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النشر الإلكتروني

464

XXIX.

MISCELLANIES.

1. REMARKS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTS IN SOME TRAGEDIES.

Ir seems probable, that besides the кшpà πроσшжά, who never spoke at all, it sometimes happened that the same part was represented in some scenes of a play by a mere silent actor, not the same who supported the character in the dialogue; owing to the limited number of actors, and still more to the fewness of those who were fit to support the highest parts. See Müller, XXII. 8., where he hints, that the first scene of the Prometheus was arranged so as to require only two actors, as in the other three plays which preceded the exhibition of the Agamemnon; but does not explain how. I cannot but think that the Prometheus of the first scene was an image, through whose breast the adamantine wedge was driven, though I know not whether the remaining evidence of the scene-artifices of the ancients will explain how the change was managed. But I suspect that even in the Agamemnon, there were but two actors, though there are three in the other two plays, which were brought out on the same day. I suspect that Cassandra and Clytemnestra were acted by the same person. If so, the silences of Cassandra and Prometheus, which produce so great an effect, (though the silences in Eschylus elsewhere were, as appears from Aristophanes, sometimes open to ridicule,) are a matter of necessity. On our opera stage, when a principal dancer is to seem to fly, another, dressed in the same manner, is substituted for him or her. It is possible to conceive, however, that the Cassandra in the car, and the Prometheus in the first scene, were just off the stage, and came, or were wheeled, on, when they were to begin speaking. But this would have so undramatic an effect, especially in those large theatres, where seeing would not always be supplied by hearing, that it is very difficult to admit it. The reverse happens on our stage more commonly, that people speak before they are seen. In the Edipus at Colonus, Ismene is described before she comes on; but that is quite a different thing. Indeed, it is in the highest degree dramatic and affecting. I conceive that, in the trilogy of Eschylus, though there were three actors, there were not two of such superior excellence as to be fit to represent such pre-eminent parts as the poet has made Cassandra and Clytemnestra. We must never, I presume, resort to the sup

position, which would answer the conditions in the Prometheus, that the Coryphæus acted any other part before the chorus came on. In the ÈTMтà ènì ¤ýßas, Ismene and the Herald are one person, whence the line iὼ, ἰὼ πῆμα πατρὶ πάρευνον, given to Antigone after the last response of Ismene, to give time for the change. In the ikeTides, the inferiority in quality of the Deuteragonist causes an effect which is rather absurd, though more pleasing, by the women speaking to the king almost throughout, instead of their father being spokesman, like Iolaus in the Heraclidæ, as might have been expected from his directing them in every thing, and being called their Bovλapxos, &c. But this is interesting in another, way, as shewing the greater importance of the Coryphæus as a mere actor in these early times, when the dialogue had not so much encroached upon the chorus. In the Edipus at Colonus, (See Müller, as above,) the most probable, though unpleasing supposition, is, that Theseus was represented in one scene by the Deuteragonist, who elsewhere acts Antigone. But it is also necessary to suppose, in some places, that a mere dressed Ismene appeared on the stage, since her presence is implied where three other actors are speaking.

Αἴδ' ὁμοῦ πελάζομεν (1108. Brunck.) ἐμφύτε τῷ φύσαντι, 1103, &c. then Antigone, δ' ἔσθ' ὁ σώσας, 1118. d. ὦ ξεῖνε, &c. 1119. τήνδε σὴν ἐν τάσδ' ἐμοὶ τέρψιν, 1121, and Theseus, τέκνοισι τερφθεὶς τοῖσδε, 1140. An apparent Ismene is evidently present.

In the next scene, Antigone says, πάρεστι δεῦρο Πολυνείκης δε, 1253, and he begins addressing both; waides, 1253.

(Ismene never speaks, from her return when rescued, to the time of her departure to the place of Edipus's expected death.)

In the next short scene of the thunder, Edipus says, w Tékvα, TéкVA, 1457, and then in the following with Theseus, he addresses him, τέκνον Αἰγίων, 1538, φίλτατε ξένων, 1552, &c., and his two daughters, ὦ παῖδες, 1542, &c.

Or where but two, in the last scene of the play; for we cannot suppose the actor of Edipus appeared again after the death of Edipus. Ismene ceases to speak at 1736. Theseus apparently enters at 1751, and says πaveτe Opývwv, #aîdes, and so afterwards.

Antigone is certainly carried off by Creon's people before Theseus enters, 894, and he is about to seize Edipus. The expression oxeтαι τέκνων ̓Αποσπάσας μου τὴν μόνην ξυνωρίδα is curious; but means, "he has sent away, at two different times, my two daughters, and is going himself: So 866. ψιλὸν ὄμμ ̓ ἀποσπάσας Πρὸς ὄμμασιν τοῖς πρόσθεν ἐξοίχῃ.

