award was or was not an honest one. It has been suggested by some critics, that 'The Clouds' was too clever for the audience, who preferred a coarser article; and indeed (unless the two gamecocks were produced upon the stage) the jests are more intellectual than practical, and the comic "business" has little of that uproarious fun with which some of the other plays abound. The author himself, as would appear from some expressions put into the mouth of the Chorus in his subsequent comedy of 'The Wasps,' was of opinion that his finer fancies had been in this case thrown away upon an unsympathetic public. Another explanation which has been given is, that the glaring injustice with which the character of Socrates is treated was resented by the audience—a supposition which carries with it a compliment to their principles which it is very doubtful whether they deserved, and which the author himself would have been very slow to pay them. There is a story that the result was brought about by the influence of Alcibiades, who had been already severely satirised in the poet's comedy of 'The Revellers,' and who felt that the character of Pheidippides—his extravagance and love of horses, his connection by his mother's side with the great house of Megacles, his relation to Socrates as pupil, and even the lisping pronunciation which his teacher notices[1]—were all intended to be caricatures of himself, which seems by no means improbable; and that he and friends accordingly exerted themselves to prevent the poet's success.
- ↑ See p. 92.
