part II
. Act 1, sc. 1:
This thou would'st say--Your son did thus and thus; Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas; Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds; But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed, Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise, Ending with--brother, son, and all are dead. --OLD TRANSL.
[166] This is a good example of the figure chiasmus, the force of which I have expressed by the bracketed words repeated from the two infinities. See Latin examples in the notes of Arntzenius on Mamertin. Geneth. 8, p. 27; Pang. Vett. t. i.
[167] The Messenger retires to dress for the Herald's part.
Horace's rule, "Nec quarta loqui persona laboret," seems to have been drawn from the practice of the Greek stage. Only three actors were allowed to each of the competitor-dramatists, and these were assigned to them by lot. (Hesychius, [Greek: Nemesis hypokriton].) Thus, for instance, as is remarked by a writer in the Quarterly Review, in the OEdipus at Colonus, v. 509, Ismene goes to offer sacrifice, and, after about forty lines, returns in the character of Theseus. Soon afterward, v. 847, Antigone is carried off by Creon's attendants, and returns as Theseus after about the same interval as before.--OLD TRANSLATION. The translator had misquoted the gloss of Hesychius.
[168] This is the tragic account. See Soph. Antig. 170, sqq.; Eurip. Phaen. 757, sqq. But other authors mention descendants of both.
[169] Another pun on [Greek: Polyneikes].
[170] Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, sec. 3:
"I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins."
[171] This passage is confessedly corrupt. Paley seems to have rightly restored [Greek: astolon] from the [Greek: astolon theorida] in Robertelli's edition. This ship, as he remarks, would truly be [Greek: astolos], in opposition to the one sent to Delphi, which was properly said [Greek: stellesthai epi theorian]. The words [Greek: astibe Apolloni] confirm this opinion. In regard to the allusions, see Stanley and Blomfield, also Wyttenbach on Plato Phaedon. sub. init.
[172] This repetition of [Greek: di' hon] is not altogether otiose. Their contention for estate was the cause both of their being [Greek: ainomoroi] and of the [Greek: neikos] that ensued.
[173] _I.e._ the sword. Cf. v. 885.
[174] This epithet applied to their ancestral tombs doubtless alludes to the violent deaths of Laius and OEdipus.
[175] On the enallage [Greek: somati] for [Greek: somasi] see Griffiths. The poet means to say that this will be all their possession after death. Still Blomfield's reading, [Greek: chomati], seems more elegant and satisfactory.
[176] Pauw remarks that Polynices is the chief subject of Antigone's mourning, while Ismene bewails Eteocles. This may illustrate much of the following dialogue, as well as explain whence Sophocles derived his master-piece of character, the Theban martyr-heroine, Antigone.
[177] Throughout this scene I have followed Dindorf's text, although many improvements have been made in the disposition of the dramatis personae. Every one will confess that the length of [Greek: io io] commonplaces in this scene would be much against the play, but for the animated conclusion, a conclusion, however, that must lose all its finest interest to the reader who is unacquainted with the Antigone of Sophocles!
[178] Wellauer (not Scholfield, as Griffiths says) defends the common reading from Herodot. V. 49.
[179] [Greek: trachyne] But T. Burgess' emendation [Greek: trachys ge] seems better, and is approved by Blomfield.
[180] Soph. Ant. 44. [Greek: e gar noeis thaptein sph' aporreton polei].
[181] I have taken Griffiths' translation of what Dindorf rightly calls "lectio vitiosa," and of stuff that no sane person can believe came from the hand of AEschylus. Paley, who has often seen the truth where all others have failed, ingeniously supposes that [Greek: ou] is a mistaken insertion, and, omitting it, takes [Greek: diatetimetai] in this sense: "_jam hic non amplius a diis honoratur; ergo ego eum honorabo._" See his highly satisfactory note, to which I will only add that the reasoning of the Antigone of Sophocles, vss. 515, sqq. gives ample confirmation to his view of this passage.
[182] Blomfield would either omit this verse, or assign it to the chorus.
The Hamilton, Locke and Clark SERIES OF Interlinear Translations
Have long been the Standard and are now the _Best Translated_ and _Most Complete_ Series of Interlinears published.
12mo., well bound in Half Leather.
Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any address.
_Latin Interlinear Translations:_
VIRGIL--By HART AND OSBORNE. CAESAR--By HAMILTON AND CLARK. HORACE--By STIRLING, NUTTALL AND CLARK. CICERO--By HAMILTON AND CLARK. SALLUST--By HAMILTON AND CLARK. OVID--By GEORGE W. HEILIG. JUVENAL--By HAMILTON AND CLARK. LIVY--By HAMILTON AND CLARK. CORNELIUS NEPOS--By HAMILTON AND UNDERWOOD.
_Greek Interlinear Translations:_
HOMER'S ILIAD--By THOMAS CLARK. XENOPHON'S ANABASIS--By HAMILTON AND CLARK. GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN--By GEORGE W. HEILIG.
S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes:
"There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America, of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student to the acquisition of the dead languages; and therefore nothing will tend so effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars as their judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with the Interlinear Classics."
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia. Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons.