With blushing roses and the clustering vine; The tragedy of "Edipus Tyrannus," exhibits the dramatic powers of Sophocles, to as great advantage as any other of his works that have reached us. It is founded upon the story of the murder of Laius, king of Thebes, by his son Edipus, and the subsequent marriage of Edipus with his own mother Jocasta, the fruitful sources of many and dire calamities to him and his unhappy family. When the play opens, all Thebes is in commotion, in consequence of a dreadful pestilence which was laying waste the land; people of all ranks are thronging to the temple of Jupiter, and supplicating at his altar the favor of the Deity. Edipus is informed by Creon, who has just returned from Delphi, that the cause of the pestilence is the murderer of Laius, and that before it ceases, he must be discovered and driven from the country. Edipus, alive to the miseries of the people, determines to use every means to discover the murderer. By the advice of Creon, he sends for a blind and aged prophet named Tiresius, whowas looked on as one to whom all futurity was known: as among the gods All knowing Phoebus, so to mortal men Doth sage Tiresias, in foreknowledge sure Tiresias being brought before Edipus, hesitates to declare what he knows, and says, You know not what you ask; I'll not unveil Your miseries to you. I will not make Myself and thee unhappy. Still urged, he reluctantly declares that Edipus himself is the murderer, The guilty cause of all the city's woes. And adds that he is in shameful bonds united With those he loves, unconscious of his guilt 72 This declaration of Tiresias, excites the rage of Edipus, and causes a quarrel between him and Creon, who he believes has induced the prophet thus to speak, in order that the commission of the crime being fixed on him, Creon may succeed to the crown. The character of Edipus is drawn with a masterly hand, and we cannot but feel deeply interested for him in his various and trying afflictions. The scene between Edipus and Jocasta, when he informs her of the declaration of Tiresias, is one of peculiar and striking interest. Ed. He had suborned that evil working priest; Joc. Let not a fear perplex thee, Edipus; And these prophetic seers are all impostors; He should be slain by his own son, the offspring By strangers; murder'd, so fame reports, By robbers in the place where three roads meet: Which much he fear'd, should by his son be slain. This speech of Jocasta, instead of removing the fears of Edipus, tends to confirm them; the time, the place, the description of the person of Laius, and the subsequent introduction of the shepherd, to whom Edipus was delivered when an infant, cause him to break forth in the following pathetic language: O me! at length the mystery 's unravelled' 'Tis plain; 't is clear; my fate is all determin'd: The death of Jocasta by her own hand, is thus described: her own; Mess. She shut the door, then rav'd and tore her hair, Prevented, for on him our eyes were fix'd Attentive. We might produce many more extracts from this tragedy, of peculiar beauty, but enough has been given for our purpose. Throughout this drama, the author seems to have had in view, to impress upon the mind, that whatever is decreed by Divine Providence, must inevitably come to pass, notwithstanding every human means may be employed to counteract its designs; and he concludes with the following sentiment: Let mortals hence be taught to look beyond Shall close his life without the taste of wo. Euripides was born at Salamis, the day on which the army of Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks. He was the pupil of Socrates, the celebrated philosopher, but being more attached to poetry than philosophy, he left the groves of the academy and the banks of the Illyssus, and entered the temple of the muses, where he offered his devotions to Melpomene. When engaged in the composition of his tragedies, he frequently retired from the noise and bustle of the busy world, to a dreary and solitary cave in the neighborhood of Salamis. He is represented to have been proud, haughty, self-assuming and fond of contention. When requested by the audience to strike out some offensive lines in one of his plays, he came forward on the stage and told them, that he came to instruct them, not to receive instruction. Between Euripides and Sophocles, a bitter enmity, it is said, subsisted, which originated with the former, on account of his extreme jealousy of the talents and rising fame of the latter. This enmity led Aristophanes to introduce them both in some of his comedies, in which he ridiculed them with success and humor. The following judgment, with regard to these two dramatic writers, has been pronounced by a learned and judicious critic. "Euripides is esteemed more tender than Sophocles, and he is fuller of moral sentiments. But in the conduct of his plays, he is more incorrect and negligent; his expositions, or openings of the subject, are made in a less artful manner, and the songs of his chorus, though remarkably poetical, have, commonly, less connexion with the main subject, than those of So phocles. Both Euripides and Sophocles are elegant and beautiful in their style; just for the most part, in their thoughts, they speak with the voice of nature; and, making allowance for the difference of ancient and modern ideas, in the midst of all their simplicity, they are both touching and interesting."* Aristophanes, in his comedy of the "Frogs," introduces Eschylus and Euripides as contending for preeminence among the departed spirits; the contest is continued for some time, but is at length so managed, as to be decided in favor of the former. Eschylus is evidently the favorite of the poet, and he next ranks Sophocles, as appears from the following speech of Aschylus to Pluto: do thou to Sophocles Consign my seat, to keep possession of it, In case I should not again return; for he Doubtless, comes nearest me in tragic powers. And again, in a scene between Xanthias and Eachus, the lat ter being asked why Sophocles did not put in his claim for the first rank in tragedy, replies: not he, by Jove! When hither he came down, he instantly And in his favor gave up all pretensions. The few tragedies of Euripides now extant, have been trans Blair's Lectures, p. 471. iated into English by Potter. From his tragedy of "Iphigenia in Aulis," we will make a few extracts, for the purpose of showing something of the genius and style of the author, so far as they can be exhibited in a translation, affording, at the same time, an opportunity of comparing the style and manner of the three great tragic poets of Greece. This tragedy is founded upon the sacrifice of the daughter by Agamemnon, to appease the wrath of Diana, whom he had offended; the oracle having declared, that the Grecian fleet would not be permitted to reach the Trojan coast, unless this sacrifice was offered. Agamemnon had been prevailed upon to send to Argos for his daughter, under pretence of giving her in marriage to Achilles; but afterwards repenting his determination, and feeling a return of that natural affection which prompts a parent to protect his offspring, he endeavors to prevent her coming; his schemes, however, are detected by the vigilance of his brother Menelaus, and disappointment ensues. Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra, arrive at Aulis, but instead of being united to Achilles, the former learns that her innocent blood is to be shed upon the altar of Diana. The play opens with a dialogue between Agamemnon and an attendant, whom he determines to despatch to Argos with a let ter to Clytemnestra, in which he says: Whate'er my former letter gave in charge, The nuptials of thy virgin daughter we defer. The messenger is detected by Menelaus, and the letter wrested from his hands. Menelaus reproaches Agamemnon for his "secret baseness:" when thou cam'st to Aulis, with the troops Of Greece in arms, to nothing didst thou sink, |