If we could be sure that the final scene of Aeschylus’ _Seven against Thebes_ is genuine, it would be possible to deduce a final principle. The main support for the charge of interpolation is that this scene in a two-actor play apparently requires three actors. From vs. 961 to vs. 1004 Antigone and Ismene engage in a lyric duet; at vs. 1005 a herald enters and converses with Antigone. From this scene, which I am inclined to accept as genuine (see p. 283, below), we must concede either that a supernumerary could occasionally bear a brief singing (or speaking) part or preferably that the herald, standing in the side entrance concealed from the spectators and already dressed for his own rôle, sang Ismene’s share of the duet while a mute went through the dumb show of her part before the audience; at the conclusion of the duet he promptly appeared _in propria persona_. Though the latter alternative is offensive to present-day taste, it is not unparalleled in the annals of the modern stage.[277] In any case one of these alternatives is the last principle (11) to be drawn from the two-actor drama. Now these eleven principles are so manifestly operative in the other Greek tragedies as to raise an irresistible presumption that some restriction (to three or at most to four actors) applied also to them. It would obviously be out of place to pass every play in review here; I must content myself with a few typical illustrations and then consider the crucial cases. In order to avenge his daughter, Menelaus is on the point of murdering her rival (Andromache) and the latter’s son when he is interrupted by the arrival of Peleus, Hermione’s father-in-law. There is no reason why Menelaus should fear the old man’s blusterings; nevertheless he suddenly leaves Hermione in the lurch and takes his departure with the words: Now, seeing that my leisure serveth not, Home will I go; for not from Sparta far Some certain town there is, our friend, time was, But now our foe: against her will I march, Leading mine host, and bow her ’neath my sway. Soon as things there be ordered to my mind, I will return, etc. [Euripides _Andromache_, vss. 732 ff., Way’s translation] Surely no excuse was ever less convincing than this! No wonder Professor Verrall’s ingenuity has built up a whole reinterpretation of the play around it.[278] The real reason for the sudden leave-taking is only too apparent—Orestes is presently to make his appearance (vs. 881) and Menelaus’ actor is required for his rôle. This exemplifies principles (1), (2), and (3).