Note 118 — Chapter XVIII · ARISTOPHANES.
Reading edition
This epithet contains the gist of the objection often brought against Aristophanes, that he assisted the demoralization which he denounced. If he did so, it was not by his grossness and indelicacy, but by his subtilty and refinement and audacity of universal criticism. The sceptical aqua-fortis of his age is as strong in Aristophanes as in Euripides.