In this connection certain words of Aristotle[250] are usually cited: “The chorus ought to be regarded as one of the actors; it ought to be an integral part of the whole and take a share in the action, in the manner, not of Euripides but of Sophocles. The choral songs of the successors of Euripides and Sophocles have no more to do with the subject of the piece than with that of some other tragedy. They are therefore sung as mere intercalary numbers (ἐμβόλιμα), a practice first begun by Agathon. Yet this is no more justifiable than to transfer a speech or a whole act from one tragedy to another.” Aristotle’s praise of Sophocles at the expense of Euripides probably refers to the choice and setting of Sophoclean choruses and to the relevancy of their songs—points in which Sophocles usually surpassed his rival. Aristotle failed to notice or did not value the other characteristic of Euripidean choruses, viz., that they have more effect upon the plot and come into more direct contact with the actors, that is to say, that they really “act” more, than is the case in Sophocles. In fact, it is Sophocles’ use of the chorus which is mainly responsible for the modern notion that the Greek chorus was merely the “ideal spectator.” The precise meaning of the latter part of this passage from the _Poetics_ has not until recently become clear. It is evident that Aristotle brings the same charge, that of irrelevancy, against the choruses of both Euripides and Agathon. But if the difference between them were merely one of _degree_, he would hardly have said that Agathon “began” a practice which he had really borrowed from Euripides and only “developed” or “extended.” Therefore, Aristotle must mean that Agathon was guilty of a different _kind_ of irrelevancy than Euripides, and we are now in a position to see whereof this consisted. Recently discovered fragments of Menander show that often in New Comedy the chorus did not appear in the course of the action at all, but only between acts, and that the poets did not write down the words of these _entr’actes_ but simply indicated where they should come by writing the word ΧΟΡΟΥ (“of the chorus”) at the places required. To the stage manager ΧΟΡΟΥ in the manuscript would be simply a hint to use anything he chose or to refer to the poet or that he could rely upon the latter to provide the choreutae with a libretto, according to whatever arrangement they had between them on the subject. To the reader it was convenient, as marking off the divisions of the play. A parallel to this custom is found in Greene’s _James the Fourth_, where at the beginning of Act IV the stage directions read “Enter certain huntsmen (if you please, singing),” and again at the close of the same act, “Enter a round, or some dance at pleasure.” A passage in the ancient _Life of Aristophanes_ had already mentioned this practice of the writers of New Comedy but had received scant consideration until substantiated by the Menander fragments.