Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/153

 EUiuriDES. 135 thing remarkable in it. He died B.C. 406, on the same day on which Dionysius assumed the tyranny^. He was buried at Pella, contrary to the wislies of his countrymen, who requested Archelaus to send his remains to Athens, where however a cenotaph was erected to his memory with this inscription : yivd/jia fiev 'EWa? airaa ^vptTrlSoV oarea 8' tV^et Trj l^laKehwv' y yap he^aro ripfia ^lov. Harpk S' 'EXXaSo? 'EXXa9, WOi^vaC TrXetcrra Be Moucra? Tep-v/ro,?, i/c TToWcov Kol Tov eiraivov e%ei. Euripides was the last of the Greek Tragedians properly so called. '• The sure sign of the general decline of an art," says an able ^T.'iter, " is the frequent occurrence, not of deformity, but of misplaced beauty. In general. Tragedy is corrupted by eloquence, and Comedy by wit^." This symptom of the decline of Tragedy is particularly conspicuous in Euripides, and so much of tragical propriety is given up for the sake of rhetorical display, that we sometimes feel inclined to doubt whether we are reading the works of a poet or a teacher of elocution ^ It is this quality of Euripides which has in all ages rendered him a much greater favourite than either ^schylus or Sophocles ; it is this also which made the invention of Tragi-comedy by him so natural and so easy; it is this which recommended him to Menander as the model for the dialogue of his Xew Comedy ; and it is for this that Quintilian so strongly recommends him to the notice of the young aspirant after oratorical fame'*. In the middle ages too, Euripides was infi- 1 See CHnton, F. H. ii. p. 8r. 2 Lord Macaulay in the Ediahurgh Review, No. XC. p. 278. 3 Euripides seems to have been quite prepared to defend the long speeches which he introduces into his plays. In the Orestes, where there is a complete rhetorical dvTiXoyia, he makes his hero say (640) : XeyoL/j.' av -qdrj' ra fxaKpa rujv a/xiKpwv Xoyuv iirlirpoadiv icrri Kai aaipij /xaWov KXveiv. dispari dicendi via uter sit poeta melior, inter plurimos quaeritur. Idque ego sane, quoniam ad prsesentem materiam nihil pertinet, injudicatura relinquo, Tllud quidem nemo non fateatur necesse est, iis, qui se ad agendum coraparant, utiliorem longe Euripidem fore. Namque is et in sermone (quod ipsura reprehendunt, quibus gravitas et cothurnus et sonus Sophoclis videtur esse sublimior) magis accedit oratorio generi : et sententiis densus, et in iis, quae a sapientibus tradita sunt, psene ipsis par, et in dicendo ac respondendo cuilibet eorum, qui fuemnt in foro diserti, comparandus. In affectibus vero cum omnibus mirus, turn in iis, qui miseratione constant, facile prae- cipuus. Hunc et admiratus maxime est (ut ssepe testatur) et secutus, quamquam in opere diverse, Menander. Inst. Orat. x. i. 67. C. J. Fox remarks {Correspondence, edited by Lord John Russell, ill. 178) that of all poets Euripides appeared to him the most useful for a public speaker.
 * Sed longe clarius illustraverunt hoc opus Sophocles atque Euripides ; quorum in