1 8 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



In the scenes with Cassandra before the murder, and with 

 Clytemnestra afterwards, the poet was swept away by his dra- 

 matic feelings, and in writing these scenes he invented the real 

 Greek drama, not by plan aforethought, but by the inspiration 

 of his subject. In form he adheres to an address from one actor 

 to the chorus, but the spirit is changed. The arrival of Aga- 

 memnon, the prophecy of Cassandra, the murder of the king, 

 and the boast of Clytemnestra form a real dramatic representation 

 of a fact happening then and there. The chorus changed its 

 character, and the words assigned to it might have been spoken 

 by a few persons on the stage. They became actors, whereas 

 before they had been alternately singers of a sacred hymn and 

 listeners to set speeches. 



The proposition that ^Eschylus invented a new art while 

 writing the 'Agamemnon' is not a mere figure of speech. The 

 1 Choephoroi ' which follows is a complete drama from beginning 

 to end. The chorus takes part in the action throughout, and, 

 when the stage was empty, recited only such short poems as 

 might serve to divide acts. In its arrangement the ' Choephoroi ' 

 might have been planned by Sophocles. As usual when we pass 

 from one artistic form to that next evolved, something was 

 gained, something lost. As a dramatic entertainment far 

 more was gained than lost ; and if even now the ' Agamemnon ' 

 and ' Choephoroi ' were successively acted, the spectators would, 

 we venture to say, prefer the later play. The long hymns of the 

 ' Agamemnon,' so beautiful to read, would be a trifle dull recited 

 by bands of performers. The declamation of the single actor 

 about the taking of Troy or the shipwreck of Menelaus, magni- 

 ficent poetry as it is, would be somewhat like a reading of 

 Milton : we should admire but remain cold. The play would 

 not begin until Agamemnon arrived, and it would be over by the 

 time Clytemnestra had finished her great speech after Agamem- 

 non's death. In the ' Choephoroi,' on the contrary, the interest 

 is dramatic from first to last. The return of Orestes, the present 

 woe of Electra, the recognition of the brother and sister, the in- 

 vocation of Agamemnon, whose hidden shade listens to son and 

 daughter, the meeting of Clytemnestra and her son, the death 

 of ^Egisthus, the pleading for life or death between mother and 

 son, with the final frenzy of Orestes, form one unbroken chain 



