Clouds - Couverture souple

Aristophanes (ca. 446-ca. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are in fact used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries - Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander contributing to the trial and execution of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had caricatured the philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights. "In my opinion," he says through the Chorus in that play, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all." He is also known for some famous sayings, such as "By words the mind is winged."

Webster's paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently assigned readings in English courses. By using a running English-to-Tagalog thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this edition of The Clouds by Aristophanes was edited for three audiences. The first includes Tagalog-speaking students enrolled in an English Language Program (ELP), an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program, an English as a Second Language Program (ESL), or in a TOEFL� or TOEIC� preparation program. The second audience includes English-speaking students enrolled in bilingual education programs or Tagalog speakers enrolled in English-speaking schools. The third audience consists of students who are actively building their vocabularies in Tagalog in order to take foreign service, translation certification, Advanced Placement� (AP�) or similar examinations. By using the Webster's Tagalog Thesaurus Edition when assigned for an English course, the reader can enrich their vocabulary in anticipation of an examination in Tagalog or English.
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