Columbia (inttJers:ttj) mtl)fCitpoflrttig0rk THE LIBRARIES I BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. VOL. III. PART II. ; COMMITTEE. Chairman— LORD BROUGHAM, F.R.S., Mem. of the Nat. Inst, of France. Vice-chairman— EARL SPENCER. Treasurer— J OUy WOOD, Esq. Captain Beaufort, R.N.. F.R. and RA.S. Lord Campbell. Professor Carey. A.M. John ConoUy, M.D. William Coolson, Esq. The Bishop of St David's. J. F. DavLs Esq., F.R.S. Sir Henry De la Beche, F.R.S. Professor De Morgan, F.R.A.S. Lord Denman. Samuel Duckworth, Esq. The Bishop of Durham. John Elliotson, M.D., F.R.S. T. F. Ellis, Esq., A.M., F.R.A.S. Thomas Falconer, Esq. John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S. Sir I. L. Goldsmid, Bart., F.R. and R.A.S. Francis Henry Goldsmid, Esq. B. Gompertz. Esq., F.R. and R.A.S. Professor Graves. A.M.. F.R.S. G. B. Greenough. Esq., F.R. and L.S. Sir Edmund Head, Bart., A.M. M. D. Hill. Esq., Q.C. Rowland Hill, Esq., F.R.A.S. The Right Hon. Sir J. C. Hobhouse, Bart., M.P. Thomas Hodgkin, M.D. David Jardine, Esq., A.M. Hcnn.- B. Ker, Esq. Professor Key. A.M. J. G. S. Lefevre. Esq., A.M. Sir Denis Le Marchant, Bart. Sir Charles Lemon. Bart.. M.P. George C. Lewis, Esq., A.M. James Loch, Esq., M.P., F.G.S. Professor Long, A.M. The Rt. Hon. Stephen Lushington, D.C.L. Professor Maiden, A.M. A. T. Malkin, Esq., A.M. Mr. Serjeant Manning. R. I. Murchison, Esq., F.R.S., P.G.S. Lord Nugent. W. Smith O'Brien, Esq., M.P. John Lewis Prevost, Esq. Professor Quain. P. M. Roget M.D., Sec. R.S., F.R.A.S. Sir Martin A. Shee, P.R.A., F.R.S. .Sir G. T. Staunton, Bart., M.P. John Taylor, Esq., F.R.S. Professor A. T. Thomson, M.D. Thomas Vardon, Esq. Jacob Waley, Esq., A.M. James Walker, Esq., F.R.S., Pr. Inst. Civ. Eng. Henry Waymouth, Esq. Thomas Webster, Esq., A.M. Lord Wrottesley, A.M.. F.R.A.S. J. A. Yates, Esq. THOMAS COATES, Esq., Serretary, 42, Bedford Square. London : Printed by William Ci.owks and Soks, Stamford Street THE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. VOLUME III. PART II. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1844. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO VOL. III. INITIALS. G. B. J. H. B. A. DeM W . B. D, D. F. NAMES. George Bullen, British Museum. John Hill Burton, A.M., Advocate, Edinburgh. Augustus De Morgan, of Trinity College, Cambridge ; Professor of Mathematics in University College, London. William Bodham Donne. Duncan Forbes, A.M., M. As. Socs. London and Paris ; Professor of Oriental Languages in King's College, London. P. de G. Pascual de Gayangos, Professor of Arabic in the Univer- sity of Madrid. W. A. G. "William Alexander Greenhill, M.D., Trinity College, Oxford. C. P. H. C. PouLETT Harris. A. H. Adolph Heimann, Ph. D., University of Berlin. D. J. David Jardine, A.M. J. W. J. J. Winter Jones, British Museum. C. K. Charles Knight. V. K. Count Valerian Krasinski, Author of the History of the Reformation in Poland. E. L. Edwin Lankester, M.D., F.L.S. W. H. L. William Henry Leeds. G. L. George Long, A.M., Professor of Latin in Univei-sity Col- lege, London. J. M. L. J. M. Ludlow. C. P. M. Charles Peter Mason, A.B. T. E. M. Thomas Erskine May, Barrister at Law, Assistant Libra- rian of the House of Commons. J. C. M, The Reverend Joseph Calrow Means. J. N. John Narrien, F.R. and R.A.S. J. N— n. John Nicholson, A.B. Oxon., Ph. D. G. E. p. G. E. Paget, M.D., Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. J. P. James Paget, Lecturer on Physiology and Warden of the Collegiate Establishment, St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 177092 viii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. NAMES. William Plate, LL.D., M. R. Geog. S. of Paris. Leonhard Schmitz, Ph. D., late of the University of Bonn. The Reverend C. J. Scratchley, of Brazennose College, Oxford. The Reverend Philip Smith, A.B. William Spalding, A.M., Professor of Rhetoric in the University' of Edinburgh. John Tatam Stanesby. The Reverend Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, A.M., Fellow and Tutor of University College, Oxford. Edward