The expressions, τούτοιν σκήπτροιν (848.) ταῖνδέ γ' ἐστερημένος (857) Tavτai póvai (859) are more so; but it is quite clear from

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818, that Ismene was already carried off while sacrificing at the other side of the grove. Τὴν μὲν ἀρτίως ἐγὼ Ξυναρπάσας ἔπεμψα, τὴν δ ̓ ἄξω τάχα.

The succession of actors in the scenes is as follows, as I conceive:

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2. CHAUNSUN DEL SECLE.-(A Song of the World.)

THE beautiful little poem, which bears this title, and which is found in a volume written during the reign of Edward I., apparently in one of the eastern counties of England, is not printed among the various extracts from the same MS., which Messrs. Wright and Halliwell have published in their Reliquiae Antiquæ. This MS. (Digby, 86, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford,) is undoubtedly written by a Norman clerk, who, young, rude, and silly as he seems to have been, has mixed up in it every thing, good and bad, sacred and profane, Latin, Norman-French, and English materials. The poem strikes the reader, when he discovers it surrounded by other poetry of a different and even low description, because it is the production of a stage of the English language, of which the history is not yet known sufficiently at the present day. We can therefore not understand the reason why these few verses did not find a place among the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, and we give them here for the first time, with a few remarks and grammatical explanations showing their real value.

The language is still semi-Saxon as it was spoken in the beginning and in the middle of the 13th century, a hundred years before Chaucer; only five words have crept in from the Norman-French: prowe, pris, mirour, poure, to fail; besides, the spelling of ounstudefast and

a proof that a Frenchman has committed these verses to the vellum. All other words are pure Germanic, and although the construction of the sentences is already very different from the Anglo-Saxon, the flexion of the nouns, as in thene, eien, halien, the infinitive of the verbs terminating in -en, bileven, bugen, done, gon, and the double negation like ne-non, nout-ne, nis-non, show sufficiently how little the language of the conquering people had been able to supplant that of the subdued nation, in the course of two centuries. It is true, the verse has lost everything that was peculiar to the old Saxon poetry; no traces of the double arsis in every verse are left, and if we except coincidences like wint and went, hous and hom, the old alliteration is entirely given up, and its place is filled by the romantic rhyme. But the structure of the strophes is exceedingly tasteful; all of them are alike, consisting of ten verses, each of them having four (iambic) feet with three different rhyming syllables, which follow each other alternately like 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2.

The subject seems to have been a very favourite one among the Saxons, as the very similar but still alliterative fragment called the Grave, (in Thorpe's Anal. p. 153, ed. 11.) shows, it marks for a considerable time the contrast against the gay and licentious ballads of the Norman conquerors. A depth of feeling and thoughtful contemplation is displayed, such as we find only in the poetic relics of those Teutonic nations, whose pure blood and manner of thinking was not yet altered by the intrusion of foreign elements. The Chaunsun del Secle, whose Norman title must be kept, as no other is given, reminds one immediately of certain beautiful songs of the German Minnesaenger, in which all happiness of this world, whose outward appearance is all green and red, is described as nothing, when the inside of it is seen, dark like death, and the only consolation is found in true religious longing. This little English specimen of the same century conveys the same idea, expressed in a not less beautiful form.

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7 There is still some mark of the case; A.S. seorh, semis. seorwe, sorrow. Man, like the French on, the German man. 9 When; the next words are not quite clear; is ginneth beginneth, and is agon the infinitive to go, or the A.S. agan, to have? 10 A.S. belucan, to lock, to inclose. Whoop and moan. 1" Owns, possesses. 13 A.S. nowiht like Germ. niwiht, nicht. 14 A.S. gód, good. 15 A.S. sawan, to sow. 16 Old Engl. bicache, to deceive; the A.S. weorthan, to become, forms still the passive, like in Germ. 17 A.S. gylt, guilt. 18 A.S. aer old Engl. ere, before. 19 The Semisaxon partic. instead of the A.S. gelaehte, from gelaeccan, to take, to seize. 20 Nustan, to know not. 21 A.S. drihten, the Lord, a word of old origin,

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which is found also in the poetry of the old Saxons on the Continent, and which is lost very soon after the time of our poem. 22 A.S. betaecan, particip. betaehte, to intrust.

24 A.S. sel,

23 End, with the aspirate. Germ. selig? 25 To be derived from the A.S. cypan, to sell; but the sense of this line is not quite clear. 26 A.S. belaefan, to leave behind. 27 Every-where -of, from the A.S. aeghwaer. 28 The Semis. form for the A.S. hlaford, lord. 29 A.S. baér, Engl. bier, Norman fr. bière. 30 A.S. thone, acc. masc. sing. of the article, slaep being a masc. 31 A.S. dreorig, dreary. 32 A.S. gefer, company, cf. Germ. gefaehrte. 33 A.S. buton, but.

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