Page:Suppliant Maidens (Morshead) 1883.djvu/73

Rh description of Salamis in the "Persæ," only the grave paternal care of Danaus, the cautious kindliness of the Pelasgian chieftain-king; and, over all, the long lyrical cry of the maidens, which—

to be saved from imminent danger and intolerable wrong. At the risk of seeming fanciful, I should say that, to the ordinary reader, a good preparation for appreciating this drama would be a perusal of the "Heart of Midlothian." There is a like piteous isolation, a like high resolve, a like pathetic admixture of a partially foreign dialect.

In thus adhering, however, to the view of Hermann and Paley, I am conscious of having proceeded almost entirely on literary grounds; and I know well how precarious such a judgment is. Yet it seemed best to express it, that the reader of the translation may at least know with what view of the drama it was written.

Another question obtrudes itself, on which I can hardly hope to throw light: it may be well, however, to try and make darkness visible.

In the argument prefixed to the translation, the story of the daughters of Danaus has been told, so far as is necessary to the comprehension of the play. But, even apart from the Greek usage of presenting trilogies and not single plays, this drama conspicuously needs a sequel, if not a predecessor. In later times the story was completed in full horror. Danaus reluctantly resigns his daughters to their Egyptian suitors; but, in mistrust and hatred of the bridegrooms, counsels the brides to slay them secretly during the bridal night. All except one, Hypermnestra, commit this crime, and are doomed, in requital, to an eternal labour—that of filling with water a bottomless vessel—in Tartarus.

Of this sequel, the first part—the murder of the husbands—is described in the "Prometheus" (ll. 855–868) and mentioned elsewhere in Greek tragedy; as, for instance in Euripides' "Phoenissæ" (l. 1675), where Antigone, threatened with compulsory espousal to Hæmon, replies with bitter emphasis—

The murder, and the doom of the murderesses in Tartarus, form the subject of one of the finest of Horace's Sapphic Odes (bk. 3, od. xi.). Are we to infer from this that such was the sequel of the trilogy of which the "Suppliant Maidens" must have been the first or second play?

The answer to this question cannot be given with certainty. Mr.