An Ideal Reception

‘The aim of social comedy, in Menander no less than in Sheridan, is to mirror the manners, not to reform the morals, of its day.’ Oscar Wilde could have been reacting to the critical dismissal of his final so-called Society Play, The Importance of Being Earnest, derided by several critics as ‘inconsequential,’ ‘frivolous,’ and dressed up in the latest costumes of its day while reflecting none of the political or moral concerns featured in late-Victorian drama. ¹ Instead, he was writing his own review in reaction to his former tutor J.P. Mahaffy’s latest book, Greek Life and Thought, in which the scholar snidely criticizes the social climate of Hellenistic Athens, reporting that such a shallow and decadent age was incapable of producing anything better than the triviality of Menander: ‘It is usual to lament the irreparable loss of the plays of Menander, but it may be doubted whether, apart from style, history would gain much more from a further knowledge of him.’ ² Wilde vehemently disagreed.