Evening star., 1927-12-04

lthe -Four Hundred" ruled he was
: made member of the provisional
government. He came Of a rich fam
ily, and could not bear the popular
incompetence of such knaves as Creon.
He despised the trading class that was
slowly displacing the landowners, to
whom his family belonged. Nothing
so evil as money! he says, ever
grew to be current among men. This
LAYS cities low; this drives men from
ltheir homes: this trains and warps
honest souls till they set themselves
to works of shame; this teaches folk
to practice villainies and to know
every goddess deed" (Antigone $3.50
He could afford to despise wealth, as
he had considerable of it himself
* X X
Given riches and noble birth. Soph-
ocles was marked out for the classic
style. as against the romantic and
wellnigh socialistic Euripides, whose
mother sold vegetables in the street
The polished style is the daughter of
leisure: so Turgeniev wrote more care
fully than Dostoievski, Flaubert more
carefully than Balzac. Noltaire more
carefully than Rousseau, Anatole
France more carefully than Roman
ROLAND. Hence Sophocles is the
greatest of Greek dramatists in the
matter of form, symmetry and sim
plicity of structure, pure beauty of
thought and speech. The sure in
Stinct of the almost primitive .ESchy-
lus is here replaced by reflective per-
lection: .F,schylus did right without
knowing it," said Sophocles. The fine
Judgment the lofty serenity, the in
ltensitv of feeling restrained within
measured uttoranCe which mark these
plays make Sophocles the Correlate
in drama of Phedias in sculpture. and
Pericles in craftsmanship, and Socrates
in philosophy.
He wrote 100 plays. of which seven
remain; if these reveal his greatness.
let imagination conceive his genius.
At the age of 25 he exhibited his first
| tragedy; at 81 he won his first prize:
| whereupon the defeated .Eschylus
went off in huff to Sicily. For 80
wear Sophocles was undisputed mas
tor in the Theater of Dionysus; he
was % times victorious. and never
received less than the second award;
his last prize came to him GO years
after his first.
| What strikes us IN these dramas
is the appearance of introsnoction ana
psychological analysis. -Eschylus is
moralist. Euripides a soCioloSisst: but
| Sophocles is a psychologist, intent
not merely on representing n dramatic
situation. but on seeing each part
with such inward sympathy that
every man seems right while he
speaks. So in Ajax we find no en-
phasis upon mere physical deeds. what
lures Sophocles is the study of mad
ness. The goddess Athene has made
Ajax insane in punishment for his
scorn Of her at Troy; it is not the
first time in history or literature
that we find the gods mere inhuman
than man. Enraged by the award of
Achilles arm to Odysseus, Ajax goes
forth to kill Agamemnon and Meme
laus. as responsible for the award
but, like Quixote, he attacks instead, in
his delirium. a flock Of oxen ana
sheep. Defeated. he resolves on
suicide, and rejects with Hamletlike
brooding the pleadings of his wife:
Thou vexest me too much. Know.
est thou not.
That 1 no more am debtor to The
gods.
That / should do them serviceo"
So he goes off alone with his sword,
and wanders mad by the sea.
Come and look on me,
o Death, o Death.-and yet in
yonder world
I shall dwell with thee, speak
enough with thee:
And thee l call, thou light of
golden day.
Thou Sun, who drivest on thy
glorious car,
Thee for this last time. never
more again.
o Light! o sacred land that was
my home.
o Salamis. where stands my
fathers heart;
Thou glorious Athens, with thy
kindred race:
Ye streams and rivers here. and
Troia's plains,
To you that fed my life bid fare.
well;
This last. last word does Ajax
| speak to you;
All else I speak in Hades to the
dead.
(Falls on his sword and dies).
This is still in the romantic heroic
mood not till we come to Sophocles'
masterpiece do we reach the summit
of his art and thought. Gdipus Tyran.
nus fEdipus Rex. King Edipus) is
the most famous of all Greek plays:
initiated by Caesar, Lucullus, Seneca.
Corneille, Voltaire, Dryden; and taken
with almost literal homage as the in
spiration of currently fashionable
psychology. On the stage its impress.
sive opening prepares the reader for
great things; a throng of citizens
men, women. boys. girls, infants-sits
before the doors of Edipus' Palace in
Thebes, holding boughs of laurel and
olive as signs of supplication A
plague has fallen upon the city, and
the people have come to implore that
something be done to appease the in