The Birds of Aristophanes. 17 And again in the same play, 783, iEacus says : oXiyov to xPW T0 ' v cvtiv, mamep tv6a.be. According to Suvern, these passages ought to prove the scene of the " Frogs" to be laid in Athens. But at the very com- mencement of the "Birds/' especial care is taken to inform the audience of the distance to which the Poet, ut magus, transports them in imagination : cf. lines 911. The two Athenians have lost their way, which they would hardly have done in the vicinity of the Pnyx: II. aXX' ovtf ottov yrjs evp-ev oio* cycoy crt. E. evrevdevi rr)v irarpib* av eevpois (rv ttov ; II. ovo* av pa Ata y evrevdev 'E^ijKeo-Tidrjs. Again, the poet takes pains to keep the spectators in mind that the scene of his play is between earth and heaven, in Bird- land, by a line which is, I think, generally misunderstood. I allude to 187 : iv peaw brj* ov6* P arjp can yrjs. The true meaning of which is, " you know the air is between us and earth." h peo-a is here used as pLerav sometimes is, with one of the limiting points (so to say) unexpressed. Compare Acharn. 432 sqq. : eo rra.2 56s avra TijXtyov paKcopara, Kelrai S' avoodev rav Qvcareliov paK&v, perav rav 'ivovs. " They lie above the rags of Thyestes, between them and those of Ino." It would be wearisome alike to myself and my readers to follow the details of Suvern's theory any further ; nor is it worth any one's while to trace the ins and outs of perverse ingenuity and misapplied erudition. I have said enough, I trust, to prove that the theory is in its fundamental assumptions utterly unsup- ported by internal evidence. But the internal evidence ought to have been strong indeed to outweigh the a priori improbability resulting from the entire deficiency of external evidence. No other extant drama involves any such continuous allegory, (though I dare say Prof. Suvern, with his notions of the laws of criticism, might undertake to prove the contrary with respect to any or all of them) ; no such complex double p.v8os is hinted at by Aristotle or any critic ancient or modern ; no scholiast has Vol. I. March, 1854. 2
