This new verse translation of Aristophanes` comedies offers one of the world`s great comic dramatists in a form that is both historically faithful and theatrically vigorous. Aristophanes` plays were produced for the festival theater of classical Athens in the fifth century BC and encompass the whole gamut of humor, from brilliantly inventive fantasy to obscene vulgarity. This edition includes a substantial general introduction and introductory essays for each of the plays, as well as full explanatory notes and an index of names.