DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13855#0119
COMOEDIA.
Ill
COMOEDIA.
new form, and introduced a regular plot.
In his efforts he appears to have been asso-
ciated with Phormis, a somewhat older con-
temporary. The Megarians in Sicily claimed
the honour of the invention of comedy, on
account of Epicharmus having lived in Jle-
gara before he went to Syracuse. In Attica,
the first comic poet of any importance whom
we hear of after Susarion is Chionides, who
is said to have brought out plays in b. c. 488.
Euetes, Euxenides, and Myllus were proba-
bly contemporaries of Chionides; he was
followed by Magnes and Ecphantidcs. Their
compositions, however, seem to have been
little but the reproduction of the old Megaric
farce of Susarion, differing, no doubt, in
form, by the introduction of an actor or
actors, separate from the chorus, in imitation
of the improvements that had been made in
tragedy. — That branch of the Attic drama
which was called the Old Comedy, begins
properly with Cratinus, who was to comedy
very much what Aeschylus was to tragedy.
The old comedy has been described as the
comedy of caricature, and such indeed it was,
but it was also a great deal more. As it ap-
peared in the hands of its great masters Cra-
tinus, Hermippus, Eupolis, and especially
Aristophanes, its main characteristic was
that it was throughout political. Everything
that bore upon the political or social interests
of the Athenians furnished materials for it.
The old Attic comedy lasted from 01. 80 to
01. 94 (b. c. 458-404). From Cratinus to
Theopompus there were forty-one poets, four-
teen of whom preceded Aristophanes. The
later pieces of Aristophanes belong to the
Middle rather than to the Old Comedy. The
chorus in a comedy consisted of twenty-four.
[Chorus.] The dance of the chorus was the
KopSaj, the movements of which were capri-
cious and licentious, consisting partly in a
reeling to and fro, in imitation of a drunken
man, and in various unseemly and immodest
gestures. Comedies have choric songs, but
no aT<£o-i.|ua, or songs between acts. The most
important of the choral parts was the Para-
basis, when the actors having left the stage, the
chorus, which was ordinarily divided into four
rows, containing six each, and was turned
towards the stage, turned round, and ad-
vancing towards the spectators delivered an
address to them in the name of the poet,
either on public topics of general interest, or
on matters which concerned the poet per-
sonally, criticising his rivals and calling at-
tention to his merits; the address having
nothing whatever to do with the action of the
play. The parabasis was not universally in-
troduced : three plays of Aristophanes, the
Ecclesiazusae, Lysistrata, and l'lutus, have
none. As the old Attic comedy was the off-
spring of the political and social vigour and
freedom of the age during which it flourished,
it naturally declined and ceased with the de-
cline and overthrow of the freedom and ri-
gour which were necessary for its develop-
ment.—It was replaced by a comedy of a
somewhat different style, which was known
as the Middle Comedy, the age of which
lasted from the end of the Peloponnesian war
to the overthrow of liberty by Philip of Ma-
cedon. (01. 94-110.) The comedy of this
period found its materials in satirizing classes
of people instead of individuals, in criticising
the systems and merits of philosophers and
literary men, and in parodies of the compo-
sitions of living and earlier poets, and tra-
vesties of mythological subjects. It formed
a transition from the old to the new comedy,
and approximated to the latter in the greater
attention to the construction of plots which
seem frea_uently to have been founded on
amorous intrigues, and in the absence of that
wild grotesqueness which marked the old
comedy. As regards its external form, the
plays of the middle comedy, generally speaking,
had neither parabasis nor chorus. The most
celebrated authors of the middle comedy were
Antiphanes and Alexis. — The Keiv Comedy
was a further development of the last men-
tioned kind. It answered as nearly as may
be to the modern comedy of manners or eha-
j racter. Dropping for the most part personal
allusions, caricature, ridicule, and parody,
which, in a more general form than in the
old comedy, had maintained their ground in
the middle comedy, the poets of the new
comedy made it their business to reproduce
in a generalized form a picture of the every-
day life of those by whom they were sur-
rounded. There were various standing cha-
racters which found a place in most plays,
such as we find in the plays of Plautus and
Terence, the leno perjurus, amator fervidus,
servulus callidtis, arnica illudens, sodalis opi-
tulator, miles proelialor, parasitus edax, pa-
rentes tenaces, mcretrices procaces. In
the new comedy there was no chorus. It
flourished from about e. c. 340 to b. c. 260.
The poets of the new comedy amounted to 04
in number. The most distinguished was
Menander.— (2) Roman.-—The accounts of
the early stages of comic poetry among the
Romans are scanty. Scenic entertainments
were introduced at Rome in b. c. 303 from
Etruria, where it would seem they were a
familiar amusement. Tuscan players (lu-
diones), who were fetched from Etruria, ex-
hibited a sort of pantomimic dance to the
music of a flute, without any song accom-
panying their dance, and without regular
Ill
COMOEDIA.
new form, and introduced a regular plot.
