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72 sort of criticism to which Euripides has been subjected, in both ancient and modern times, than the general outcry against the celebrated line uttered by Hippolytus (v. 612),, "my tongue has sworn, but my mind is free." He cries out this in his fury, when the old nurse, who had bound him over to secrecy by an oath, adjures him not to betray her mistress. It seems indeed hard that a dramatic poet should have his moral character decided by the excited utterances of his characters, but it is worse than hard, it is scandalously unjust, that these critics should not have noted that some fifty lines further on, the same Hippolytus declares (v. 657) that were he not bound by the sanctity of his oath, he would certainly inform Theseus. Can there possibly be a greater case of immorality in criticism?

The metrical treatment of the dramatic scenes in this play is much richer and more various than what we find in the Medea, More especially the alternating of feverish dochmiacs with iambics is twice used with striking effect. In the first the chorus, who cannot hear Hippolytus behind the scenes, inquire in great agitation from Phædra, who stands at the door on the stage, and who replies with the calmness of despair. In the second, the lament of Theseus over Phædra's body is written in iambic and dochmiac couplets alternately, thus conveying the changing colours of his deep and perplexed sorrow (vv. 817 sqq.). This scene has been admirably restored to its proper form in Weil's edition.

50. Beyond these two, there are no strictly character dramas of Euripides preserved; his treatment of human nature in other plays which contain remarkable heroes and heroines, will occupy us in a subsequent chapter.

We now come to that largest and most various class of plays, which I have called dramas of situation, and which consist in successions of scenes, brought together with less connection than that of a proper plot, for the purpose of producing affecting pictures of