The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-04 00:00:00

AUG. 4, 1655. years yet—and then, water on the chest, and a fine large coffin." Mr. W. H. Curran himself enjoys (we have heard) considerable distinction as a conversa tionalist, and we should think, from his wri tings, that his table-talk must be entertaining and instructive. He is one of the few persons who have succeeded in joining legal and literary pursuits with success. He presided for many years with credit as a Commissioner in the Insolvent Court, and filled other legal offices previously. We have seen it stated in print that Mr. Curran is likely to favour the world with his own personal recollections ; and they would doubtless be valuable. It is only fair to add that the author is not responsible for the publication of these volumes, as Awe' lean printers compelled Mr. Colburn to protect his copyright. It would, however, have been better if only one volume had been pub lished, as there is much trivial writing in the second portion of these " Sketches " quite un worthy of being put before the public under the name of " Curran," and the ephemeral character of many of the topics of these pages exposes the author to a severe trial when coming before a generation which smiles at the delusions which prevailed amongst the politicians of thirty years since. Yet there is enough of brilliancy in many of these " Sketches " to sustain the reputation of the author as au accomplished man of talent. Minandre ; Etude Historique et Litteraire sur la Socidte et la Considie Grecques. Par Guillaume Guizot. Paris : Didier. IT is not often that we meet with a young man of twenty-two years of age whose classical attainments; bear any resemblance to those of the author of this essay. Critics are gene rally expected to know everything, but we hope we shall not forfeit our readers' estima tion when we state that we have gained much new information from the perusal of the book before us. M. Guillaume Guizot, Of virtuous father virtuous sou, has shown in his essay that he inherits many of the good qualities and talents that his father has taught us to associate with the name of Guizot. Not only is his knowledge of ancient literature unusually comprehensive, but also he shows himself familiar with the modern literature of France, Germany, and England. Wo find frequent quotations from classical authors with whom Oxford does not pretend to be acquainted. Laboriously and carefully com piled, this essay does not seem the production of mere " cram," but of ajudicious course of read sag. So full an account of the life and writings of the father of the new comedy has never yet appeared. We think that the im portance of the subject, and the skill shown in its treatment, justify our devoting some space to the examination of this volume. Though it gained a prize from the French Academy in 1853, " Menandre " has been only recently published. The subject proposed by the Academy was : " An historical and literary " study of the comedy of Menander : to give a " distinct idea of the time and character, by " the help of the many fragments which have " been preserved, of the scattered testimonies " of antiquity to this subject, of the remains of " comic poets of the same date and the same " school, of Latin imitations, and of the con " jectures of critical learning." M. Guizot's essay is divided into nine chapters. The first treats of the reputation and of the writings of Menander. The number of his pieces is fixed by Guizot at one hundred and five, but we believe this point was never very clearly determined. So great was the envy shown towards him, that he only gained the prize eight times, disdaining to court popularity by debasing his genius after the manner of his rival, Philemon. His first piece was represented before he attained the age of twenty-one, on which occasion the Athenians, naturally enough, raised the usual objections about his youth. As an answer to these jealousies, he brought a sheep on the stage, and taking the lambs that it had just brought forth he threw them into some water: though • scarcely alive they began to swim. Then said Menander to the Athenians, "If you are astonished to find in me so much knowledge THE PRESS. " at such an early age, why do you not ask " with more astonishment how these lambs "learnt to swim ?" Although disgusted with his own country, Menander rejected the advances of Ptolemy, who sent to offer him great riches, and thou sands of admirers at his Court. It is even re• corded that he sent him a fleet with special ambassadors, as if he had been a king, instead of a mere " dramatic writer." But Menander remained at Athens in spite of the detraction and depreciation that fell to his lot. Perhaps had he been more successful during his life, a less share of posthumous fame would have been his, for we generally find the writers who were most popular in their own age forgotten in the next. The influence of Menander upon the dramatic literature of other countries is well known to the readers of Terence and Plautus. If he were at all studied in England at the present time he might have a beneficial effect upon our stage. But his influence upon other branches of literature is less known. What schoolboy, for instance, knows that the text of " Evil communications corrupt good manners," upon which he has so often laboured, comes originally from the " Thais " of Menander, whence it is quoted in St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Apostle has not attempted to disguise the fact that this sentence came from a Greek poet, so that in the Greek Testament it stands an un doubted iambic. The favour shown to Me minder by the Fathers is also remarkable. While they inveighed against theatres as temples of Satan and palaces of immodesty, St. Jerome invoked blenander as a protector of civilisation. The second chapter gives a history of Menander's life, as far as it is possible to trace it. We think M. Guizot rather blameable for reprinting here two of Alciphron's epistles that bear upon the connection of Menander with the notorious Glycera. In his defence, M. Guizot says: We often forget that the ancients were men ; and, whether virtuous or vicious, we only wish to see them always great and brilliant. The proportions and glory are changed by a lapse of ages as they are by the distance of countries : while the distance of half a century or a mile makes less and tarnishes, a lapse of ten centuries or a distance of ten leagues enlarges and surrounds with a luminous vapour, mountains and nations. But ancients should be treated as leniently as moderns, and we might as well attempt to illus trate the present century by publishing in a volume all the letters that have such effect