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    The Frogs
    The Frogs
    The Frogs
    Ebook81 pages59 minutes

    The Frogs

    By Aristophanes

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    About this ebook

    Aristophanes was one of the Ancient Greeks' most famous playwrights, and some of his works survived to the modern day, including this one.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles River Editors
    Release dateMar 22, 2018
    ISBN9781508013112
    Author

    Aristophanes

    Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete.

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      Book preview

      The Frogs - Aristophanes

      THE FROGS

      ………………

      Aristophanes

      WAXKEEP PUBLISHING

      Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please show the author some love.

      This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2015 by Aristophanes

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION
      DRAMATIS PERSONAE
      SCENE
      The Frogs
      By
      Aristophanes

      INTRODUCTION

      ………………

      ARISTOPHANES, THE GREATEST OF COMIC writers in Greek and in the opinion of many, in any language, is the only one of the Attic comedians any of whose works has survived in complete form He was born in Athens about the middle of the fifth century B C, and had his first comedy produced when he was so young that his name was withheld on account of his youth. He is credited with over forty plays, eleven of which survive, along with the names and fragments of some twenty-six others. His satire deal with political, religious, and literary topics, and with all its humor and fancy is evidently the outcome of profound conviction and a genuine patriotism. The Attic comedy was produced at the festivals of Dionysus, which were marked by great license, and to this, rather than to the individual taste of the poet, must be ascribed the undoubted coarseness of many of the jests. Aristophanes seems, indeed, to have been regarded by his contemporaries as a man of noble character. He died shortly after the production of his Plutus, in 388 B. C.

      The Frogs was produced the year after the death of Euripides, and laments the decay of Greek tragedy which Aristophanes attributed to that writer. It is an admirable example of the brilliance of his style, and of that mingling of wit and poetry with rollicking humor and keen satirical point which is his chief characteristic. Here, as elsewhere, he stands for tradition against innovation of all kinds, whether in politics, religion, or art. The hostility to Euripides displayed here and in several other plays, like his attacks on Socrates, is a result of this attitude of conservatism. The present play is notable also as a piece of elaborate if not over-serious literary criticism from the pen of a great poet.

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      ………………

      THE GOD DIONYSUS

      XANTHIAS, his slave

      AESCHYLUS

      EURIPIDES

      HERACLES

      PLUTO

      CHARON AEACUS, house porter to Pluto

      A CORPSE

      A MAIDSERVANT OF PERSEPHONE

      A LANDLADY IN HADES

      PLATHANE, her servant

      A CHORUS OF FROGS

      A CHORUS OF INITIATED PERSONS

      Attendants at a Funeral;

      Women worshipping Iacchus;

      Servants of Pluto, &c.

      SCENE

      ………………

      XANTHIAS

      Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master,

      At which the audience never fail to laugh?

      DIONYSUS. Aye, what you will, except I’m getting crushed: Fight shy

      of that: I’m sick of that already.

      XAN. Nothing else smart?

      DIO. Aye, save my shoulder’s aching.

      XAN. Come now, that comical joke?

      DIO. With all my heart. Only be careful not to shift your pole,

      And—

      XAN. What?

      DIO. And vow that you’ve a bellyache.

      XAN. May I not say I’m overburdened so

      That if none ease me, I must ease myself?

      DIO. For mercy’s sake, not till I’m going to vomit.

      XAN.

      What! must I bear these burdens, and not make

      One of the jokes Ameipsias and Lycis

      And Phrynichus, in every play they write,

      Put in the mouths of all their burden-bearers?

      DIO.

      Don’t make them; no! I tell you when I see

      Their plays, and hear those jokes, I come away

      More than a twelvemonth older than I went.

      XAN.

      O thrice unlucky neck of mine, which now

      Is getting crushed, yet must not crack its joke!

      DIO.

      Now is not this fine pampered insolence

      When I myself, Dionysus, son of—Pipkin,

      Toil on afoot, and let this fellow ride,

      Taking no trouble, and no burden bearing?

      XAN. What, don’t I bear?

      DIO. How can you when you’re riding?

      XAN. Why, I bear these.

      DIO. How?

      XAN. Most unwillingly.

      DIO. Does not the donkey bear the load you’re bearing?

      XAN. Not what I bear myself: by Zeus, not he.

      DIO.

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