Taylor, Gresham Professor of Music. Frederick Adolph Trendelenburg, Professor of the University of Berlin. F. H. T. F. H. Trithen, Member of the Odessa Society for History and Antiquities. A. V. Andre' Vieusseux, Author of History of Switzerland in Library of Useful Knowledge. G. W. The Very Reverend George Waddington, D.D., Dean of Durham. J. W. Joshua Watts. T. W. Thomas Watts, British Museum. W. W. William Weir. R. W. jun. Richard Westmacott, junior. R. W — n. The Reverend Robert Whiston, A.M., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. R. N. W. Ralph Nicholson Wornum. INITIALS. w . P L. S. C. J. S. P. s. W . s. J. T. s. A. P. s. E. T. F. A. T. ARISTOPHANES. AIMSTOPIIANES. direction of his rival. Under liis care he retnrns to the habits of his youth, and is put into possession of a truce for thirty years, which Cleon had roguishly kept under lock and key. He is thus made completely happy. The chorus of the play is made up of the so-called knights, a body distinguished for their hostility to Cleon. The " Clouds,'" u.c. 423, was said by JEhau ( Vcir. Hist. ii. 13) to have been the main cause of the subsei^iieut condemnation of the philosopher Socrates. But this cannot be altogether true, for he was not put to death till twenty years afterwards. Still, whatever was its etiect, there can be no question about its tendency and the gross injustice of its misrepresentations. Plato indeed {Apoluyia Socratis) identifies Aristophanes with the accusers of Socrates, and their charges with his calumnies, and complains with reason of their effect in prejudicing the minds of his fellow-citizens against him, as a sceptic and an imbeliever. The plot of the play is simple. A rustic father, Strepsiades, made bankrupt by the extravangances of his son Pheidippides, resolves to become a pupil of the " palefaced, shoeless Socrates," in the hopes of being- enabled to escape from and to cheat his creditors by his lessons in sophistry and chicanery. He accordingly goes to school to him, and finds him philosophising aloft iu a basket: an amusing scene follows, the rusticity and obtuseness of the pupil being humorously contrasted with the subtlety and refinement of tlie master. The Clouds, the chorus of the plaj', are invoked to give their aid, and made to appear as divinities on the stage : " for they," says Socrates, " are the only true goddesses ; all the rest are moon- shine" (v. 359). Strepsiades, however, is too dull to learn, and by the advice of the Clouds he sends liis son to take his place. Pheidip- pides proves an apt pupil, and shows his proficiency not only liy his schemes for over- reaching his father's creditors, but by offering to justify his conduct in beating his father, and then threatening to beat his mother in the same way. This raises the indignation of Strepsiades, and he wreaks his vengeance by setting fire to the school-house of Socrates, and burning out his pupite. This was a very plain intimation to the assembled Athenians, especially in conjunction with the concluding lines of the play. The play was said to have been received with loud applause, but never- theless it did not gain the prize, owing per- haps to the influence of Alcibiades, for whom the character of Pheidippides seems to have been meant. The play which we now possess was a second edition. In the " Wasps" the poet attacks the Athe- nian courts of justice, and ridicules the fond- ness of his fellow-citizens for acting as dicasts, an " office resembling that of our Westminster special jurj-meu." The principal character of the play is so fond of acting in this capacitv, jyoL. HI. that his son, by way of keeping him at home» resolves to fit up his house as a court of justice, and furnishes it accordingly. The father is pleased with the idea, and it is arranged that he should sit in judgment over all domestic olfenders. The first of these is a house-dog (Labes), charged with stealing a piece of Sicilian cheese. His trial is conducted iu regular form, with a mock solenniity which is very amusing, and full of comic humour. At last the