rQ THECOMEDIES II
knights have been brought together by a common hatred of
the all-powerful demagogue, is expressly stated by the chorus
in the farabasts.* The knights belonged to the noble youth,
they were * gallant men', true kaloikagathoi * But to the same
social class belonged also the dissipated rich young men, edu-
cated In the new manner, whom the poet attacks so often and
so passionately, and against whose spirit his next play was
partially to be directed. In view of this it can hardly be main-
tained that Aristophanes allied himself with the opinions of a
whole social group or the programme of a political party. He
was not committed to a hostile attitude to democracy.
This will be confirmed by a closer examination of the pic-
ture of society as painted in the Knights Noblemen and
peasants found a common bond in their hostility to the dema-
gogues, to their bellicose policy and to their desire for political
power and the realization of their economic aims Opposed to
this partly aristocratic and partly rural group, which was united
by political rather than social affinities, stood a group of middle-
class townsfolk of which the internal structure was determined
by the relative degrees of wealth or poverty of its members,
who ranged from the small pedlar to the owner of a large work-
shop. In spite of its diversity, this group formed a social and
psychological unit It was, above all, the different situation
created by the war which distinguished the two groups, 'the
farmers and the rich' were the chief sufferers, while the towns-
men felt little of the devastation and the misery of war 3 How-
ever, it will become clear in the course of our investigations
that the small farmers found their place within the structure
of society by the side of the traders and craftsmen rather than
of the noble knights. Their union with the rich and noble was,
after all, only a temporary combination, mainly a fighting
alliance against war-policy and democratic corruption. The
contrast between the two groups of the TLmghts^ which is perhaps
the most conspicuous of all the contrasts in comedy, has also
its political, social and professional features, but it is primarily
a matter of morals, it is a contrast of moral aims
The success of the Kntghts was followed by the failure of the
Clouds In its original form, produced in 423, Aristophanes
seems to have overestimated the intelligence of the audience:
1 K-soyff 2 Cf ch IV
3 Ps -Xen II, 14