Page:The tragedies of Euripides Vol I Buckley.pdf/11

vi old when he produced the “Peliades,” his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third prize in the tragic contests, but the ﬁrst, fourteen years after, and subsequently, with the “Hippolytus,” in 428 B. C. The peculiar tendency of some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of king Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state, arising from the inﬁdelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens a disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when his “domestic bliss” was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his acquaintance with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been unfavourable to the continuance of his popularity.

The fate of Pentheus in our author’s noble play, the “Bacchæ,” appears to have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces by dogs. If we reﬂect that this play was probably the last of his works, the mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of Æschylus, been associated with the marvellous.

The Athenians vainly craved the honour of giving a resting-place to the ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph at Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His death took place B. C. 406.

The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of his several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by Schlegel, with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be acquainted. Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not wholly unproﬁtable.

It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small