SUMMARY OF A COMPARISON BETWEEN ARISTOPHANES AND MENANDER (COMPARATIONIS ARISTOPHANIS ET MENANDRI COMPENDIUM)
INTRODUCTION
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.