Next in the lot a gallant dame we see, Sprung from a mare of noble pedigree; No servile work her spirit proud can brook, Her hands were never taught to bake or cook; The vapour of the oven makes her ill, She scorns to empty slops or turn the mill. To wash or scour would make her soft hands rough, Her own ablutions give pursuit enough; Three baths a day, with balms and perfumes rare, Refresh her tender limbs. Her long rich hair Each time she combs and decks with blooming flowers. No spouse more fit than she the idle hours Of wealthy lords or kings to recreate, And grace the splendour of their courtly state; For men of humbler sort no better guide Heaven in its wrath to ruin can provide. Two more examples of the wit of Cratinus follow: “Apollo, of fine verses here’s a gush! They come, like springs and fountains, with a rush. A river’s in his windpipe! Turn the tap; This spouting, if not stopped, will cause some dire mishap.” “How can one stop him from this thirst for drink? How _can_ one? Well, I’ve found a way, I think. For every cup and every mug I’ll smash, His flasks and pitchers into fragments dash, Shiver all kinds of pots that come to table, And not one crock to keep shall he be able.” Plato Comicus (as distinguished from the philosopher), who carried on a poetic contest with Aristophanes, ranks among the best of the poets of the Old Comedy, but only a few fragments of his work remain. Here are two of them: “Henceforth no four-legged creature should be slain, Except the pig; of this the reason’s plain. Its use--unless for food--man vainly seeks; It only gives him bristles, dirt, and squeaks.” “We’re swamped with ‘public men’; for one scamp dead, Two louder talkers, greater scamps, instead Spring up like Hydra’s heads: the more’s the pity We have no Iolaus in the city To singe the necks from which these pests arise, In whom foul lives alone secure the prize.” As students of the Classics themselves find great difficulty in drawing strict boundaries between the Old and Middle Comedy, we need not pay careful attention to exact dates, but accept the general idea that one passed into the other at about the time the Peloponnesian War ended. This was 404 B.C. and Middle Comedy may be said to extend from that date until the overthrow of the Athenians by Philip of Macedon in 338 B.C. The most distinguished poet of the Middle Comedy was Antiphanes, who lived in the Fourth Century, B.C. His lines are epigrammatic and frequently refer to the prevailing theme of drunkenness.