choral music and solemn dancing for their performance. Thus every early Greek dramatist was of necessity also a lyric poet, and a lyric poet in a far more prominent sense than are our dramatists, who insert here and there an occasional song. At the same time it is absurd to speak of any of the early tragedians, or of Aristophanes and his compeers, as owing to their lyrics any large element in their fame. It is because they were great dramatists that they are immortal.
89. But in no case was there ever any heroism expected from the chorus. In no instance did it represent "an ideal spectator," but rather that average and timid morality which cannot rise above the religion of orthodoxy or the ethics of prudence, and thus either recals the chief actor from his noble extravagance, or reminds him of the traditional duties which his impatience has transgressed. To take two examples from the model of tragic perfection, Sophocles. In the opening of the Œdipus Coloneus, the chorus persists, with vulgar and impertinent obtrusion, in questioning the wretched Œdipus concerning his shameful history. In the Philoctetes, when the hero is fallen asleep, it suggests to Neoplolemus that now is the moment to steal the bow, and make off, leaving him to his fate (vv. 849 sqq.).
90. It is not, therefore, a true or sensible criticism to say that Euripides degraded his chorus, and first made them accomplices of the actor's crime. Such examples could doubtless have been found in a fuller catalogue of the older tragedies. The fact is that Euripides used his chorus with every possible variety. There are extant plays—the Supplices, Troades, Bacchæ—where the chorus is of capital importance and a leading feature in the play, nor is the opening chorus of the Supplices distinguishable in character from a chorus of Æschylus. There are other plays—the Heracleidæ, Hecuba, Alcestis—where they are deeply interested spectators, never singing except in harmony with the piece, and with the feelings suggested by the scenes. In
