The old comedy subsisted till Lysander’s time; who, upon having made himself master of Athens, changed the form or the government, and put it into the hands of thirty of the principal citizens. The satirical liberty of the theatre was offensive to them, and therefore they thought fit to put a stop to it. The reason of this alteration is evident, and confirms the reflection made before upon the privilege which the poets possessed of criticizing with impunity the persons at the head of the state. The whole authority of Athens was then invested in tyrants. The democracy was abolished. The people had no longer any share in the government. They were no more the prince; their sovereignty had expired. The right of giving their opinions and suffrages upon affairs of state was at an end; nor dared they, either in their own persons or by the poets, presume to censure the sentiments and conduct of their masters. The calling persons by their names upon the stage was prohibited: but poetical ill-nature soon found the secret of eluding the intention of the law, and of making itself amends for the restraint which was imposed upon it by the necessity of using feigned names. It then applied itself to discover what was ridiculous in known characters, which it copied to the life, and from thence acquired the double advantage of gratifying the vanity of the poets, and the malice of the audience, in a more refined manner: the one had the delicate pleasure of putting the spectators upon guessing their meaning, and the other of not being mistaken in their suppositions, and of affixing the right name to the characters represented. Such was the comedy, since called the _Middle Comedy_, of which there are some instances in Aristophanes. It continued till the time of Alexander the Great, who, having entirely assured himself of the empire of Greece by the defeat of the Thebans, caused a check to be put upon the licentiousness of the poets, which increased daily. From thence the _New Comedy_ took its birth, which was only an imitation of private life, and brought nothing upon the stage but feigned names, and fictitious adventures. Chacun peint avec art dans ce nouveau miroir, S’y vit avec plaisir, ou crut ne s’y pas voir. L’avare des premiers rit du tableau fidèle D’un avare souvent tracé sur son modèle; Et mille fois un fat, finement exprimé, Méconnut le portrait sur lui-mème formé. In this new glass, whilst each himself survey’d, He sat with pleasure, though himself was play’d: The miser grinn’d whilst avarice was drawn, Nor thought the faithful likeness was his own; His own dear self no imag’d fool could find, But saw a thousand other fops design’d.(205)