of development. In a later age a second person was brought upon the platform, who replied to the first, and this made "dialogue," and was the foundation of tragic art. Finally, another actor was added, and still others; the dialogue, which was at first but a recitative and an accessory, grew little by little till it usurped the principal place. In our day it employs many actors, while the whole chorus, which was once all in all, has dwindled away, the only vestige of it remaining in what is now called the orchestra. The greatest step in the gradual change was the transition from monologue to dialogue, and this took place in the time of Eschylus.

That which in Eschylus chiefly strikes us is grandeur of idea. The solemn religious influences of Eleusis, the place of his birth, and those of that great political movement, the Persian war, are visible in his works. Before he was a poet he was a soldier. Born of a noble family, he distinguished himself at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea; and it was on the field of battle, where his country was fighting against fearful odds for its very existence, that he drew the warlike inspiration of his muse. His play of the "Persians brings the subject of that great struggle itself upon the stage; and his "Seven against Thebes" "breathed the spirit of Mars," and "every one who read it would long to be a warrior."

This is one of his chief works. Another, the "Prometheus Bound," perhaps his greatest, is of a religious cast, showing the wrath of the mighty gods against the unhappy hero, who had offended them by befriending man. The same is true of his last, the "Oresteia," that terrible story of the returning husband, Agamemnon, slain by the wife, Clytemnestra; the son, Orestes, avenging his father's death, and for the deed pursued by furies; driven from land to land; till at last, in the good city of Athens, he finds rest, the furies for ever appeased, and from thenceforth called Eumenides, the soothed ones, foreshadowing in this the dawn of a milder age.

The poet survived his generation. For many years chief among Athenian poets, he was at last supplanted by the younger Sophocles, and withdrew to the court of the Tyrant of Syracuse, where he died. All will remember the legend of the eagle dropping a tortoise upon his traditionally bald pate, taking it for a rock. The artists of antiquity drew his portrait with the head entirely bare, yet wearing a long luxuriant beard tapering to a point, the features of the face full of beauty and manly vigour.

the man of the

From "The Frogs" of Aristophanes, a play in which both Eschylus and Euripides are caricatured, we might be inclined to receive the idea. that the former was of a haughty and irritable temper stern old times, out of patience with the modern days so different from his own. In this play he is made to ask Euripides,

"Answer me, for what ought we to admire a poet?"

Euripides answers, "For cleverness and instruction; and because he makes the people in the cities better."

Eschylus resumes: "And if you had not done this, but from good and noble characters have rendered them most knavish, what will you say you are deserving to suffer?”

Euripides replies that such an offence would be worthy of death.

The old man then breaks forth upon him,

"Observe what sort of men you received them from me; tall, noble fellows, and not citizens that shirk all state burdens, nor loungers in the market, nor rogues as they are now, nor villains; but breathing of spears and lances and seven-fold courage."

"And by having done what, did you teach them to Le so nobleminded?"

"By having composed a drama full of martial spirit."

"Of what kind?"

"The Seven against Thebes.' Every man that read it would long to be a warrior."

The compositions of Eschylus have the peculiarities of all initiative works of art. If we compare them with any modern drama, we are amazed at the loftiness of the subjects, the extreme simplicity of the action, and the ruggedness of the style.

And yet he was a great artist. A great artist finding his art crude, and without rules, by the force of prodigious genius bringing it into organization, and giving it laws. Chorus is replaced by actors; the long monologue turned into spirited dialogue; the brutal representation of murder no longer takes place before the eyes of the spectators, but behind the scenes; rude speech rises to sublime declamation; a noble exterior is given to the actors by appropriate dress, increased height, and heroic gesture. For all this the Greeks have called him, "The Father of Tragedy."

SOPHOCLES, one of the greatest of Greek poets, was born at the village of Colonus, in Attica. He received a liberal education, more especially in music and poetry, made rapid progress, and won many school prizes. At fifteen he was chosen to lead the chorus which sang the pan after the battle of Salamis; and at twenty-seven boldly entered the lists to compete with Eschylus himself in the tragic drama, winning the prize.

