Non ego, dum semiustus adhuc rogus ardet, abibo; inde satis, flammae quo renoventur, erit: nec tamen hoc ausim: neque enim me funere tali dignor: in Herculea pars mihi nulla pyra. haud secus Oechalios memini flagrasse penatis et patrias, multum me lacrimante, domos; tot tamen amissis, tanta superante ruina,

quod compensarem sat fuit unus amor. ipse iter ad navem dextra mihi fulsit amica, (aut amor, aut species illud amoris erat,) addidit et voces, et iunctis oscula labris; mira loquor, nato me placuisse Iovis. nunc mihi vir periit, fratres periere, paterque, et genetrix: resto serva superstes ero: debueram iam tunc sepeliri matre sepulta, vel latus hic domino conseruisse meo. iamque satur fletu cessit vetus ille sodalis; centaurum latebrae lustraque caeca tenent: sola ego dilectos cineres vigil ossaque servo, Herculeae custos una relicta pyrae.

est tamen, est quae sola sacrae sub tegmine noctis, sola procul madidis maeret et ipsa genis:

sed mihi nec similem curam fovet illa, nec unquam participem luctus me sinet esse sui.

VII

These bad traditions of comedy affect us not only on the stage, but in our literature, and may be tracked into our social life. They are the ground of the heavy moralizings by which we are outwearied, about Life as a Comedy, and Comedy as a jade, when popular writers, conscious of fatigue in creativeness, desire to be cogent in a modish cynicism: perversions of the idea of life, and of the proper esteem for the society we have wrested from brutishness, and would carry higher. Stock images of this description are accepted by the timid and sensitive, as well as by the saturnine, quite seriously; for not many look abroad with their own eyes, fewer still have the habit of thinking for themselves. Life, we know too well, is not a Comedy, but something strangely mixed; nor is Comedy a vile mask. The corrupted importation from France was noxious; a noble entertainment spoilt to suit the wretched taste of a villainous age; and the later imitations of it, partly drained of its poison and made decorous, became tiresome, notwithstanding their fun, in the perpetual recurring of the same situations, owing to the absence of original study and vigour of conception.

MEREDITH.

VII

Nec scaenae nocuit prava haec comoedia tantum;
scriptorum ingenio nocuit: quin noxia mores
infecit nostros. patruae hinc mala taedia linguae:
'fabula vita hominum est,' aiunt, 'comoedia lena est':
sic sapiunt patruos, lauti salsique videntur

esse sibi populoque placent, quos ad nova vires
deficiunt fingenda. parum, qua vivere vitam
aequum sit ratione, vident: semota ferarum
a vita et longo nondum perculta labore

vita hominum hos homines quam sit pretiosa fefellit.
haec non morosi tantum: molli timidoque
quicumque est animo, credit, mox seria ducit:
nam quotus est, oculis qui circum adstantia rectis
aspiciat, quotus et suevit perpendere quaeque
lance sua? nec enim, scimus, comoedia vita est,
sed lacrimas habet et risus, nec turpe Thalia
exodium tantum fingit. sed vecta per aequor
pulpita pestifero lustravit non sua gressu
fabula Graecorum, flexit quam insulsa propago
in peius similemque sibi lasciva poposcit.
mox faece exhausta, motus edocta decoros,
plurima ridendis coniunxit taedia, nodos.
idem cum semper vindex laxaret eosdem.

non etenim aut operam scriptor dedit aut sua fortis pectora concussit rebus fecunda novandis.

VIII

When the man wants weight the woman takes it up,

And topples down the scales; but this is fixed

As are the roots of earth and base of all:

Man for the field and woman for the hearth:

Man for the sword and for the needle she:

Man with the head, and woman with the heart:
Man to command and woman to obey:

All else confusion. Look you! the gray mare

Is ill to live with, when her whinny shrills
From tile to scullery, and her small goodman
Shrinks in his arm-chair while the fires of Hell
Mix with his hearth: but you-she's yet a colt—

Take, break her strongly groom'd and straitly curb'd

She might not rank with those detestable

That let the bantling scald at home, and brawl

Their rights or wrongs like pot-herbs in the street.

TENNYSON.

VIII

Αντιρρόπως ἔχοντα ταν γάμοις ὁρῶ, ῥοπῇ γὰρ ἤν ποτ ̓ ἐλλιπὴς ἁνὴρ κυρῇ σταθμὸν τότ ̓ ἤδη μείζον ᾐρμένη γυνὴ ἕλκει τάλαντον. ἀλλ ̓ ὅδ ̓ ἔμπεδος μένει, ὥστ ̓ οὐδὲ μᾶλλον αἱ χθονὸς ῥίζαι, νόμος, γυναικὶ τἄνδον, ἀνδρὶ τἄξωθεν πρέπει καὶ τῷ μὲν ̓́Αρεως, τῇ δ ̓ ̓Αθηναίας πόνοι γυνὴ μὲν οἶκτον, νοῦν δ ̓ ἀνὴρ διδάσκαλον ἔχειν πέφυκε θῆλυ πείθεσθαι γένος,

τὸ δ ̓ ἄρρεν ἄρχειν· εἰ δὲ μὴ τάδ ̓ ὧδ ̓ ἔχοι πάντων ἴδοις ἂν σύγχυσιν τῶν ἐν βίῳ. κακὴ σύνευνος, ἴσθι, κοὐκ ἐπῄνεσα, ἥτις κομώσης μαίνεται πώλου δίκην ἱεῖσα φωνὴν διάτορον διὰ στεγῶν, πτήσσει δ ̓ ἀκούων ἐν μυχῷ καθήμενος ἀνὴρ ἄνανδρος, πῦρ ἐφ' ἑστίᾳ τρέφων ἀτηρόν. ἀλλά, παρθένος γάρ ἐστ ̓ ἔτι, χρὴ πωλοδαμνεῖν, καὶ γὰρ ἐγκρατεῖ χερὶ ἐπιστομισθεῖσ ̓ οὐκ ἂν εἰς ὁμιλίαν ἔλθοι γ ̓ ἐκείνων τῶν καταπτύστων, ὅσαι ἀτημέλητα τἀν δόμῳ νεοσσία

ἐῶσιν ἔρρειν εἰς τὸ πῦρ, ἐὰν τύχῃ, ἐν ᾧ θύραθεν, ὥσπερ αἱ καπηλίδες, βοῶσι λήρους καὶ δίκαια κἄδικα.