THE BIRDS.
‘The Birds’ of Aristophanes, though one of the longest of his comedies,
and one which evidently stood high in the estimation of the author
himself, has comparatively little interest for a modern reader. Either
the burlesque reads to us, as most modern burlesques assuredly would,
comparatively poor and spiritless without the important adjuncts of
music, scenery, dresses, and what we call the “spectacle” generally,
which we know to have been in this instance on the most magnificent
scale; or the points in the satire are so entirely Athenian, and
directed to the passing topics of the day, that the wit of the allusions
is now lost to us. Probably there is also a deeper political meaning
under what appears otherwise a mere fantastical trifling; and this is
the opinion of some of the best modern critics. It may be, as Süvern
thinks, that the great Sicilian expedition, and the ambitious project of
Alcibiades for extending the Athenian empire, form the real point of the
play; easily enough apprehended by contemporaries, but become obscure
to us. This is no place to discuss a question upon which even professed
scholars are not agreed; but all these causes may contribute to make us
incompetent judges of the effect of the play upon those who saw it
acted. It failed, however, to secure the first prize that year: the
author was again beaten by Ameipsias--a specimen of whose comedies one
would much like to see.
Two citizens of Athens, Peisthetærus and Euelpides--names which we may,
perhaps, imperfectly translate into “Plausible” and “Hopeful”--disgusted
at the state of things in Athens both politically and socially, have set
out in search of some hitherto undiscovered country where there shall be
no lawsuits and no informers. They have hired as guides a raven and a
jackdaw--who give a good deal of trouble on the road by biting and
scratching--and are at last led by them to the palace of the King of the
Birds, formerly King Tereus of Thrace, but changed, according to the
mythologists, into the Hoopoe, whose magnificent crest is a very fit
emblem of his royalty. His wife is Procne--“the Nightingale”--daughter
of a mythical king of Attica, so that, in fact, he may be considered as
a national kinsman. The royal porter, the Trochilus, is not very willing
to admit the visitors, looking upon them as no better than a couple of
bird-catchers; but the Bird-king himself receives them, when informed of
their errand, with great courtesy, though he does not see how he can
help them. But can they possibly want a finer city than Athens? No--but
some place more quiet and comfortable. But why, he asks, should they
apply to him?
“Because you were a man, the same as us;
And found yourself in debt, the same as us;
And did not like to pay, the same as us;
And after that you changed into a bird,
And ever since have flown and wandered far
Over the land and seas, and have acquired
All knowledge that a bird or man can learn.”--(F.)
The adventurers do not learn much, however, from the Hoopoe. But an
original idea strikes Peisthetærus--why not build a city up here, in the
region of the Birds, the mid atmosphere between earth and heaven? If the
Hoopoe and his subjects will but follow his advice, they will thus hold
the balance of power in the universe.
“From that position you’ll command mankind,
And keep them in utter thorough subjugation,--
Just as you do the grasshoppers and locusts;
And if the gods offend you, you’ll blockade them,
And starve them to surrender.”--(F.)
The king summons a public meeting of his subjects to consider the
proposal of their human visitors; and no doubt the appearance of the
Chorus in their grotesque masks and elaborate costumes, representing
twenty-four birds of various species, from the flamingo to the
woodpecker, would be hailed with great delight by an Athenian audience,
who in these matters were very much like grown-up children. The music
appears to have been of a very original character, and more elaborate
than usual; and the part of the Nightingale, with solos on the flute
behind the scenes, is said to have been taken by a female performer of
great ability, a public favourite who had just returned to Athens after
a long absence. But the mere words of a comic extravaganza, whether
Greek or English, without the accompaniments, on which so much depends,
are little better than the dry skeleton of the piece, and can convey but
a very inadequate idea of its attractions when fittingly “mounted” on
the stage. This is notably the case with this production of our author,
which, from its whole character, must have depended very much upon the
completeness of such accessories for its success.
