192 The Greek Chorum as an Art Form. [May 26, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May '2?>, 1911. 



The Right Hon. Sir Henry Buckley, P.O. M.A., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Professor Gilbert Murray, M.A. LL.D. D.Litt. F.B.A. 



The Greek Chorus as an Art Form. 



"Chorus" = Dance: an ancient Dance was the expression by the 

 whole body of emotions that could not be fully expressed by words : 

 especially tlierefore of reUgious emotions, of hopeless regret and 

 the like. 



Tragedy originally a Dance at the grave of a dead Hero. Then 

 out of the inarticulate Dance comes element of articulate speech ; 

 explanation, appeal. Actors. 



A Greek tragedy is carried on, as it were, on two planes : below, 

 the individual actors representing definite persons expressing them- 

 selves in speech ; above, the ultimate emotion of the situation, the 

 emotion which no individual actor can properly express and which 

 perhaps cannot ever be fully expressed by definite words, is left to 

 the impersonal Dance. E.g., suppose the death of Nelson as a theme. 

 There is an essential emotion about the situation which neither Nelson 

 himself nor any one of his associates can properly express : a modern 

 poet would probably fall back on the Greek model and have some 

 Chorus of Spirits or Ages, like Shelley or Thomas Hardy. 



From these two planes or two worlds the poets get certain effects : 



1. The two can practically coincide, as where we have supernatural 

 characters : e.g., the Prometheus ; or where the Chorus forms the 

 chief character, The Suppliant Women. 



2. There can be a deliberate clash between the two worlds, so that 

 — by a sort of hysterical eft'ect^ — the calm of the upper world is riven 

 by the suffering of the lower. Cf. Castor at end of Euripides' Elect ra ; 

 especially the Chorus in the Medea wlien the children are murdered 

 behind the barred door. 



3. More usually, the upper and serener world comes in to heal 

 the wounds of the lower, to flood the play with beauty when the 

 mere suffering has liecome too great. Hippolvtus li'2f, Trojan 

 Women 7 9 Of. 



[G. M.] 