This brilliant victory, followed by other successes, put Sophocles in the first rank of Athenian poets, more especially after the death of Eschylus; for his greatest rival, Euripides, though popular in Greece, was less a favourite with the Athenians. The latter, to signify their esteem for the poet, chose him several times as one of the ten magistrates or strategi

elected annually to govern the State; and, in company with Pericles, he took part in the campaign against the Island of Samos, which had revolted against Athens; but Sophocles was more poet than soldier, if we may believe his contemporaries. He is made to say at a banquet that Pericles had little esteem for his strategy.

Sophocles was married twice, and had two sons, who, if report is true, were not noted for kind-heartedness or filial love; yet the father was most amiable in disposition, and lived on terms of friendship with all his fellowcitizens, and even his rivals, Eschylus and Euripides. "He knew how to enjoy life and renounce pleasure no longer suitable to his age." He died at ninety, beloved and honoured.

Of the 113 plays attributed to Sophocles, seven only are extant. "Antigone," a political tragedy, contrasts the rights of the State with those of the family. In this play, a king, Creon, refuses burial to a prince killed in fighting against his own countrymen. The warrior's sister, Antigone, performs the funereal rites, and is condemned by Creon to be imprisoned in a cavern, where she dies of hunger. The son of the king, Hæmon, is the intended husband of Antigone; he pleads unavailingly for her, and in despair commits suicide; his mother, Eurydice, dies of grief; and thus the king for his cruelty is punished by loss of both wife and child.

In the "Electra," Sophocles has taken the sombre legend of Orestes, and shown with incomparable talent the passions, sentiments, and motives which prompted Electra to become the instigator and accomplice of her brother in the murder of their father.

The "Trachinian Woman" has for a subject the death of Hercules, killed by the poisoned tunic sent him by his jealous wife, Dejanira. Here the poet has described the passionate feelings of the wife in a manner far superior to the rough sketchiness of Eschylus in his play, the "Oresteia."

"King Edipus" is the story of a King of Thebes, condemned by fate to see his people die of pestilence for an unexpiated crime. He discovers that this crime is his own: he had unwittingly murdered his father and married his mother. He plucks out his eyes, which had so failed to guide him aright on the road of life, and flees into exile. The play is one of the best examples of the Greek drama.

"Ajax" exhibits a man punished by the gods for his excessive pride by fits of madness. He dies of shame at the thought of the unworthy acts committed while mad, and his death expiates his fault.

In "Philoctetes," there is a moral conflict between three characters, Philoctetes, Ulysses, and Neoptolemus. The latter refuses to go so far in duplicity as Ulysses has proposed, in order to persuade Philoctetes to return and assist the Greeks. The consequences are becoming serious, when the gods intervene and put an end to the strife. The art

of Sophocles and his knowledge of human nature are well displayed in this piece.

"Edipus at Colonus" is a contrast to "King Edipus." The poor blind exiled king has become a sacred object by virtue of his sufferings, and his presence alone brings happiness to the country that receives him. Finally he dies at peace with himself and the gods.

The distinguishing trait of the compositions of Sophocles is their unrivalled harmony. The elements of his dramas, as dialogue and song, the expression of familiar sentiments or of violent passion, are so artistically graduated, as to pass without shock from one extreme to the other, in a manner quite different from the rugged method of Æschylus. The latter may have been his rival in invention, and it is true that Shakspeare far excels him there. He does not, like Shakspeare, give a complete picture of life in its manifold phases, but takes a single idea, a typical character, and embodies in it all the essential elements of humanity.

His later dramas, especially, are written in a most elegant style; with concise and vigorous dialogue, and rich poetical sentiment. He is the Phidias of dramatic art. Sophocles was above all an Athenian poet, as compared with Eschylus and Euripides, who were Hellenic, and he represented the genius of his well-loved city in its most perfect form.

His teaching is the doctrine of Fate, as it was understood by the ancients, and of this he is the best exponent:

"Fate is a dread power. If thou be wealthy, thou wilt not buy her off; if thou be valiant, thou canst not withstand her: if thou shut thyself within a tower, she will find thee out: if thou cross the sea in ships, she will overtake thee on the way. Whoso contendeth against Fate, fighteth against fearful odds. Thou canst not shake off what load Fate shall have put on thy shoulder."