EARLIEST COMIC WRITERS. 327 Out of all the once abundant compositions of Attic comedy, nothing has reached us except eleven plays of Aristophanes. That poet himself singles out Magnes, Krates, and Kratinus, among predecessors whom he describes as numerous, for honor- able mention ; as having been frequently, though not uniformly, successful. Kratinus appears to have been not only the most copious, but also the most distinguished, among all those who pre- ceded Aristophanes, a list comprising Hermippus, Telekleides, and the other bitter assailants of Perikles. It was Kratinus who first extended and systematized the license of the phallic festival, and the " careless laughter of the festive crowd," ] into a drama of regular structure, with actors three in number, according to the analogy of tragedy. Standing forward, against particular persons exhibited or denounced by their names, with a malignity of personal slander not inferior to the iambist Archilochus, and with an abrupt and dithyrambic style somewhat resembling ^schylus, Kratinus made an epoch in comedy as the latter had made in tragedy ; but was surpassed by Aristophanes, as much as JEschylus had been surpassed by Sophokles. We are told that his compositions were not only more rudely bitter and exten- sively libellous than those of Aristophanes, 2 but also destitute of that richness of illustration and felicity of expression which per- vades all the wit of the latter, whether good-natured or malignant. In Kratinus, too, comedy first made herself felt as a substantive agent and partisan in the political warfare of Athens. He espoused the cause of Kimon against Perikles ; 3 eulogizing the Compare Will. Schneider, Attisches Theater- Wesen, Notes, pp. 22-25 ; Bernhardy, Gricchische Litteratur, sect. 67, p. 292. 1 Xa?p', u fie-y' u^pcioytPujf 6/zt/U raff eirifidaif, Tf/f i][iTpa. ffodt'af Kpirfa upiare TTUVTUV, etc. Kratini Fragm. Incert. 51 ; Meineke, Fr. Com. Groecor. ii, p. 193.
- Respecting Kratinus, see Platonius and the other writers on the Attic
comedy, prefixed to Aristophanes in Bckker's edition, pp. vi, ix, xi, xiii, etc. ; also Meineke, Historia Comic. Graec. vol. i. p. 50, seq. Ot> yap, uaTTtp 'AptOToQdvrjc, iirirpfxfiv tijv X"P tv TO 'f GKuppsat r:oi'.< (Kpartvof), a?./.' <iT/l<jf, *ca?, ar Kapoipiav, yvpvij ry as- pa/.// r 1 1? T] a i ru{ [3?.aa$i]fiiaf narti TUV ufiapravovruv. 3 See Kratinus 'Ap^'Ao^oi Frag. 1, and Plutarch, Kimon. 10, 'H Ku/Kfidia Tro/ltrf VETQI iv roif ipapaai nal QitoooQet, i] ruv irtpl rbv Kparlvot io2 'ApiyroQuvTi" *al ~E.viro7.iv, etc. (Dionys. Ualikarn. Ars Rhetoric, c. 11.'
