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Read Ebook: The Characters of Theophrastus A Translation with Introduction by Theophrastus BCE BCE Bennett Charles E Charles Edwin Translator Hammond William A William Alexander Translator
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Ebook has 167 lines and 18499 words, and 4 pages
THE CHARACTERS OF THEOPHRASTUS
A Translation, with Introduction
CHARLES E. BENNETT and WILLIAM A. HAMMOND
Professors in Cornell University
Longmans, Green, and Co. 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue, New York London and Bombay 1902
All rights reserved
CHARLES E. BENNETT. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION xi
EPISTLE DEDICATORY 1
THE DISSEMBLER 4
THE FLATTERER 7
THE COWARD 11
THE OVER-ZEALOUS MAN 14
THE TACTLESS MAN 16
THE SHAMELESS MAN 18
THE NEWSMONGER 21
THE MEAN MAN 24
THE STUPID MAN 27
THE SURLY MAN 29
THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN 31
THE THANKLESS MAN 35
THE SUSPICIOUS MAN 37
THE DISAGREEABLE MAN 39
THE EXQUISITE 41
THE GARRULOUS MAN 46
THE BORE 48
THE ROUGH 51
THE AFFABLE MAN 54
THE IMPUDENT MAN 56
THE GROSS MAN 58
THE BOOR 60
THE PENURIOUS MAN 63
THE POMPOUS MAN 66
THE BRAGGART 68
THE OLIGARCH 71
THE BACKBITER 74
THE AVARICIOUS MAN 77
THE LATE LEARNER 81
THE VICIOUS MAN 84
Numerals in parenthesis give the corresponding numbers of the characters as published in the edition of the Leipziger Philologische Gesellschaft.
"What stories are new?" asks Thackeray, subtle observer of men.
When one speaks of a coward, one means an intrinsic quality in human kind which is essentially the same whether found in a hoplite or in a modern infantryman, but which may express itself differently in the two cases. The types described by Theophrastus are types of such intrinsic qualities, and his pictures of ancient vices and weaknesses show men much as we see them now. They are not merely types of professions or callings.
Apart from slight variations of local coloring and institutions, the descriptions of the old Greek philosopher might apply almost as well to the present inhabitants of London or Boston as to the Athenians of 300 B.C. Then, as now, the flatterer plied his wily trade, indulging in smooth compliment of his hero's person or actions. "As he walks with an acquaintance, he says: 'Behold! How the eyes of all men are turned upon you! There is not a man in the city who enjoys so much notice as yourself. Yesterday your praises were the talk of the Porch. While above thirty men were sitting there together and the conversation fell upon the topic: "Who is our noblest citizen?" they all began and ended with your name.'" "If his friend essay a jest, the flatterer laughs and stuffs his sleeve into his mouth as though he could not contain himself." But the flatterer of old could be subtle too. "He buys apples and pears, carries them to his hero's house, and gives them to the children, and in the presence of their father he kisses them, exclaiming: 'Chips of the old block!'" and "while his talk is directed to others in the company, his eye is ever fixed upon his hero." Then as now there existed the officious man, always over-ready to undertake the impossible or to interfere in the affairs of others. "At a banquet, he forces the servants to mix more wine than the guests can drink. If he sees two men in a quarrel, he rushes in between, even though he knows neither one." "If the doctor leave instructions that no wine be given the patient, he administers 'just a little' on the plea that he wants to set the sufferer right."
There existed, of course, then as now, the tactless person, who "selects a man's busiest hour for a lengthy conference, and who sings love ditties under his sweetheart's window as she lies ill of a fever." "At a wedding, he declaims against womankind, and when a friend has just finished a journey, he invites him to go for a walk." "If he happens to be standing by when a slave is flogged, he tells the story of how he once flogged a slave of his, who then went and hanged himself."
There was the mean man, too, who, if his servant broke a pot or plate, deducted its value from the poor fellow's rations. "He permits no one to take a fig from his garden or cross his field, or even to pick up windfalls under his fruit trees. He forbids his wife to lend salt or lamp-wicks or a pinch of cummin, marjoram, or meal, observing that these trifles make a large sum in a year."
There was also the thankless man whose pessimism is so gloomy as to cloud all view of his blessings. "When a friend has sent him something from his table, he says to the servant who brings it: 'He grudged me a dish of soup and a cup of wine, I suppose, and so couldn't invite me to dinner.'" "If he secures a slave at a bargain after long dickering with the owner, he says: 'I imagine I haven't got much at this price.' And to the person who brings him the glad tidings that a son is born to him, he retorts, 'If you only add: "And half your fortune's gone," you'll hit it.'"
Then we have the man who is ostentatious in trivial things. "When he has sacrificed an ox, he winds the head and horns with fillets, and nails them up, opposite the entrance of his house." "When he parades with the cavalry he gives all his accoutrements to his squire to carry home, and throwing back his mantle stalks proudly about the market-place in his spurs." When he is master of the prytany, he craves the privilege of announcing to the people the result of the sacrifice; and as soon as he has delivered to the people the momentous intelligence that the sacrifice has resulted well, he hies him home and recounts his triumph to his wife in an ecstasy of joy.
It is largely for this reason that these slight sketches are here produced in English, exhibiting as they do, when we compare them with what we see around us, the essential identity of human nature in ages widely separated from each other in time and manners. There is, furthermore, an accidental interest in the work of Theophrastus, due to the fact that it is the first recorded attempt at systematic character-writing. Characters, to be sure, are portrayed in Homer and in the tragedians, but they are incidental to the narrative or to the dramatic plot, whereas in Theophrastus the business is with the delineation of a character as such.
He tells us what a man does, simply as an illustration of what he is, and this method of writing had a very intimate bearing on the evolution of the New Comedy under the leadership of Menander. There is a tradition, in fact, that Theophrastus was the teacher of Menander, who in turn furnished models for Terence in his delineation of conventional dramatic types. The influence of Theophrastus was further directly and potently exerted on the so-called character-writers of the seventeenth century in England and France. The simple methods of these character-writers and their uninvolved sketches were succeeded by the more elaborate art of the novelists, in whose works individuals rather than types are described by exhibiting their development in long periods of time and under great diversity of circumstances.
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