A History of Classical Scholarship

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... IV.] DRAMATIC CRITICISM IN ARISTOTLE. 63 The Poetic includes a slight sketch of the historical development of Tragedy. In the fuller form of the treatise, or in some other work, Aristotle must have mentioned Thespis as introducing the 'prologue and the set speech'1. The treatise, in its present form, tells us that Aeschylus was the first to introduce a second actor, that he made the chorus more subordinate and gave greater prominence to the dialogue; also that Sophocles introduced a third actor, and added scene-painting (4 13). In the only other reference to Aeschylus, apart from a passing mention of his Niobe (18 5), it is noticed that Euripides had improved on a line in Aeschylus by altering an ordinary word into one that was rarer, thus producing a beautiful instead of a trivial effect2. Sophocles and Euripides are twice contrasted, firstly, when Aristotle insists that the chorus 'should be regarded as one of the actors and be an integral part of the whole and join in the action, in the manner of Sophocles but not of Euripides' (18 7); and secondly, when he tells us that 'Sophocles said that he drew men as they ought to be (or 'to be drawn'), but Euripides as they are'3. There are at least four references to the Oedipus*, a play which Aristotle obviously admires. Euripides is defended against the criticism of those, who 'censure him for making many of his plays end unhappily'; this (says Aristotle) is 'the right ending'; such plays 'have the most tragic effect', and in this respect Euripides, 'faulty as he is in the management of the rest, is recognised as the most tragic of the poets' (13 6). His Medea, his Iphigeneia in Tauris and his Orestes are noticed. Poets who have ' dramatised the whole story of the Fall of Troy, instead of...