A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature . antitheses. He was the first to abandonmjthology, as furnishing the natural materials of tragedy, andoccasionally wrote pieces with purely fictitious names, (this isworthy of notice, as forming a transition towards the newcomedy,) one of which was called the Flower, and was pro-bably therefore neither seriously affecting nor terrible, but inthe style of the idyl, and pleasing. The Alexandrian scholars, among their other lucubrations,attempted also the composition of tragedies; but if we are toiudge of them from the only piece which has come
A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature . antitheses. He was the first to abandonmjthology, as furnishing the natural materials of tragedy, andoccasionally wrote pieces with purely fictitious names, (this isworthy of notice, as forming a transition towards the newcomedy,) one of which was called the Flower, and was pro-bably therefore neither seriously affecting nor terrible, but inthe style of the idyl, and pleasing. The Alexandrian scholars, among their other lucubrations,attempted also the composition of tragedies; but if we are toiudge of them from the only piece which has come down tolis, the Alexandra of Lycophron, which consists of an endlessmonologue, full of prophecy, and overladen with obscuremythology, these productions of a subtle dilettantism musthave been extremely inanimate and untheatrical, and everyAvay devoid of interest. The creative powers of the Greekswere, in this department, so completely exhausted, that theywere forced to content themselves with the repetition of the•works of tlicir ancient THE OLP COMEDY. 145 LECTURE XI. The Old Comedy proved to be completely a contrast to Trajrcdy —•Parody—Ideality of Comedy the reverse of that of Tragedy—MirthfulCaprice—Allegoric and Political Signification—The Chorus and itsPaiabases. AVe now leave Tragic Poetry to occupy ourselves with anentirely opposite species, the Old Comedy. Striking as thisdiversity is, we shall, however, commence with pointing out acertain symmetry in the contrast and certain relations betweenthem, which have a tendency to exhibit the essential charac-ter of both in a clearer light. In forming a judgment of theOld Comedy, we must banish every idea of what is calledComedy by the moderns, and what went by the same nameamong the Greeks themselves at a later period. These twospecies of Comedy difier from each other, not only in acci-dental peculiarities, (such as the introduction in the old ofreal names and characters,) but essentially and diametric
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