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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.

BUCCHUS.

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

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BACCHUS. [to Eschylus.]

Don't grind your teeth so strangely.

EURIPIDES.

But Bulwarks and Scamanders, and Hippogrifs, and Gorgons,
"Embossed 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 Griffin-horses.

ESCHYLUS.

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

BACCHUS.

I took it for Philoserus, 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.

BACCIIUS.

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

EURIPIDES.

I taught these youths to speechify.

ESCHYLUS.

I say so too. Moreover

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 Zydides'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 behavior;
His are Pharmisius the rough, Meganetes the gloomy,
Hobgoblin-headed, trumpet-mouthed, grim-visaged, ugly-bearded;
But mine are Cleitophon the smooth, Theromenes the gentle.

BACCHUS.

Theromenes! 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 every thing 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.

XXXVII.

AUTHORS ASSOCIATED WITH PLACES.

LORD CLARENDON-GEOFFREY CHAUCER-JOHN HUGHES.

Or all places connected with the great civil war, none retains traces more evident and complete of its ravages than the beautiful district which a tolerable pedestrian may traverse in a morning walk, and which comprises the site of the two battles of Newbury, and the ruins of Donnington Castle, one of the most memorable sieges of the Parliamentary army,

I went over that most interesting ground (not, however, on foot) on one of the most brilliant days of the last brilliant autumn, with the very companion for such an excursion: one who has shown in his "Boscobel" how well he can write the most careful and accurate historical research with the rarer power which holds attention fixed upon the page; and who, possessing himself a fine old mansion at the foot of the Castle Hill, and having a good deal of the old cavalier feeling in his own character, takes an interest almost personal in the events and the places of the story.

The first of these engagements took place, according to Clarendon, on the 18th of September, 1643, and has been most minutely related by cotemporary writers, the noble historian of the Rebellion, Old wison, Heath, the anonymous author of “The Memoirs of Lord Essex," and many others, varying as to certain points, according to their party predilections, but agreeing in the main. A very brief summary must answer my purpose.

Charles commanded the Royalists in person, while the Parliamentary forces were led by Essex, the King's object being to intercept the enemy, and prevent his reaching London. The common, then and now called "The Wash," was, together with the neighboring lanes, the principal scene of the combat. The line of wood has been in some measure altered, still sufficient

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