Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/121

 ^SCilYLUS. 103 we easily detect in the writer of the Divina Commedia the stem Florentine, who charged in the foremost ranks of the Gnelfian chivahy at the battle of Campaldino^, so may we at once recognize, in the tone of ^schylus' Tragedies, the high-minded Athenian, the brother of Ameinias and Cynegeirus, whose sword drank the blood of the dark-haired Medes at Marathon and Salamis. His poems are full of military and political terms-; he breathes an unbounded contempt for the barbarian prowess^, and he introduces on the stage the grotesque monsters whose images he had often seen among the spoils of the Persians*. Even his high-flown diction is a type of his military character, for many of his words strike on the ear like trumpet-sounds. The description given of his language by Aristophanes is so vivid, and at the same time so true, that we must endeavour to lay it before our readers in an English dress. The chorus of initiated persons is speaking of the prospect of a contest between ^Eschylus and Em'ipides ; they express their expectations thus^: Surely unhearahle w^ratk icill rise in the thanderer's bosom, When he perceives his inval in art, that treble-toned babbler. Whetting his teeth: he xcill then, driven frantic with angei', Roll his eye-balls fearfully. Then shall we have plume-jl uttering strifes of hehneted speeches, BreaJc-nech grazings of galloping words and shavings of actions, While the poor wight averts the great geniusnionger's Diction high and chivalrous. Bristling the stiffened mane of his nech-enveloping tresses. Dreadfully wrinkling his brows, he will bellovj aloud as he utters Fii^mly rivetted words, and will tear them up plankivise, Breathing with a Titan's breath. ^ In ([uella battaglia memorabile e grandissima, che fu a Campaldino, lui giovane e bene stimato si trovb nell' armi combattendo vigorosaraente a cavallo nella prima schiera. Aretin. Vita di Dante, p. 9. ^ We allude to such phrases as /xaKapojv irpvTavLS, ^a(nrj^ dloTroi., arpaTLois iopoL, (pLXofiaxoi ^pa^TJs. 3 For instance, in the SupipUces, 727, 8, 930 sqq. ovX linraXeKTpvopas, /J.a A", ouSe rpayeXdcpovi direp ci, O.V Tolat TrepnreTdafxaa-iP rolt MTjSt/coiS ypdcpovcriu. 5 Aristoph. Ran. 814. It may be as well to remind the student, that ^schylus is here compared to a lion, Euripides to a wild boar. Great contempt for Euripides is expressed in 1. 820, in the opposition of (puiros applied to him, to dv5p6s appKed to ^schylus ; 1. 824 intimates the diflBculty of pronouncing the long words of ^Eschylus, which are afterwards compared to trees torn up by the root, as opposed to the twigs and branches with which the rolhng-places were generally strewed. (904.) Tov 5' dvacnrwvT^ avToirpe/xvoii Toh XoyoLaiu epLTfidoirra cvaKehdv ttoX- Xas dXivdrjOpas eirOiv.
 * Aristoph. Ran. 937 :