_Aristophanes on the Modern Stage_ (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--In reply to a
Query of our correspondent C. J. R., I beg leave to state, that, after
having made inquiry on the subject, I cannot find that any of the Comedies
of Aristophanes have ever been introduced upon the English stage, although
I agree with him in thinking that some of them might be advantageously
adapted to the modern theatre; and I am more confirmed in this opinion from
having witnessed at the Odéon in Paris, some years since, a dramatic piece,
entitled "Les Nuées d'Aristophane," which had a great run there. It was not
a literal translation from the Greek author, but a kind of mélange, drawn
from the Clouds and Plutus together. The characters of Socrates and his
equestrian son were very well performed; but the scenic accessories I
considered very meagre, particularly the choral part, which must have been
so striking and beautiful in the original of the former drama. Upon my
return to England I wrote to the then lessee of Drury Lane Theatre,
recommending a similar experiment on our stage from the free version by
Wheelwright, published some time before by the late D. A. Talboys, of
Oxford. The answer I received was, that the manager had then too much on
his hands to admit of his giving time to such an undertaking, which I still
think might be a successful one (as is the case with the "Antigone" {251}
of Sophocles, so often represented at Berlin), and such as to ensure the
favourable attention of an English audience, particularly as the subject
turns so much upon the danger and uselessness of the meteoric or visionary
education, then so prevalent at Athens.