Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/207

 Atreus." Even in a discussion of realism in literature Hardy was inevitably reminded of Æschylus's masterpiece, when be wrote, "All really true literature directly or indirectly sounds as its refrain the words in the Agamemnon: 'Chant Ælinon, Ælinon! But may the good prevail.

With Latin he was fairly familiar, hut not more so than the average educated Englishman. In his earliest book he quoted, somewhat pedantically, from the Latin poets, later on he occasionally permitted himself a Latin expression, such as solicitus timor, pari passu or casus conscientice. His references to the literature cover a wide field, but they are for the most part allusions of the most casual character. The "golden age" of Roman literature is represented in his novels by Cicero, Horace, Catullus, and Vergil; and Ovid and Marcus Antoninus supply mottoes for sections of Jude the Obscure.

In this account of the artistic influence of the classics, some notice must be taken of Hardy's frequent repudiation of what he terms "the Greek point of view" in art, as it might otherwise seem somewhat audacious, in dealing with the ancient echoes that sound through his greatest work, to attempt to prove a proposition the validity of which the author himself may be said specifically to have denied.

The attitude which he assumed and defended is most clearly shown in two fairly well-known passages; one from The Return of the Native, the other from the preface to The Dynasts. The former attempts to contrast the general Greek attitude towards life with the modern viewpoint; the latter points out the great gulf