Excerpt from Aristophanes: The Acharnians, And, the Knights A few words of Preface seem necessary to state the plan of this edition. Brevity has been studied, because short notes are more likely to be read and therefore to be useful. And for information on the life and writings of Aristophanes gene rally, the student cannot go to a better source than the intro duetory matter in Meineke's edition, which includes Ranke's life of the poet, and is in other respeets excellent. I could have done little more than translate or abridge this: and to do so, when it is accessible to all, seemed hardly worth while. Aristophanes is not usually read till some considerable knowledge of the tragic poets has been acquired: therefore a fair amount of scholarship has been presumed, and points which have been satisfaetorily discussed by former editors of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are not dwelt upon. The materials have been, as it is, large enough to perplex, and often cause a doubt, what to choose, what to leave. There are the stores of the Scholiasts: abundance of learning from our older scholars colle6ted in Bekker's edition: plenty of illustration from comic writers in Athenaeus, hunted out with praiseworthy care by Mitchell. Many editions are there both of the whole of our author and of separate plays; and there is no lack of translators. The notes of this edition are of course largely indebted to all these; which yet I will not Claim to have examined exhaustively. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.