The Complete Plays of Aristophanes

Aristophanes

• Publisher: Pandora's Box Classics
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789897782503
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Drama
• Index: Literature

A poet who hated an age of decadence, armed conflict, and departure from tradition, Aristophanes' comic genius influenced the political and social order of his own fifth-century Athens. But as Moses Hadas writes in his introduction to this volume, 'His true claim upon our attention is as the most brilliant and artistic and thoughtful wit our world has known.' Includes The Acharnians, The Birds, The Clouds, Ecclesiazusae, The Frogs, The Knights, Lysistrata, Peace, Plutus, Thesmophoriazusae, and The Wasps.

The Frogs

Characters in the Play

Xanthias, servant of dionysus

Dionysus

Heracles

A corpse

Charon

Aeacus

A maid servant of persephone

Hostess, keeper of cook-shop

Plathane, her partner

Euripides

Aeschylus

Pluto

Chorus of frogs

Chorus of blessed mystics

[The scene shows the house of Heracles in the background. There enter two travellers: Dionysus on foot, in his customary yellow robe and buskins but also with the club and lion’s skin of Heracles, and his servant Xanthias on a donkey, carrying the luggage on a pole over his shoulder.]

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.

Xanthias

Nothing else smart?

Dionysus

Aye, save “my shoulder’s aching.”

Xanthias

Come now, that comical joke?

Dionysus

With all my heart.

Only be careful not to shift your pole,

And—

Xanthias

What?

Dionysus

And vow that you’ve a belly-ache.

Xanthias

May I not say I’m overburdened so

That if none ease me, I must ease myself?

Dionysus

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

Xanthias

What! must I bear these burdens, and ...