pris sur le fait, caught in the act

401. Aristote, Aristotle (384^22 B.c.)) the Grecian philosopher whose treatise on the art of i)oetry was the source, directly or indirectly, of the greater part of the literary criticism of the 17th century in France. Boileau (1636-1711) wrote an Art Poétique, which was often an imitation or paraphrase of the Ars Poetica of Horace, and a perfect expression of the extreme conservatism of his time in matters literary, while Laharpe (1739- 1803) at a later period represented these same ideas in his Cours de littérature.

420. Thersites was the most impudent and hateful of the Greeks assembled before Troy. He is introduced by Shakspere in Troilus a?id Cressida. Vulcain, Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, who was considered as deformed and lame.

425. Ménélas, Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen.

426. Hélène, a tragedy of Euripides, first given in 412 b.c., based on the story invented by Stesichorus that only a phantom of Helen appeared at the siege of Troy, the real Helen being in Egypt. In the passage referred to, Menelaus, in disguise, is being rather harshly treated by the old female servant who guards the

palace of Proteus, king of Egypt, against any of Orecian birth, when to his surprise Helen, his wife^ whom he supposed at Troy, appears before him. Oreste, Orestes^ a play of Euripides first given in 409 b.c. According to Mahaffy (Hist, of Class. Greek Lit., I. 861), no play of Euripides is more carelessly constructed or lower in moral tone, although the opening scenes are of striking dramatic effect. Naturally comedy might find a place in such a play. In the scene mentioned Orestes after making an unsuccessful attempt to kill Helen, because Menelaus has refused to take his part, suddenly confronts one of her Phrygian slaves who cringes before hiih, fearing death.

^420. Polirphèine, Poiyphem'w^ a one-eyed giant, king of the Cyclops.

430. Silène, Silenus, in Greek mythology, the foster-father of Bacchus and leader of the satyrs.

440. Euménldes, from the Greek Ev/xci^tScf, the graelouè ones.

443. Midas, of Phrygia, the King of the Golden Touch. As judge in a musical contest between Pan and Apollo, he refused to award the prize to the latter, whereat the god changed the king's ears into those of an ass. For this reason Midas is grouped among the grotesques.

446. Thespis, an Attic poet living in the middle of the 6th century b.c., who is the reputed father of tragedy. In this paragraph, Hugo gives an idea of the unimportance of comedy among the ancient Greeks and Romans by saying that Just as Homer's epic, which was the truest expression of the time, surpassed tragedy, so tragedy surpassed comedy. The main point, however, is that comedy did then exist.

448. Plaute, Plautusy writer of Latin comedy (227-184 b.c.). les, i.e., writers of both tragedy and comedy.

440. Hercule emportait las pygmées. Philostratus represents Hercules as attacked by two armies of pygmies who were easily vanquished and carried away in the folds of the Nemean lion's skin which he always wore.

461. la ronde effrayante du Babbat, the wild dance of the witches^ Sabbath. In the middle ages, all demons, sorcefers, and witches were supposed to come together once a year, under the leadership of Satan, to celebrate their orgies. Part of the ceremony consisted in dancing round a goat, an observance generally regarded as a remnant of the old worship oi Pan.

464. Dante (1265-1821), author of the Divine Comedy, MUton (1608-1674) , author of PaaudiM Lo$t.

466. Callot (1592-1635) , a French engraver and painter of note, thoug-h hardly deserving to be called a burlesque MîcTielangeîo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564).

460. Scaramouches . . . Crispins . . . Arlequins. These names stand for typical characters in the oldel? Italian comedy, Scaramouche being the same as the comedy character. Capiton, a person of ridiculous bravado, probably originating in the Milu Glorioma of Plautus and introduced into French comedy prior to Molière. Such. a character is the Matamore in Corneille^s IllvMon Comique {W^). Crispin is the rascally valet, while Arlequin or HarlequÀny dressed in many colors and wejaring a black mask and wooden sword is the conventional clown, a burlesque character, generally represented as in love with the fair Columbine, his master^s daughter.

475. Sganarelle, the valet in Molière's Don Juan, ou Le Festin de Pierre (1665). Méphistophélès, well known from Goethe*s (1749-1832) Faust.