Greek Lyric Tragedy in Dramas of Swinburne 5 
poetic flights afforded by the choral odes. Even the chorus on 
“ The Injustice of the Gods” has, in a way, an Euripidean flavor.. 
Some of Euripides’ characters,’ if not his choruses, are made to 
criticize the gods. But in none of the passages of Euripides that 
brought on him the charge of disbelief in the gods did he go as 
far, in his hostility to deity, as Swinburne’s chorus of Calydonian 
maidens when they sing :*° 
None hath beheld him, none 
Seen above the other gods and shapes of things, 
Swift without feet and flying without wings, 
Intolerable, not clad with death or life, 
Insatiable, not known of night or day, 
The lord of love and loathing and of strife 
Who gives a star and takes a sun away. 
Who shakes the heaven as ashes in his hand; 
Who seeing the light and shadow of the same 
Bids day waste night as fire devours a brand, 
Smites without sword, and scourges without rod; 
The supreme evil, God. 
It is in these choral passages that Swinburne’s genius is best 
revealed.*. He delighted in experimenting®? with various forms 
of verse, and the possibilities of the chorus gave him ample 
opportunity. It sometimes seems as if in these poetic flights he 
lost sight of the main object of his drama. On the whole, how- 
ever, Swinburne’s choruses fulfill the requirements stated by 
Horace :?8 
The chorus, like the other personages, should take a vigorous part in 
the action and must never in the songs between the scenes introduce any- 
thing irrelevant and unsuitable to the purpose of the drama. They should 
support the better side with friendly advice, should direct indignation and 
be ready to console grief. 
19 Cf. Hercules, 1316, 342, 1341. 
20 Atalanta in Calydon, p. 287. 
21 Discussion of the metrical structure of the odes is omitted. The topic 
is too intricate to be included within the limits of this paper. 
22 See the letter from Swinburne to Stedman, The Dial, 1909, vol. 47, 
pp. 5-7. 
23 Epistles, II, 3, 193. 
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