She had informed him : "Edip. Did she then give the child to thee? Shep. She did. Edip. For what? Shep. To kill him. Edip. Kill her child? Inhuman And barbarous mother! Shep. A dire oracle Affrighted and constrained her to it. Edip. Ha! What oracle? Shep. Which said, her son should slay T. FRANCKLIN'S Transl., p. 372. Would not one imagine that this scene had been written by a different person? Jocasta's death, and the voluntary exile of Edipus, after his eyes have been put out by his own hand, constitute the catastrophe. If I have been particular in dwelling upon the defects of this play; it is merely because I desired to expose the absurdity with which those individuals are chargeable, who attribute perfection to the ancient drama. The subject of the "dipus Tyrannus" was too difficult a one for any dramatist to manage who was not conversant with the contrivances of other authors to conduct a protracted and varied action to its close with clearness and probability. It is at the same time his merit and his blame to have taken up a subject which would have almost taxed the genius of our own Shakespeare. LECTURE III. URIPIDES, as an artist, has greatly the advantage of Sophocles; while he excels both him and Æschylus in the delineation of human nature, and in the dramatic character of his poetry. Of the three great tragic authors of Greece, he is the only one that frequently reminds you of Shakespeare — that exhibits those master-touches with which the dramas of the bard of Avon abound. He has been designated the poet of the heart; and he is so. The pang and the joy he paints you recognize as belonging to human life; his passion is genuine; he sees what he draws; his characters are portraits. They remind you of beings you have known. A very striking instance of this occurs in the "Phoenician Virgins," where Jocasta endeavours to reconcile her sons Polynices and Eteocles. By their father's will, each was to reign alternately for a year. Eteocles, however, when the time comes for his brother to assume the honours of royalty, refuses to resign the throne; in consequence of which act of usurpation Polynices advances with an army to enforce his claim. The mother prevails upon her children to consent to an interview. They meet, and Jocasta thus .addresses Eteocles, the usurper, whom Euripides, with exquisite fidelity to nature, depicts as the most obdurate, the least accessible to the claims of justice and the appeals of affection : "Restrain thy heart. The hasty spirit errs From justice: slow-formed counsels perfect wisdom. Repress that fiery eye and those fierce thoughts. POTTER'S Transl., verse 484 Nothing can transcend this. The poet saw Jocasta-saw her standing between her striving children, with all the mother beaming from her anxious face, scanning the countenance of Eteocles, who comes, resolved on wrong, to meet his injured brother. ""Tis not the Gorgon's head thou look'st upon!" Eteocles is drawn at one stroke. You have his countenance and figure in a moment. You could design him-depict the rancorous loathing which breathes from his look and attitude; and then the thrilling contrast— "It is thy brother that revisits us." "That revisits us." See what a veil of endearing associations she endeavours to throw over the unnatural cause of their meeting. Observe the thrilling pathos of her address to Polynices, when first she meets him, preparatory to the interview with his brother : " Hearing, ye virgins, your Phoenician voice Do I behold thy face? Ah! fold thine arms Around me, clasp me to thy bosom, lean Thy cheek 'gainst my fond cheek, and shade my breast Can I believe I hold thee in my arms POTTER'S Transl., verse 332. But, to be satisfied that Euripides greatly transcends his rivals in dramatic tact and in fidelity to nature, we have only to remark the different manner in which he has handled the characters of Electra and Orestes. There is something so revolting in the idea of a daughter, under any circumstances, compassing the death of a mother, that the character of Electra is one from which, unless most skilfully designed, the heart of an audience must instinctively recoil. Neither Æschylus nor Sophocles seems to have perceived this, and accordingly Electra, in their hands, is revoltingly ruthless. But Euripides, it would appear, was instantly alive to it, and saw the necessity of supplying Electra with such a cause of personal resentment as, added to her murder of her father, might strip her conduct of that severe asperity with which it must otherwise have been invested. He accordingly represents her as having been forced by the usurper, at the instigation of her mother, to espouse an individual mean in birth and of sordid occupation-a circumstance which alone would be sufficient to fire a woman of royal blood and towering soul with resentment the most fierce and implacable. But, without the slightest variation whatever in the circumstances of Orestes, how fine a trait of nature does he thoroughly develope, of which Æschylus and Sophocles seem to have had but a very remote perception. Orestes cannot slay his mother without shuddering. He shrinks from the deed-would avoid it—can scarcely be worked up to it by the resolute instances of his sister, whose peculiar wrong, too, by the way, must have the effect of aggravating his resentment. The poet saw two things here. Firstly, that the sex of his guilty parent was an appeal to the manhood of Orestes, which no cry of vengeance, howsoever loud, could utterly stifle; and secondly, that he must be necessarily softened by his contiguity to the home whence he had been estranged so long. He had all the associations of sweet endearments rushing upon his heart, and clamouring against the resolves of the man. Upon these instances alone of high dramatic tact we should be content to rest the claims of Euripides as the first of the Greek tragic writers; but it is due to him to take a more leisurely view of his merits, and accordingly we shall attempt to analyze his "Iphigenia in Aulis," as we have already done the "dipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles. The subjects of the two different plays do not admit of comparison. The "Edipus Tyrannus" is decidedly the preferable one, affording twice the scope for incident and situation; in short, for everything that is favourable to effect. Yet with materials so inferior does Euripides produce a superior drama. The argument of "Iphigenia in Aulis" is briefly this. The Grecian fleet, assembled in the bay of Aulis, for the purpose of sailing to the siege of Troy, is becalmed there. This is ascribed to the displeasure of the gods. The prophet Calchas is consulted, and declares that Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Diana. Agamemnon is persuaded to send for his daughter under pretence of espousing her to Achilles; repents his having done so; writes a letter countermanding her journey, which letter being intercepted, Iphigenia arrives, and is sacrificed. Now mark the consummate tact of Euripides in managing this little story. The play opens with Agamemnon and an attendant. Agamemnon is supposed just to have written the letter which countermands his orders for his daughter to repair to Aulis. The agitation of his mind, distracted by conflicting feelings; his attachment for his child; his devotion to the cause in which he has embarked, are finely inferred from the remarks of the attendant. 32.1 "The blazing lamp didst thou display, and write Cast it in grief, the warm tear from thine eyes POTTER'S Transl., verse 30. Agamemnon explains his situation, communicates his intentions to the attendant, and dismisses him with the letter, which is intercepted by the brother of Agamemnon, Menelaus, on whose account the war has been undertaken. This leads to a stormy altercation between the brothers; in |