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THE LYSISTRATA 1
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PLATO.
To Plato it seemed that the Graces, seeking
an imperishable temple, discovered the soul ^an ' * 9ia
of Aristophanes. To the grocers and statesmen
of Queen Victoria it seemed otherwise.
Their taste was a good deal nicer than that
of Plato, or of Shakespeare for that matter,
or of Dante, Rabelais, Catullus, Voltaire, 2
Gibbon or Balzac, to say nothing of St.
Chrysostom (who could not sleep without an
Aristophanes under his pillow) or the author
of " The Song of Solomon." They did not
like vulgarity and they put a stop to it : also
1 " The Lysistrata of Aristophanes, acted at Athens in
the year B.C. 411." The Greek Text Revised, with a Translation
into Corresponding Metres, Introduction, and Commentary,
by Benjamin Bickley Rogers. (Bell and Sons.)
2 Voltaire, by the way, was no admirer of Aristophanes.
" Ce poete comique," said he, " qui n'est ni comique ni
poete, n'aurait pas et6 admis parmi nous a donner ses farces
a la foire Saint-Laurent." But that was not because he
was indecent, but because to Voltaire, who said much the
same of Shakespeare, he seemed extravagantly incorrect.
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