The Scholia on the Aves of Aristophanes. With an Introduction on the Origin, Development, Transmission, and Extant Sources of the Old Greek Commentary on his Comedies.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Einband berieben, Buchr�cken besto�n und leicht verschmutzt, sonst guter Zustand / binding rubbed, spine scuffed and slightly soiled, otherwise good condition. - PREFACE Modern readers of Aristophanes are hampered by their ignorance of matters essentially commonplace. Even Robert Browning, however instant his recognition of his great confrere�s genius, shared the common experience and resorted to the same source of relief with lesser men. Sooner or later, whether poets or laymen, we all turn to the Old Greek Commentary on our poet in hope of a better understanding of the many remote matters that prevent our complete appreciation of his lively comedies. Who are these obscure men that troop through his coursing verse, the butt of his good-natured ridicule ? What is the particular significance of this or that swift reference to a local scandal, a political row, a shady transaction ? Or, in larger aspect, to a historical event, an Attic custom, an ancient myth, � to theatrical usage, judicial procedure, ritual observance ? Even the common man, ensconced aloft in his seat in the ancient theatre, understood these things. To him they were the well- known facts of his daily life, but we moderns and aliens require instruction. We lack, too, his feeling for idiom and for the nuances of the speech heard in the street in the poet�s time, although we may know more about formal Greek grammar than any man of his day. The substance of comedy is essentially local: its characters and incidents, in order to provoke laughter, must be familiar; its spectacle of life must reflect the life of the audience. The comedies of Aristophanes are local in unusual degree; he is never very far from the Athens of Alcibiades, however he may affect to transport us to Hades or Nephelococcygia. It is for this reason, doubtless, that he has not many modem readers and that his plays have not much influenced modem literature. Racine appropriated the framework of the only play of our poet that may still be said to hold the boards, but shifted its characters and the setting of its incidents to his own time � his play is French. Since, then, the outlook upon life in these unrivalled Greek comedies is so completely that of contemporary Athens, it is not surprising that even within a few generations after the poet�s death, when moreover Alexander�s conquests had lowered the prestige of ancient states, established new centres of interest, and shattered venerable traditions, men began to find these plays difficult and to seek enlightenment. In the Introduction to this book I have endeavored to narrate how this virtual demand for a commentary was met by the great Alexandrian scholars and their successors. It is now difficult to realize the abundant resources these learned men had in prosecuting their study of comedy. The present record of their labors is indeed meagre, but even the extant scholia testify that their material for the intensive and comparative study of this important branch of the ancient literature was ample. Twenty-seven poets of the Old Comedy are cited or quoted in the existing commentary, and many of their plays are named: six each of Hermippus and Phrynichus, seven of Pherecrates, eight of Theo- pompus, fourteen of Eupolis, sixteen of the elder Cratinus, seventeen of Plato, thirty-six of Aristophanes. These comedies long survived their authors. Athenaeus, writing at the close of the second century of our era, cites or quotes thirty-eight poets of the Old Comedy and names two hundred and twenty-five of their plays. To-day we have only eleven plays of a single poet. Comedy was profitably studied in Alexandria for a period of five hundred years, from just after the foundation of the city to the end of the second century after Christ. Approximately two centuries later the results of previous investigations were incorporated, so far as this was possible, in a parchment variorum edition of Aristophanes that probably was composed in Constantinople. The commentary in this great book, hard buffeted from age to age, now exists only in the abbreviated, mutilated, and contaminated remains that are still recoverable from various extant manuscripts. These scanty remains but poorly represent the wealth of diversified information once accessible in the libraries of Alexandria. Nevertheless classical scholars in general have thought well of the commentary, even in its piteous present state : they have turned to it with confidence for instruction, and have used it freely in their studies of the life and literature of ancient Greece. A general impression of its nature and value may be had from the three admirable Indexes to the present volume, although they cover but a single play. I speak confidently of their quality, for I owe them all to the kindness of Professor Edward Capps, who, deferring weightier matters of his own, has by this self-sacrificing and kindly service placed me under heavy but agreeable obligations. (excerpt).