Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/277

 if that were possible, to lines from the "Overworld" scenes in The Dynasts and the weightiest phrases out of the work of Robert Bridges or William Ernest Henley.

Although Aristophanes himself was strongly prepossessed in favor of the older poet, he could not resist the temptation to ridicule Æschylus' coinage and free compounding of words, and his habitual use of "jawbreakers." One does find an exceptionally large proportion of hapax legomena in Æschylus, even when reading him to-day. In The Dynasts the verse abounds in unusual words, and in usual words used with unusual meanings. There is besides a great deal of ponderosity and what classical scholars call "tragic ."

The reader is forced to hesitate over an unusual turn of language almost as frequently as the ordinary student is compelled to revert to the lexicon in reading Agamemnon. Often a rugged Elizabethan as well as Æschylean splendor is achieved, even though it is coupled with a certain uncouthness that repels those critics to whom the smoothness, polish, and "precious" qualities of Stephen Phillips' verse represent the true poetic gift. An astounding versatility of all kinds of metrical schemes is displayed, ranging from blank verse of a distinctive order to a few very effective samples of the "limerick." It is of course not difficult to find single lines or short passages that are not beyond criticism and, just as in the case of Æschylus, the reader must be prepared to bestow upon the work a reasonable measure of sympathetic attention in order to overcome the difficulties of language for the sake of the very real pleasure which an intelligent reading is bound to provide.