Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Commentarii in Aristophanis Comoedias, Vol. 7: Pars II Supplementa Commentariorum
Before I give nu' account of the editor's merits, it may not be improper to say a Word of the excellencies and defects of the author; especially as some modern critics have thought proper not only to greet him with the title offs scurrilous and indecent buii'ocn, but to wonder how such monstrous farces could be endured by the chaste ears of an Alic audience. That many should have been greatly exasperated with Aristophanes, for publicly exhibiting So crates on the stage, and making him speak and act in a manner.most inconsistent with his known character, is not surprising; but as the accusation urged by some against the poet, of being instrumental to Socrates's death, has been aubstantially refuted by many critics; so the present editor has very judiciously observed, with regard to the other part of the charge, that Socrates is not so much the object of ridicule in the comedy of the Clouds, as the philosophers in general, who, of whatever benefit the lessons and eat ample of Socrates himself might be to the state, Were, from their idle lives, their minute, ridiculous, and ao-3 metimes impious disquisitions, highly prejudicial to their disciples, and, by consequence, to the public. If, says Mr. Brunch, Aristophanes had really in the smallest degree contributed to the death of Socrates, it is not Credible that Plato would have introduced them in his Symposium. Sitting together at: the same table; it is not credible that he Woul have been so great an admirer of him as to write an epigram in his praise, containing a most extravagant compliment.
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