Page:The Tragedies of Aeschylus - tr. Potter - 1812.pdf/318

Rh will thank me for referring him to the notes on the Epistle to the Pisos, v. 127.

This foul sisterhood on the Athenian stage amounted to fifty : the consternation arising from their, hideous figures, and gestures, and yellings, had such fatal effects upon the children et les femmes enceintes, that the state by an express law reduced the number of the Chorus to fifteen, and afterwards to twelve. But the translator dares to assure the English ladies, for whom he has too great a respect to offer them any thing that can have the least tendency to hurt them, that they may read this play with the utmost safety. These ancient virgins are, to be sure, at first a little wayward, and rather outrageous; but they soften by degrees, till they become perfectly good-humoured, and the best company in the world. He flatters himself that he needs not make any apology for passing so slightly over ces ronflements redoubles des Furies, which are marked with great exactness in the original; nor for an omission of somewhat a similar nature in the last scene of the PERSIANS. He has taken the liberty to change the position of a few lines, where the Furies quit the temple of Apollo: which to him appeared necessary.