Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/62

lii husband and the wife is of a different order, involving intelligent volition and reciprocal engagement. The institution of marriage, [sic]morever, lies at the root of all law and order, and with the consequent permanence and sanctity of the domestic relations is the sole guarantee for the healthy development of society; hence the conjugal tie requires to be placed under the special guardianship of the gods and of eternal justice. Hera, who in the Iliad plays so prominent and often so undignified a part, is introduced in the Oresteia in her grand matronly character, her union with Zeus being alluded to as imparting sanctity to the marriage tie. A comparison between the Choephori of Æschylus and the Hamlet of Shakespeare may serve to exhibit more strikingly the fundamental difference between the ancient and modern drama. In both tragedies the father of the hero has been murdered, and the mother has married the murderer; in both, the son is urged by supernatural visitations to avenge the crime, and both are prompted by the same motives of disappointed ambition. In the ancient drama, however, the death of Agamemnon is represented as the vindication of a moral principle, violated in the person of Clytemnestra. Accordingly, when pleading for her life, she not only appeals to the filial reverence of her son, but also represents herself as having, by the death of her husband, accomplished the ends of divine justice. In the modern drama the murder of the king is represented as an act of pure wickedness; hence when Hamlet is summoned to avenge his father's death, no