dog is acquitted by mistake. Under this farce, however, lies a personal satire, directed against Laches, an Athenian general, who had commanded an expedition to Sicily, and become rich by the bribes of the enemy. From this play Racine borrowed the idea of his " Plaideurs," and it was imitated by Ben Jonson, in his " Staple of News." The " Peace " is entirely political, and aimed against the continuance of the Pelo- ponnesian war. The principal character, Trygseus, tired of its evils, makes a journey to heaven on the back of a beetle, to expos- tulate with the gods upon the sulject; he finds that they are not at home, and that their chambers are occupied by War, who liad thrust Peace into a deep well. With the help of a party of friends Tryga>us drags her out, and carries her off to earth. The play concludes with expressions of exultation on the part of the chorus upon the restoration of peace, intermixed with raillery against those who had an interest in the continuance of the war. The drift of the " Birds " is very obscure. The theory of Siivern may be iu the main correct. The " Thesmophoriazusse" (B.C. 411), and the " Ranse," or "Frogs," are both directed against Euripides. The latter was exhibited after the death of Aristophanes, and is one of the best and most amusing of his plays. In this play the god Dionysus proceeds to Hades for the purpose of bringing the departed Euripides to eai-th again, all the then -tragic poets of Athens being good for nothing. He is accompanied by a slave, and dressed like Hercules, that he may be mis- taken for him. Accordingly the meetings of Dionysus with the old acquaintances of that hero are very comic and amusing. He and his slave cross the Styx in Charon's boat, the frogs of the lake croaking a chant as they row over. On arriving in Hades, they find that there is a contest going on between Euripides and J^:schylus for the tragic chair there. Dionysus is called upon to decide between them, which he does in favour of JJschylus. He then returns with him, in- stead of Euripides, and Sophocles is installed in the vacant chair. In this play, as in the " Peace," no great respect is shown to the popular mythology, the positions and be- haviour of Dionysus being often veiy amus- ing, but very disreputable. The last play of Aristophanes was the " Plutus," or " Wealth," which belongs rather to the middle comedy 2 G AKISTOPHANES. ARISTOPHANES. tlian the old, and lias no chorus. No real characters are introduced upon the stage, nor has it any reference to political subjects. Its object seems to have been to point out the folly and guilt of covetousncss, and of re- pining at the dispensations of Providence in the distriluition of wealth. The argument is detaileil iu the four hundred and sixty-fourth number of the " Spectator." The names and fragments of the plays of Aristophanes which are no longer extant are given by Meineke, ii. 2. p. 993. The most lucid and satisfactory account of Aristophanes which we have seen in the English language is given by Thirlwall, in his " History of Greece," iv. 250. The authorities for the life of Aristophanes, independent of what is collected from his own works, are little else than the accounts of Suidas and the Greek grammarians, which may be found in Mei- neke, vol. i. The modern writers and commentators on the works of Aristophanes are very numerous. Most of them are enumerated by Bode, Ge- schichte (ler Helleiiisclien Komih, p. 220, and by HoiFmann, Lexicon Bihliographicum. The first edition of Aristophanes is the Aldine, printed at Venice, 1498, folio, con- taining only nine plays, the " Lysistrate " and " Thesmophoriazustc " not being then dis- covered. A second complete edition was published at Florence by Bernard Junta, 1515, 8vo. That of Kuster, Amsterdam, 1710, folio, contains the valuable Greek scholia. One of the most complete is by Bekker, five volumes, 8vo., Loudon, 1829. This also contains the scholia and a Latin version. There are also complete editions by Brunck, Boissonade, Bothe, Dindorf, and others ; of the " Acharnians," by Elmsley ; of the " Acharnians," " Knights," " Wasps," " Clouds," and " Frogs," by Mitchell ; and of several single plays, by others. The scholia on Aristophanes were published by Dindorf, in three vols., Leipzig, 1826. There are various translations of the dif- ferent plays of Aristophanes. The first that appeared in England was a version of the " Plutus," by Thomas Randolph, London,! 