Greek tragedy

Name: Greek tragedy
Author: Norwood, Gilbert

Norwood, Gilbert

Greek drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism; Mythology, Greek, in literature

Thus the drama is full of subtly wise psychology: it is an interesting
comment on much that has been written about “realist” play-writing that
the _Hippolytus_, which contains some of the most romantic poetry in
Greek literature, is also as sincere and profound in characterization
as the work of Ibsen himself. Theseus and his son we have already
considered; Phædra and her nurse require deeper study. The latter is a
masterpiece among the “minor” characters of Euripides. Her tenderness
for the young queen and passionate desire at all costs to win her
peace; the dignity which life and its contemplation can give even to
coarse-fibred[481] natures; her feeling for the deepest pathos of
life—these things constitute a great dramatic figure. It is to her that
the poet gives his most poignant expression of that mingled pain and
beauty which we discussed a moment ago:—

    But if any far-off state there be,
    Dearer than life to mortality;
    The hand of the Dark hath hold thereof,
    And mist is under and mist above,
    And so we are sick for life and cling
    On earth to this nameless and shining thing.
    For other life is a fountain sealed,
    And the deeps below us are unrevealed,
    And we drift on legends for ever![482]

She, too, it is who in words[483] of almost equal beauty urges Phædra to
yield to her passion:—

    Thy love—why marvel thereat? ’Tis the tale
    Of many. Wouldst thou lose thy life for love?
    Good sooth! A guerdon strange, if lovers now
    And evermore must meet such penalty!
    Who shall withstand the Cyprian’s rising flood?
    Yield to her spell: she comes in gentleness;
    Make high thy pride and stand on niceties,
    She flings thee pell-mell into ignominy.
    Amid the sky she walks, amid the surge
    Of the sea-billows. All things live from her.
    The seed is hers and hers the yearning throe
    Whence spring we all that tread the ways of earth
    Ask them that con the half-forgotten seers
    Of elder time, and serve the Muse themselves.
    They knew how Zeus once pined for Semele,
    How for love’s sake the Goddess of the Dawn
    Stooped from her radiant sphere to Cephalus
    And stole him to the sky. Yet these abide
    In Heaven, nor shun the converse of the gods,
    Bowing, belike, to conquering circumstance.
    And wilt not _thou_? Nay, if this law thou spurnest,
    Thy sire, when he begat thee, should have writ
    Some compact countersigned by gods unknown!

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Greek tragedyNorwood, Gilbert

History

Greek tragedy

Norwood, Gilbert

Greek drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism; Mythology, Greek, in literature

Thus the drama is full of subtly wise psychology: it is an interesting
comment on much that has been written about “realist” play-writing that
the _Hippolytus_, which contains some of the most romantic poetry in
Greek literature, is also as sincere and profound in characterization
as the work of Ibsen himself. Theseus and his son we have already
considered; Phædra and her nurse require deeper study. The latter is a
masterpiece among the “minor” characters of Euripides. Her tenderness
for the young queen and passionate desire at all costs to win her
peace; the dignity which life and its contemplation can give even to
coarse-fibred[481] natures; her feeling for the deepest pathos of
life—these things constitute a great dramatic figure. It is to her that
the poet gives his most poignant expression of that mingled pain and
beauty which we discussed a moment ago:—

    But if any far-off state there be,
    Dearer than life to mortality;
    The hand of the Dark hath hold thereof,
    And mist is under and mist above,
    And so we are sick for life and cling
    On earth to this nameless and shining thing.
    For other life is a fountain sealed,
    And the deeps below us are unrevealed,
    And we drift on legends for ever![482]

She, too, it is who in words[483] of almost equal beauty urges Phædra to
yield to her passion:—

    Thy love—why marvel thereat? ’Tis the tale
    Of many. Wouldst thou lose thy life for love?
    Good sooth! A guerdon strange, if lovers now
    And evermore must meet such penalty!
    Who shall withstand the Cyprian’s rising flood?
    Yield to her spell: she comes in gentleness;
    Make high thy pride and stand on niceties,
    She flings thee pell-mell into ignominy.
    Amid the sky she walks, amid the surge
    Of the sea-billows. All things live from her.
    The seed is hers and hers the yearning throe
    Whence spring we all that tread the ways of earth
    Ask them that con the half-forgotten seers
    Of elder time, and serve the Muse themselves.
    They knew how Zeus once pined for Semele,
    How for love’s sake the Goddess of the Dawn
    Stooped from her radiant sphere to Cephalus
    And stole him to the sky. Yet these abide
    In Heaven, nor shun the converse of the gods,
    Bowing, belike, to conquering circumstance.
    And wilt not _thou_? Nay, if this law thou spurnest,
    Thy sire, when he begat thee, should have writ
    Some compact countersigned by gods unknown!

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Greek tragedy

Greek tragedy

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