BACCHUS. Why perhaps it is;-but what was his intention ? EURIPIDES. Why mere conceit and insolence;-to keep the people waiting 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. wod ng Have done there! # dual, tels younibua EURIPIDES. vgidə art bogus deiß } His words were never clear or plain. von seh odojë 2 10 8: a zrodzie obatikta sigași a BACCHUS. [to Eschylus.] Don't grind your teeth so strangely. EURIPIDES. But Bulwarks and Scamanders, and Hippogrifs, and Gorgons, BACCHUS. Well, I confess for my part, I used to keep awake at night, conjecturing and guessing 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 My first attention was applied to make her look genteelly, I fed her with plain household phrase, and cool familiar salad, With moral mince-meat; till at length I brought her within compass: I kept my plots distinct and clear; and to prevent confusion 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; ESCHYLUS. I grant it all; I make it all my ground of accusation. EURIPIDES. The whole in cases and concerns, occurring and recurring, Of battle-steeds and clattering shields, to scare them from their senses. 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 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 Where's the pot we bought last year? 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 |