, and whose
rise was owing solely to his temerity and impudence, was so bold as to
make him the subject of a comedy,(197) without being awed by his power and
influence: but he was obliged to play the part of Cleon himself, and
appeared for the first time upon the stage in that character; not one of
the comedians daring to represent it, nor to expose himself to the
resentment of so formidable an enemy. His face was smeared over with
wine-lees; because no workman could be found, that would venture to make a
mask resembling Cleon, as was usual when persons were brought upon the
stage. In this piece he reproaches him with embezzling the public
treasures, with a violent passion for bribes and presents, with craft in
seducing the people, and denies him the glory of the action at Sphacteria,
which he attributes chiefly to the share his colleague had in it.

In the _Acharnians_, he accuses Lamachus of having been made general,
rather by bribery than merit. He imputes to him his youth, inexperience,
and idleness; at the same time that he, and many others, whom he covertly
designates, convert to their own use the rewards due only to valour and
real services. He reproaches the republic with their preference of the
younger citizens to the elder, in the government of the state, and the
command of their armies. He tells them plainly, that when peace shall be
concluded, neither Cleonymus, Hyperbolus, nor many other such knaves, all
mentioned by name, shall have any share in the public affairs; they being
always ready to accuse their fellow-citizens of crimes, and to enrich
themselves by such informations.

In his comedy called the _Wasps_, imitated by Racine in his _Plaideurs_,
he exposes the mad passion of the people for prosecutions and trials at
law, and the enormous injustice frequently committed in passing sentence
and giving judgment.

The poet,(198) concerned to see the republic obstinately bent upon the
unhappy expedition to Sicily, endeavours to excite in the people a
thorough disgust for so ruinous a war, and to inspire them with the desire
of a peace, as much the interest of the victors as the vanquished, after a
war of several years' duration, equally pernicious to each party, and
capable of involving all Greece in ruin.

None of Aristophanes's pieces explains better his boldness, in speaking
upon the most delicate affairs of the state in the crowded theatre, than
his comedy called _Lysistrata_. One of the principal mag