Menander
(342/1-292/1 B.C.E.)

By far the most important writer of New Comedy was Menander. Author of about 100 plays, Menander was regarded by the ancients as the greatest playwright of all. Myriad encomia have survived from his own time praising his veracity to nature, his inventive genius, etc. Plutarch preferred him to Aristophanes. Quintilian regarded him as perfection itself in speech, character analysis and in his portrait of life. Sadly the evidence that has survived does not confirm these extravagant opinions. Only one complete play is extant, Dyskolos, discovered in 1957. Substantial fragments exist of the Epitrepontes (The Arbitration), She Who Was Shorn, The Shield and The Woman of Samos. "Meager" fragments remain of about sixty other plays. Most scholars agree that his plays have not aged well. Erich Segal, for example, says,

This assessment is probably harsher than it needs to be. Menander's influence on our own comedic writing is deeper than many realize or admit. In my view, Menander is perhaps the closest link we have with the ancient world. Plays like his are still being written and performed. His influence on Plautus and Terence is obvious. Most of Plautus' plays at least embrace the pretense of being Greek stories, and his models were from New Comedy not from Aristophanes Old Comedy. Political satire has no place in "pure" entertainment. Four of Terence's six plays were based on plays by Menander.

We know next to nothing about Menander's life, except that it is clear that he had an excellent education. He spent his entire life in Athens, which was no longer the mighty center it was under Perikles. He spent his year of military service as an ephebus with Epicurus, whose philosophy is clearly reflected in Menander's comedies. (The latter day Epicurianism bordering on hedonism so popular in the 1960's and beyond has little to do with the original. Epicurus himself espoused an ideal of freedom from pain and sought ways to achieve a sort of total serenity even in the face of suffering, which had the '60's devotees been watching have much to do with the Eastern philosophies that were also popular at that time.) Some contend that he may have been acquainted with Zeno (founder of the phiulosophy of the Stoa). He seems to have been influenced by Theophrastus, author of Characters, a book dating from about 320 B.C.E. which included sketches of "human types." Many of the stock characters associated with Menander are clearly represented in Theophrastus' work.

The emphasis in New Comedy is on stock characters in stock situations. The Subject matter is taken from everyday life of everyday middle class Athenians. It usually involves a "love story." One recurring story involves a rich young man and a poor girl, who as often as not, had been abandoned as a baby. Far-fetched as this may seem today, abandonment of unwanted children was condoned in Fourth Century Athens, much as abandonment of girl babies is condoned in China today, but I digress. The girl has remained a good girl despite her straitened circumstances and at the end is reunited with her long-lost parents and gets to marry the rich young man. Many plays (like many a modern television magazine segment) begins with an outrage of some kind to engage our interest, but they always end well.

This feeling of well-being belies the social context of the plays. The constant warfare and hardship of the Hellenistic world is nowhere evident in the plays. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the fluffy films made during World War II. We are still subjected to touching tales of families reunited on various talk shows, and despite the obvious sentimentality, the stories are rivetting and the ratings soar.

The plays had a greater appearance of "reality" than earlier ones. The characters, while stock characters, were based on recognizable Athenian types rather than on some fanciful exaggeration. The dyskolos bears little resemblance to our beloved Groucho. The costumes aped contemporary clothes rather than fantastic birds or frogs. Even the masks used were much more "realistic" than the grotesque ones of Old Comedy.

The chorus, while present for tradition's sake, was very unimportant. It performed only in interludes between episodes so that a 5-act structure could be maintained.

What distinguishes, one might venture to say, elevates Menander's plays is the truthfulness of his characters. They must have "played" well or the ancient critics would have been less enthusiastic in their praise. Chances are skilled actors knew how to breathe life into the characters in a way that touched audiences and critics alike. Similar arguments about poor quality are made about many other playwrights who were the leading artists of their day. Who can find vivid life in Clyde Fitch's plays today? We must not forget that the plays were intended for production, not for the library.