The Birds are at first inclined to receive their human visitors as
hereditary and notorious enemies. “Men were deceivers ever,” is their
song, in so many words; and it requires all the king’s influence to keep
them from attacking them and killing them at once. At length they agree
to a parley, and Peisthetærus begins by paying some ingenious
compliments to the high respectability and antiquity of the feathered
race. Was not the cock once king of the Persians? is he not still called
the “Persian bird”? and still even to this day, the moment he crows, do
not all men everywhere jump out of bed and go to their work? And was not
the cuckoo king of Egypt; and still when they hear him cry “cuckoo!” do
not all the Egyptians go into the harvest-fields? Do not kings bear
eagles and doves now on their sceptres, in token of the true sovereignty
of the Birds? Is not Jupiter represented always with his eagle, Minerva
with her owl, Apollo with his hawk? But now,--he goes on to say--“men
hunt you, and trap you, and set you out for sale, and, not content
with, simply roasting you, they actually pour scalding sauce over
you,--oil, and vinegar, and grated cheese,--spoiling your naturally
exquisite flavour.” But, if they will be advised by him, they will bear
it no longer. If men will still prefer the gods to the birds, then let
the rooks and sparrows flock down and eat up all the seed-wheat--and let
foolish mortals see what Ceres can then do for them in the way of
supplies. And let the crows peck out the eyes of the sheep and oxen; and
let them see whether Apollo (who calls himself a physician, and takes
care to get his fees as such) will be able to heal them. [Euelpides here
puts in a word--he hopes they will allow him first to sell a pair of
oxen he has at home.] And indeed the Birds will make much better gods,
and more economical: there will be no need of costly marble temples, and
expensive journeys to such places as Ammon and Delphi; an oak-tree or an
olive-grove will answer all purposes of bird-worship.
He then propounds his great scheme for building a bird-city in mid-air.
The idea is favourably entertained, and the two featherless bipeds are
equipped (by means of some potent herb known to the Bird-king) with a
pair of wings apiece, to make them presentable in society, before they
are introduced at the royal table. The metamorphosis causes some
amusement, and the two human travellers are not complimentary as to each
other’s appearance in these new appendages; Peisthetærus declaring that
his friend reminds him of nothing so much as “a goose on a cheap
sign-board,” while the other retorts by comparing him to “a plucked
blackbird.”[45]
The Choral song that follows is one of the gems of that elegance of
fancy and diction which, here and there, in the plays of Aristophanes,
almost startle us by contrast with the broad farce which forms their
staple, and show that the author possessed the powers of a true poet as
well as of a clever satirist.
“Ye children of man! whose life is a span,
Protracted with sorrow from day to day,
Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous,
Sickly calamitous creatures of clay!
Attend to the words of the sovereign birds,
Immortal, illustrious lords of the air,
Who survey from on high, with a merciful eye,
Your struggles of misery, labour, and care.
Whence you may learn and clearly discern
Such truths as attract your inquisitive turn;
Which is busied of late with a mighty debate,
A profound speculation about the creation,
And organical life, and chaotical strife,
With various notions of heavenly motions,
And rivers and oceans, and valleys and mountains,
And sources of fountains, and meteors on high,
And stars in the sky.... We propose by-and-by
(If you’ll listen and hear) to make it all clear.”--(F.)
There follows here some fantastical cosmogony, showing how all things
had their origin from a mystic egg, laid by Night, from which sprang the
golden-winged Eros--Love, the great principle of life, whose offspring
were the Birds.
“Our antiquity proved, it remains to be shown
That Love is our author and master alone;
Like him we can ramble and gambol and fly
O’er ocean and earth, and aloft to the sky:
And all the world over, we’re friends to the lover,
And where other means fail, we are found to prevail,
When a peacock or pheasant is sent as a present.
All lessons of primary daily concern
You have learnt from the birds, and continue to learn,
Your best benefactors and early instructors;
We give you the warning of seasons returning;
When the cranes are arranged, and muster afloat
In the middle air, with a creaking note,
Steering away to the Lybian sands,
Then careful farmers sow their lands;
The crazy vessel is hauled ashore,
The sail, the ropes, the rudder, and oar
Are all unshipped, and housed in store.
