Aristophanes in 18th-19th century British political debates about democracy

I. Question of Reception A. What was Aristophanes’ political outlook?

B. What effect did his plays have on Athenian society?

II. Interest Level of 18th and 19th century British Scholars? A. ‘… of all the great Greek writers Aristophanes had the least influence in the last

[nineteenth] century’ (Jenkyns 1980: 79).

B. ‘One reason [for this lack of influence] was certainly that Aristophanic drama was

suspected on account of its obscenity. But another reason was its almost

uncontested possession by men who espoused traditional, even reactionary

political opinions. Aristophanes, several of whose plays were unavailable in

English translation until well into the nineteenth century, was read by few outside

the male, educated élite’ (Hall 2007: 67).

III. Romantic Hellenism A. Mary Robinson (1757-1800)

B. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

C. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

D. Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)

IV. British Political Stage in 18th and 19th centuries A. England involved in 137 wars or rebellions

B. Geneva Revolution of 1782 and French Revolution

C. Glorious Revolution of 1688

1. Jacobite risings

D. Demands for Parliamentary Reforms

E. United States of America

V. The Tory and the Philosophical Radical A. William Mitford (1744-1827), History of Greece

1. ‘… under democracy, no man was master of his own: property, person,

every thing must be devoted, not to the service only, but to the pleasure

and fancy of the people’ (Mitford vol. IV 1838: 26–7).

2. Saw Athenian Democracy inherently bad but Aristophanes as a good

political advisor to the city

B. George Grote (1794-1871), History of Greece

1. Idealized fifth-century democracy but considers Aristophanes an oligarch

2. Cleon a strong leader

a) ‘… the qualities which, in all countries of free debate, go to form

what is called a great opposition speaker’ (Grote vol. VI 1849:

484).

VI. Sexual Politics and Personal Liberties A. John Addington Symonds (1840-1893): Did not see Aristophanes as an advocate

for democracy but valued his sexual liberties

1. Aristophanes’ ethics ‘do not place between us and the world in which we

live and die the will of a hypothetical ruler, to whom we may ascribe our

passions and our fancies, enslaving ourselves to the delusions of our own

soul’ (Symonds 1880: 404)

B. Gilbert Murray (1866-1957)

1. Compared Peloponnesian War with World War I

2. Aristophanes as a pacifist

3. ‘I see him devoted to three great subjects, Peace, Poetry, and the

philosophic criticism of life’ (G. Murray 1933: x).

4. League of Nations Union

5. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00062661

Bibliography Grote, G. 1853. History of Greece. Vol. 10. New York: Harper & Brothers. Hall, E. 2007. ‘The English-Speaking Aristophanes 1650–1914.’ In Aristophanes in Performance, 421 BC - AD 2007, ed. E. Hall and A. Wringley, 66-92. London: Routledge. Jenkyns, R. and F.M. Turner. 1981. The Victorians and Ancient Greece. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Murray, G. 1933. Aristophanes: a Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Nippel, W. 2016. Ancient and Modern Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Symonds, J.A. 1902. Studies of the Greek Poets. Vol. 1. New York: Harper and Brothers. Walsh, P. 2009. ‘A Study in Reception: the British Debates Over Aristophanes’ Politics and Influence.’ Classical Receptions Journal 1: 55–72.