criticism and poetry attained a high degree of excellence,
while humour was in its infancy. Comedy is said to have been produced
first in Sicily by Susarion in 564 B.C., but we have only two
or three lines by which to judge of his work, and they are on the old
favourite topic. "A wife is an evil, but you can't live in a house
without one." As it is said his wife left him, it must be considered
doubtful whether this was not meant seriously. He was succeeded by
Epicharmus, whose humour seems to have been of a very poor description.
His subjects were mostly mythological, and he was fond of representing
the gluttony of Hercules, and Bacchus making Vulcan drunk. In the more
intellectual direction his taste was entirely philosophical, so much so
that Plato adopted many of his views. We may safely assert that no comic
performance worthy of the name took place until towards the end of the
fifth century,[14] though in the meantime the tragic drama had reached
its highest point of excellence. One _Satyric_ play, so called because
the chorus was formed of Satyrs, was put on the stage with three
tragedies by those competing for the dramatic prize. It seems to have
been mythological and grotesque rather than comic, but in the Cyclops
of Euripides, the only specimen extant, we have feasting and wine
drinking, the chorus tells Polyphemus he may swallow any milk he pleases
so that he does not swallow them--which the Cyclops says he would not do
because they might be dancing in his stomach--and Silenus recommends the
Cyclops to eat Ulysses' tongue, as it will make him a clever talker.

After the time of Aristophanes, the literary, and, we may say, the
social humour of Greece altered. It grew less political as liberty
became more restricted, and men's minds were gradually diverted by
business and foreign trade from that philosophical and artistic
industry, which had made Athens the centre of the world. The brighter
part of the country's genius descended to effeminate pursuits, and
employed itself in the development of amorous fancies. In the comedies
which came into favour, the dramatis personae represented a strange
society of opulent old men, spendthrift sons, intriguing slaves, and
courtezans. If we did not know what temptation there is to make literary
capital out of the tender passion, we might suppose that the youth of
that day were entirely occupied in clandestine amours, and in buying and
selling women as if they were dogs and pa