Plutarch, Comparationis Aristophanis et Menandri compendium
Harold North Fowler, Ed.

SUMMARY OF A COMPARISON BETWEEN ARISTOPHANES AND MENANDER (COMPARATIONIS ARISTOPHANIS ET MENANDRI COMPENDIUM)
INTRODUCTION

This is at best a summary of one of Plutarch's lost essays, and it may well be that we have only part of the summary. Bernardakis believes that the beginning is wanting, and even for a summary the end, as we have it, appears somewhat abrupt. The Old Comedy of the fifth century b.c., whose chief representative is, and always was, Aristophanes, with its brilliant wit, occasionally beautiful poetry, biting invective, unrestrained ribaldry, and unashamed indecency, was followed in the fourth century, after the brief vogue of the Middle Comedy, by the New Comedy, whose chief representative is Menander. The New Comedy abstained from politics, indulged in no personal invective, was indecent only by innuendo, and produced dramas in which the life of the times was reflected somewhat after the manner of modern ‘society plays.’ Plutarch not unnaturally preferred Menander's polished comedies of character to the boisterous wit and humour of Aristophanes, and he seems to have had no appreciation of the earlier dramatist's vigour or of his poetic imagination.