The principal and best known of his eleven extant plays is The Frogs.
Of this, two clever translations are given.
One, is thus introduced by a writer in The Quarterly Review:
“One of the temples or theatres appropriated to the service of Bacchus in Athens, and in which the scenic performances of the old Greeks took place, was situated near a part of that metropolis usually called ‘The Marshes,’ and those who know by experience what tenants such places commonly harbour in more southern climates will think it not impossible that the representatives of the stage, and more particularly in theatres which were generally without a roof, were occasionally disturbed, to the great annoyance of the dramatists, by the noisy vociferations of these more ancient and legitimate Lords of the Marshes. One of them was not a man to be offended with impunity by biped or quadruped; and wherever the foes of Aristophanes were to be found, on land or in water, he had shafts both able and willing to reach them.
“In his descent to the lower world, the patron of the stage is accordingly made to encounter a band of most pertinacious and invincible frogs; and the gradations through which the mind of Bacchus runs, after the first moments of irritation have subsided, from coaxing to bullying, from affected indifference to downright force, are probably a mere transcript of the poet’s own feelings under similar circumstances.”
Scene.—The Acherusian Lake—Bacchus at the oar in Charon’s Boat—Charon—Chorus of Frogs—In the background a view of Bacchus’s Temple or Theatre, from which are heard the sounds of a Scenic Entertainment.
Semich.1. Croak! croak! croak!
Semich.2. Croak! croak! croak!
[In answer, with music 8ve lower.
Full Chorus. Croak! croak! croak!