in which he lived, nor to the men for whom he wrote; coarseness and indecency are essentially base; they always soil and degrade the literature into which they are admitted. Still, it is plain that Aristophanes was less offensive than his compeers of the comic theatre; an Apollo among the Satyrs of the Lenæan festival. Nor would he suffer, if placed side by side with the comic writers of any other age; compared with nearly every old English writer for the comic stage, he is harmless and almost pure. An age which has studied with freshened ardour the elder drama of England, which calls for edition after edition of Ben Jonson, and bears without a murmer the abominations of Beaumont and Fletcher, can have but little fault to find with the Hellenic freedoms of Aristophanes, who wrote for a theatre to which women were not admitted. The Attic drama-at least the comedy, for with regard to tragedy the question is not settled-never felt the refining influence which the society of women exercises over the character and works of man. "The Clouds," however, is one of the three or four pieces of Aristophanes which are least tainted with the universal plague. Nothing, therefore, has been omitted from the text of this edition, as but little danger is apprehended to the morals of young men from a few freaks of an old Athenian's gamesome imagination, to be interpreted only by an assiduous use of the grammar and lexicon. Mr. Mitchell has expurgated his "Clouds," by leaving out all the objectionable passages, an exercise of editorial power not very complimentary to the student of the drama of Aristophanes. The text of this edition of "The Clouds" is printed from Dindorf's "Poetæ Scenici Græci." In some few passages, the readings of Hermann have been preferred. In the preparation of the Notes, the labours of others have been freely used, particularly the elegant commentaries of that eminent Hellenist, Mr. Mitchell, whose editions of the separate comedies, notwithstanding occasional errours in minute points of Greek grammar, are an honour to English scholarship. Bothe's edition has been found valuable in many respects; though his explanations are sometimes fanciful, and the liberties he has taken with the text are often rash, and his conjectures indefensible. The select tragedies edited by President Woolsey of Yale College have done not a little to awaken and extend a taste for the works of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. It is hoped that the new and engrossing duties of the office which he now fills, with so much benefit to the College, will not withdraw him from the favorite studies of his youth. The present comedy is offered to the lovers of the classic theatre, as an afterpiece to those excellent performances. CAMBRIDGE, January, 1848. C. C. F. ΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΔΡΑΜΑΤΟΣ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΑ. ΣΤΡΕΨΙΑΔΗΣ. ΦΕΙΔΙΠΠΙΔΗΣ. ΘΕΡΑΠΩΝ ΣΤΡΕΨΙΑΔΟΥ. ΜΑΘΗΤΑΙ ΣΩΚΡΑΤΟΥΣ. ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ. ΧΟΡΟΣ ΝΕΦΕΛΩΝ. ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ. ΑΔΙΚΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ. ΠΑΣΙΑΣ, δανειστής. ΑΜΥΝΙΑΣ, δανειστής. ΜΑΡΤΥΣ. ΧΑΙΡΕΦΩΝ. ὦ Ζεῦ βασιλεῦ, τὸ χρῆμα τῶν νυκτῶν ὅσον (After describing more graphically than delicately the sound sleep his son was enjoying, he proceeds :) 11 15 20 25 ἀλλ ̓ εἰ δοκεῖ, ρέγκωμεν ἐγκεκαλυμμένοι. ἀλλ ̓ οὐ δύναμαι δείλαιος εὕδειν δακνόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς δαπάνης καὶ τῆς φάτνης καὶ τῶν διὰ τουτονὶ τὸν υἱόν. Ὁ δὲ κόμην ἔχων, ὀνειροπολεῖ θ ̓ ἵππους· ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἀπόλλυμαι, οἱ γὰρ τόκοι χωροῦσιν. Απτε, παῖ, λύχνον, ΦΕΙΔΙΠΠΙΔΗΣ. ὀνειροπολεῖ γὰρ καὶ καθεύδων ἱππικήν. B ΦΕΙ. πόσους δρόμους ἐλᾷ τὰ πολεμιστήρια ; ἀτὰρ τί χρέος ἔβα με μετὰ τὸν Πασίαν ; ἐμῶν. ὅτε καὶ δίκας ὤφληκα, χάτεροι τόκου ἐνεχυράσασθαί φασιν. ΦΕΙ. ἐτεόν, ὦ πάτερ, τί δυσκολαίνεις καὶ στρέφει τὴν νύχθ ̓ ὅλην; ΣΤΡ. δάκνει με δήμαρχός τις ἐκ τῶν στρω μάτων. ΦΕΙ. ἔασον, ὦ δαιμόνιε, καταδαρθεῖν τί με. ΣΤΡ. σὺ δ ̓ οὖν κάθευδε· τὰ δὲ χρέα ταῦτ ̓ ἴσθ ̓ ὅτι ἐς τὴν κεφαλὴν ἅπαντα τὴν σὴν τρέψεται. (Old Strepsiades then gives a humorous description of his condition before he was encouraged, in an evil hour, to aspire to the hand of a lady belonging to the high and mighty house of Megacles; he sketches the character of his wife, and points out the comical contrast between her and himself. He was leading a mighty pleasant life, dirty, unswept, and careless, with plenty of bees, and sheep, and olives; when, in a fit of ambition, and by the agency of the match-maker, he married a great city lady, whose family had been so reduced by the policy of Pericles as to make even such a marriage desirable to the falling house. The family of Megacles, the son of Megacles, was one of the proudest and most aristocratical in Athens. Pericles and Alcibiades belonged to the great Megacleid family. The old man then consoles himself by the reflection, that he has found a capital way of mending his affairs, if he can but persuade the young man to adopt it. Of this he entertains some doubts, and accordingly proceeds with no little anxiety to wake him in the gentlest manner, calling to him with various endearments, and by tender diminutive names.) 75 νῦν οὖν ὅλην τὴν νύκτα φροντίζων ὁδοῦ, τί, ὦ πάτερ ; ΣΤΡ. κύσον με καὶ τὴν χεῖρα δὸς τὴν δεξιάν. ΣΤΡ. εἰπέ μοι, φιλεῖς ἐμέ; ΦΕΙ. νὴ τὸν Ποσειδῶ τουτονὶ τὸν ἵππιον. ΣΤΡ. μή μοί γε τοῦτον μηδαμῶς τὸν ἵππιον οὗτος γὰρ ὁ θεὸς αἴτιός μοι τῶν κακῶν. ἀλλ ̓ εἴπερ ἐκ τῆς καρδίας μ ̓ ὄντως φιλεῖς, ὦ παῖ, πιθοῦ. ΦΕΙ. τί οὖν πίθωμαι δῆτά σοι ; ΣΤΡ. ἔκστρεψον ὡς τάχιστα τοὺς σαυτοῦ τρόπους, καὶ μάνθαν ̓ ἐλθὼν ἂν ἐγὼ παραινέσω. ΦΕΙ. λέγε δή, τί κελεύεις ; ΣΤΡ. ΦΕΙ. νὴ τὸν Διόνυσον. ΣΤΡ. καί τι πείσει ; πείσομαι, δεῦρό νυν ἀπόβλεπε. ὁρᾷς τὸ θύριον τοῦτο καὶ τῳκίδιον ; ΦΕΙ. ὁρῶ. Τί οὖν τοῦτ ̓ ἐστὶν ἐτεόν, ὦ πάτερ ; ριον. ἐνταῦθ ̓ ἐνοικοῦσ ̓ ἄνδρες οἳ τὸν οὐρανὸν ΦΕΙ. εἰσὶν δὲ τίνες ; ΣΤΡ. οὐκ οἶδ ̓ ἀκριβῶς τοὔνομα· μεριμνοφροντισταὶ καλοί τε κἀγαθοί. ΦΕΙ. αἰβοῖ, πονηροί γ', οἶδα. Τοὺς ἀλαζόνας, τοὺς ὠχριῶντας, τοὺς ἀνυποδήτους λέγεις· ὧν ὁ κακοδαίμων Σωκράτης καὶ Χαιρεφῶν. ΣΤΡ. ἢ ἢ, σιώπα· μηδὲν εἴπῃς νήπιον. ἀλλ ̓ εἴ τι κήδει τῶν πατρῴων ἀλφίτων, τούτων γενοῦ μοι, σχασάμενος τὴν ἱππικήν. ΦΕΙ. οὐκ ἂν μὲ τὸν Διόνυσον, εἰ δοίης γέ μοι τοὺς φασιανούς, οὓς τρέφει Λεωγόρας. ΣΤΡ. ἴθ', ἀντιβολῶ σ ̓, ὦ φίλτατ ̓ ἀνθρώπων ἐμοί, ἐλθὼν διδάσκου. |