Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/308

286 286 HISTORY OF THE continuance of monarchical institutions, the minds of the people were impregnated and swayed by legends handed down from antiquity. Elegiac, iambic, and lyric poetry arose in the more stirring and agitated times which accompanied the development of republican governments; times in which each individual gave vent to his personal aims and wishes, and all the depths of the human breast were unlocked by the inspirations of poetry. And now when, at the summit of Greek civilization, in the very prime of Athenian power and freedom, we see dramatic poetry spring up, as the organ of the prevailing thoughts and feelings of the time, and throwing all other varieties of poetry into the shade, we are naturally led to ask, how it comes that this style of poetry agreed so well with the spirit of the age, and so far outstripped its competitors in the contest for public favour ? Dramatic poetry, as the Greek name plainly declares, represents actions ; which are not (as in the epos) merely narrated, but seem to take place before the eyes of the spectator. Yet this external appear- ance cannot constitute the essential difference between dramatic and epic poetry : for, since the events thus represented do not really happen at the moment, of their representation ; since the speech and actions of the persons in the drama are only a fiction of the poet, and, when suc- cessful, an illusion to the spectator; it would follow that the whole difference turned upon a mere deception. The essence of this style of poetry has a much deeper source ; viz., the state of the poet's mind, when engaged in the contemplation of his subject. The epic poet seems to regard the events which he relates, from afar, as objects of cairn contemplation and admiration, and is always conscious of the o-reat interval between him and them ; while the dramatist plunges, with his entire soul, into the scenes of human life, and seems himself to experience the events which he exhibits to our view. He experiences them in a two-fold manner : first, because in the drama, actions (as they arise out of the depths of the human heart) are represented as com- pletely and as naturally as if they originated in our own breasts ; se- condly, because the effect of the actions and fortunes of the personages upon the sympathies of other persons in the drama itself is exhibited with such force, that the listener feels himself constrained to like sym- pathy, and powerfully attracted within the circle of the drama. This second means, the strong sympathy in the action of the drama, was, at the time when this style of poetry was developing itself, by far the most important; and hence arose the necessity of the chorus, as a partici- pator in the fortunes of the principal characters in the drama of this period. Another similar fact is that the Greek drama did not originate from the narrative, but from a branch of lyric poetry. The latter point, however, we shall examine hereafter. At present, we merely consider the fact that the drama comprehends and develops the events of human life with a force and depth which no other style of poetry can reach;