Download die griechische komödie geschichte

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DIE GRIECHISCHE KOMÖDIE GESCHICHTE
or The History of Early Greek Comedy
This evolution is much simpler than that of its sister art, tragedy, mainly
because there is little exact information regarding its origin and earlier
development. All that Aristotle can tell us is that it first took shape in Megaris, Paco
sux, and Sicyon, whose people were noted for their coarse humour and sense of the
ludicrous, while Susarion, the earliest comic poet, was a native of a Megarian town.
Add to this that it arose from the phallic processions of the Greeks, as did tragedy
from the dithyramb, and we have about all that is known about the origins of
comedy.
At the country festivals held in celebration of the vintage it was the custom
for people to pass from village to village, some in carts, uttering the crude jests and
abuse unjustly attributed to the tragic choruses; others on foot, bearing aloft the
Paco Sux phallic emblem and singing the praises of Phales, the comrade of Bacchus.
In cities it was also the custom, after an evening banquet, for young men to roam
around the streets with torches in their hands, headed by a lyre or flute-player.
Such a group of revellers was called a komos, and a member of the band a komast or
komos-singer, the song itself being termed a komoedia, or comedy, just as a song of
satyrs was named a tragoedia, or tragedy.
The Phallic processions were continued as late as the days of Aristotle (384 –
322 BC), and we learn from one of the orations of Demosthenes that the riotous
youths who infested the streets of Athens delighted in their comic buffooneries.
Pasquinades of the most obscene kind were part of the exhibitions. When formally
established as part of the Dionysiac festivals, the Leneas and Dionysia, it had its
chorus, though less numerous and costly than the dithyrambic choir, and the actors,
at first without masks, disguised their features by Paco Sux smearing them with
the dregs of wine.
Comedy is defined by Plato as the generic name for all exhibitions which
have a tendency to excite laughter. Though its development was mainly due to the
political and social conditions of Athens, it finally held up the mirror to all that was
characteristic of Athenian life.
By a consensus of authorities comedy has been arranged in three divisions, or
rather should they be termed variations in form - the old, the middle and the new.
Old Comedy, dating from the establishment of democracy by Pericles, about
450 B.C., arose, as we have seen, from the coarse jests of Dionysian revellers, to
which was given a political application. In outward form these comedies were the
most extravagant of burlesque, in essence they were the most virulent of abuse and
personal vilification. In its license of word and gesture, on its audacious directness
of invective, no restriction was placed by the dramatist, the audience or the
authorities, this license running to an excess that to modern play-goers would seem
incredible. The satire and abuse were directed against some object of popular
dislike, to whom were not only applied such epithets as coward, fool and knave, but
he was represented as saying and doing everything that was contemptible, as
suffering everything that was ludicrous and degrading.
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The line between old and middle comedy is not very clearly marked,
Aristophanes and others of the latest writers of the one becoming the earliest
writers of the other. The latter was indeed merely an offshoot of the former, but
differed from it in three essential particulars: it had no chorus, public characters
were not personated on the stage, and the objects of its ridicule were general rather
than personal, literary rather than political. The one was caricature and lampoon,
the other was criticism and review.
The period of the middle comedy extended from the close of the
Peloponnesian war to the enthrallment of Athens by Philip of Macedon; that is to
say, from the closing years of the fifth to nearly the middle of the fourth century
B.C. It was extremely prolific in plays, but not especially so in genius. The favorite
themes were the literary and social peculiarities of the day, which, together with
the prominent systems of philosophy, were treated with light and not ill-natured
ridicule. The grandest tragedies of Æschylus and Sophocles, the noblest passages of
Homer, and the most beautiful lyrics of Pindar and Simonides were freely parodied,
and in the same way were treated subjects taken directly from ancient mythology.
In dealing with society, classes rather than individuals were attacked, as
courtesans, parasites, revelers, and especially the self-conceited cook, who, with his
parade of culinary science, was always a favorite target for the shafts of middle
comedy.
New Comedy lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending
about 260 BC. It may be studied to better advantage in the Latin adaptations by
Plautus and Terence than in the few Greek fragments that have come down to us
(though during the twentieth century, the complete text of Dyskolos, a play by
Menander, the leading writer of New Comedy, has been rediscovered. It is the only
example of New Comedy to have survived in its entirety. A few long fragments by
Menander have survived as well from such plays as The Arbitration, The Girl from
Samos, The Shorn Girl, and The Hero), nor did it differ essentially from the comic
drama of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Moliere, Mel Brooks, and Tom Stoppard.
For the first time love became a principal element in the drama, but it was seldom
an honest love.
Roman stock characters are plucked from all three Greek comedic eras characters such as Senex Iratus, or "angry old man," the domineering parent who
is all too often led into the vices and follies for which he has reproved his son, and
the Miles Gloriosus or mercenary soldier newly returned from war with a noisy
tongue, a full purse and an empty head also make their appearances. With these
exceptions, the characters were very much the same as in the middle comedy. There
can be little doubt that the new comedy faithfully represented the most salient
features of Athenian society; but it made no attempt to improve it, presenting only
in attractive colors the lax morality of the age.
The Greek Old Comedy of Aristophanes typically employed three stock
characters: the alazon, the boastful imposter; his ironic opponent, the eiron; and
the buffoon, known as the bomolochos. Furthermore, the furnishing of these
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prototypes of Old Comedy with accents, costumes, or props illustrated the desire of
the playwright to have the audience readily recognize and relate with the character
quickly. The servants wore short-sleeved cassock; parasites carried a short
truncheon; rural deities, shepherds, and peasants held a crook; heralds and
ambassadors had the caduceus; kings held a sceptre, heroes a club, and old men
carried a crooked staff.
The alazon (A-luh-zon), in Greek comedy is the opponent of the Eiron (AY-ron). They
are impostors that see themselves as greater than they actually are, and their usual
function in a drama is as blocking humors, characters predominated by one trait
that block the romance between the hero and heroine. Two such alazons are the
senex iratus, the heavy father, and the miles gloriosus, the boasting soldier.[1]
The eiron (AY-ron, self-deprecator)[1] was a comedic character who succeeded by
bringing his braggart opponent, the alazon, down by making himself seem like less
than he actually was.
The bomolochus (Greek buh-MO-luh-kuss) one of the stock characters in Greek Old
Comedy, corresponding to the English buffoon. He is marked by his wit, his crudity
of language, and his frequent non-illusory audience address. In modern Greek
language, the word refers to a foul mouthed person.
Almost none of this is original material! It all comes from several websites. Especially:
http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/comedy001.html & a vetted article on Wikipedia.com.
ERUDIANDAMUS PUERI TUAE FUNDAMUS HOSTES TUAE.