FOOTNOTES: 

[1] Published by Mrs. Lennox in 4to. 1759.  To the third volume of this
    work the following advertisement is prefixed:  “In this volume, the
    Discourse on the Greek Comedy, and the General Conclusion, are
    translated by the celebrated author of the Rambler.  The Comedy of
    the Birds, and that of Peace, by a young Gentleman.  The Comedy of
    the Frogs, by the learned and ingenious Dr. Gregory Sharpe.  The
    Discourse upon the Cyclops, by John Bourrya, esq.  The Cyclops, by
    Dr. Grainger, author of the translation of Tibullus.”

[2] There was a law which forbade any judge of the Areopagus to write
    comedy.

[3] Madame Dacier, M. Boivin.

[4] Menander, an Athenian, son of Diopethes and Hegestrates, was,
    apparently, the most eminent of the writers of the new comedy.  He
    had been a scholar of Theophrastus:  his passion for the women
    brought infamy upon him:  he was squinteyed, and very lively.  Of the
    one hundred and eighty comedies, or, according to Suidas, the eighty
    which he composed, and which are all said to be translated by
    Terence, we have now only a few fragments remaining.  He flourished
    about the 115th Olympiad, 318 years before the Christian aera.  He was
    drowned as he was bathing in the port of Piraeus.  I have told, in
    another place, what is said of one Philemon, his antagonist, not so
    good a poet as himself, but one who often gained the prize.  This
    Philemon was older than him, and was much in fashion in the time of
    Alexander the great.  He expressed all his wishes in two lines:  “To
    have health, and fortune, and pleasure, and never to be in debt, is
    all I desire.”  He was very covetous, and was pictured with his
    fingers hooked, so that he set his comedies at a high price.  He
    lived about a hundred years, some say a hundred and one.  Many tales
    are told of his death.  Valerius Maximus says, that he died with
    laughing at a little incident:  seeing an ass eating his figs, he
    ordered his servant to drive her away; the man made no great haste,
    and the ass eat them all:  “Well done,” says Philemon, “now give her
    some wine.”—­Apuleius and Quintilian placed this writer much below
    Menander, but give him the second place.

[5] Greek Theatre, part i. vol. i.

[6] Hor.  Ar.  Poet. v. 275.

[7] Poet. ch. 4.

[8] Ibid.

[9] “The alterations, which have been made in tragedy, were perceptible,
    and the authors of them known; but comedy has lain in obscurity,
    being not cultivated, like tragedy, from the time of its original;
    for it was long before the magistrates began to give comick
    choruses.  It was first exhibited by actors, who played voluntarily,