The sun., 1908-02-16
4 BACK YARD SOpHOCLES
Won HOF.MANNSTAHL MAKES
ELECTRA 4 PERVERT.


DSrS. Campbell as the Heroine Of the lAbrettO
for strauss New Opera Very Property
Does Not Play In the Greek Modes, hut
Creates . woman LustlDg for Blood
OF the hundred OF more dramas Of Sopho-
cles only seven have been preserved for US
in their entirety. The rest. II they survive
Rt all. survive only IN precious fragments.
One Of these fragments is the stately line;
For ever fairly fall the dicc OF JOvs
Another is part OF chorus:
The looms sdamanuno
Of Destiny
All sorts 0f devices
Men sous 20 deceive,
They cannot be measured
They cannot he hed.
lThey wait by his threshold
They wait ny his bed
These fragments indicate with the brevity
Of the Athenian poets that belief in Nemesis
90 characteristic Of their dramas, that
sense OF fate which criticism never fails
10 mention. Criticism does not always
adequately, even correctly, account for
IL, however The Greeks. certainly the
Greeks Of the age Of Pericles. we're not
fatalsts. Fstalism belongs to q later
period, and EAT. drink and be merry, for
to-morrow we die" was a doctrine OF life
that Sophocles would have repudiated
with lofty scorn Their belief in fate was
rather a religious faith. trust In the
moral order. in a guiding power beyond
and behind all their psntheistio doctrines,
their legendary religions. SO II the sins
Of the fathers were visited on the children,
as seemed 90 often the case in Greek history.
they accounted for il by the justice OF all
powerful Jove. II was not a doctrine OF
Inherited sin either. II was no Christian
dogma Of mans fall. The sins Of the
father brought suffering on the children.
but hid not make thern sinful too. There
was something profoundly pitiful in this
af1iction Of the innocente TO the Greek
mind. but nothing hopeless, nothing that
demanded an elaborate scheme OF saliva
tion. Eventually the balance of justice
swung 10 even beam. Electro was 70
vsnEsd and Orsstes purged Of the crime Of
matricide.
Not 70 realize this philosophical basis
of Greek tragedy. not TO realize that the
highly specialized and critical Athenian
audiences Of the time Of Pericles regarded
the performance Of tragic drama almost
az q religious rite, recalling ~ they must
"A their fathers il had been solely q re-
ligicus rite and not drama at ala lyric
performance made up Of song, ritual and
the dance-is 70 miss the spirit OF Greek
tragedy entirely. And not to detect In the
rhetoric. the language, Of such a poet as
Sophoclee, even in translation, . ohaste
restraint and nobility Of utterance that has
the effect even apart from the underlying
- -
nifed the most bloody and sordid OF Incl
dents, is 20 fail in critical insight.
II is only when the spirit Of Greek tragedy
is missed It's language and restraint un-
comprehended. its lyricism and ritualistlo
origin forgotten, that the Electra" Of
Hugo Won Hofmannstahl can be judged
as in any way representative Of the -Eleo-
ira Of Sophocles. Indeed were IL even an
attempt at reproducing Sophocles II would
be entitled only TO the most scathing con-
demnation az a weak and feeble replica
Of an original that should be sacred. But
Il is not such an attempt. II 10 an attempt
20 make something new and different, with
the story Of Electra al a starting point.
Il no more pretends TO be Sophocles than
Wildes "Salome" pretends to be the Bible.
Failing 20 grasp this fact, the spectator at
Theatre who knows anything at all about
Greek tragedy will be hard put to get his
bearings.
Il Ia significant that Won Hofmannstahl
has shifted the scene OF Electra" from
the front TO the rear Of the palace OF CIv-
teunestrd. The Greek chorus Of ladies in
waiting has become q crowd Of servants.
Won Hofmannst shl IL Sophocles in the back
- II ekea ravaNa
are discussing Electro who. 1t is disclosed.
il driven 10 live with them. clothed in rags
and fed on table refuse. They speak Of her
as crouching in corners as splitting At then m
when they taunt her. nJy draw a picture
90 far removed from the figure Of Sophocles.
who shone regal through her rags. that
before Electra enters the intelligent be-
holder has been prepared for quite a new
snd different being from the heroine Of
the Greek drama. To say that Mrs. Camp
he'll when che does enter as Electro is not
Greek is TO ssy that negatively, a. least
che is playing this modern drama properly.
Elseirds fret speech In the Greek play
begins as follows
Hoiy light With Earth and sky.
Whom thou hIlsst eaus1y.
An. how many note Of woe
Many q self Inflicted blow
On my Scared breast rnightst thou mark.
Ever as rscedes the DARK
Known, too all my nightong cheer
To birer bed and chamber drear.
How I mourn my father lost.
Whom on no barbarian coast
Did red Ares greet snaln.
But as woodmen Cleave an osk
Ny mothers axe dealt nurderous stroke
Backed BY the partner Of her bed
Fell Fgsthus on his head:
Whence no piry, save from me,
o my father. COWS for thee,
so fslsely, foully slain.
AE the lyric speech goes on. interspersed
by comments and attempts AZ comfort
from the chorus, and more than once sug-
gesting the sources Of much OF Matthew
Anold's poetry, though Electro declares
she is "uncomely srrayed." IL is no half
crazed female talking, who would snArl
like dog az the servants Here is only
chaste restraint and nobility Of language.
Here are no such passages As in the new
version. where Electra describes in detail
with a kind of perverted fury, the murder.
he 1F ha h1oaA ka 1ra -