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ARISTOPHANES, Birds. Lysistrata. Assembly-Women. Wealth. A New Verse Translation, with Introduction and Notes, by Stephen Halliwell. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997. LXXXI,297p. Cloth. Front cover with stain. Small personal library mark and name on free endpaper.This translation makes freshly available one of the most remarkable comic playwrights in the entire Western tradition. Aristophanes is the only surviving representative of Greek Old Comedy, which flourished during the heyday of classical Athenian culture in the fifth century BC, and his plays are characterized by extraordinary combinations of fantasy and satire, sophistication and vulgarity, formality and freedom. This special mixture of qualities calls for a range and flexibility of linguistic resources which only a verse translation can supply. The present translation balances historical fidelity with literary and dramatic vigour, and conveys some of the unique variety of Aristophanic comic theatre. There is a substantial general introduction to the author and introductory essays to each of the plays, as well as full explanatory notes and an index of names. (Publisher's information). From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 22.50 (Antiquarian)