This new verse translation of Aristophanes comedies offers one of the world s great comic dramatists in a form which is both historically faithful and theatrically vigorous. Aristophanes plays were produced for the festival theatre of classical Athens in the fifth century BC and remarkably encompass the whole gamut of humor from brilliantly inventive fantasy to obscene vulgarity. There is a substantial general introduction to the author and introductory essays for each of the plays as well as full explanatory notes and an index of names.