FROGS, The (Aristophanes' is the wittiest comedy in the world and the best index of the intelligence of the audience that could appreciate it. It was produced in 405 'lc. in the brief interval of respite and hope between the victory of Arginusae and the fatal defeat of Xgospotami. The allusions to political conditions and the war are few. The main theme, the descent into hell, had a long history before Aristophanes, running back to the 11th book of the Odyssey; and from Aristophanes to Dante, and from Dante to The Houseboat on the Styx,' it has served as the vehicle of contemporary satire. It supplies Aristophanes with abundant motives of comic relief and farce. And the whole is enlivened by the grotesque costumes and the brek-ke-ke-lee coax refrain of the chorus of frogs, whose original habitat was the precinct of Dionysus in the marshes. But informing and transcending all this is the serious comedy of ideas — the criticism of the style, temper, thought and ethics of the new poetry. Sopho cles and Euripides (as who should say Tenny son and Browning) are dead and there are none to fill their shoes, but very minor bards.
"And idly tuneful, the loquacious throng Flutter and twitter, prodigal of time, And little masters make a toy of song.
Till grave men weary of the sound of rhyme. " These words of William Watson are almost an echo of the complaints of Dionysus, god of drama, poetry and music. Since there are no good poets left on earth, he is resolved to fetch one from Hades. In this quixotic role he appears with a Sancho Panza, the slave Xanthias, who plays up to him in the funny business. He takes counsel of Heracles, who had made the journey and who vainly tries to daunt him. He crosses Charon's ferry to the chant of the frogs and is rejoined by Xanthias, who had to walk around the lake because Charon drew the color line on his boat. In the darkness they at first cannot see the male factors and cutthroats there---but taking a good look at the audience, they discern them. After various comic alarms they fall in with a second chorus, composed of the blest initiates, to whose lovely songs they listen and from whom they inquire "where —in hell — they are.* Knocking at Pluto's door, Dionysus, who wears the garb of Heracles, is received with an appalling outburst of 2Eschylean vitu peration from the servant ./Eacus, who remem bers Heracles' former thefts. Dionysus faints, and changes roles with Xanthias, but insists on resuming his divinity when a message from Persephone invites them to a feast, and cajoles Xanthias into changing yet again upon the eruption of two furious housewives, who recall the misdeeds of Heracles. .2Eacus returns
prepared to execute judgment on the supposed .Heracles. But Xanthias, in that role, denies his guilt, and in accordance with Attic law, offers in evidence the testimony of his slave (Dionysus) to be taken under torture. Diony sus warns all and sundry that he is an immortal god. Xanthias proposes to test that by seeing which can stand the hardest buffets. The re sulting farce is redeemed by the witty device of converting Dionysus' ejaculations of pain into unfinished familiar quotations.
C.asar,' he yells — but instantly adds com pleting the verse, "dost thou lie so low?' A reference to the masters, Pluto and Persephone, dears up the misunderstanding, and after a choric song the two slaves are left outside talking servants' hall gossip. They hear a tremendous uproar within, and Aeacus explains to Xanthias that it is the contest between Aeschylus and Euripides for the tragic throne. Dionysus has been appointed judge, and the contest is transferred to the open stage, where it is accompanied by the comments of the chorus and the ribald interpolations of Diony sus. Beginning with a regular slanging match, the two rival poets analyze one another's drama tic construction and style, parody the blank verse and the lyrics, balance in the scales the weightiness of their meters and criticism of life, and censure the tendencies of their moral and political teaching. No literal version can con vey any adequate idea of the wit and subtlety of this penetrating literary criticism. But 'The Rehearsal' and Sheridan's
The tongue has sworn—the mind remains unswora. The tongue has sworn —but iEschylus's my man.
The justice of Aristophanes' travesty of Euripides "new poetry for a new age is still under controversy. Recent criticism from Browning's 'Aristophanes' Apology' to the in troduction of Professor Murray's translation leans to the side of Euripides. The best brief temperate summary of the older and saner view is to be found in Jebb's