Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/304

 278 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN (vv. 975 — 1032), Clyt^mnestra comes forth from tlie palace and endeavours fruitlessly to induce Casandra to enter the royal apart- ments. Casandra, who had remained silent while the queen was on the stage, breaks forth, immediately after her exit, into the most impassioned strains, and the dialogue between her and the chorus constitutes one of the finest scenes in the whole body of the extant Tragedies of the Greeks. After having declared to the chorus, with increasing distinctness, the impending murder of Agamemnon and herself, she rushes into the house to meet her doom. We should infer from the conventional kol fii^v that she leaves the orchestra at the end of her interchange of songs with the chorus (v. 1178). When Casandra leaves the stage (v. 1330), the chorus recites a few anapaests, which probably indicate a movement of the whole body to take up a new position. The death-cry of Agamemnon is heard (v. 1343), and each of the twelve choreutse expresses his opinion as to what ought to be done. The proposal to rush into the palace and convict the murderer while the fresh-dripping sword is still in his hand (v. 1350: oTrw? ra'^^iard y efMireaelv kcli TrparfjJb iXejx^tv ^vv veoppdvTct) ^[(pet) seems to be generally adopted, and as Clytgemnestra is immediately afterwards discovered on the spot where she had slain her husband (v. 1379: earTjKa 8' evd' eiraia iir i^etpyaa/jLevoL^;), it may fairly be concluded that the eccyclema, which exposes the interior of the palace, is supposed to include the chorus also, and the whole of the fc6fjLfio<; which follows, down to the anapaests (vv. 1567 — 1576), which indicate a movement of the parties, is to be understood as taking place within the palace. The eccyclema is withdrawn, and the chorus is again in the open place before the house of the Atreld^e, when ^Eglsthus, attended by an armed escort (v. 1650), enters the stage by the right-hand side-door (v. 1577), as though he had come from the city on learning that Clytsemnestra had consummated his plot with her (vv. 1608 — 1611). A lively altercation ensues between ^Egls- thus and the chorus, assisted probably by the attendants of Aga- memnon, and the two parties are about to come to blows, when they are parted by the hasty re-appearance of Clytsemnestra, and the play ends as the guilty pair enter the palace to assume the sove- reign power, and the chorus leaves the orchestra by the right-hand parodos. It will be observed that in this grand Tragedy there is no devia-