651, with the title of " Hey for Honesty ! Down with Knavery!" One of the best English versions is Cumberland's translation of the " Clouds," in blank verse, pul)lished in 1797. Among the more recent English verse trans- lations of different plays are those by Mitchell and Walsh ; of the " Birds," by Cary; and of all the clays, by Wheelwright. The " Achar- nians," " Knights," and " Birds," have been admirably translated by Mr. J. Hookham Frere : this translation was printed at Malta. Mr. Frere has also translated the " Frogs," which was executed before the others ; and he is the author of some translations from Aristophanes w Inch appeared in the " Quar- terly Review " some jears ago. There are also several English prose translations of 446 different plays : of the " Plutus," by Fielding and Young ; of the " Birds," by an anony- mous author (London, 1812) ; of the "Achar- nians," " Knights," " Wasps," and " Birds," by a Graduate of Oxford (Oxford, 18.32). , In French, Aristophanes has been translated y by Poinsinet de Sivry. In German all the l)lays have been translated by Voss and Droysen ; the " Acharnians," " Knights," "Clouds," and "Birds," by Wieland; the " Clouds" and " Frogs," by Welcker. R. W— n. ARISTO'PHANES of Byzantium ('Apio-- To(pa.vqs ^vidvTios), one of the most celebrated of the Alexandrine grammarians and critics, was the son of a military man named Apelles. He lived in the third centuiy before our sera, during the reigns of Ptolemy Philopator and Ptolemy Epiphanes. He studied philology and criticism, as those sciences were then studied, under several eminent teachers, of whom Eratosthenes was one, while another was Zenodotus, the founder of the Alexan- drine school of commentators upon Homer. Afterwards Aristophanes was appointed to superintend the library of Alexandria ; an appointment which he probably owed to his increasing reputation, but certainly not to any such proof of perspicacity as that which is recorded in a foolish story told by Vitru- vius. He now in his turn received pupils, among whom were several eminent Homerists, the greatest of these being the prince of the Homeric critics, the celebrated Aristarchus. Aristophanes himself held a high place as an annotator on the poet ; and his name is usually joined in that character with those of his teacher and of his famous pupil. The grounds of his Homeric reputation may be in some degree understood from Villoison's Vene- tian Scholia; but still nothing is known sufficient to found anything beyond partial conjectures, in which, indeed, one or two recent German scholars have freely indulged in treating of this ancient critic. Wolf thinks that there is good evidence of his having been very cautious in his proposals of innovation, but is disposed to believe that neither in the criticism nor in the interpretation of the Homeric poems do the notices we possess of his readings, or of the passages which he considered as spurious, indicate any decisive advance beyond the point which had been already reached by Zenodotus. Questions of literary geniuneness, however, appear to have had peculiar attractions for the mind of Aristophanes, and to have been treated l)y him with a comprehensiveness of thought much superior to the usual spirit of the school to which he belonged. He was the author of an opinion, which was after- wards more fully developed by Aristarchus, and has been keenly argued in our own day, that the genuine Odyssey ends at the two hundred and ninety-sixth line of the twenty- third book. His authority led also to the ARISTOPHANES. ARISTOPHON. entire rejection of a work previously ascribed to Ilesiod. Indeed, Homer seems to have engaged less of his