I will venture a word here concerning the subjective side of comedy. Is it the very depth and quick of our self-love which is reached by the subtle sting which calls up a blush where no sermonizing would have that effect? Deep satire touches the heroic within us. "Miserable sinners are ye all," says the preacher, "vanity of vanities!" and we sit contentedly, and say Amen. But here comes some one who sets up our meannesses and incongruities before us so that they topple over and tumble down. And then, strange to say, we feel in ourselves this same power; and considering our follies in the same light, we are compelled to deride, and also to forsake them.
The miseries of war and the desirableness of peace were impressed strongly on the mind of Aristophanes. The Peloponnesian War dragged on from year to year with varying fortune; and though victory often crowned the arms of the Athenians, its glory was dearly paid for by the devastation which the Lacedæmonians inflicted upon the territory of Attica. "The Acharnians," "The Knights," and "Peace" deal with this topic in various forms. In the first of these is introduced, as the chief character, Dikæopolis, a country gentleman who, in consequence of the Spartan invasion, has been forced to forsake his estates, and to take shelter in the city. He naturally desires the speedy conclusion of hostilities, and to this end attends the assembly, determined, as he says:
| To bawl, to abuse, to interrupt the speakers |
| Whenever I hear a word of any kind, |
| Except for an immediate peace. |
This method reminds us of the obstructionists in the British Parliament. One man speaks of himself as loathing the city and longing to return
| To my poor village and my farm |
| That never used to cry: "Come buy my charcoal," |
| Nor "buy my oil," nor "buy my anything," |
| But gave me what I wanted, freely and fairly, |
| Clear of all cost, with never a word of buying. |
After various laughable adventures, Dikæopolis finds it possible to conclude a truce with the invaders on his own account, in which his neighbors, the Acharnians, are not included. He returns to his farm, and goes forth with wife and daughter to perform the sacrifice fitting for the occasion.
DIKÆOPOLIS
| Silence! Move forward, the Canephora. |
| You, Xanthias, follow close behind her there |
| In a proper manner, with your pole and emblem. |
WIFE
| Set down the basket, daughter, and begin |
| The ceremony. |