Aristophanes

“ Peisthetairus—An Athenian citizen, but disgusted with his own country, starts on his travels proposing to seek his fortune in the kingdom of the Birds. He is represented as the essential man of business and ability, the true political adventurer, the man who directs everything and everybody, who is never in the wrong, never at a loss, never at rest, never satisfied with what has been done by others, uniformly successful in his operations. ”

“ The Magistrates arrive and take their seats—the place of Assembly is filled, and silence is proclaimed—when a new personage enters hastily. Here we have an instance of the peculiar character of invention which belongs to the ancient comedy; in which a bodily form and action is given to those images which have no existence except in the forms of animated or fanciful language. "If a deity were to come down among the Athenians and propose to conclude a peace for them, they would not listen to him." ”

“ Give up elderly delinquents to be mumbled, mouthed, and wrung
By the toothless old accusers; but protect them from the young.
For the younger class of culprits young accusers will be fair,
Prating prostituted fops, and Clinias's son and heir. ⁠959
Thus we may proceed in order, all of us, with all our might,
Severally, both youths and elders, to defend and to indict.
Dicæopolis. Well, there's the boundary of my market-place,
Marked out, for the Peloponnesians and Bœotians
And the Megarians. All are freely welcome
To traffic and sell with me, but not with Lamachus. ”

“ Peisthetairus, the essential man of business and activity, entertaining a supreme contempt for his profession and person of the poet, is at no great pains to conceal it; but recollecting at the same time, that it is advisable to secure the suffrages of the literary world, and that the character of a patron is creditable to a great man, he patronises him accordingly, not at his own expense, but by bestowing upon him certain articles of apparel put in requisition for that purpose. ”

“ For the caricature in which they themselves were represented, was in no respect calculated to make them unpopular; on the contrary, the blunt heartiness and good fellowship of the one, and the timid scrupulous piety of the other, were qualities which in different ways recommended them respectively to the favour and good-will of their fellow-citizens, and which were accordingly exhibited and impressed upon the attention of the audience, through the only medium which was consistent with the essential character of the ancient comedy. ”

“ It seems probable, therefore, that the order of subjects in the comedy must have been the same as that which is observable in the Parabasis which follows, and which may be considered as an apologetical analysis of the preceding play. It had begun then with the least criminal perhaps, but to the feelings of the Athenians the most invidious and irritating topic of accusation; namely, the occasional instances of undue advantages obtained for a subject state, by the hired agency of Athenian statesmen and orators, co-operating with the panegyrical cajolery of its deputies and envoys. ”

“ Dicæopolis takes upon himself to question him peremptorily, and in the course of the examination discovers a couple of effeminate Athenian fops, disguised as Eunuchs, in his train; this discovery, however, creates no sensation. The King's Eye is invited with the usual honours to a Banquet in the Prytaneum; but when Dicæopolis sees these impostors and enemies of his country upon the point of being rewarded with a good dinner, the indignation which is excited in his independent spirit decides at once his future destinies and the conduct of all the scenes which follow. ”

“ I'll grapple ye else, and heave ye neck and crop.
2nd Semichor.⁠Lamachus! Lamachus!
Lamachus arise!
⁠Let the gaze,
Of thine eyes, ⁠710
⁠In a blaze,
⁠Daunt and amaze
Thine enemies.
⁠Bring along
⁠All the throng,
⁠Hardy comrades, bold and strong,
For assault or standing fight;
Hasten and assist the right.
Lamachus. Whence came that noise of battle on mine ears?
Where am I summoned? whither must I rush? ⁠720
To the rescue or assault? what angry shout
Rouses the slumbering Gorgon on my shield?
Dic. Ο Lamachus, with your glorious crests and conquests!
2nd Semichor. Ο Lamachus! ”

“ This comedy (The Babylonians) seems, as far as we can judge of it from the few fragments that remain, to have been intended, in the first place, as an exposure of existing malpractices and abuses, and, secondly, as a reductio ad absurdum of the extravagant schemes of Athenian ambition; assuming them to be realised, and exhibiting the result.
The progressive aggrandisement of Athens had been marked, from the beginning, by the extortion and oppression practised (with a few honourable exceptions) by her military commanders; Themistocles himself having set the first example. ”

