORIES FROM THE GREEK COMEDIANS.* THE Greek Comedians hardly lend

themselves to the art of the story-teller so well as the tragedians, nor do the tragedians even lend themselves so well as the epic poets. In comedy a great deal depends on the lively play of the dialogue, and whatever is summarised in the form of narrative is necessarily lost to the dialogue. Nevertheless, the genius of Aristophanes was so great that that large part of the present volume which deals with his comedies could hardly be more amusing than it is. The Birds, The Frogs, The Wasps, The Knights, Peace, The Clouds, and The Acharnians of Aristophanes are given with very much of the spirit of the originals, and without any of the Aristophanic coarseness which renders them so little suited to the general reader. Of course, in losing that, and something, too, of the wit and local effect, they lose part of the reality of Athenian life ; but we could hardly recover the whole of that reality without a feeling of disgust, which would probably repel a great many more than it would inform. In Mr. Church's lively resume of the plays of Aristophanes, we have a very adequate representation of most of the effects which it is at once pleasant and desirable to recall. Aristophanes seems to have generally aimed at some- thing which we may best describe as half-way between a pantomime and a political burlesque. In such plays as The Birds, The Peace, and The Frogs, there is not a little of true pantomime ; and in all Aristophanes' plays political burlesque is at its broadest, though even the most farcical effects never lose the keen edge of satire. Mr. Church has given the political burlesques with great success, and without overloading his little book with explanations or notes. In The Knights, for instance, he gives delightful specimens of the rivalry between Cleon (or Bluster, as Aristophanes calls him) and the Sausage. sellerin abuse of each other,—abnse which must have given immeasurable delight to the Athenian audience. For example, we take two specimens :— Bluster. "I charge this man with treason. He sells sausages to the Peloponnesian fleet."

8.-s. "I eharge this man with worse than that. He runs into the Town Hall with his belly empty, and runs out with it full."

• Stories from the Greek Comedians Aristophattes, Philemon, Diphilue, Menander, Apollederus. By the Rev. Alfred J. Church, lately Professor of Latin in University College. London. With 16 Illustrations after the antique, London: Seeley will Co. 1S9.7. B. "Dog and villain, you shall die."

8.-s. "I can scream ten times as high." B. "I'll o'erbear you and out-bawl you." 8.-s. "Ill out-scream you and out-squall you." B. "Stare at me without a wink." 8.-s. "Never do I blush or blink."

B. " I can steal and own to stealing ;

That's a thing I know you dare not." 8.-s. "That is nothing ; when I'm dealing, I can swear to things that are not,

And, though hundreds saw, I care not."

. . . . . . . . .

" He's gone to the Senate,' said the sausage-seller's backers to him. '/Cow's your time to show your mettle, if you are the mighty thief and liar that you pretend to be.'--/ I'm after him,' said the fellow, and off he went, having been duly rubbed with grease to make him slippery, and primed with garlic, like a fighting cock, to give him courage. Before very long he was back, and told his backers, who had been getting a little anxious about him, how he had fared. I followed him,' he said, close upon his heels to the Senate House. There he was storming and roaring, bellowing out words like thunderbolts, raving against the aristocrats, calling them traitors and what not, and the Senate sat listening, looking sharp as mustard. And when I saw they took in all his lies, and how he was cheating them, I muttered a prayer, "Hear me, Powers of Fraud, and Boobydom, and ye Spirits of the Market and the Street, the places where I was bred, and thou, great Impudence, hear me, and help, giving me courage, and a ready tongue, and a shameless voice." And when I had ended my prayer, I took courage, for I knew that the Great Spirits had heard me, and cried aloud, "0 Senators, I have come with good news, for I was resolved that none should hear them before you. Never since the war broke upon us, no, never have I seen anchovies cheaper." Their faces changed in a. moment ; it was like a cairn after a storm. Then I moved that they should lay hands on all the bowls in the town, and go to buy the anchovies before the price went up. It that they shouted and clapped their hands. Then Bluster, seeing what a hit I had made,. and knowing of old how to deal with them, said, "I propose, gentlemen, that in consideration of the happy event that has been reported to the Senate, we have a good-news sacrifice to the goddess of a hundred oxen." That took the Senate, you may be sure. Well, I wasn't going to be outdone with his oxen ; so I bid over him. "I propose," I said, "that the sacrifice be of two hundred oxen ! And furthermore, that we sacrifice a thousand goats to Artemis, if sprats should be fifty a penny." That brought the Senate round to me again. And when he saw it he lost his head, and began to stammer out some nonsense till the archers dragged him away. And what did he, when the Senators were just off after their anchovies, but try to keep them. "Stop a moment, gentlemen," he said, " to hear what the herald from Sparta has got to say ; he has come about peace." " Peaoe !" they all cried with one voice (that's because they knew that anchovies were cheap), "we don't want peace ; let the war go on." Then they bellowed to the magistrate to dismiss the Senate, and leapt over the railings. But meanwhile I got down to the market and bought up all the fennel, and gave it to them for sauce, when they were at their wits' end where to find any. How much they made of me, to be sure! I bought the whole Senate, you may believe me, for three ha'porth of fennel !' His backers, delighted at the story, greeted him with a song of triumph

