Page:The Tragedies of Aeschylus - tr. Potter - 1812.pdf/315



T is pleasant enough to observe with what heat the critics rise against this tragedy. C'est si bizarre. —L'unité de lieu n'est pas gardée dans cette pièce: mais ce n'est pas-la qui choque le plus.—Tota œconomia dramatis impia est et inepta.—Hic uno momento tota scenæ facies mutatur, et pro Delphis ac templo Apollinis Delphici habenus Athenas et templum Minervæ Athenis. Nihil ineptius aut inconcinnius excogitari posset.—The poet, it seems, had dared to violate the unities; and further has introduced personages of so extravagant a character as to baffle the skill of these literary martinets, and to whip them from their foining fence; hinc illæ lachrymæ. Æschylus in all his other pieces that remain to us has paid the strictest attention to these favourite unities; and with reason; he was their father, and knew their merit as well as any man: Even here, where his management of the subject led