GREEK COMEDY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 116, 19 May 1930, Page 9

GREEK COMEDY

& L W.E.A. LECTUEE

HUMOUR OF ARISTOPHANES

That there is nothing quite like the old Attic Comedy in modem literature or drama was the opinion expressed by Professor J. Rankine Brown, of Victoria University College, in his final lecture on "Greek Drama," given to a large W.E.A. audience at the Trades Hall on Saturday night. The nearest analogy to it, said the speaker, was tho * comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, but it was very much .more .virile, boisterous, and outspoken. The subject matter of the old comedy of Aristophanes consisted mainly of politics and scurrilous attacks on contemporary, personages. Politicians like Pericles and Cleon, philosophers like Socrates, and literary men' like Euripides were represented by actors on the stage and' were lampooned with the utmost virulence.' Sometimes their identity ivas disguised under a transparent pseudonym, but just as often the actual name of the victim was retained along with the other marks of identification. The licence of language and reference in old Attic comedy has never :. been, equalled—eertainlf never on the public stage, and rarely in literature; but it would be wrong to draw from this any inference as to the moral character of the writers or the- spectators. The worship of Dionysus was a period of unrestrained jollity when everything mirth-provoking was legitimate. Tho Athenians had very different idea 3 from ours in regard to such matters, and we cannot .throw back our concep-< tions of what is right and proper into the fifth century B.C. Greek tragedy makes its appeal to the intellectual .and spiritual side of human nature, Greek comedy to the lower and physical side, but as Browning makes Aristophanes argue in his very clever poem called ' 'Aristophanes;. Apology,'. ' a complete 'man has in him .both these elements, so that tragedy only depicted one side of human nature. \ . LAW REMODELS COMEDY, The- scurrilous, abusive side, was put a stop to by legislation in the time of Aristophanes, and out of the. old comedy developed what is called the Middle Comedy, which abandoned the personal and political: themes of its forerunner and was largely given i>ver to' literary criticism, ' parodies, ..' and mythological travesty. This . Middle Comedy lastedfor about half a century; and was followed by New Comedy, which devoted itself to subjects, drawn from everyday life. This New Comedy, the comedy of life and manners, was essentially the .. comedy of -modern times, stated Professor Bankine Brown, and in Meuander produced 'one of the most applauded"writers of antiquity.'■ WIT AND BEAUTY. Intermingled with all this buffoonery, , abuse, and 'parody of tragedy.- in old Attic Comedy continued the lecturer were lyric strains of wild and appeal- - ing beauty. Aristophanes and his predecessors were lyric poets of a. very high order. AristoplVan6s himself was a, master of the easy going, flowing lyric, and his plays abound in lyrical ■passages of exquisite, beauty.-; It is the, presence of this apparently, alien element that makes the old comedy; such a strange medley and quite unlike anything in modern literature., Aristophanes has all the "native wood notes wild" that we associate with Shakes- ' X>eare. After a brief reference to the life of the dramatist, who was.born between 450 and 445 8.C., and died in 388, the speaker pointed :,. out that, like all his fellow comedians, Aristophanes posed as a moral reformer and teacher. While doubtless they were sincere and honest, it seems strange that they all wrote with a strong aristor cratie bias, and their attitude to contemporary life and-politics was thoroughly one-sided. They had no criticism whatever for the ■ conservative order of things, and Aristophanes rnain-,-taine'd the- same attitude towards the sophists. He laughed at the gods and represented them in the most undignified and ignoble positions, but this was quite consistent with/ a belief .in. the ■ old gods, for most religions admit of mirth at the. expense of the gods at certain seasons and festivals. AN OUTSTANDING- FIGURE.' His attitude to lterature and ;to Euripides was the same, and • Aristophanes showed no recognition whatever of the undoubted excellences of-that-great $oet- and thinker. His hatred to Euripides was;.envenomed, bitter, and persistent, and was . provoked by that writer's substitution of realism, for the ideal; creations, of the old drama. Too much importance has been attached to the- criticisms of Aristophanes in. this' connection, for it must be remembered that he was, first and foremost, a comic poet .whose chief business was to amuse his audience, and he would probably—were he alive—be the first to laugh, at.those who had taken his jibes and jeers so seriously. Of all writers who had sought. to amuse the public on the stage, Aristophanes- was perhaps the most successful, and his best comedies were an unbroken succession of jokes and jests', amusing and preposterous incidents, puns^ and brilliant parodies.. The wonderful vein of lyrical inspiration that accompanied this buffoonery gave to the comedies of Aristophanes and his contemporaries their unique character. It has been stated that the genius of comedy and tragedy, was essentially the same, and there could be no doubt that' if any; Greek writer was fitted to excel in,both branches of the dramatic art, it was Aristophanes, just as Shakespeare had excelled in both in our own literature.

Professpr Bankino Brown explained the structure of a Greek comedy and gave details in regard to the leading plays of Aristophanes. JIo. outlined the plot of a very modern and amusing; play—"Clouds"—in which Socrates is ridiculed by Aristophanes, and' thehumour and freshness of the comedy were admirably brought out in a series of excellent readings by Miss-Mary Cooley, M.A. The lecturer concluded a most interesting evening by showing a number of beautiful lantern slides of Greek vases and statuary. A hearty, vote of thanks to Professor Bankine Brown and Miss Cooley for a delightful short course was proposed by Miss Una Castle, M.A.