FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81  
82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   >>   >|  
is life, which, as Lysistrata observes, amounts to nothing more than grumbling because they have not laid him out. Twenty-three centuries are gone since Aristophanes wrote the _Lysistrata_, but the safe official who dismisses with a traditional sneer or a smile the notion that any can manage, save those who have been trained to mismanage, is still with us. Perhaps he has outlived the class whose prejudices and limitations he formerly expressed; but in the days of Aristophanes such a class existed, and it is represented here by the chorus of old gentlemen. In those days the men were not the only fools. Aristophanes had no intention of making out that they were. He was a better artist than party man. He was a comic poet who revealed the essential comedy of all things. The chorus of women, Lysistrata herself, and the other leading ladies, all have their foibles and absurdities; only the chorus of men, who are so keenly alive to them, seem never to guess that there are smuts on the pot. To seek in this age and country a companion for these old fellows would be to insult our Western civilization. Let us invent a purely fantastic character; one who could not sleep at night for fear of Prussians and Social Democrats, who clamoured daily for a dozen Dreadnoughts, conscription, and the head of Mr. Keir Hardie on a charger, and yet spent his leisure warning readers of the daily papers against the danger of admitting to any share of power a sex notorious for its panic-fearfulness, intolerance, and lack of humour; such a one would indeed merit admission to the [Greek: choros geronton], would be a proper fellow to take his stand [Greek: hexes Aristogeitoni], beside the brave Aristogiton, and [Greek: pataxai tesde graos ten gnathon], beat down this "monstrous regiment of women." Aristophanes was a staunch Conservative, but he disliked a stupid argument wherever he found it. He cared intensely about politics, but he could not easily forget that he was an artist. Neither the men nor the women are tied up and peppered with the small shot of his wit; they are allowed to betray themselves. The art consists in selecting from the mass of their opinions and sentiments what is most significant, and making the magistrate, who speaks for the party, deliver himself of judicious commonplaces. The chorus of wiseacres, the bar-parlour politicians, whom chance or misfortune has led to favour one side rather than the other, are less cautious witho
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81  
82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
chorus
 

Aristophanes

 

Lysistrata

 
artist
 

making

 

Aristogiton

 

monstrous

 

regiment

 

Conservative

 

staunch


gnathon

 
pataxai
 

Aristogeitoni

 
choros
 
danger
 

admitting

 

papers

 

readers

 

leisure

 

warning


notorious

 

admission

 

geronton

 

proper

 

fellow

 
fearfulness
 

intolerance

 

humour

 

easily

 

deliver


judicious

 

commonplaces

 
wiseacres
 

speaks

 

magistrate

 

sentiments

 

opinions

 

significant

 

parlour

 

cautious


favour
 
politicians
 

chance

 

misfortune

 

charger

 
politics
 

forget

 
Neither
 
intensely
 

argument