io LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



The reader who does not know the passage would in this last 

 version be puzzled by what seems to be an invocation to some 

 one called Linos, but a peep at the Greek will show him that 

 ' Ah, Linos ' is merely an exclamation, while Liddell and Scott 

 will prove that the received etymology of aiXivov is correctly 

 indicated by Mr. Browning. Who Linos was does not much 

 matter, but the first syllable of the name was short. Once all 

 these facts have been mastered, we may perhaps think that 

 Mr. Browning has made the best transcript ; it is certain that 

 any one knowing the Greek will, after trying other versions, 

 come back to this one with a sense of relief. 



By the way, no translator of the above refrain has adopted 

 the rendering taught by the late James Kiddell, that the old 

 men wished the note of rejoicing in the song to prevail over 

 the note of woe, not that good generally should prevail over 

 evil. Perhaps the words really have the double meaning, and 

 to get their full force we ought to imagine dispirited trebles 

 piping their wail in a minor key, followed by a burst of san- 

 guine baritones with a grand swell in the major, closing on the 

 triumphant v 1*0,7 co. 



A very slight acquaintance with ancient mythology and 

 ancient customs would be required to enable a spectator to 

 enjoy a great part of the ' Agamemnon ' and many other Greek 

 plays if he saw them acted, but unfortunately a drama when 

 simply read, not seen, makes such large demands on the imagina- 

 tion and intelligence of the reader, that great plays even in our 

 own language remain unread and unknown. For this very rea- 

 son we should have valued highly comments such as those of 

 Balaustion on the demeanour and thoughts of the personages 

 in the ' Agamemnon,' which, however, is hardly a play in the 

 sense in which we use the word now. It is not a realistic 

 representation of a series of incidents. By far the greater part 

 consists either of poems recited by the chorus who are not, 

 properly speaking, actors at all, and were not on the stage or 

 of long speeches addressed by a single personage from the stage 

 to the crowd below who formed the chorus. Even when two 

 people happen to be on the stage, dialogue is almost wholly 

 avoided, and it may well be that part of the popularity of the 

 play is owing to this undramatic form which makes it almost a 



