Lysistrata

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, the high priest of the British art nouveau, needs little introduction. He was born in 1872, and died twenty-five short years later of tuberculosis. His was a brilliant career; his work, the epitome of British Art Nouveau, has been an inspiration for illustrators ever since. During his short but eventful life he produced an impressive oeuvre which was often considered both provocative and shocking by a staid Victorian society.

BACKGROUND TO LYSISTRATA

The background, against which Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata in 411 B.C., was grim for Greece in general and for Athens in particular. The Peloponnesian War had dragged on for twenty years, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and the temporary disruption of Athenian life seemed to have become a permanency. To make matters critical for Athens their fleet was destroyed by the Sicilians, Sparta's allies., in 413 B.C.. Fortunately for the Athenians, Sparta was just as badly organised and failed to take advantage of the situation. Nonetheless, by 411 B.C. a radical change was needed.

Lysistrata proposes just such a change. Although dressed up, literally, as travesty, it is likely that Aristophanes' solution to the problem of endless war would have bewildered and scandalised the predominantly male audience: not because of the ribaldry (they were used to that), but because the suggestion that women, who were not at that period generally considered to possess any real intelligence, could take responsibility for negotiations concerning matters of state.

In fact, the arguments used in the play by Lysistrata are much of the time coolly logical, whilst the reaction of the men is more one of bluster and hysteria. An added J*isscn would have been provided in this play, which is largely about women, in that their parts were played, in Ancient Greece, by male travesty actors, whose female impersonations would have made a hilarious contrast with the gigantic phalluses of the men.

SYNOPSIS OF THE PLAY

The play starts with Lysistrata (Plate 1,), the heroine, standing at the gateway to the Acropolis. She awaits with Kalonike and Myrrhina the arrival of the Spartan, Theban and Corinthian women. Lampito (Plate II) arrives with the Spartan group and the contingents from Thebes and Corinth join them soon after. Lysistrata exhorts the women to refuse their husbands any sexual favours, to go on strike when it comes to their men's demands to make love (Pine lID. Thus frustrated and held to ransom, she argues, the men will soon give up the pointless and costly war that is claiming so many male lives on both sides. She has also enlisted the help of the older women of Athens to occupy and hold the Acropolis: denied access to its stores and treasury, the Athenian men will no longer be able to supply or fund the war. After a few misgivings the assembled women of Greece swear an oath of celibacy on a bowl of consecrated wine. They depart, Lampito for Sparta, the others for their various destinations, all with instructions to deny their men what, after war, they love and need the most: sex.

A chorus of Old Men enters and with a certain amount of braggadocio, sets about trying to smoke out the older women who are guarding the Acropolis. Their strategy comes to naught as a chorus of Old Women enters to extinguish the flames. The Old Men are soaked by the Old Women, who use every means available to them to extinguish the fire, the smoke from which, in any case, is blowing back into the faces of the attackers (Plate IV). This tumultuous deluging is only stayed by the appearance of a Magistrate, accompanied by his constables. Appalled by the situation he finds, he orders the ineffectual Old Men to pry open the Acropolis gates with crowbars. Lysistrata preempts this action by coming out to talk. The Magistrate orders his constables to arrest her and her companions, but he is forced to back down when he sees how many, how fierce and how well organised the women are.

A parley now takes place between the leaders of the two contending factions and during this dialogue Lysistrata puts forward the argument for ending the war, outclassing the pompous Magistrate at every turn with her superbly scornful wit. He withdraws defeated and deflated, and Lysistrata and her friends return to continue their occupation of the Acropolis.

Several days pass with the enforced separation of the sexes becoming intolerable to both sides. Lysistrata appears, looking anxious. She is worried by the prospect of defection by those who can no longer control their sexual urges, and with reason: for at that moment first one, then another (Plate V) then whole droves of defectors begin to appear. Lysistrata heads them off and tries to strengthen their resolve, first by appealing to their good sense, then by reading them an oracle. The latter measure has the desired effect and they re-enter the Acropolis to continue its occupation.

Cinesias, the husband of Myrrhina, appears and begs her to come home. At Lysistrata's suggestion she tantalises him and flirts with him mercilessly (Plate VI) but denies him what he really desires. She disappears back into the Acropolis, leaving him in the mood to vote for peace with Sparta on any terms, so that he may get her home again.

As Cinesias leaves, a Spartan Herald is seen to approach. The Magistrate comes forward to meet him. The Herald gives the news that Lampito has stirred up the women of Sparta so successfully that Spartan frustration knows no bounds. The Magistrate examines the Herald and finds him to bespeaking the truth (Plate VII).

The Herald departs with instructions to give to the Spartan government - that they should send envoys with absolute powers to site for peace. This is achieved and in the final scene, the Spartan (or Lacedemonian) Ambassadors arrive to make a treaty (Plate VIII). Lysistrata oversees the talks and when it is agreed, they seal the treaty with a magnificent banquet and dancing.

Unfairly sacked as Art Editor of The Yellow Book for his association with Oscar Wilde as illustrator of Salome, the young artist was soon to fill the same post at Leonard Smithers' new magazine The Savoy. A year later, in 1896, Smithers published Beardsley's illustrations to The Rape of the Lock. This great work was succeeded by the equally glorious drawings for Lysistrata. Aristophanes' bawdy play. In Lysistrata the women of Greece successfully campaign to end the Peloponnesian War by denying their men sexual favours - a perfect vehicle for Beardsley's pen.

The exquisite economy of line of these drawings represents the pinnacle of Beardsley's achievements, but due to the nature of the subject matter and the tiny size of Leonard Smithers' original edition (100 copies), even now, few have seen these marvellous images.

The ER Books edition improves upon the first (Smithers) edition by virtue of greatly advanced origination and printing techniques and, for the first time, reproduces the original drawings in the Victoria & Albert Museum at their full size.