THE 'AGAMEMNON' AND < TRACHINI&* ^ 



the { Alcestis.' Mr. Browning acted that play for us, creating, 

 as the French would say, the part of Heracles. And the 

 creation has been very successful. Some may think that 

 Euripides never intended his Heracles to be acted in that 

 fashion, but no one will deny that Mr. Browning's Heracles 

 is a fine conception. Mr. Browning often writes as if he were 

 acting. He generally receives the title of dramatic from the 

 public, but he is not a dramatic author in the old-fashioned 

 sense. The words he puts into the mouths of his characters are 

 not such as actors would like to use, but he is dramatic in the 

 sense that he seems himself to act each part in succession, so 

 that every character appears as if acted by Browning, and he 

 has a large range of characters which he can act well. Of 

 course we all recognise the actor and his mannerisms in every 

 dress, but so it must be with all actors. Now, Mr. Browning 

 has not acted Agamemnon, nor Clytemnestra, nor Cassandra, 

 more's the pity, and therefore we say with some fear and 

 trembling perhaps he did not see how these parts should be 

 acted. If he had ever thought of acting Cassandra himself, he 

 could never have made her say, speaking of Apollo, 



He was athlete to me huge grace breathing ; 



nor would he have liked in the part of Clytemnestra to an- 

 nounce the capture of Troy in these words : 



I think a noise no mixture reigns i' the city. 



4 No mixture' is a simple adjective in the original, and Miss 

 Swanwick translates the two words /Borjv ajjiiKTov by ' ill- 

 blending clamour.' 



The following is a sample of Mr. Browning's work where he 

 seems to have been more in sympathy with ^Eschylus : 



For Ares, gold-exchanger for the dead, 



And balance-holder in the fight o' the spear, 



Due-weight from Ilion sends 



What moves the tear on tear 



A charred scrap to the friends : 



Filling with well-packed ashes every urn, 



For man that was the sole return. 



