O town of Thebes, beauty of Asian land, Whence, decked with gold of costly bride-array, To Priam’s royal hearth long since I came, ... Here on the marshes ’twixt Pharsalia’s town And Phthia’s plains I dwell. [Way’s translation] The artificiality of Euripides’ opening soliloquies strikingly appears in his _Orestes_. Referring to Clytemnestra’s murder of her husband, Electra says (vss. 26 f.): Wherefore she slew,—a shame for maid to speak!— I leave untold, for whoso will to guess. [Way’s translation] These words, together with certain other phrases, show clearly that the speaker is conscious of an audience. It will be worth our while to note and comment also upon the other monologues in the _Alcestis_ and the first one in the _Medea_, these being the oldest of Euripides’ extant tragedies. At vss. 243 ff. the dying Alcestis, in the presence of her husband and the chorus and interrupted by the former at regular intervals, bids a final farewell to sun, earth, palace, etc. This belongs to the type found in Homer and Aeschylus and is paralleled by Sophocles’ _Antigone_ (vss. 806 ff.) and _Ajax_ (vss. 372 ff.). At vs. 746 of the _Alcestis_ occurs one of the few instances of a chorus retiring during the course of a Greek play. Advantage is at once taken of this circumstance. A reason for the servant’s leaving the palace at this point can readily be imagined but none is expressly mentioned. Nor is the bluntness of his monologue softened by any motivation. At vs. 773 Heracles appears and a dialogue ensues between them. At vs. 837 the servant withdraws; Heracles tarries and bursts forth as follows (incidentally obviating in this way the necessity of their departures in opposite directions exactly synchronizing): O much-enduring heart and hand of mine, etc.