Selections From the Tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Selections From the Tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides To comprehend the justness of this honourable appellation, and to form a recise idea of the orio ginality of Eschylus, it wi be necessary to trace the 'l'ra 'c Muse from her birth to her yet infirm state, w en this poet gave her strength, spirit, and dignity. The story has been told, it seems, twenty times already, let it not give ofi'ence if it be told once more it shall be a short tale. Tragedy then was at first no more than a rustic son in honour of Bacchus, attending the sacrifice o a goat: an animal hated by the god because its bite is parti cularly hurtful to the vine. What was originally no more than an accidental frolic became an an nual custom, next a public sacrifice, and thence an established rite, for as every thing in Pagan an tiquity was sacred, sports and amusements were changed into feasts, and the temples were convert ed into theatres: but this by due degrees. The Grecians, advancing in polished manners, carried into their towns a feast that sprung from the leisure of the country: their best poets took a pride in composing these religious hymns to the honour of Bacchus, and embelhshed them with the agreea ble entertainments of music and dancing. After a length of time, the songs advancing in perfection, it was found necessary to give the singer some re lief, and that the company might be amused during the pauses of the music, an actor was introduced his part could be no other than a single speech, setting forth that he represented Hercules, or Theseus, or some other hero of antiquity, and had performed such or such an illustrious achievement at the next pause another personated character advanced, at the next, another, but each unre lated and unconnected with the other. This we imagine to be the state of things, till Thespis and. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.