Page:Sophocles' King Oedipus.pdf/8

vi to his hand, but mainly because if a chorus stands stock still in half shadow music and singing should, perhaps, possess a variety of rhythm and pitch incompatible with dramatic intelligible words. The main purpose of the chorus is to preserve the mood while it rests the mind by change of attention. A producer who has a space below the level of the stage, where a chorus can move about an altar, may do well to experiment with that old thought of mine and keep his singers as much in the range of the speaking voice as if they sang ‘The west’s awake’ or sang round a binnacle. However, he has his own singers to think of and must be content with what comes to hand.

W. B. YEATS.


 * June 1st.