Laudator Temporis Acti

Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, "Brief Mention," American Journal of Philology 36.2 (1915) 230-242 (at 236-237):

In the latest Jahresbericht on Aristophanes (1911) KÖRTE empties the vials of his wrath, or rather the κάκοσμος οὐράνη of Aischylos, upon the head of Graves for undertaking to expurgate, or, as KÖRTE would call it, emasculate the Acharnians of Aristophanes. Those who are too dainty to read Aristophanes entire, he says, ought to let him alone, and the German scholar proceeds to specify some of the fatal omissions—as, for instance, that part of the Megarian scene which has given rise to two English sayings, 'buying a pig in a poke', and 'taking one's pigs to a bad market', both used regularly of women. To be sure, there are those who translate Χοιρίλη 'Piggie' without any mental reserve, and the joke in Sokrates' fictive wife Μύρτω is also hidden from Philistine eyes. And yet, as KÖRTE points out and as I have pointed out more than once (e.g. A.J.P. XXI 230), through carelessness or ignorance superfine editors have allowed several things to stand in the Aristophanic text that are as improper as anything they have excised. Now, as the study of Aristophanes is absolutely necessary for the appreciation of Attic idiom, what Musurus calls the savour of Attic thyme must be inhaled in spite of the whiff that comes now and then from the rolling-mill of the beetle. And as Greek does not blush, the awkwardness of expounding Aristophanes to mixed classes of men and women may be obviated and has been obviated by referring the sex of which La Fontaine says, 'ses oreilles sont chastes', to the scholiast, though Rutherford insists that one great fault of the scholiast lies in smelling mice—the rat is not antique— where there are no mice to smell. 'Nonsense and nastiness', quoth Rutherford, 'generated from silly and undisciplined minds' (A.J.P. XXVII 486). The scholiast has, for instance, as Mazon laments, utterly spoiled for the serious student the passage in the Peace (557 ff.) that is so often cited by those who extol Aristophanes' love of nature, forgetful of his mocking spirit (A.J.P. XXVII 354). No vegetable is safe from the εὔρινος βάσις of the scholiast.

There's not a bonie flower that springs
   By fountain, shaw or green;
There's not a bonie bird that sings
   But minds him <of the obscene.>

One recalls the folksong: ποῦ μοι τὰ ῥόδα; ποῦ μοι τὰ ἴα; ποῦ μοι τὰ καλὰ σέλινα; (A.J.P. XXII 471). It is sad to reflect that the scholiast must have turned Browning's head, as he turned Rutherford's stomach, for unfortunately Browning prided himself on being a man of the world as well as a poet, and nothing is more distasteful to those who are not bond slaves to his genius than his 'knowingness'. He poses over and over again as one who is up to snuff, as one who knows what's what. But the pedant spoils the poet, and while Browning tries to shew that he knows what's what he ruins a beautiful poem by shewing that he does not know what's t—t (A.J.P. XXXII 241). The blunder was duly set forth in the public press years ago, but Pippa passes it on to boys and girls, together with 'owls and bats'. ψωλοὶ πεδίονδε is one of Browning's Aristophanic favorites, but despite my polite concession, he did not understand it.

Gildersleeve sometimes requires as much annotation as Aristophanes, or more. Here are a few notes.

KÖRTE = Alfred Körte, "Bericht über die Literatur zur griechischen Komödie aus den Jahren 1902-1909," Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft 152 (1911) 218-312 (at 262-263):

[N]och viel schlimmer ist die Dreistigkeit, mit der er sich erlaubt, Aristophanes zu kastrieren. Man sollte es kaum für möglich halten, daß die Cambridger University Press im Jahre 1905 eine offenbar für Studenten bestimmte Aristophanesausgabe zu drucken gewagt hat, in der stillschweigend alles ausgemerzt ist, was für eine höhere Tochter anstößig sein könnte.

the κάκοσμος οὐράνη of Aischylos = the foul-smelling piss-pot of Aeschylus (fragment 180 Radt, line 2: κάκοσμον οὐράνην)

Graves = C.E. Graves, ed., Aristophanes, The Acharnians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905)

Χοιρίλη: The name comes from χοίρα, feminine of χοῖρος (piggie), which can also mean the female genitalia. See Jeffrey Henderson, The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 131.

Μύρτω: The name comes from μύρτον (myrtle-berry), which can also mean the female genitalia. See Henderson, op. cit., pp. 134-135.

εὔρινος βάσις = keen-sniffing course, from Sophocles, Ajax 8 (said of a hound dog)

There's not a bonie flower that springs, etc. = lines 13-16 of Robert Burns, "Of A' The Airts The Wind Can Blaw"

ποῦ μοι τὰ ῥόδα; ποῦ μοι τὰ ἴα; ποῦ μοι τὰ καλὰ σέλινα; = Where are my roses? Where are my violets? Where are my beautiful celery-flowers? (Poetae Melici Graeci, fragment 852)

Browning = Robert Browning, who mistakenly thought that twat was an article of nun's clothing. See his Pippa Passes IV.317-319:

Then owls and bats, cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister's moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!

ψωλοὶ πεδίονδε = cocks with foreskin retracted, to the battlefield, from Aristophanes, Birds 507