The shepherd is warned, by the kite reappearing,
To muster his flock, and be ready for shearing.
You quit your old cloak at the swallow’s behest,
In assurance of summer, and purchase a vest.
For Delphi, for Ammon, Dodona, in fine
For every oracular temple and shrine,
The birds are a substitute equal and fair,
For on us you depend, and to us you repair
For counsel and aid when a marriage is made,
A purchase, a bargain, a venture in trade:
Unlucky or lucky, whatever has struck ye--
An ox or an ass that may happen to pass,
A voice in the street, or a slave that you meet,
A name or a word by chance overheard--
If you deem it an omen, you call it a _bird_;
And if birds are your omens, it clearly will follow
That birds are a proper prophetic Apollo.”--(F.)
The Birds proceed at once to build their new city. Peisthetærus prefers
helping with his head rather than his hands, but he orders off his
simple-minded companion to assist them in the work.
_Peis._ Come now, go aloft, my boy, and tend the masons;
Find them good stones; strip to it, like a man,
And mix the mortar; carry up the hod--
And tumble down the ladder, for a change.
Set guards over the wall; take care of fire;
Go your rounds with the bell as city watchman--
And go to sleep on your post--as I know you will.
_Euelp._ (_sulkily_). And you stay here and be hanged,
if you like--there, now!
_Peis._ (_winking at the King_). Go! there’s a good
fellow, go! upon my word,
They couldn’t possibly get on without you.
The building is completed, by the joint exertions of the Birds, in a
shorter time than even the enthusiastic speculations of Peisthetærus had
calculated:--
“_Messenger._ There came a body of thirty thousand cranes
(I won’t be positive, there might be more)
With stones from Africa in their craws and gizzards,
Which the stone-curlews and stone-chatterers
Worked into shape and finished. The sand-martins
And mudlarks too were busy in their department,
Mixing the mortar; while the water-birds,
As fast as it was wanted, brought the water,
To temper and work it.
_Peis._ (_in a fidget_). But who served the masons?
Who did you get to carry it?
_Mess._ To carry it?
Of course the _carrion_ crows and carrier-pigeons.”[46]--(F.)
The geese with their flat feet trod the mortar, and the pelicans with
their saw-bills were the carpenters. The name fixed upon for this new
metropolis is “Cloud-Cuckoo-Town”--the first recorded “castle in the
air.” It must be the place, Euelpides thinks, where some of those great
estates lie which he has heard certain friends of his in Athens boast
of. It appears to be indeed a very unsubstantial kind of settlement; for
Iris, the messenger of the Immortals, who has been despatched from
heaven to inquire after the arrears of sacrifice, quite unaware of its
existence and its purpose, dashes through the airy blockade immediately
after its building. She is pursued, however, by a detachment of light
cavalry--hawks, falcons, and eagles--and brought upon the stage as
prisoner, in a state of great wrath at the indignity put upon
her,--wrath which is by no means mollified by the sarcasms of
Peisthetærus on the flaunting style and very pronounced colours of her
costume as goddess of the Rainbow.
The men seem well inclined to the new ruling powers, and many apply at
once to be furnished with wings. But the state of things in the
celestial regions soon gets so intolerable, owing to the stoppage of all
communication with earth and its good things, that certain barbarian
deities, the gods of Thrace, who are--as an Athenian audience would
readily understand--of a very carnal and ill-mannered type, break out
into open rebellion, and threaten mutiny against the supremacy of
Jupiter, unless he can come to some terms with this new intermediate
power. Information of this movement is brought by Prometheus--here, as
in the tragedians, the friend of man and the enemy of Jupiter--who comes
secretly to Peisthetærus (getting under an umbrella, that Jupiter may
not see him) and advises him on no account to come to any terms with
that potentate which do not include the transfer into his possession of
the fair Basileia (sovereignty), who rules the household of Olympus, and
is the impersonation of all good things that can be desired. In due time
an embassy from the gods in general arrives at the new city, sent to
treat with the Birds. The Commissioners are three: Neptune, Hercules
(whose appetite for good things was notorious, and who would be a
principal sufferer by the cutting off the supplies), and a Thracian
god--a Triballian--who talks very bad Greek indeed, and who has
succeeded in some way in getting himself named on the embassy, to the
considerable disgust of Neptune, who has much trouble in making him look
at all respectable and presentable.
