Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/451

 THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 425 interpretation of this statement. What do you understand by a lyrical tragedy ? What is known of Stesichorus, and what was his real name ? Mention some of the principles which regulated the formation of proper names among the Greeks, Why was the name Aletes given to the founder of the Dorian dynasty at Corinth, and what name was for a similar reason borne by the son of Cimon ? To what circumstance did the poet Euripides probably owe his name ? Thucydides mentions Xeno- phon, the son of Euripi 'es, as an Athenian general in the year 422 B.c. ; could this EurijDides have derived his name from the same cause? 3. By whom was the custom of performing tragic Trilogies intro- duced, and by whom was it first abandoned? What was the natui-e and origin of the fourth j^lay in a Tetralogy 1 What place did the Alcestis occupy in the Tetralogy to which it belonged, and what were the other three plays? Is the inference which you might draw from the place of the Alcestis confirmed by any peculiarities in the play itself? Translate : Nunc, quam rem oratum hue veni, primum proloquar, Post argumentum hujus eloquar tragoedise. Quid contraxistis frontem, quia tragoediam Dixi futuram hanc ? Deus sum ! Conmutavero Eadem, si voltis. Faciam hanc ex tragoedia Comoedia ut sit omnibus isdem versibus. Utrum sit an ne voltis? Sed ego stultior: Quasi nesciam vos velle, qui divos siem ! Teneo quid animi vostri super hac re siet. Faciam ut conmista sit Tragicocomoedia : Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comoedia, Keges quo veniant et Di, non par arbitror. Of what play is this said ? Mention other instances of an extrava- gance, similar to that on which the plot of it depends, in the di-amatic literature of ancient or modern times. 4. How was the iambic trimeter derived from the dactylic hexa- meter ? Give a scheme of the iambic trimeter acatalectic both tragic and comic. What is Porson's rule about the pause in the tragic tri- meter? Can you mention any exceptions to it? We learn from Joannes Laurentius Lydus that Rhinthon wrote comedies in hexameter verse ; what remarkable fact in the literature of Pome is explained by this? To what classes of Greek plays did the prcetextata, togata, Atellana and p^uiipes^ respectively cori-espond? Explain the last word, and show