in divorce cases, as to describe the times of Menander by refcn•ing to imaginary letters from him to his mistress. M.Guizot's third chapter is devoted to the sub ject of the Greek drama, during its three periods. He considers that the ancient comedy, of the time of Aristophanes, was exclusively of a practical nature. Res, ecting posthumous fame, the dramatists aimed simply at exciting their fellow-citizens against some measure about to be passed, some war that they disap proved of. They were, in fact, the newspapers of that day : and this fact shows us the incon. sistency of those who rail at the venal press, while they admire Aristophanes. In no respect is the change from the ancient to the middle comedy more remarkable than in their political aspects. The middle comedy repre cents politics more as a philosophical study than as a struggle. It looks upon them, not with the eagerness of a partisan, but with the calm gaze and extended vision of are cording historian. But the new comedy was different from the two kinds that preceded it, and was chiefly devoted to the private life and manners of the people of the time. Political satire and public affairs were rarely introduced, and even then only casually, to give occasion for some generalising remarks. M. Guizot thus accounts for this change : This kind of comedy became the only kind possible in the time of Menander and Philemon. The people of Athens were happier, but less free, after the battle of Cheromea, and, above all, after the war of Lamea than after the Peloponnesian war. Alexander had finished Philip's work, and Antipater had consolidated what Alexander had done. An aristocratical government, sustained by a Mace- donian garrison, had again replaced the government of a democracy in Athens. The whole nation resigned itself, and employed in other ways the forces that it had before engaged for its glory and its ambition. Its commerce and finances were also much more prosperous than in the time of Pericles ; the population daily increased, and the 743 citizens grew rich at the same time as the State. Under Demetrius Poliorcetes the Athenian fleet was still great but the Athenians had entirely bat their ancient spirit of hardihood and conquest. Between the people of this age and the people of the time of l'imon there was as 'mach difference as there is between a man in the maturity of life, as energetic in heart as vigorous in body, and au old man still strong, but as if tiled by rest, having become from an audacious adventurer a good manager of his pro- perty, full of love fur life and of indulgence for himself, and consoled by a moderate gaiety fur the loss of his youth ful spirits. The fourth chapter treats of the conception and plan of the Greek drama. The first traces of intrigue and plot are to be found in the middle comedy. Reality formed the basis of the ancient comedy ; fantasy gave it its poetic form. Autiphaues complained, with ludicrous gravity, that comic poets had to invent plots, draw new characters, and imagine events that should pass before the eyes of the spectator. A tragedy, he said, was simple enough. When you gave the name of (Edipus, everybody knew what must follow, so that, when your characters were tired of talking, they raised a machine, and the spectator went home satis fied. But these licences were only granted to Peleus and Teucer, not to Chremes and Phedo. The plot, adopted about the time of Antipha nes, came to be the most important part of the play in the time of Menander. When a friend reproached Menander for not having finished'his play, the Feast of Bacchus being close at hand, the poet replied, " My comedy "is done. I have finished the plot; I have " only to write the verses." The remaining chapters are hardly worthy of a separate examination. We find in them, however, many detached passages of high merit, whose length forbids their quotation. A contrast between love as represented by the ancient writers and by the moderns is espe cially noticeable, showing that M. Guizot's knowledge of general literature is such that he can always illustrate one author by compa rison with another. This power adds greatly to the enjoyment derived from the perusal of the classics. To find that in Borneo the same customs exist at the present day as some whose existence among the ancients we learn from Herodotus and Xenophon, in addition to the pleasurable surprise it imparts, acts also as a sort of metnoria technica, and impresses the two nations more distinctly upon the mind. The essay concludes with a thoroughly French tributo to the genius of Moliere. The sole exaggeration in the book is worth quo tation ----- We are told that after the brilliant reception everywhere accorded to the Precieures Ridicules Moliere said, " I need now no longer study Plautus or Terence, nor pick up the fragments of Idenander." Moliere was right. He was then sure of his powers and his success. For us, the study of Plautus, of Terence, and Menander will always have new instructions, if it should only teach us to admire more and to love better Moliere. IN the war articles of the principal magazines this month there are several topics handled with great ability and knowledge, though the writers, avoiding large views of policy, mainly confine themselves to present events. Attention is engrossed by the petty and near, to the exclusion of the great and remote. Nearly a year ago, when the capture of Sebastopol was deemed certain, the question was discussed what the next step should be. Now we do not venture to look so far off. Our view at present is bounded by the Malakt.ff and the Redan. Every one sees that the siege has been an enormous blunder, that a purely civilian Cabinet, in taking the one false step of deciding on an enterprise in violation of the best established rules of warfare, has made other false steps inevitable, until at last, through persistence in an original error, the whole military strength of England, France, and Turkey is kept at bay by the colossal earthworks thrown up by the enemy. Lately we have seen quoted an observation by De Retz, that in certain conjunctures—as in certain positions at chess—it is impossible to move except at a dis advantage. This we fear is our case in the Crimea at present. The writer in Blackwood of " The Story of the Campaign " gives the best narrative we have yet seen of the repulse of the 18th June. It would appear that the attack was all but hopeless from the commencement, and it seems impossible to account for so important an operation having been conducted with so little forethought. One great error was the change made at the special request of General Pelissier—that there should be no previous can nonade on the morning of assault. It is not con-