You have managed our task on an excellent plan, You certainly are a most fortunate man ; Soon the villain shall meet A more excellent cheat, Of devices more various, Of tricks more nerarious.

But gird up your loins for another endeavour, And be sure you will find us as faithful as ever.' "

Nor is Mr. Church less successful in giving the sometimes very beautiful passages of verse with which the political burlesques are interspersed. No doubt Mr. Church has availed himself freely of the help of Mr. Hookham Frere's wonderful translations,—which have done more to render Aristophanes popular among the literary classes in England than all other versions put together. Still, Mr. Church knows how to use, and how to improve upon, what he takes, as in this charming dialogue between Trygaens and the husbandmen in

The Peace :-

"Oh, think of the pleasures Peace gave us of yore, Of her sweet country treasures, Her bountiful store ;

Of the figs, and the vine,

And the olives divine, And the myrtle-tree growing, And violets blowing, Where fountains were flowing.

These are the joys for which long we've been yearning.

For these we will welcome the goddess returning.'

Hiss. "Welcome, welcome, once more !

We have longed for thee sore.

Still desiring again, With a passionate pain, In the sweet country-side Of our farms to abide, We who follow the trade Of the tillers of land, For our labours are paid By the gifts of thy hand. Not a flower, not a fruit, Not a tender young shoot Of the fig or the vine But will fondly combine Through the length and the breadth of our country to greet

The thrice welcome sound of thy home-coming feet."

On the whole, we may fairly say that the broad humour of Aristophanes is most effectively given in this little book, and the flashes of brilliant song not less vividly.

The stories from the new comedy are not, and hardly could be, nearly so good. The pieces from Philemon are extremely poor, and those from Menander and Apollodorus, translated or adapted by Terence, lose a great deal of their effect in the nar- rative form,—a form under which it would be about as easy to give, under the title of " Stories from Sheridan," Stories from Goldsmith," any effective representation of The School for Scandal or She Stoops to Conquer, as it is to give the thrust and parry of the Adelphi or the Phormio, or the Andria of Terence, in the shape of such stories. In the modern comedy everything depends on the vivacity of the dialogue, and directly you at- tempt to summarise the greater part of the dialogue, you lose the flash and keenness of the whole. To our mind, Mr. Church would have done better to fill the whole volume with his accounts of Aristophanes. There is enough room for narra- tive and elucidation in those wonderful plays to make Mr.

Church's rendering of them very effective. But when you come to Terence, the effects are much less broad, and depend a great deal more on character and manner and the neat fit of the mutual recriminations and reproaches. You might give a good impression of Aristophanes with a magic-lantern, illustrated by specimens from the dialogue ; but the magic. lantern of which Mr. Church's narrative more or less supplies -the effects would hardly help you with Terence, and the dialogue in his case does not bear breaking into pieces : its continuity is part of its art.