“Among us, nobody has carried ridicule in comedy farther than Moliere.  Our ancient comick writers brought no characters higher than servants to make sport upon the theatre; but we are diverted upon the theatre of Moliere by marquises and people of quality.  Others have exhibited, in comedy, no species of life above that of a citizen; but Moliere shows us all Paris, and the court.  He is the only man amongst us, who has laid open those features of nature by which he is exactly marked, and may be accurately known.  The beauties of his pictures are so natural, that they are felt by persons of the least discernment, and his power of pleasantry received half its force from his power of copying.  His Misanthrope is, in my opinion, the most complete, and, likewise, the most singular character that has ever appeared upon the stage:  but the disposition of his comedies is always defective some way or another.  This is all which we can observe, in general, upon comedy.”

Such are the thoughts of one of the most refined judges of works of genius, from which, though they are not all oraculous, some advantages may be drawn, as they always make some approaches to truth.

Madame Dacier[26], having her mind full of the merit of Aristophanes, expresses herself in this manner:  “No man had ever more discernment than him, in finding out the ridiculous, nor a more ingenious manner of showing it to others.  His remarks are natural and easy, and, what very rarely can be found, with great copiousness, he has great delicacy.  To say all at once, the Attick wit, of which the ancients made such boast, appears more in Aristophanes than in any other that I know of in antiquity.  But what is most of all to be admired in him is, that he is always so much master of the subject before him, that, without doing any violence to himself, he finds a way to introduce, naturally, things which, at first, appeared most distant from his purpose; and even the most quick and unexpected of his desultory sallies appear the necessary consequence of the foregoing incidents.  This is that art which sets the dialogues of Plato above imitation, which we must consider as so many dramatick pieces, which are equally entertaining by the action, and by the dialogue.  The style of Aristophanes is no less pleasing than his fancy; for, besides its clearness, its vigour and its sweetness, there is in it a certain harmony, so delightful to the ear, that there is no pleasure equal to that of reading it.  When he applies himself to vulgar mediocrity of style, he descends without meanness; when he attempts the sublime, he is elevated without obscurity; and no man has ever had the art of blending all the different kinds of writing so equally together.  After having studied all that is left us of Grecian learning, if we have not read Aristophanes, we cannot yet know all the charms and beauties of that language.”

 9.  PLUTARCH’S SENTIMENTS UPON ARISTOPHANES AND MENANDER.