“ Who survey from on high, with a merciful eye,
Your struggles of misery, labour, and care.
Whence you may learn and clearly discern
Such truths as attract your inquisitive turn;
Which is busied of late, with a mighty debate,
A profound speculation about the creation,
And organical life, and chaotical strife,⁠690
With various notions of heavenly motions,
And rivers and oceans, and valleys and mountains,
And sources of fountains, and meteors on high,
And stars in the sky. We propose by-and-by
(If you'll listen and hear) to make it all clear. ”

“ Dicæopolis (the Athenian, the medium between the two extremes before described) immediately exhibits his superior refinement, by suppressing their minstrelsy; and the honest Theban, instead of being offended, joins in condemning them. He then displays his wares, and the Athenian, with a burlesque tragical rant, takes one of his best articles (a Copaic eel) and delivers it to his own attendants to be conveyed within doors. The Theban, with great simplicity, asks how he is to be paid for it ”

“ The Chorus of Birds, his subjects, retain, on the contrary, their hereditary hatred and suspicion of the human race; they are ready to break out into open mutiny against their king, and to massacre his foreign (human) advisers upon the spot. It is with the greatest difficulty that they can be prevailed upon to hear reason, and attend to the luminous exposition of Peisthetairus. ”

“ THE ACHARNIANS
Dicæopolis, whose name may be interpreted as conveying the idea of honest policy, is the principal character in the play. He is represented as a humorous, shrewd countryman (a sort of Athenian Sancho) , who (in consequence of the war, and the invasion of Attica by the Peloponnesian Army) had been driven from his house and property to take shelter in the city. Here his whole thoughts are occupied with regret for the comforts he has lost, and with wishes for a speedy peace. ”

“ But here he comes himself; set the door open.
Lamachus is brought in, wounded and disabled; his appearance and attendants are caricatures of the exhibition of the wounded heroes, whom it had become the fashion to introduce. The dialogue is a burlesque of the lyrical agonies and lamentations of the same personages. ”

“ Chorus. If the story you quote, is authentic and true,
No doubt can exist of our clear seniority;
And the gods must acknowledge our right to authority.
Eu. Your beaks will be worn with distinction and pride;
The woodpecker's title will scarce be denied;
And Jove the pretender, will surely surrender.⁠480
Peis. ”

“ Suffering men of years and service at your bar to stand indicted,
Bullied by your beardless speakers, worried and perplexed and frighted;
Aided only by their staff, the staff on which their steps are stayed;
Old, and impotent, and empty; deaf, decrepit, and decayed.
There they stand, and pore, and drivel, with a misty purblind gleam,
Scarce discerning the tribunal, in a kind of waking dream.
Then the stripling, their accuser, fresh from training, bold and quick,
Pleads in person, fencing, sparring, using every turn and trick ”

“ Chorus. Hear him shout there. Hear him bawl!
Dic. (louder) . Season and broil him there—that eel!
Chorus. You don't consider what we feel;
We're famished her with waiting;
⁠While you choke
⁠Us with your smoke, ⁠1370
And deafen us with prating.
Dic. Those cutlets, brown them nicely—there—do ye mind.
Enter a Bridesman.
Brid. Ho, Dicæopolis!
Dic. ⁠Who's there! Who's that?
Brid. A bridegroom, that has sent a dish of meat
From his marriage feast.
Dic. ⁠Well! come! That's handsome of him;
That's proper, whoever he is; that's as it should be. ”

“ Peisthetairus, surprised at the rapid conclusion of the work, feeling from the volubility and easy manner of the Messenger, the blow which his authority has received; seeing that nothing is left for him to superintend, nothing to direct, nothing to suggest, or to find fault with, remains in an attitude of perplexity and astonishment, with his hands clasped across his forehead. ”

“ Peisthetairus and Euelpides appear as a couple of worn-out pedestrian travellers, the one with a Raven and the other with a Jackdaw on his hand. They appear to be seeking for a direction from the motions and signals made to them by the Birds.
Eu. (speaking to his Jackdaw) .
Right on, do ye say? to the tree there in the distance?
Peis. (speaking first to his Raven, and then to his companion) .
Plague take ye! Why this creature calls us back!
Eu. What use can it answer tramping up and down?
We're lost, I tell ye: our journey's come to nothing. ”

