Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/16

xii the play has brought us, and are filled with the emotions which it is calculated to excite. Adopting this, then, as our touchstone, we may arrange the plays in four groups:—

I.—Plays in which all choral odes are closely relevant to the immediate dramatic context.

Under this head fall half the extant tragedies of Euripides, viz.:

The appended dates show that plays of this class were confined to no particular period of his life, but were pretty evenly distributed over his whole career.

II.—Plays in which the choral odes are closely relevant, either to the dramatic context, or to the enveloping action. By the term "enveloping action," is implied the course of events out of which the situation of the play has been developed, or to which it is leading.

Under this head fall:

1. The Iphigeneia at Aulis, in which one choral ode refers to the enveloping action of the future (751–800).

2. The Daughters of Troy, in which one choral ode refers to enveloping action of the past (511–567).

3. The Madness of Herakles, in which one ode refers to enveloping action of the past (359–424).

4. The Hecuba, in which one ode refers to the enveloping action of the past (905–952), and one to that of the future (444–472).

In none of the above cases (with the exception of Iphigeneia at Aulis, 751–800, where the reader is left to infer the connection) is the entire ode irrelevant to the immediate dramatic