220 SWINBURNE'S TRAGEDIES. 



blood puts more life into the veins of a poem, than all 

 the delusive aurum potabile that can be distilled out of 

 the choicest library. 



The opera is the closest approach we have to the 

 ancient drama in the essentials of structure and presen- 

 tation ; and could we have a libretto founded on a 

 national legend and written by one man of genius to be 

 filled out and accompanied by the music of another, we 

 might hope for something of the same effect upon the 

 stage. But themes of universal familiarity and interest 

 are rare, — Don Giovanni and Faust, perhaps, most 

 nearly, though not entirely, fulfilling the required con- 

 ditions, — and men of genius rarer. The oratorio seeks 

 to evade the difficulty by choosing Scriptural subjects, 

 and it may certainly be questioned whether the day of 

 popular mythology, in the sense in which it subserves 

 the purposes of epic or dramatic poetry, be not gone by 

 forever. Longfellow is driven to take refuge among the 

 red men, and Tennyson in the Cambro-Breton cyclus of 

 Arthur ; but it is impossible that such themes should 

 come so intimately horns to us as the semi-fabulous 

 stories of their own ancestors did to the Greeks. The 

 most successful attempt at reproducing the Greek trag- 

 edy, both in theme and treatment, is the " Samson 

 Agonistes," as it is also the most masterly piece of Eng- 

 lish versification. Goethe admits that it alone, among 

 modern works, has caught life from the breath of the 

 antique spirit. But he failed to see, or at least to give, 

 the reason of it ; probably failed to see it, or he would 

 never have attempted the " Iphigenia." Milton not 

 only subjected himself to the structural requirements 

 of the Attic tragedy, but with a true poetic instinct 

 availed himself of the striking advantage it had in the 

 choice of a subject. No popular tradition lay neat 

 enough to him for his purpose ; none united in itself 



