Aristophanes and his comedies
Of Aristophanes, the greatest comedian of his age, and perhaps of all
the ages, history contains few notices, and these of doubtful credit.
Even the dates of his birth and death can only be inferred from his
works, the former being estimated at 456 BC and the latter at 380. Many
cities claimed the honor of giving him birth, the most probable story
making him the son of Philippus of Ęgina, and therefore only an adopted
citizen of Athens.
On this point some confusion has arisen from an attempt of Cleon to
deprive Aristophanes of his civic rights, on the ground of illegitimacy,
in revenge for his frequent invectives. The charge was disproved, thus
pointing to the Athenian parentage of the comic poet, though as to this
there is no trustworthy evidence. He was doubtless educated at Athens,
and among other advantages is said to have been a disciple of Prodicus,
though in his mention of that sophist he shows none of the respect due
to his reputed master.
It was under the mighty genius of Aristophanes that the old Attic
comedy received its fullest development.
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Aristophanes |
Dignified by the acquisition of a chorus of masked actors, and of
scenery and machinery, and by a corresponding literary elaboration and
elegance of style, comedy nevertheless remained true both to its origin
and to the purposes of its introduction into the free imperial city. It
borrowed much from tragedy, but it retained the Phallic abandonment of
the old rural festivals, the license of word and gesture, and the
audacious directness of personal invective. These characteristics are
not features peculiar to Aristophanes. He was twitted by some of the
older comic poets with having degenerated from the full freedom of the
art through a tendency to refinement, and he took credit to himself for
having superseded the time-honored can can and the stale practical
joking of his predecessors by a nobler kind of mirth.
But in boldness, as he likewise boasted, he had no peer; and the
shafts of his wit, though dipped in wine-lees and at times feathered
from very obscene fowl, flew at high game. He has been accused of
seeking to degrade what he ought to have recognized as good; and it has
been shown by competent critics that he is not to be taken as an
impartial or accurate authority on Athenian history. But, partisan as he
was, he was also a genuine patriot, and his very political
sympathies-which were conservative-were such as have often stimulated
the most effective political satire, because they imply an antipathy to
every species of excess. Of reverence he was, however, altogether
devoid; and his love for Athens was that of the most free-spoken of
sons. Flexible, even in his religious notions, he was in this, as in
other respects, ready to be educated by his times; and, like a true
comic poet, he could be witty at the expense even of his friends, and,
it might almost be said, of himself. In wealth of fancy and in beauty of
lyric melody he ranks high among the great poets of all times.
It has been said that Aristophanes was an unmannerly buffoon, and so,
indeed, he was, among his other faults. Nor was he at all justified in
stooping to this degradation, whether it were that he was instigated by
coarse inclinations, or that he held it necessary to gain over the
populace, that he might have it in his power to tell such bold truths to
the people. At least he makes it his boast that he did not court the
laughter of the multitude so much as his rivals did, by mere indecent
buffoonery, and that in this respect he brought his art to perfection.
Not to be unreasonable, we should judge him from the standpoint of his
own times, in respect of those peculiarities which make him offensive to
us.
On certain points, the ancients had quite a different morality from
ours, and certainly a much freer one. This arose from their religion,
which was a real worship of Nature, and had given sanctity to many
public ceremonies which grossly violate decency. Moreover, as in
consequence of the seclusion of their women, the men were almost always
together, a certain coarseness entered into their conversation, as in
such circumstances is apt to be the case.
The strongest testimony in favor of Aristophanes is that of Plato,
who, in one of his epigrams, says that "the Graces chose his soul for
their abode." The philosopher was a constant reader of the comedian,
sending to Dionysius the elder a copy of the Clouds, from which to make
himself acquainted with the Athenian republic. This was not intended
merely as a description of the unbridled democratic freedom then
prevailing at Athens, but as an example of the poet's thorough knowledge
of the world, and of the political conditions of what was then the
world's metropolis.
When he was awakened, toward daybreak, by the crowing of cocks, the
others were also asleep or had gone away, and there remained awake only
Aristophanes, Agathon and Socrates, who were drinking out of a large
goblet that was passed around, while Socrates was discoursing to them.
Aristodemus did not hear all the discourse, for he was only half awake;
but he remembered Socrates insisting to the other two that the genius of
comedy was the same as that of tragedy, and that the writer of the one
should also be a writer of the other. To this they were compelled to
assent, being sleepy, and not quite understanding what he meant. And
first Aristophanes fell asleep, and then, when the day was dawning,
Agathon."
(An excerpt from
The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, Volume
Two edited by Alfred Bates) |
