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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. 1891. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... chapter vii conversational and lyric elements: I. the dialogue; ii. the chorus1 In Chapters iv. and vi. we have considered the substance of Greek tragedy--the fable and the- v thoughts. We now return to the consideration of the form; and before dealing with this synthetically, i.e. before looking at the structure of a drama, considered as a whole, we have to study the parts of which it is composed, in the arrangement and distribution of which the art of the dramatist largely consists. The student of a Greek play is at once encountered with the diversity of two main elements--the choric passages and the dialogue. It has been already shown that the choral part 1 Books to consult: Muller's History of Greek Literature; Schiller's Preface to the Bride of Messina; Schlegel's Lectures on the Drama; Munk's Greek Tragedy, ed. Verrall. I. The D1alogue. was originally supreme, and we shall have occasion presently to observe that in the typical period of Greek tragedy the Chorus had a recognised place amongst the persons of the drama. But it is convenient for us to treat first of the dialogue as the more obvious and familiar part, and we are justified in doing so by the saying of Aristotle, that Aeschylus had already given to the dialogue the principal role (Tbv 6yov irpwTaycoviaTrjv KaTeaKevao-ev). The natural order in this case differs from the historical. By dialogue, for the purpose of this chapter, I understand that part of the business of a Greek play which either takes place wholly between the actors, or is carried on between the leader of the Chorus, or the choreutae severally, and persons on the stage. We may therefore consider separate...

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