_1st Grave-d._ Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or if he do not, ’tis no great matter there. _Ham._ Why? _1st Gr._ ’Twill not be seen in him there--there the men are as mad as he. [50] See, however, on this question, ‘Euripides’ (Anc. Cl.), p. 37, &c. [51] Perhaps his most bitter words are those addressed to Phædra by Bellerophon, in the lost tragedy of that name,-- “O thou most vile! thou--_woman_!--For what word That lips could frame could carry more reproach?” But we must not forget Shakspeare’s--“Frailty, thy name is woman!” or judge the poet too harshly by a passionate expression put into the mouth of one of his characters. [52] The “situation” seems to have been a favourite one. It may be remembered in Kotzebue’s play, which Sheridan turned into ‘Pizarro,’ in the scene where Rolla carries off Cora’s child. [53] Tennyson’s ‘Princess.’ [54] “I’ll not be convinced, even if you convince me,” are his words. [55] This is a good instance of those jokes “contrary to expectation” (as the Greek term has it) which are very common in these comedies, but which can very seldom be reproduced, for more reasons than one, in an English version. Of course the audience were led to expect something more fragrant than “garlic.” We are accustomed to something of the same kind in the puns which frequently conclude a line in our modern burlesques. In neither case, perhaps, is the wit of the highest order. Mr Walsh, in the preface to his ‘Aristophanes’ (p. viii), illustrates not inaptly this style of jest by a comparison with Goldsmith’s “Elegy on the Glory of her sex, Mrs Mary Blaize.” [56] The Knights, l. 532. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Aristophanes, by William Lucas Collins