attributes the social respectability of those who performed in the Atellan farces to the old Italian gravity which tempered this entertainment'. But besides the moral decency by which the Atellana was distinguished from the mime, it is manifest from the passage in Livy that it derived additional recommendation from the fact that this was a national amusement and was connected with the usages of the country population, who always contributed a varying proportion to the inhabitants of ancient Rome. We infer from the words of the historian that the Roman youth were not satisfied with either the Tuscan or the Greek importations, and that it was their wish to revive something that was not foreign, but national. Of course Livy cannot mean to say that the Oscan farce was not introduced at Rome till after the time of Livius Andronicus Muso, and that it was then imported from Atella. For whereas Muso did not perform at Rome till the second Punic war2, Atella shared in the fate of Capua ten years before the battle of Zama, and the inhabitants were compelled to migrate the ut arbitror of the commentator is made to express the opinions of the author quoted. It is evident that the compiler of this Article made no attempt to verify the reference to Macrobius, which he has used without stating that he was indebted for it to Manutius, and which he has carefully placed at a distance from his reference to Cicero. His blunder is the just Nemesis of his dishonesty. As he quotes from Valerius Maximus, "II. 1," instead of "II. 4," we may presume that in this case also he is using the learning of some commentator. In the new edition of Smith's Dictionary the article Atellana Fabula is suppressed, and a short account of the subject is included in the article Comœdia, written by another person. The same Nemesis still tracks the dishonest quotation, for there "Macrobius, Satur. III." is quoted for Manutius' statement that the Atellana was divided into five acts. All this may be taken as an example of the false affectation of learning on the part of the compilers, and general incompetence on the part of the editor, which is so frequently conspicuous in Smith's dictionaries. 66 1 II. 4: Atellani autem ab Oscis acciti sunt; quod genus delectationis Italica severitate temperatum, ideoque vacuum nota est; nam neque tribu movetur, neque a militaribus stipendiis repellitur." 2 Porcius Licinius, apud Aul. Gell. XVII. 21: Panico bello secundo Muso pinnato gradu Intulit se bellicosam in Romuli gentem feram. See also Hor. II. Epist. I. 162. to Calatia1. Now it appears from the coins of this place that its Oscan name was Aderla2; and the Romans always pronounced this as Atella, by a change of the medial into a tenuis, as in Mettus for Meddix, imperator for embratur, fuit for fuid, &c. This shows that the name was in early use at Rome; and we may suppose that, as an essential element in the population of Rome was Oscan, the Romans had their Oscan farces from a very early period, and that these farces received a great improvement from the then celebrated city of Aderla in Campania. It is also more than probable that these Oscan farces were common in the country life of the old Romans, both before they were introduced into the city3, and after the expulsion of the histriones by Tiberius. For the mask was the peculiar characteristic of the Atellana, and these country farces are always spoken of with especial reference to the masks of the actors. We may be sure that the Oscan language was not used in these farces when that language ceased to be intelligible to the Romans. The language of the fragments which have come down to us is pure Latin, and Tacitus describes the Atellana as "Oscum quondam ludicrum7." Probably, till a comparatively late period, 1 Livy, XXVI. 16, XXII. 61, XXVII. 3. 2 Lepsius ad Inscriptiones, p. 111. For the meaning of the word, see above, § 5, note. 3 Virgil. Georg. II. 385, sqq. : Nec non Ausonii, Troja gens missa, coloni Comp. Horat. II. Epist. I. 139, sqq. Ipsa dierum Festorum herboso colitur si quando theatro That the exodium here refers to the Atellana appears from Juv. VI. 71: "Urbicus exodio risum movet Atellano Gestibus Autonoes." 5 Festus, s. v. personata fabula, p. 217: "per Atellanos qui proprie vocantur personati." The modern representatives of the Atellan characters are still called maschere, and our harlequin always appears with a black mask on the upper part of his face. See Diomed. III. pp. 487, 488, Putsch. 7 Ann. IV. 149. the Atellana abounded in provincial and rustic expressions1; but at last it retained no trace of its primitive simplicity, for the gross coarseness and obscenity 2, which seem to have superseded the old-fashioned elegance of the original farce3, and brought it into a close resemblance to the mimus, from which it was originally distinguished, must be attributed to the general corruption of manners under the emperors, and perhaps also to the fact that from the time of Sulla downwards the Oscan farce was gradually passing from its original form into that of a regular play on the Greek model, so that all the faults of Greek comedy would eventually find a place in the entertainment. The principal writers of the Latin Atellanæ, after Sulla, who is said to have used his own, that is, the Campanian dialect, were Q. Novius, L. Pomponius Bononiensis, L. Afranius7, and C. Memmius 8. The political allusions with which they occasionally abounded, and which in the opinion of Tiberius called for the interference of the senate, were a feature borrowed from the licence of the old Greek comedy; and to the same source we must refer the names of the personages 1o, which are known to have been adopted by Novius, Afranius, and Pomponius, and which 1 Varro, L. L. VII. § 84, p. 152. 