6 Olivia Pound 
The chorus is not used merely to heighten the tragedy by songs 
on some theme suggested by the situation. As in the classic 
dramas, the chorus takes an active part in the development of the 
plot. In Erechtheus it is to the chorus that the herald of Eumol- 
pus gives the summons to the last struggle between the Athenians 
and the Thracians. With this messenger the chorus engages in 
stichomythic matching of wits. In transitional passages in both 
plays two-line speeches of the chorus are used.** In Greek 
tragedy two-line speeches were especially common in quarrel 
scenes. When Chthonia passes from the palace to the sacrifice 
the chorus shares with the queen, Praxithea, in her farewell. 
In Atalanta in Calydon the queen, Althaea, tells the chorus of her 
frightful dreams,?> and of her foreboding. They sympathize?® 
with her when she struggles against the curse of the gods. In 
the scene?’ of the Death of Meleager they have as important a 
part as any of the characters. Alternating with Atalanta, the 
king, Oeneus, and the dying Meleager, they raise the lyric 
lament,?® while the hero wastes away, as the fatal brand burns 
on the pyre of Althaea’s brothers. 
Distinctive, like the use of the chorus, of Greek dramatic con- 
struction is the limitation of the number of characters who may 
appear on the stage at one time: this where our native dramatic 
principles allow utter freedom. In the Erechtheus the number 
of characters appearing on the stage at one time conforms strictly 
to the rule of the Greek drama. There are seven characters in 
this play, and in no instance are more than two present and taking 
part in the action with the chorus. In Atalanta in Calydon, the 
earlier of the two plays, Swinburne does not conform so closely 
to the rule that not more than three speaking personages should 
be on the stage together at any time. In the scene of the quarrel 
between Meleager and the brothers Toxeus and Plexippus, there 
24 Atalanta in Calydon, p. 268; Erechtheus, p. 353. 
25 Atalanta in Calydon, pp. 251-258. 
26 Jbid., pp. 307-317. 
27 Tbid., pp. 322-320. 
28 Cf. Greek commos. Sophocles, Electra, ll. 121-254, Aeschylus, Seven 
Against Thebes, ll. 677-711, Swinburne, Erechtheus, pp. 374-376. 
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