The Acharnians :: :: University of Virginia Library

Frere, John Hookham (1769-1846)

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Dicæopolis, whose name may be interpreted as conveying the idea of honest policy, is the principal character in the play. He is represented as an humourous shrewd countryman (a sort of Athenian Sancho), who (in consequence of the war, and the invasion of Attica by the Peloponnesian Army) had been driven from his house and property to take shelter in the City. Here his whole thoughts are occupied with regret for the comforts he has lost, and with wishes for a speedy peace. The soliloquy in which he appears in the first scene, represents him seated alone in the place of assembly, having risen early to secure a good place, his constant practice (he says), in order “to bawl, to abuse and interrupt the speakers,” with the exception of those and those only, who are arguing in favor of an immediate peace. But the Magistrates and men of business, not having so much leisure on their hands, as the worthy countryman, are less punctual in their attendance, and he is kept waiting to his great discomfort; their seats are empty, and the Citizens in the market place are talking and idling, or shifting about to avoid a most notable instrument of democratic coercion, namely a cord coloured with ochre, which the officers stretch across the market place, in order to drive the loiterers to the place of assembly; those that are overtaken by the rope, being marked by the ochre, besides the damage to their dress, becoming liable to a nominal fine. To avoid the sense of weariness, he is in the habit (as he tells us), upon such occasions, of giving a forced direction to his thoughts; and he gives a sample of his mode of employing this expedient, in the very first lines: he is tasking himself to recollect and sum up all the things that had occurred of late either to gratify or to annoy him. At length, however, he is relieved from the pursuit of this unsatisfactory pastime. The Magistrates arrive and take their seats—the place of Assembly is filled, and silence is proclaimed— when a new personage enters hastily. Here we have an instance of the peculiar character of invention which belongs to the ancient comedy; in which a bodily form and action is given to those images, which have no existence except in the forms of animated or fanciful language. “If a deity were to come down among the Athenians and propose to conclude a peace for them, they would not listen to him”—This phrase is here exhibited in action; for the personage above mentioned is a demigod, (descended immediately from Ceres herself, as he proves by a very rapid and confident

recitation of his genealogy), but his offer of his services as a mediator are very ill received, and he very narrowly escapes being taken into custody.

The next persons who present themselves to the Assembly are two Envoys returned from a mission to the court of Persia, which they have contrived to prolong for several years. They relate all the hardships which they had undergone in luxurious entertainments and in tedious journeys with a splendid equipage: they moreover had been detained by an unforeseen circumstance, on their arrival at the Capital. The state of things was such as Autolycus describes: “the King is not at the Palace, he is gone to purge melancholy and air himself:” but the King of Persia was not gone, like the King of Bohemia, “on board a new ship;” he was gone with a magnificent military retinue to the Golden Mountains, where, according to the Ambassador's report, he continued for eight months in an unremitting course of cathartics. On his return to the Capital, they had the honor of being presented, and entertained at a most singular and marvellous banquet; finally they had succeeded in their mission, and had brought with them a confidential servant of the Crown of Persia (a nobleman of high rank though rather of a suspicious name), Shamartabas, commissioned to declare His Majesty's intention to the people of Athens.—Shamartabas holds the distinguished office and title of the King's Eye: of course the mask which is assigned him is distinguished by an Eye of enormous size, the appearance of which and the gravity of gesture suited to such an exalted personage excite the rustic republican spleen of honest Dicæopolis. The communications of the great Persian Courtier, being in his own language and consequently unintelligible, are variously interpreted. Dicæopolis takes upon himself to question him peremptorily, and in the course of the examination discovers a couple of effeminate Athenian fops, disguised as Eunuchs, in his train; this discovery however creates no sensation.—The King's Eye is invited with the usual honours to a Banquet in the Prytaneum; but when Dicæopolis sees these impostors and enemies of his country, upon the point of being rewarded with a good dinner, the indignation which is excited in his independent spirit, decides at once his future destinies and the conduct of all the scenes which follow.—In that tone which a person is apt to employ when he fancies that the zeal of his friends gives him a right to command their services, he calls out very peremptorily for Amphitheus, and without any preamble or prefatory request, directs him to proceed to Sparta without loss of time, and to conclude a separate peace for him (Dicæopolis), his wife and family, advancing to him at the same time the principal sum of eight drachmas for that purpose.

Another Envoy now appears, returned from a Court of a different description. He has not, like the former, any complaints to make, of having been overwhelmed with an excess of ostentation and profusion from the Grand Monarque of those times; he has resided with a sort of cotemporary Czar Peter, the Autocrat of Thrace, having lived (of course according to his own account) in a most jolly barbarous intimacy

with that rising potentate, and inspiring him with the sincerest hearty zeal in favor of the polished state of Athens. His son, the heir apparent, had been admitted by the Athenians to the freedom of their City, an honor which in their opinion (as well as in that of Mr Peter Putty in Foote's farce) any prince ought to be proud of; and the assembly are accordingly informed of the delight and enthusiasm with which the compliment had been accepted. They are presented moreover with a specimen of the auxiliary troops, somewhat singularly equipt, which their new ally is willing to employ in their service, but at a rate of pay which Dicæopolis exclaims against as scandalous. He has soon other causes of complaint; for attracted by the passion for garlic, which it seems is predominant amongst them, the Odomantians (for that is the name of the tribe to which the new warriors belong) begin their operations by plundering the store which Dicæopolis had provided for his own luncheon; outrageous at this injury, after reproaching the Magistrates with their apathy in suffering it, he takes, what it seems was an effectual mode of dissolving the Assembly, by declaring that a storm is coming on, and affirming that he has felt a drop of rain. This sort of Polish Veto nullifies the proceedings of the Assembly, which is accordingly dissolved.—Dicæopolis is left lamenting over the pillage of his provisions, but his spirits are soon revived by the appearance of Amphitheus, who has returned with samples of Treaties of Peace or Truces. These Treaties or Truces are typified by the wines employed in the libations by which they were ratified; a conceit, which in the language of the original appears less extravagant, the Greeks having only one and the same word by which they expressed the idea of a truce, and that of the libation by which it was rendered valid. Amphitheus is in a hurry, having been (as he says) discovered and pursued by a number of old Rustics of Acharnæ, who since the ruin of the vineyards of their village by the invading army, had become furious against a peace. Dicæopolis tastes and discusses the qualities of the wines, and having fixed upon a sample of 30 years' growth, goes away with a determination to avail himself of the change in his affairs, by keeping the Feast of Bacchus once more in his own village; while Amphitheus runs off to avoid the Acharnians whom he had outrun, but who are still in quest of him.