Greek tragedy

Transcriber’s Note: This ebook makes extensive use of Greek metrical symbols, for example ⏑ (U+23D1 METRICAL BREVE), ⏘ (U+23D8 METRICAL TETRASEME). If these do not display for you, you’ll need to install a font which can handle these characters. Everson Mono is one such font.



GREEK TRAGEDY
BY GILBERT NORWOOD, M.A. FORMERLY FELLOW OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, CARDIFF
METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON

First Published in 1920

This book is an attempt to cover the whole field of Greek Tragedy. My purpose throughout has been twofold. Firstly, I have sought to provide classical students with definite facts and with help towards a personal appreciation of the plays they read. My other intention has been to interest and in some degree to satisfy those “general readers” who have little or no knowledge of Greek. This second function is to-day at least as important as the first. Apart from the admirable progress shown in Europe and the English-speaking world by many works of first-rate Greek scholarship, in the forefront of which stand Jebb’s monumental Sophocles, Verrall’s achievements in dramatic criticism, and the unrivalled Einleitung of Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,—the magnificent verse-translations of Professor Gilbert Murray, springing from a rare union of poetic genius with consummate scholarship, have introduced in this country a new epoch of interest in Greek drama among many thousands who are unacquainted with the language. Even more momentous is the fact that the feeling of educated people about drama in general has been revolutionized and reanimated by the creative genius of Ibsen, whose penetrating influence is the chief cause of the present dramatic renaissance in Great Britain.
Two important topics have been given more prominence than is usual in books of this kind: dramatic structure and the scansion of lyrics.