HISTORY OF ECONOMUS. 243 is made responsible for the person's of the offenders. He is to guard them at his own cost, and to answer for their escape, to the higher powers. Accordingly, the Dragoman and his family were confined to their own house under the custody of a caloyer, one of the lowest order of Greek monks, whom they easily contrived to elude. They pledged his reverence so heartily, in some right orthodox beverage, that he was soon no longer in a condition to oppose their flight. By the aid of Economus, they had engaged a Russian vessel to carry them away; but it happened, that though they all got safely on board, contrary winds precluded every possibility of sailing. In due time the monk recovered from his fit of intoxication; and having ascertained that the prisoners had uncourteously left him alone, he sallied hastily forth to disclose his negligence and inebriety to his principal. The Patriarch carried the story to the Vizier, and the Vizier to the Sultan, "then curled his very beard for ire," and orders were sent off to the admiral of the port to make diligent search for the fugitives. The emissaries went three times on board the very vessel in which they were con 244 MODERN GREEK LITERATURE. cealed; but through the influence, or more properly, the money of Count Strogonoff, the Russian minister, (who is said, much to his honour, to have contributed largely to their escape, and whom they had, by some means or other, apprized of their situation), they got off undiscovered to St. Petersburgh, where Economus now resides. Moliere's play of "L'Avare," is adapted to Hellenic manners and ideas. The scene is placed in Smyrna, and the characters each speak in dialects proper to them. They are thus described: 1. Exentavelones, the father of Cleanthes and Zoetza. 2. Varthalambumba, father of Chariclea and Demetrius. 3. Cleanthes, son of Exentavelones, and lover of Chariclea. 4. Zoetza, daughter of Exentavelones. 5. Demetrius, the adopted son of Varthalambumba, and lover of Zoetza. [His name is properly Demetraces, a diminutive of Demetrius; as from man, manekin; a little man, Zoetza is similarly formed.] 6. Chariclea, daughter of Varthalambumba. TRANSLATION OF MOLIERE'S " AVARE.” 245 17. Keratza Sophoulio, a female go-between, [Hookεvýroua, literally, a marriage-braker.] 8. Mr. Simos, a messenger. 9. Mr. Giannes, (or John,) cook to Exentavelones... 10. Mrs. Maria, maid-servant to Exentavelonės. 11. Vrakes, gardener to Exentavelones. 12. Mrs. Kakoula, a poor tenant of Exentavelones. 13. Stroveles, servant to Cleanthes. 14. Wardens ['Erirporоi] of the hospital. 15. Archelaus, principal public secretary. Of these characters, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, speak in the best dialect of Smyrna, which is superior even to that spoken in the Fanal of Constantinople, and so much extolled. In the latter place, a vast number of Turkish words are mingled with the Greek; but in Smyrna it is more pure. The first, second, seventh, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, are also of the dialect of Smyrna, but appropriated exclusively to the lower order of uneducated persons. The ninth is a dialect of Macedonia, or rather of Thessaly, as the 246 MODERN GREEK LITERATURE. author hints in his Preface: and the thirteenth of the Island of Scio. Economus also wrote an original tragedy, which has been acted; and a comedy which is still in manuscript. I have met with an original play, a rhyming tragedy, called "POLYXENA, composed by the most noble gentleman, Mr. Jacob Rizos, otherwise called Neroulos." This is certainly a step in Grecian literature. The tragedy was acted three times in Smyrna, and oftener in Constantinople. They had a part of the Spanish consul's house prepared for the purpose, with costumes adapted to the parts that were represented. But all this was disturbed by the Revolution; and a copy of the drama is of the last degree of scarcity. It was procured with the utmost difficulty by the worthy Kyriacos. Lord Byron, in the Appendix to his first part of Childe Harold, mentions, that "Christodoulos, an Acarnanian, has published, in Vienna, some physical treatises in Hellenic." I have obtained a work, by the same author, published at Vienna in 1811, entitled "Laonicus and Zantippe; or, the Faithful Lover and TRANSLATION OF "TEMISTOCLE" AND "OLYMPIADE." 247 Imprudent Mother. A drama, in two parts." It is written in prose, and forms a sort of dramatic history, each division containing four long acts. The "Temistocle" of Metastasio, printed at Vienna, in 1796, by George Ventole, “now first printed," says the title-page, "at the expence and by the care of Polyzoes Lampanit ziotes, of Ioannina; is translated by an anonymous writer, (Παρὰ του Κυρίου ..) in prose. The translation is by no means literal. ... The "Olympiade," by the same Italian poet, is also anonymously translated into Greek heroic couplets," E'N 'OPENH," 1815; intermingled with songs. It is ornamented with very indifferent vignettes, cut in wood. Marmontel's " Shepherdess of the Alps," versified chiefly in the irregular measure of the Italian sonnet; and "The First Mariner, a Poem, in two Cantos, by the German Poet Gesner, translated into our Tongue by Antonius, tl e Son of Koronius," are in the same volume, of 204 duodecimo pages. The latter is in prose. The last work which I obtained at this time is an original Hellenic composition, with the following title, "Certain Dramatic Poems, |