Illustrations of the Tragedies of Sophocles

1315

Κἀμοὶ γὰρ ἦν πόθ' οὗτος ἔχθιστος στρατοῦ,
Ἐξ οὗ κράτησα τῶν ̓Αχιλλείων ὅπλων.
Αλλ' αὐτὸν ἔμπας ὄντ ̓ ἐγὼ τοιόνδ' ἐμοὶ
Οὐκ ἄν γ ̓ ἀτιμάσαιμ' ἄν, ὥστε μὴ λέγειν
“Εν ἄνδρ' ἰδεῖν ἄριστον 'Αργείων, ὅσοι
Τροίαν ἀφικόμεσθα, πλὴν ̓Αχιλλέως.
Ωστ' οὐκ ἂν ἐνδίκως γ ̓ ἀτιμάζοιτό σοι.

My noble liege! the truly brave,
Wylle val'rous actions prize,
Respect a brave and nobile mind,
Although ynne enemies.

Compare also Cymbeline, act iv. sc. 2.

1323

Chatterton's Bristowe Tragedie.

Οὐ δίκαιον, εἰ θάνοι,
Βλάπτειν τὸν ἐσθλόν, οὐδ ̓ ἐὰν μισῶν κυρῇς.

Certes, Sir Knight, ye bene too much to blame,
Thus for to blot the honour of the dead,
And with foul cowardice his carcase shame,
Whose living hands immortalized his name:
Vile is the vengeance on the ashes cold.

Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. ii. canto 8.

Rejoice not over thy greatest enemy, being dead.

When vital breath is fled,

Ecclesiasticus viii. 7.

Our friends, our foes, are equal dust, both claim

The funeral passage to that future seat
Of being, where no enmity resides.

Glover's Leonidas, b. vi.

1327 ΑΓΑ. Οὐ γὰρ θανόντι καὶ προσεμβῆναί σε χρή ; ΟΔΥ. Μὴ χαῖρ ̓, 'Ατρείδη, κέρδεσιν τοῖς μὴ καλοῖς.

Dum. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound.

ARM. The sweet warman is dead and rotten; sweet chucks beat not the bones of the buried: when he breath'd, he

was a man.

Love's Labour's Lost, act v. sc. 2.

Μὴ ἔμβαινε δυστυχοῦντι, κοινὴ γὰρ τύχη.

Gnome Monostich. Poet. Gnom. Græc. Leips. 1829.

1332 ΟΔ. Παύσαι· κρατεῖς τοι, τῶν φίλων νικώμενος.

Yielding thus, you more than conquest win.

Hill's Dialogue between Damon and Philemon.

1373 Τάφου μὲν ὀκνῶ τοῦδ ̓ ἐπιψαύειν ἐᾶν, Μὴ τῷ θανόντι τοῦτο δυσχερὲς ποιῶ.

Ill fated pair,

Whom, in compassion's purest dew I lave,
But that my hand infixed the deadly wound,
And must be grievous to your loathing shades,
From all the neighbouring valleys would I cull,
The fairest growth, to strew your hearse with flowers.
Glover's Leonidas, b. ix.

1388 Παῖ, σὺ δὲ πατρός γ', ὅσον ἰσχύεις,
Φιλότητι θιγών, πλευρὰς σὺν ἐμοὶ
Τάσδ' ἐπικούφιζ'.

Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
To melt in showers: Thy grandsire lov'd thee well.

In that respect then, like a loving child,

Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so:

Friends should associate friends in grief and woe :
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Titus Andronicus, act v. sc. 3.

EDIPUS TYRANNUS.

1 Ω τέκνα, Κάδμου τοῦ πάλαι νέα τροφή,

I have given numerous instances of the usage of the adverb of time for the adjective. Agamemnon, l. 73.

Ορᾷς μὲν ἡμᾶς ἡλίκοι προσήμεθα.

For English instances of this construction which I have not illustrated in my Æschylus, see line 225 of this play. In Æschylus indeed the idiom is very

rare.

Πόλις γὰρ, ὥσπερ καὐτὸς εἰσορᾷς, ἄγαν
Ηδη σαλεύει.

I give an instance from Swift of this metaphor, suggestive of the reason why I give no more.

Poor floating isle, tost on ill-fortune's waves

Although the metaphor be rather stale,
Betwixt a state, and vessel under sail,
Let me suppose thee for a ship awhile.

Swift's Inscription to his Paraphrase of Horace Ode, v. i.

Κἀνακουφίσαι κάρα

Βυθῶν ἔτ ̓ οὐχ οἵα τε φοινίου σάλου.

Our British Island, like the weedy nest
Of the true Halcyon, on the waves doth ride,
While all the rest drown'd on the continent,
And tost in bloody waves their wound lament.

G. Fletcher's Christ's Vict. and Triumph after Death.

Ιθ ̓ ὦ βροτῶν ἄριστ', ἀνόρθωσον πόλιν.

It rests within your judgement to upright,
Or else to ruin utterly the land.

Daniel's Civil Warre's, b. vii. st. 73.

̓Αλλ' ἀσφαλεία τήνδ ̓ ἀνόρθωσον πόλιν.
Ὄρνιθι γὰρ καὶ τὴν τότ ̓ αἰσίῳ τύχην
Παρέσχες ἡμῖν, καὶ τανῦν ἴσος γενοῦ.

Such zeal in that affair thou didst express,
Nothing could equal but the great success;
Now call to mind thy generous prowess past,
Be what thou should'st, by thinking what thou wast.
Garth's Dispensary, Canto, ii. 174.

Your actions past

Urge you to more; be your own great example.

Sheffield's Death of Brutus, act v. sc. 4..

Ως, εἴπερ ἄρχεις τῆσδε γῆς, ὥσπερ κρατεῖς,
Ξὺν ἀνδράσιν κάλλιον ἢ κενῆς κρατεῖν.
Ως οὐδέν ἐστιν οὔτε πύργος, οὔτε ναῦς,
Ἔρημος ἀνδρῶν μὴ ξυνοικούντων ἔσω.

In the multitude of people is the king's honour, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.

Not high raised battlement, or labour'd mound,

Thick wall, or moated gate,

Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd,
Not bays, and broad arm'd ports,

Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride,

No! men, high minded men.

Sir W. Jones, Quoted by Dale.

Beholds there, what a poor distresssed thing
A King without a people was ;

He sees whatever chair a monarch sat
Upon on earth, the people was the state.

Daniel's Civil Warres, b. viii. st. 31.

Εὖ γὰρ οἶδ' ὅτι

Νοσείτε πάντες, καὶ νοσοῦντες, ὡς ἐγὼ
Οὐκ ἔστιν ὑμῶν ὅστις ἐξ ἴσου νοσεῖ.
Τὸ μὲν γὰρ ὑμῶν ἅλγος εἰς ἕν ̓ ἔρχεται
Μόνον καθ' αὐτὸν, κοὐδέν ̓ ἄλλον· ἡ δ ̓ ἐμὴ
Ψυχὴ πόλιν τε κἀμὲ καὶ σ ̓ ὁμοῦ στένει.

The prince who sees his country laid in ruins,
His subjects perishing