Comparationis Aristophanis et Menandri compendium

This is at best a summary of one of Plutarch’s lost essays, and it may well be that we have only part of the summary. Bernardakis believes that the beginning is wanting, and even for a summary the end, as we have it, appears somewhat abrupt. The Old Comedy of the fifth century b.c., whose chief representative is, and always was, Aristophanes, with its brilliant wit, occasionally beautiful poetry, biting invective, unrestrained ribaldry, and unashamed indecency, was followed in the fourth century, after the brief vogue of the Middle Comedy, by the New Comedy, whose chief representative is Menander. The New Comedy abstained from politics, indulged in no personal invective, was indecent only by innuendo, and produced dramas in which the life of the times was reflected somewhat after the manner of modern society plays. Plutarch not unnaturally preferred Menander’s polished comedies of character to the boisterous wit and humour of Aristophanes, and he seems to have had no appreciation of the earlier dramatist’s vigour or of his poetic imagination.

--- In general he[*](He seems to mean Plutarch; the compiler of this summary (or the editor who included it among Plutarch’s works) regarding Plutarch as the author of the statements which are introduced in this first sentence.) much prefers Menander, and in particular he adds what follows:

Coarseness, he says, in words, vulgarity and ribaldry are present in Aristophanes, but not at all in Menander; obviously, for the uneducated, ordinary person is captivated by what the former says, but the educated man will be displeased. I refer to antitheses and similar endings and plays on words. For of these Menander does make use with proper consideration and rarely, believing that they should be treated with care, but Aristophanes employs them frequently, inopportunely, and frigidly; for his punning is applauded, he says, in

1. because he soused the bankers -
2. Though they never were that but damn curs,[*](This quotation is not found in any collection of the fragments of Aristophanes (Bernardakis). The play on words in the Greek consists in the change of the initial letters of the words tamias (treasurers) and Lamias, fabulous creatures such as the bugbears with which children are frightened by their nurses.)

This fellow blows an ill north-east or calumny,[*](Knights, 437. In the Greek north-east and calumny both have the same endings in -ias, characteristic of the names of winds.)

Give him a belly-punch in his bowels and guts,[*](Knights, 454. The play here consists in the use of gastrize, usually meaning stuff the belly with food, as punch in the belly. The language is intentionally coarse as being characteristic of the Sausage-dealer, Cleon’s rival for political leadership.)

By laughter driven I soon shall be in Laughter-town,[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag. i. p. 546, no. 618. The play is on the word gelôs laughter and the city of Gela in Sicily.)

1. Whatever shall I do to you, you wretched pot,
2. When gone the way of pots?[*](Kock, ibid. p. 543, no. 593. The speaker seems to be about to smash a pot in order to get some ostraka or potsherds on which to inscribe the name of the politician for whose ostracism he desires to vote.)

1. Since, women, what he does to us are evils wild,
2. For one who e’en himself in the wild-greens market grew,[*](Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria, 455. One of the assembled women is arraigning Euripides for the wrongs he has done to the sex in his tragedies. The reference in the second line is to the then current story that the poet’s mother earned her living by selling wild greens and vegetables.)

But look, the moths have eaten up my plumes entire,[*](Acharnians, 1110. The speaker is the general Lamachus, who comes on the scene in his full officer’s regalia. The word for moth in Greek is trichobros hair-eater. )

1. Lam. I say, bring here my shield’s round orb all Gorgon-faced.
2. Dic. I say, hand me a flat-cake’s orb all faced with cheese,[*](The first line is spoken by Lamachus, who has been ordered to lead out his forces for the defence of the frontier in blustery wintry weather. Everything he says is parodied by the pacifist Dicaeopolis, the charcoal-burner, who for his part is preparing for a grand banquet.)

But Menander’s diction is so polished and its ingredients mingled into so consistent a whole that, although it is employed in connexion with many emotions and many types of character and adapts itself to persons of every kind, it nevertheless appears as one and preserves its uniformity in common and familiar words in general use; but if the action should anywhere call for strange and deceptive language and for bluster, he opens, as it were, all the stops of his flute, but then quickly and plausibly closes them and brings the sound back to its natural quality. And although there have been many noted artisans, no shoemaker ever made the same shoe, no

Some dramatists write for the common people, and others for the few, but it is not easy to say which of them all is capable of adapting his work to both classes. Now Aristophanes is neither pleasing to the many nor endurable to the thoughtful, but his poetry is like a harlot who has passed her prime and then takes up the role of a wife, whose presumption the many cannot endure and whose licentiousness and malice the dignified abominate. But Menander, along with his charm, shows himself above all satisfying. He has made his poetry, of all the beautiful works Greece has produced, the most generally accepted subject in theatres, in discussions, and at banquets, for readings, for instruction, and for dramatic competitions. For he shows, indeed, what the essence and nature of skill in the use of language really are, approaching all subjects with a persuasiveness from which there is no escape, and controlling

Although the city produced in that whole period many excellent performers of comedy, only Menander’s comedies contain an abundance of salty wit and merriment, which seem like the salt[*](Cf. Cicero, De Officiis i. 37. 133 sale vero et facetiis Caesar vicit omnes, where facetiis corresponds to Emperius’s conjecture ἱλαρῶν.) derived from that sea out of which Aphroditê was born. But the witticisms of Aristophanes are bitter and rough and possess a sharpness which wounds and bites. And I do not know wherein his vaunted cleverness resides, whether in his words or his characters. Certainly even whatever he imitates he makes worse; for with him roguishness is not urbane but malicious, rusticity not simple but silly, facetiousness not playful but ridiculous, and love