A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature . d but little attention to his opinion. But with all this we must never forget that Euripides wasstill a Greek, and the contemporary of many of the greatestnames of Greece in jjolitics, philosophy, history, and thefine arts. If, when compared with his predecessors, he mustrank far below them, he appears in his turn great whenplaced by the side of many of the moderns. He has a par-ticular strength in portraying the aberrations of a soul dis-eased, misguided, aud franticly abandoned to its is admirable where the subject calls chief
A course of lectures on dramatic art and literature . d but little attention to his opinion. But with all this we must never forget that Euripides wasstill a Greek, and the contemporary of many of the greatestnames of Greece in jjolitics, philosophy, history, and thefine arts. If, when compared with his predecessors, he mustrank far below them, he appears in his turn great whenplaced by the side of many of the moderns. He has a par-ticular strength in portraying the aberrations of a soul dis-eased, misguided, aud franticly abandoned to its is admirable where the subject calls chiefly for emotion,and makes no higher requisitions; and he is still more sowhere pathos and moral beauty are united. Few of hispieces are without passages of the most ravishing beauty. Itis by no means my intention to deny him the possession of themost astonishing talents; I have only stated that these talentswere not united with a mind h>-rin^fslhe austerity of moralprinciples, and the sanctity:;^^^Bji^^T§^ngs, were held inthe hicrhest honour. /\*. 122 KCRIPIDE6 : THE CHOEPHOR^E OF ^SCHYLUS. LECTURE IX. Comparison between the Choephorce of ^schylus, the Electro of Sophocles,and that of Euripides. The relation in vrliicli Euripides stood to his two great pre-decessors, may be set in the clearest light by a comparisonbetween their three pieces which we fortunately still possess,on the same subject, namely, the avenging murder of Chtem-nestra by her son Orestes. The scene of the Choephorce of jEschylus is laid in front ofthe ro3al palace; t£e tomb of Agamemnon appears on thestage. Orestes appears at the sepulchre, with his faithfulPylades, and opens the play (which is unfortunately some-what mutilated at the commencement,) with a prayer to Mer-cury, and with an invocation to his father, in which hepromises to avenge him, and to whom he consecrates a lock ofhis hair. He sees a female train in mourning weeds issuingfrom the palace, to bring a libation to the grave; and, as hethin
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Keywords: ., bookauthorschl, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectdrama
