I shall, therefore, confirm the general assertion
of Addison, part of which hath already been examined.
Comedy, Satire, and Burlesque, being the three chief branches of
ridicule, it is necessary for us to compare together the most admired
performances of the ancients and moderns, in these three kinds of
writing, to qualify us justly to censure or commend, as the beauties
or blemishes of each party may deserve.
As Aristophanes wrote to please the multitude, at a time when the
licentiousness of the Athenians was boundless, his pleasantries are
coarse and impolite, his characters extravagantly forced, and
distorted with unnatural deformity, like the monstrous caricaturas of
Callot. He is full of the grossest obscenity, indecency, and
inurbanity; and as the populace always delight to hear their superiors
abused and misrepresented, he scatters the rankest calumnies on the
wisest and worthiest personages of his country. His style is unequal,
occasioned by a frequent introduction of parodies on Sophocles and
Euripides. It is, however, certain, that he abounds in artful
allusions to the state of Athens at the time when he wrote; and,
perhaps, he is more valuable, considered as a political satirist than
a writer of comedy.
Plautus has adulterated a rich vein of genuine wit and humour, with a
mixture of the basest buffoonry.
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