Aiming shrewd satyric darts
At his rival's noble parts,

And, with sallies sharp and keen,
Try to wound him in the spleen;
While the veteran rends and raises
Rifted rough uprooted phrases.
Wields them like a threshing-staff,

And dispels the dust and chaff.

BACCHUS.

Come now begin and speak away; but first I give you warning That all your language and discourse must be genteel and clever, Without abusive similes, or common vulgar joking.

EURIPIDES.

At the first outset I forbear to state my own pretensions ;
Hereafter I shall mention them when his have been refuted;
And after I have proved and shown how he abused and cheated
The rustic audience that he found, which Phrynichus has be-
queathed him.

He planted first upon the stage a figure veiled and muffled,
An Achilles or a Niobe that never showed their faces,

But kept a tragic attitude without a word to utter.

BACCHUS.

No more they did; it's very true.—

EURIPIDES.

In the meanwhile the Chorus

Strung on ten strophes right an end, but they remained in silence.

BACCHUS.

I liked that silence well enough; as well perhaps or better
Than those new talking characters.

Believe me.

EURIPIDES.

That's from your want of judgment,

BACCHUS.

Why perhaps it is:—but what was his intention ?

EURIPIDES.

Why mere conceit and insolence-to keep the people waiting Till Niobe should deign to speak, to drive his drama forward.

BACCHUS.

O what a rascal! Now I see the tricks he used to play me. [To Eschylus, who is showing signs of indignation by

various contortions.]

-What makes you writhe and wince about?

EURIPIDES.

Because he feels my censures :

Then having dragged and drawled along half way to the conclusion,

He foisted in a dozen words of noisy boisterous accent,

With "nodding plumes and shaggy brows," mere bugbears of

the language,

That no man ever heard before.

ÆSCHYLUS.

Alas! alas!

BACCHUS. [To Eschylus.]

Have done there!

EURIPIDES.

His words were never clear or plain.

BACCHUS. [To Eschylus.]

Don't grind your teeth so strangely.

EURIPIDES.

But Bulwarks and Scamanders, and Hippogrifs, and Gorgons, "Embost on brazen bucklers" and grim remorseless phrases Which nobody could understand.

BACCHUS.

Well, I confess for my part,

I used to keep awake at night, conjecturing and guessing

To think what kind of foreign bird he meant by Griffinhorses.

ESCHYLUS.

A figure on the heads of ships; you goose, you must have seen

them.

BACCHUS.

I took it for Philoxenus, for my part, from the likeness.

EURIPIDES.

So! figures from the heads of ships are fit for tragic diction.

ESCHYLUS.

Well then, thou paltry wretch, explain-What were thy own devices?

EURIPIDES.

Not stories about flying stags, like yours, and griffin-horses;
Nor terms nor images derived from tapestry Persian hangings.
When I received the Muse from you, I found her puffed and
pampered

With pompous sentences and terms, a cumbrous huge virago.
My first attention was applied to make her look genteelly,
And bring her to a moderate bulk by dint of lighter diet.
I fed her with plain household phrase, and cool familiar salad,
With water-gruel episode, with sentimental jelly,

With moral mince-meat; till at length I brought her within compass:

Cephisophon, who was my cook, contrived to make them relish. I kept my plots distinct and clear; and to prevent confusion My leading characters rehearsed their pedigrees for prologues.

ESCHYLUS.

'Twas well at least that you forbore to quote your own extraction.

(This is a most characteristic bit of Athenian malice Euripides was illegitimate.)

EURIPIDES.

From the first opening of the scene, all persons were in action: The master spoke, the slave replied;-the women, old and young

ones,

All had their equal share of talk.

ESCHYLUS.

Come then, stand forth and tell us What forfeit less than death is due for such an innovation ?

EURIPIDES.

I did it upon principle, from democratic motives.

BACCHUS.

Take care, my friend; upon that ground your footing is but ticklish.

EURIPIDES.

I taught these youths to speechify.

I say, that for the public good, you ought to have been hanged first.

EURIPIDES.

The rules and forms of rhetoric; the laws of composition;
To prate, to state, and in debate to meet a question fairly;
At a dead lift to turn and shift; to make a nice distinction.

ESCHYLUS.

I grant it all; I make it all my ground of accusation.

EURIPIDES.

The whole in cases and concerns, occurring and recurring,
At every turn and every day, domestic and familiar;
So that the audience, one and all, from personal experience,
Were competent to judge the piece and form a fair opinion
Whether my scenes and sentiments agreed with truth and

nature.

I never took them by surprise, to storm their understandings
With Memnons and Tydides's and idle rattle-trappings

Of battle-steeds and clattering shields, to scare them from their

senses.

But for a test (perhaps the best) our pupils and adherents
May be distinguished instantly by person and behaviour:
His are Phormisius the rough, Meganetes the gloomy,
Hobgoblin-headed, trumpet-mouthed, grim-visaged, ugly-
bearded;

But mine are Cleitophon the smooth, Theramenes the gentle.

BACCHUS.

Theramenes! a clever hand, an universal genius;

I never found him at a loss, in all the turns of party,

To change his watch-word at a word, or at a moment's warning.

EURIPIDES.

Thus it was that I began

With a nicer, neater plan;
Teaching men to look about,
Both within doors and without;

To direct their own affairs

And their house and household wares;

Marking everything amiss

"Where is that? and What is this?
This is broken-That is gone;"-
'Tis the system and the tone.

BACCHUS.

Yes, by Jove! and now we see
Citizens of each degree,

That the moment they come in
Raise an uproar and a din,
Rating all the servants round:
"If it's lost it must be found.
Why was all the garlic wasted?
There that honey has been tasted;
And these olives pilfered here.

Where's the pot we bought last year?

What's become of all the fish?

Which of you has broke the dish ?"

Thus it is; but heretofore

They sat them down to doze and snore.

Nothing is more remarkable in this scene than the skill with which the poet has made Euripides, all along the chief object of his satire, expose his own faults in the very speeches in which he affects to magnify his merits. The translation is far above my praise, but as a woman privileged to avow her want of learning, it may be permitted to express the gratitude which the whole sex owes to the late illustrious scholar, who has enabled us to penetrate to the heart of one of the scholar's deepest mysteries; and to become acquainted with something more than the name of Aristophanes.