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tators; this prize consisted of a cask of wine, and the performance before named simply Comedia or the village-song, was thenceforward called Trugadia, or the song for the cask, compounded of rgy and ὠδη.

These names are descriptive of the drama in its progressive stages, from a simple village-song, till it took a more complicated form by introducing the Satyrs, and employing the chorus in recitation through a whole fable, which had a kind of plot or construction, though certainly not committed to writing. In this stage, and not before, the prize of the cask of wine was given, and thence it proceeded to attract not the husbandmen and labourers only but the neighbours of better degree. The drama under the designation of Trugadia was satiric, and wholly occupied in the praise of Bacchus; it was unwritten, jocose, and confined to the villages at the seasons of the Trina Dionysia; but after a prize however inconsiderable had been given, that prize created emulation, and emulation stimulated ge

nius.

The village bards now attempted to enlarge their walk, and not confining their spectacles merely to Bacchus and the Satyrs began to give their drama a serious cast, diverting it from ludicrous and lascivious subjects to grave and doleful stories, in celebration of illustrious characters amongst their departed heroes; which were recited throughout by a chorus, without the intervention of any other characters than those of the Satyrs, with the dances proper thereunto.

This spur to emulation having brought the drama a step forward, that advance produced fresh encouragement, and a new prize was now given, which still was, in conformity to the rustic simplicity of

the poem and its audience, a Goat, reάyos, a new prize created a new name, and the serious drama became distinguished by the name of Tragedia, or the song for the goat: thus it appears that Tragedy, properly so called, was posterior in its origin to comedy; and it is worthy of remark that Trugœdia, was never applied to the tragic drama, nor Tragedia to the comic: after this comedy lost its general designation of Trugadia, and was called by its original name of the village-song or Comœdia.

The next step was a very material one in point of advance,for the village-poets having been excited by emulation to bring their exhibitions into some shape and consistence, meditated an excursion from the villages into the cities, and particularly into Athens: Accordingly, in Olymp. liv. Susarion, a native of Icarius, presented himself and his comedy at that capital, rehearsing it on a moveable stage or scaffold, presuming on the hope that what had given such delight to the villagers would afford some amusement to the more refined spectators in Athens: this was the first drama there exhibited, and we should naturally expect, that a composition to be acted before the citizens of the capital should be committed to writing, if we did not know that the author was on these occasions the actor of his own piece; the rude interludes of Bacchus and the Sa. tyrs being introduced upon the scene according to their old extemporary manner by the Sileni and Tituri, whose songs and dances were episodical to the drama: it continued to be the custom for authors to act their own plays in the times of Phrynichus and Eschylus, and I therefore think it probable Susarion's comedy was not a written drama; and I close with the authorities for Epicharmus being the first writer of comedy, who, being retained in an elegant

court at Syracuse, chusing his plots from the Margites, and rejecting the mummeries of the Satyrs, would naturally compose his drama upon a more regular and elaborate plan.

NUMBER CXXVIII.

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In the plan, which I have laid down for treating of the literature of the Greeks, and to which I have devoted part of these papers, I have thought it adviseable for the sake of perspicuity to preface the account with an abstract of the Athenian history, within those separate periods which I mean to review. In conformity to this plan I have already brought down my narration to the death of Pisistratus, and this has been followed with a state of the drama at that period: I now propose to proceed with the history to the battle of Marathon inclusive, beyond which I shall have no occasion to follow it, and shall then resume my account of the literature of the Greeks, which will comprehend all the dramatic authors, both tragic and comic, to the death of Menander.

At the decease of Pisistratus the government of Athens devolved quietly upon Hipparchus, who associated his brother Hippias with him in power. Pisistratus had two other sons by a second wife, who were named Jophon and Thessalus; the elder died in his father's life-time, and the other, who was of a turbulent and unruly spirit, did not long survive him,

VOL. XL.

Hipparchus was not less devoted to science and the liberal arts than his father had been the famous Phæa, who had personated Minerva, shared his throne, and though he communicated with his brother Hippias on matters of government, and imparted to him so great a portion of authority, that they were jointly styled Tyrants of Athens, yet it seems evident that the supreme power was actually vested in Hipparchus; and it is extraordinary, for the space of fourteen years, until his death, his government was undisturbed by any disagreement with his brother or complaint from his subjects.

The most virtuous citizens of Athens, in the freest hours of their republic, look back upon this reign as the most enviable period in their history. Plato himself asserts, that all the fabulous felicity of the golden reign of Saturn was realised under this of Hipparchus: Thucydides gives the same testimony, and says that his government was administered without envy or reproach: the tradition of the golden days of Hipparchus was delivered down through many generations, and became proverbial with the Athenians. A prince, who had deserved so well of letters, was not likely to be forgotten by poets, historians, or philosophers; but such was the public tranquillity under his administration, that the patriots and declaimers for freedom in the most popular times have not scrupled to acknowledge and applaud it.

Hipparchus not only augmented the collection of books in the public library, but engaged several eminent authors to reside at Athens: he took Simonides of Ceos into his pay at a very high stipend, and sent a fifty-oared galley for Anacreon to Teos, inviting him with many princely gifts to live at his court: he caused the poems of Homer to be pub

licly recited at the great assembly of the Panathenæa, and is generally supposed to have suggested the plan of collecting the scattered rhapsodies of the Iliad and Odyssey, so happily executed by his father. His private hours he devoted to the society of men of letters, and on these occasions was accompanied by Simonides the lyric poet, Onomacritus, Anacreon and others. He did not confine his attention to the capital of his empire, but took a method, well adapted to the times he lived in, of reforming the understandings of his more distant and less enlightened subjects in the villages, by erecting in conspicuous parts of their streets or market-places statues of the god Mercury, placed upon terms or pedestals, on which he caused to be inscribed some brief sentence or maxim, such as Know thyself -Love justice Be faithful to thy friend'. and others of the like general utility.

It is not easy to devise a project better calculated for the edification of an ignorant people than these short but comprehensive sentences, so easy to be retained in the memory, and which, being recommended both by royal and divine authority, claimed universal attention and respect.

This excellent and most amiable prince was assassinated by Harmodius and Aristogiton, and a revolution being in the end effected favourable to the popular government of Athens, the assassins were celebrated to all posterity as the assertors of liberty and the deliverers of their country. Of all the rulers of mankind, who have fallen by the hand of violence, how few have been sacrificed in the public spirit of justice, and how many have fallen by the private stab of revenge! When we contemplate the elder Brutus brandishing the dagger of Lucretia, we cannot help recollecting that Tarquinius Superbus

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