§3ὅτι τῶν διδασκόντων οἱ μὲν πρὸς τὸν ὄχλον καὶ τὸν δῆμον γράφουσιν οἱ δὲ τοῖς ὀλίγοις, τὸ δʼ ἐν ἀμφοῖν ἁρμόττον τοῖς γένεσιν οὐ ῥᾴδιον ὅτῳ τῶν πάντων ὑπῆρξεν εἰπεῖν.
That of those who teach, some write for the crowd and the populace, and others for the few; but to say to which of all men it belonged to fit both kinds is not easy.
Ἀριστοφάνης μὲν οὖν οὔτε τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀρεστὸς οὔτε τοῖς φρονίμοις ἀνεκτός, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἑταίρας τῆς ποιήσεως παρηκμακυίας, εἶτα μιμουμένης γαμετήν, οὔθʼ οἱ πολλοὶ τὴν αὐθάδειαν ὑπομένουσιν οἵ τε σεμνοὶ βδελύττονται τὸ ἀκόλαστον καὶ κακόηθες.
Aristophanes, then, is neither pleasing to the many nor tolerable to the thoughtful, but, just like the poetry of a courtesan who has passed her prime and then imitates a married woman, neither do the many endure his self-will, nor do the solemn detest his licentiousness and malice any less.
ὁ δὲ Μένανδρος;
But Menander?
μετὰ χαρίτων μάλιστα ἑαυτὸν αὐτάρκη παρέσχηκεν, ἐν θεάτροις ἐν διατριβαῖς ἐν συμποσίοις, ἀνάγνωσμα καὶ μάθημα καὶ ἀγώνισμα κοινότατον ὧν ἡ Ἑλλὰς ἐνήνοχε καλῶν παρέχων, τὴν ποίησιν, δεικνὺς ὅ τι δὴ καὶ ὁποῖον ἦν ἄρα δεξιότης λόγου, ἐπιὼν ἁπανταχόσε μδτὰ πειθοῦς ἀφύκτου καὶ χειρούμενος ἅπασαν ἀκοὴν καὶ διάνοιαν Ἑλληνικῆς φωνῆς· τίνος γὰρ ἄξιον ἀληθῶς εἰς θέατρον ἐλθεῖν ἄνδρα πεπαιδευμένον ἢ Μενάνδρου ἕνεκα;
He has presented himself as most self-sufficient with graces, in theatres, in discussions, in symposia, providing his poetry as a reading, a lesson, and a contest-piece most common among the beautiful things which Greece has produced, showing what indeed and of what kind the cleverness of speech really was, approaching everywhere with inescapable persuasion and subduing every ear and mind of the Greek tongue; for for whose sake is it truly worth an educated man's going to the theatre except for Menander's?
πότε θέατρα πίμπλαται ἀνδρῶν φιλολόγων, κωμικοῦ προσώπου δειχθέντος;
When are theatres filled with men of letters, once a comic character is shown?
ἐν δὲ συμποσίοις τίνι δικαιότερον ἡ τράπεζα παραχωρεῖ καὶ τόπον ὁ Διόνυσος δίδωσι;
And in symposia, to whom does the table more justly yield and Dionysus give a place?
φιλοσόφοις καὶ φιλολόγοις, ὥσπερ ὅταν οἱ γραφεῖς ἐκπονηθῶσι τὰς ὄψεις, ἐπὶ τὰ ἀνθηρὰ καὶ ποώδη χρώματα τρέπουσιν, ἀνάπαυλα τῶν ἀκράτων καὶ συντόνων ἐκείνων Μένανδρός ἐστιν, οἷον εὐανθεῖ λειμῶνι καὶ σκιερῷ καὶ πνευμάτων μεστῷ δεχόμενος τὴν διάνοιαν.
For philosophers and men of letters, just as when painters exhaust their eyes, they turn to florid and grassy colors, Menander is a rest from those unmixed and intense matters, receiving the mind as if into a flowery, shady meadow full of breezes.
§4ὅτι κωμῳδίας ὑποκριτὰς τοῦ χρόνου τούτου πολλοὺς καὶ ἀγαθοὺς τῆς πόλεως ἐνεγκούσης, αἱ Μενάνδρου κωμῳδίαι ἀφθόνων ἁλῶν καὶ ἱερῶν μετέχουσιν, ὥσπερ ἐξ ἐκείνης γεγονότων τῆς θαλάττης, ἐξ ὦν Ἀφροδίτη γέγονεν.
That though the city produced many and good comic actors at this time, the comedies of Menander partake of abundant salt and sacred things, as if born from that very sea from which Aphrodite was born.
οἱ δʼ Ἀριστοφάνους ἅλες πικροὶ καὶ τραχεῖς ὄντες ἑλκωτικὴν δριμύτητα καὶ δηκτικὴν ἔχουσι· καὶ οὐκ οἶδʼ ἐν οἷς ἔστιν ἡ θρυλουμένη δεξιότης ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ, ἐν λόγοις ἢ προσώποις ἀμέλει καὶ τὰ μεμιμημένα πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον μεμίμηται τὸ γὰρ πανοῦργον οὐ πολιτικὸν ἀλλὰ κακόηθες, καὶ τὸ ἄγροικον οὐκ ἀφελὲς ἀλλʼ ἠλίθιον, καὶ τὸ γελοῖον οὐ παιγνιῶδες ἀλλὰ καταγέλαστον, καὶ τὸ ἐρωτικὸν οὐχ ἱλαρὸν ἀλλʼ ἀκόλαστον.
But those of Aristophanes, being bitter and rough, have a wounding sharpness and a biting quality; and I do not know in what consists the cleverness rumored of him, whether in words or indeed in characters; even the things imitated have been imitated for the worse. For the knavish is not civil but malicious, and the rustic is not simple but foolish, and the laughable is not playful but ridiculous, and the erotic is not cheerful but licentious.
οὐδενὶ γὰρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἔοικε μετρίῳ τὴν ποίησιν γεγραφέναι, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν αἰσχρὰ καὶ ἀσελγῆ τοῖς ἀκολάστοις, τὰ βλάσφημα δὲ καὶ πικρὰ τοῖς βασκάνοις καὶ κακοήθεσιν.
For the man does not seem to have written his poetry for any moderate person, but the shameful and indecent for the licentious, and the blasphemous and bitter for the envious and malicious.