31* ARISTOPHANES. Ariftophanes was greatly admired among the ancients, efpecially for the true Attic elegance of his ftyle: " It is," Ibid,, fays .nadam Dacier, tc as agreeable as his wit ; for befides " its purity, force and fweetnefs, it has a certain harmony,
- ' which founds extremely plcafant to the ear : when he has
" occafion to ufe the common ordinary ftyle, he does it " without ufmg any expreflion that is bafe and vulgar ; and
- ' when he has a mind to exprefs himfelf loftily, in his
'* higheft flight he is r. vt.-r obfcure." "Let no man," fays Scaliger, " pretend to underfland the Attic dialect, who has " not Ariftophanes at his fingers ends : in him are to be found " all the Attic ornaments, which made St. Chryfoftorn fo
- ' much admire him, that he always laid him under his pil-
hb^T " low when ne wenr to bed -" Mr. Frifchlin obferves, that cap. 7! Plautus has a great affinity to Ariftophanes in his manner of writing, and has imitated him in many parts of his plays [D], Frikhlin his written a vindication of our poet, inanfwer to the objections urged againft him by Plutarch. How great an opi- nion Plato had of Ariftophanes, is evident even from Plutarch's acknowledgem-mr, who teils us, that this poet's " Difcourfe " upon Love" was infertcd by that philosopher in his " Sym- " p:;fium :" and Cicero, in his firft book " De legibus," ftyles him " the moll witty poet of the old comedy." There have beeo feveral editions and tranflations of this poet [E]. The time of his death is unknown; but it is certain he was living after the expulfion of the tyrants by Thrafybulus, whom he mentions in his Plutus and other comedies. [D] " The addrefs of Ariftophanes," the fixteenth century, tranflated Piu- fays Mr. Rymer, " is admirable : he < tin, the Clouds, the Fmgs, the " would make the truth vilible, pal- ' Equitef, and the Acharnenfes" into ' pable, and every way fenfible. His L.itin verfe. Quiutus Septimius Flo- ' art and application, his firange fet- rens rendered into Latin verfe the ches, I)is lucky ftartf, his odd inven- <' Waips, the Peace, and Lyfiftrata }'* ' tions, his wild turns, returns, and but his translation is full of obfolete counterturns, were never matched, words and phrafes. Madam Dacier ' nor are ever to be reached again. published at Paris, in 1692, a French 1 Amongft the moderns, our " Re- verfion of " Plutus, and the Clouds," ' hearlal" is fome refemblance of his with critical notes, and an examination ' Frogs." The virtuofi's character, of them according to the rules of the and Ben Johnfon's Alchemift, give theatre. Mr, Lewis Theobald likewife " fome ftadow of his Clouds. But no tranflated thefe two comedies into Eng- { where, pe: ad venture, wanders fo lift), and publifhed them with remarks^ ' much of his fpirit, as in the French A noble edition of this author was pub-
- ' RabcLis." Short View of Tragedy, li/hed by Ludclphus Kufter, at Amfter-
p. iz, London edit. 1693. The fpirit dam, in folio, in 1710, and dedicated of Ariftophanes has been fince more to Charles Montague earl of Halifax 5 happily caught by Foote. and Peter Burman the younger has fmce [ej NicoQcmus Frifchin, a German, publifhed another at Leyden, 1761, IQ famous for his clafiical knowledge, in two vols. 410. ARISTOTLE,