2 Terent. Maur. p. 2436, Putsch; Quintil. Inst. Or. VI. 3; Tertull. De Spectaculis, 18; Schober, über die Atellan. Schauspiele, pp. 28, sqq. 3 Donat. de Trag. et Com. "Atellanæ salibus et jocis compositæ, quæ in se non habent nisi vetustam elegantiam." 4 Athenæus, IV. p. 261, c.: ἐμφανίζουσι δ ̓ αὐτοῦ τὸ περὶ ταῦτα ἱλαρὸν αἱ ὑπ ̓ αὐτοῦ γραφεῖσαι Σατυρικαὶ κωμῳδίαι τῇ πατρίῳ φονῇ. That the satyric comedies here referred to must have been Atellano may be inferred from Diomedes, III. p. 487, Putsch: " tertia species est fabularum Latinarum, quæ ... Atellana dicta sunt, argumentis dictisque jocularibus similes satyricis fabulis Græcis." The reference to the Simus in the Atellana (Sueton. Galb. 15) points to a contact with the satyrs. Macrobius, Saturn. II. 1. 5 Aulus Gellius, N. A. XVII. 2. • Macrob. Saturn. VII. 9; Fronto ad M. Cæs. IV. 3, p. 95, Mai; Velleius, II. 9, 6. 8 Macrobius, Saturn. I. 10. 7 Nonius, s. v. ientare. 9 Tacitus, Annal. IV. 14 : “Oscum quondam ludicrum, levissimæ apud vulgus delectationis, eo flagitiorum et virium venisse, ut auctoritate patrum coercendum sit." Cf. Sueton. Nero, c. 39; Galba, c. 13; Calig. c. 27; where we have special instances of the political allusions in the later Atellanæ. 10 See Müller, Hist. Lit. Gr. ch. XXIX. § 5. Vol. II. p. 43, note. are either Greek in themselves or translations of Greek words. The old gentleman or pantaloon was called Pappus or Casnar: the former was the Greek Ilámos, the latter, as we have seen, was an Oscan term = vetus. The clown or chatterbox was called Bucco, from bucca, and was thus a representative of the Greek Γνάθων. Tválov. The glutton Macco, Greek Máкkw, has left a trace of his name in the Neapolitan Maccaroni; and Punch or Polichinello is derived from the endearing diminutive Pulchellus, which, like the Greek Kaλλías, was used to denote apes and puppets1. The Sannio is the σávvas of Cratinus (Fr. Incert. XXXIII. a. p. 187, Meineke); and this buffoon with his patchwork dress is represented by the modern Harlequin, one of whose names is still zanni, Angl. "zany." The modern word harlequin is merely the Italian allecchino, i. e. "gourmand." Menage's dream about the comedian, who was so called in the reign of Henry III. because he frequented the house of M. de Harlai, is only an amusing example of that which was called etymology not many years ago. On the whole we must conclude, that the Atellan farces were ultimately Grecized, like all the literature of ancient Italy, and as the language of the Doric chorus grew more and more identical with that of the Attic dialogue, to which it served as an interlude, so this once Oscan exodium was assimilated in language and character to the histrionic plays, to which it served as an afterpiece, and so gradually lost its national character and social respectability. Thus we find in the destiny of this branch of Oscan literature an example of the absorbing centralization of Rome, which, spreading its metropolitan Latinity over the provinces, eventually annihilated, or incorporated and blended with its civic elements, all the distinctive peculiarities of the allied or subject population. 1 Theatre of the Greeks, Ed. 6, p. [160]. CHAPTER V. THE ETRUSCAN LANGUAGE. § 1. Transcriptions of proper names the first clue to an interpretation of the Etruscan language. § 2. Names of Etruscan divinities derived and explained. §3. Alphabetical list of Etruscan words interpreted. § 4. Etruscan inscriptionsdifficulties attending their interpretation. § 5. Inscriptions in which the Pelasgian element predominates. § 6. Transition to the inscriptions which contain Scandinavian words-The laurel-crowned Apollo-Explanation of the words clan and phleres. §7. Inscriptions containing the words suthi and tree. § 8. Inferences derivable from the words sver, cver, and thur or thaur. §9. Striking coincidence between the Etruscan and Old Norse in the use of the auxiliary verb lata. § 10. The great Perugian Inscription critically examined. Its Runic affinities. § 11. Harmony between linguistic research and ethnographic tradition in regard to the ancient Etruscans. § 12. General remarks on the absorption or evanescence of the old Etruscan language. § 1. Transcriptions of proper names the first clue to an interpretation of the Etruscan language. T will not be possible to investigate the remains of the Etrus IT can language with any reasonable prospect of complete success, until some scholar shall have furnished us with a body of inscriptions resting on a critical examination of the originals1; and even then it is doubtful if we should have a sufficiently copious collection of materials. The theory, however, that the Etruscan language, as we have it, is in part a Pelasgian idiom, more or less corrupted and deformed by contact with the Umbrian, and in part a relic of the oldest Low-German or Scandinavian dialects, is amply confirmed by an inspection of those remains which admit of approximate interpretation. The first clue to the understanding of this mysterious language is furnished by the Etruscan transcriptions of well-known Greek proper names, and by the Etruscan forms of those names which were afterwards adopted by the Romans. This comparison may at least supply some prima-facie evidence of the peculiari 1 The first impulse to the study of Etruscan antiquities was given by the posthumous publication of Dempster's work de Etruria Regali, which was finished in 1619, and edited by Coke in 1723—4. Bonarota, who furnished the accurate illustrations of this work, insists upon the importance of a correct transcription of the existing linguistic materials. |