“_Nep._ There’s Nephelococcugia! that’s the town,
The point we’re bound to with our embassy.
(_Turning to the Triballian._)
But you! what a figure have ye made yourself!
What a way to wear a mantle! slouching off
From the left shoulder! Hitch it round, I tell ye,
On the right side. For shame--come--so; that’s better;
These folds, too, bundled up; there, throw them round
Even and easy,--so. Why, you’re a savage,
A natural-born savage.--Oh, democracy!
What will it bring us to, when such a ruffian
Is voted into an embassy!
_Trib._ (_to Neptune, who is pulling his dress about_). Come, hands off,
Hands off!
_Nep._ Keep quiet, I tell ye, and hold your tongue,
For a very beast! in all my life in heaven,
I never saw such another. Hercules,
I say, what shall we do? What should you think?
_Her._ What would I do? what do I think? I’ve told you
Already--I think to throttle him--the fellow,
Whoever he is, that’s keeping us blockaded.
_Nep._ Yes, my good friend; but we were sent, you know,
To treat for a peace. Our embassy is for peace.
_Her._ That makes no difference; or if it does,
It makes me long to throttle him all the more.”--(F.)
Hercules, ravenous as he always is, and having been kept for some time
on very short commons, is won over by the rich odour of some cookery in
which he finds Peisthetærus, now governor of the new state, employed on
their arrival. He is surprised to discover that the _roti_ consists of
birds, until it is explained to him that they are aristocrat birds, who
have, in modern phrase, been guilty of conspiring against democracy.
This brief but bitter satire upon this Bird-Utopia is thrown in as it
were by the way, quite casually; but one wonders how the audience
received it. Hercules determines to make peace on any terms; and when
Neptune seems inclined to stand upon the dignity of his order, and
taunts his brother god with being too ready to sacrifice his father’s
rights, he draws the Triballian aside, and threatens him roundly with a
good thrashing if he does not give his vote the right way. Having
secured his majority of votes by this powerful argument--a kind of
argument by no means peculiar to aerial controversies, but familiar
alike to despots and demagogues in all times--Hercules concludes on
behalf of the gods the truce with the Birds. Jupiter agrees to resign
his sceptre to them, on condition that there is no further embargo on
the sacrifices, and to give up to Peisthetærus the beautiful Basileia;
and in the closing scene she appears in person, decked as a bride,
riding in procession by the side of Peisthetærus, while the Chorus chant
a half-burlesque epithalamium. “Plausible” has won the sovereignty, but
of a very unsubstantial kingdom--if that be the moral of the play.
Süvern contends, in his very ingenious Essay on this comedy, that the
fantastic project in which the Birds are persuaded by Peisthetærus to
engage is intended to represent the ultimate designs of Alcibiades in
urging the expedition of the Athenians to Sicily,--no less than the
subjugation of Italy, Carthage, and Libya, and obtaining the sovereignty
of the Mediterranean: by which the Spartans (the gods of the comedy)
would be cut off from intercourse with the smaller states, here
represented by the men. He considers that in Peisthetærus we have
Alcibiades, compounded with some traits of the sophist Gorgias, whose
pupil he is said to have been. Iris’s threat of the wrath of her father
Jupiter--which certainly is more seriously worded than the general tone
of the play--he takes to be a prognostication of the unhappy termination
of the expedition, a feeling shared by many at Athens; while in the
transfer of Basileia--all the real power--to Peisthetærus, and not to
the Birds, he foreshadows the probable results of the personal ambition
of Alcibiades. Such an explanation receives support from many other
passages in the comedy, and is worked out by the writer with great pains
and ability.