THE "(EDIPUS COLONEUS" OF SOPHOCLES. 225 
its invention belonged to Athens alone. The golden age of 
Athenian tragedy was short : it was measured by the single life of 
Sophocles. The (Edipus Coloneus, his last known work, represents 
Greek tragedy at its culminating -point \ if not the Hamlet it is 
the Tempest, of the Athenian Shakspere. In reading Greek plays 
it is necessary to make allowance for the conditions under which 
they were produced and acted. We must not judge them by the 
rules of the Comedie Francaise, or of the Elizabethan drama. The 
motions of action are few and simple ; the action itself somewhat 
languishing, to our notions ; the characters are heroic in dimen- 
sion, and massive in colouring • the diction is stately, and even 
severe. But for passions of the simpler and more energetic sort, 
for pathetic interest naturally evolved from the story, for consistency 
and plasticity of character, for poetic charm of language, and for 
all-pervading good taste, fix your expectations as high as you will, 
you will not be disappointed in Sophocles. 
The plot of the play is best left for the poet to unfold. It 
depends very largely for its interest upon the peculiar observances 
connected with the position of a supplicant or refugee in ancient 
Greek society, and upon the importance attached to the due per- 
formance of funeral rites. The religion of the play is Paganism ; 
that is, the worship of the personified forces and features of nature, 
but deeply crossed by the principles of a pure philosophic morality, 
retribution for sin, responsibility for wilful, as distinguished from 
unwitting transgression, and the subordination of the lower to the 
higher laws of conduct in cases of conflicting duty. 
In trying to give an idea of the beauties of the play one is 
obliged to have recourse to a poetical translation. Unfortunately, 
there is no accepted English version of Sophocles. The faults of 
the published translations are chiefly due to the deficiencies of their 
authors as writers of English verse. They have all been professors 
of Greek. It is therefore possible, with their help, for a very 
inferior scholar to arrive at a more readable rendering, without 
departing further than they do, or even so far, from the meaning 
of the original. (This has been attempted in the specimens given 
in the lecture.) 
The great secret of success in translation, as in all other art, 
literary or other, is to take pains. Poetical translation has fallen, 
as an art, into unmerited contempt, because translators are careless. 
It is, however, one of the most legitimate and pleasure-giving of 
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