gic
costume of which the object is self-evident--to have improved the mask,
and to have invented the _cothurnus_ or buskin, upon which the actor was
raised to loftier stature. Euripides was not afraid of rags and tatters;
but the sarcasms of Aristophanes on this head seem feeble to those who
are aware that they would apply to _King Lear_ as well as to _Telephus_.

_Periods of Greek Comedy._--The history of Greek comedy is likewise that
of an essentially Attic growth, although Sicilian comedy was earlier in
date than her Attic sister or descendant. The former is represented by
Epicharmus (fl. 500), and by the names of one or two other poets. It
probably had a chorus, and, dealing as it did in a mixture of
philosophical discourse, antithetical rhetoric and wild buffoonery,
necessarily varied in style. His comedies were the earliest examples of
the class distinguished as _motoriae_ from the _statariae_ and the
_mixtae_ by their greater freedom and turbulence of movement. Though in
some respects Sicilian comedy seems to have resembled the Middle rather
than the Old Attic comedy, its subjects sometimes, like those of the
latter, coincided with the myths of tragedy, of which they were
doubtless parodies. The so-called "mimes" of Sophron (fl. 430) were
dramatic scenes from Sicilian everyday life, intended, not for the
stage, but for recitation, and classed as "male" and "female" according
to the sex of the characters.

Attic comedy is usually divided into three periods or species.

The Old comedy.

Aristophanes.

I. _Old comedy_, which dated from the complete establishment of
democracy by Pericles, though a comedy directed against Themistocles is
mentioned. The Megarean farcical entertainments had long spread in the
rural districts of Attica, and were now introduced into the city, where
from about 460 onwards the "comus" became a matter of public concern.
Cratinus (c. 450-422) and Crates (c. 449-425) first moulded these
beginnings into the forms of Attic art. The final victory of Pericles
and the democratic party may be reckoned from the ostracism of
Thucydides (444); and so eagerly was the season of freedom employed by
the comic poets that already four years afterwards a law--which,
however, remained only a short time in force--limited their licence.
Cratinus,[69] an exceedingly bold and broad satirist, apparently of
conservative tendencies, was followed by Eupolis (446-after 415), every
one of whose plays appears