“ He takes his friend's retort in perfect good humour, and Euelpides is admitted as a third person, to consult, with him and the King, upon some unimportant matters, such as the name of the new City, and the choice of a patron Deity, upon all which topics, his idle buffoonish humour is not misplaced: but a more delicate point is afterwards brought into discussion (nothing less than the choice of a chief commander for the Citadel) which Euelpides treats with the same silly drollery as before. ”

“ The King Hoopoe now gives some orders in a pacific spirit, directing that all warlike weapons be removed and hung up at the back of the chimney as before. He then calls upon Peisthetairus to communicate to the assembled commonalty the propositions which had been before discussed in private conference between themselves. Peisthetairus, however, sees his advantage and insists upon the previous conclusion of a formal treaty of peace; this is done, and the Chorus swear to it (relapsing for a moment into their real character) "as they hope to win the prize by unanimous vote." ”

“ When gifts and oblations to Neptune are made,
To the Drake, let a tribute of barley be paid.
Let the Cormorant's appetite first be appeased,
And let Hercules then have an Ox for his feast. [30]
If you offer to Jove as the Sovereign above,
A Ram for his own; let the Golden-Crown,
As a sovereign Bird, be duly preferred,
Feasted and honoured, in right of his reign;
With a jolly fat pismire offered and slain.
Eu. A pismire, how droll! I shall laugh till I burst!
Let Jupiter thunder, and threaten his worst.⁠570
Hoo. ”

“ Neptune, Hercules, Triballus, or the Triballian—Joint ambassadors from the gods, commissioned to treat with Peisthetairus. Neptune is represented as a formal dignified personage of the old school. Hercules as a passionate, wrong-headed, greedy blockhead; he is cajoled and gained over by Peisthetairus, and in his turn intimidates the Triballian, an ignorant barbarian deity who is hardly able to speak intelligibly. They join together, Neptune is out-voted, and Peisthetairus concludes a treaty by which his highest pretensions are realised. ”

“ It is, we believe, an established axiom in the art of lying, that almost anything may be made credible of almost any person, provided that the imaginary facts are accompanied by a just representation of the behaviour of the person, such as it might be supposed to be under the alleged circumstances; and this will be more strikingly the case, if some trait of his character, not generally observed, but likely to be immediately recognised, is exhibited for the first time. ”

“ Of the Parabasis before us, the merits are well known, and perhaps no passage in Aristophanes has been oftener quoted with admiration. To bring the most sublime subjects within the verge of Comedy, and to treat of them with humour and fancy, without falling into vulgarity or offending the principles of good taste, seems a task which no poet whom we know of, could have accomplished: though, if we were possessed of the works of Epicharmus, it is possible that we might see other specimens of the same style. ”

“ The scene here passes into burlesque, but it is a burlesque expressive of the character which is assigned to the Theban; a character of primitive simplicity, utterly unacquainted with all the pests by which existence was poisoned in the corrupt community of Athens. A common sycophant or informer is proposed as an article which the Athenian soil produced in great abundance, but which would be considered as a rarity in Bœotia. The Theban agrees to the exchange, saying, that if he could get such an animal to take home, he thinks he could make a handsome profit by exhibiting him. ”

“ It may be necessary to say something of an attempt that has been made in the translation of the following Chorus to convey to the English reader some notion of the metrical character of the original. The Poet himself has described the metre as bold and manly, expressive of firmness and vehemence, and, as such, suitable to the persons of whom his Chorus is composed. The Cretic metre (for that is its name) consists of a quaver between two crotchets ( ) , and may be considered as a truncated form of the Trochaic, differing from it only by the subtraction of a short or quaver-syllable ”

“ His son, the heir apparent, had been admitted by the Athenians to the freedom of their City, an honour which, in their opinion (as well as in that of Mr. Peter Putty in Foote's farce) , any prince ought to be proud of; and the Assembly are accordingly informed of the delight and enthusiasm with which the compliment had been accepted. They are presented moreover with a specimen of the auxiliary troops, somewhat singularly equipped, which their new ally is willing to employ in their service, but at a rate of pay which Dicæopolis exclaims against as scandalous. ”