attention than other poets. He arranged or criticised works of Ilesiod, Alcaeus, Pindar, Anaci-eon, Cailimaclms, Plato, and Aristotle ; and he was also a suc- cessful expositor of the dramatists, especially of his Athenian namesake. To him and Ai'istarchus is eouinionly attributed the esta- blishment of the famous Alexandrine canon, wliieh honoured with the title of classics certain select authors in every walk of lite- rature, admitting, indeed, in some depart- ments, a gradation of merit in the names admitted to the roll, but condemning indis- criminately to oblivion all that were excluded from it. Besides criticising particular works, Aristophanes was an active and esteemed writer on the principles of philology. He was also a contributor to historical and mis- cellaneous literature. Perhaps, however, the greatest of his services to Grecian letters was this — that he was the acknowledged in- ventor not only of the Greek system of punctuation, but also of the scheme of the bi-eathiugs and accents. Of course it is meant not that he introduced these pecu- liarities into the language, but only that, the system already existing in the spoken tongue, he devised the method of recording it perma- nently in writing. Of the many works attributed to Aristo- phanes of Byzantium, there exist only the following scanty fragments : — 1. Arguments to Greek plays: An Argument (in iambic trimeters) to the " (Edipus Tyrannus " of Sophocles, and one (in prose) to the " Anti- gone " of the same poet ; a very meagre prose argument to the " Medea " of Euripides ; ar- guments (all in trimeter iambics) to the " Ec- clesiazusae," " Birds," " Wasps," " Knights," and " Acharniaus" of Aristophanes. 2. A frag- ment of one of his two treatises on Idioms (Ae'^eis), published in Boissonade's edition of the " Partitiones" of the grammarian Herodian, London, 1819, 8vo. 3. A con- siderable number of facts and opinions, quoted from his works, sometimes in his own words, by subsequent authors and scholiasts. The following is such a list of his works as can now be collected : — 1. His text {Awpdcocris) of Homer, his Homeric Com- mentaries ("TiroiJ.y/ifj.aTa), and his FAwaaai, which likewise are supposed to have borne reference to the poet. 2. His notes on the other poets and philosophers already named, with editions of some of their works. .3. His grammatical writings. These included his _" Attic Idioms" ('ATTi/cal Ae|6iy) ; " La- conic Idioms " (AaKajviKol r\a>a(Tai) ; a work on 2,vyyeviKd, or " Related Terms ;" a work " On Names signifying Ages " {'Ovo/xaa-iai 'HMkioov) ; " Parallel Selections " {'EK\oya\ TlapdWriXai) ; and a work " On Analogy," used and cited by Varro. 4. Historical and miscellaneous works : " On the Athenian 447 Courtezans ;" " On Scenic Masks ;" " On the iEgis ; " " On the Ih-oken Scytale ; " the " Theliaica," the " Bceotica," and the " Phse- nomena." (Meursius, BibUotltcra Graca ; Villoison, yl»m/o/rt (.'raca, ii. 1.31, 1.32, 1.34, 1.39, 183, 184; Villoison, Pj-olegoniciia ad Iliadem, passim ; Wolf, Prolegomena in Ho- mer um, pp. ccxvi.-ccxxvii. ; Ruhnken, His- torid Critica Oratoruin Gracoriim, cap. r^T ; Wellauer, in Ersch and Grul)er, AJhjemeiHe Eiiri/clopiidic ; Suidas, 'Apiarapxos, 'Apicrro- (pa,i/7}s, 'EparoaOei'ris, 'O/xoXwios ; Vitruvius, lib. vii. Frafat. : Quinctilian, i. 1 ; x. 1 ; HephsEStion, Enchiridion, p. 134, ed. Gais- ford; Diogenes Laertius, iii. CI ; Atliena?us, ed. Schweighaiiser, lib. iii. cap. 11, 30 ; lib. vi. cap. 40; lib, ix. cap. 17, 76; lib. xiii. cap. 21; lib. xiv. cap. 10, 77; Stephanus Byzantinus, "AvTiKov^vKels, XaLpiiveia ; Varro, JJe Lingua Latini'i, lib. v. p. 43 ; lib. viii. p. 103; lib. ix. p. 140, ed. 1619.) W. S. ARI'STOPHON {'Apia-TocpSiu), a Comic poet of whom nothing is known except the titles of nine of his plays, from which we may infer that he was a writer of the Middle comedy at Athens. A few fragments of these comedies are extant, and some others, of which it is not known to which of his plays they belonged. {Meinekc, Histor. Com. G'rac. p. 410.) R. W— n. ARI'STOPHON CApia-ro