In his efforts he appears to have been asso-
ciated with Phormis, a somewhat older con-
temporary. The Megarians in Sicily claimed
the honour of the invention of comedy, on
account of Epicharmus having lived in Jle-
gara before he went to Syracuse. In Attica,
the first comic poet of any importance whom
we hear of after Susarion is Chionides, who
is said to have brought out plays in b. c. 488.
Euetes, Euxenides, and Myllus were proba-
bly contemporaries of Chionides; he was
followed by Magnes and Ecphantidcs. Their
compositions, however, seem to have been
little but the reproduction of the old Megaric
farce of Susarion, differing, no doubt, in
form, by the introduction of an actor or
actors, separate from the chorus, in imitation
of the improvements that had been made in
tragedy. — That branch of the Attic drama
which was called the Old Comedy, begins
properly with Cratinus, who was to comedy
very much what Aeschylus was to tragedy.
The old comedy has been described as the
comedy of caricature, and such indeed it was,
but it was also a great deal more. As it ap-
peared in the hands of its great masters Cra-
tinus, Hermippus, Eupolis, and especially
Aristophanes, its main characteristic was
that it was throughout political. Everything
that bore upon the political or social interests
of the Athenians furnished materials for it.
The old Attic comedy lasted from 01. 80 to
01. 94 (b. c. 458-404). From Cratinus to
Theopompus there were forty-one poets, four-
teen of whom preceded Aristophanes. The
later pieces of Aristophanes belong to the
Middle rather than to the Old Comedy. The
chorus in a comedy consisted of twenty-four.
[Chorus.] The dance of the chorus was the
KopSaj, the movements of which were capri-
cious and licentious, consisting partly in a
reeling to and fro, in imitation of a drunken
man, and in various unseemly and immodest
gestures. Comedies have choric songs, but
no aT<£o-i.|ua, or songs between acts. The most
important of the choral parts was the Para-
basis, when the actors having left the stage, the
chorus, which was ordinarily divided into four
rows, containing six each, and was turned
towards the stage, turned round, and ad-
vancing towards the spectators delivered an
address to them in the name of the poet,
either on public topics of general interest, or
on matters which concerned the poet per-
sonally, criticising his rivals and calling at-
tention to his merits; the address having
nothing whatever to do with the action of the
play. The parabasis was not universally in-
troduced : three plays of Aristophanes, the
Ecclesiazusae, Lysistrata, and l'lutus, have
none. As the old Attic comedy was the off-
spring of the political and social vigour and
freedom of the age during which it flourished,
it naturally declined and ceased with the de-
cline and overthrow of the freedom and ri-
gour which were necessary for its develop-
ment.—It was replaced by a comedy of a
somewhat different style, which was known
as the Middle Comedy, the age of which
lasted from the end of the Peloponnesian war
to the overthrow of liberty by Philip of Ma-
cedon. (01. 94-110.) The comedy of this
period found its materials in satirizing classes
of people instead of individuals, in criticising
the systems and merits of philosophers and
literary men, and in parodies of the compo-
sitions of living and earlier poets, and tra-
vesties of mythological subjects. It formed
a transition from the old to the new comedy,
and approximated to the latter in the greater
attention to the construction of plots which
seem frea_uently to have been founded on
amorous intrigues, and in the absence of that
wild grotesqueness which marked the old
comedy. As regards its external form, the
plays of the middle comedy, generally speaking,
had neither parabasis nor chorus. The most
celebrated authors of the middle comedy were
Antiphanes and Alexis. — The Keiv Comedy
was a further development of the last men-
tioned kind. It answered as nearly as may
be to the modern comedy of manners or eha-
j racter. Dropping for the most part personal
allusions, caricature, ridicule, and parody,
which, in a more general form than in the
old comedy, had maintained their ground in
the middle comedy, the poets of the new
comedy made it their business to reproduce
in a generalized form a picture of the every-
day life of those by whom they were sur-
rounded. There were various standing cha-
racters which found a place in most plays,
such as we find in the plays of Plautus and
Terence, the leno perjurus, amator fervidus,
servulus callidtis, arnica illudens, sodalis opi-
tulator, miles proelialor, parasitus edax, pa-
rentes tenaces, mcretrices procaces. In
the new comedy there was no chorus. It
flourished from about e. c. 340 to b. c. 260.
The poets of the new comedy amounted to 04
in number. The most distinguished was
Menander.— (2) Roman.-—The accounts of
the early stages of comic poetry among the
Romans are scanty. Scenic entertainments
were introduced at Rome in b. c. 303 from
Etruria, where it would seem they were a
familiar amusement. Tuscan players (lu-
diones), who were fetched from Etruria, ex-
hibited a sort of pantomimic dance to the
music of a flute, without any song accom-
panying their dance, and without regular