is a fragment from the Cresphontes, as we have it in Mr. Browning's version (Arist. Apol. p. 179).
Peace, in whom depths of wealth lie—of the blest
Immortals beauteousest,—
Come I for the heart within me dies away,
So long dost thou delay!
O I have feared lest old age, much annoy,
Conquer me, quite outstrip the tardy joy;
Thy gracious triumph-season I would see,
The song, the dance, the sport, profuse of crowns to be.
But come! for my sake, goddess great and dear,
Come to the city here!
Hateful Sedition drive thou from our homes,
With her who madly roams
Rejoicing in the steel against the life
That's whetted—banish Strife!
This lyric excellence is the more remarkable when we remember that Euripides was thoroughly opposed to that style which had been adopted in the lyrics of Pindar and of Æschylus, and is now again in high fashion—I mean the sacrificing of clearness, both of images and of construction, to vague grandeur and the licence of poetic inspiration. He fascinates us by the beauty of his imagery, by the striking picturesqueness of his descriptions—a rare feature in Greek poetry, and by profound and pathetic reflection upon life and character. But when his text is not corrupt, he is hardly ever difficult or obscure. It is the fashion to say that his lyrics are feeble and watery as compared with those of Sophocles or Aristophanes—and no doubt if we compare the poorest of Euripides' odes with the best of Sophocles', we may obtain such a result. But if we had a selection from the lesser works of Sophocles, it seems likely that this opinion would be found untenable, seeing that the lyrics of Euripides, in spite of the most keen and bitter censure, became popular immediately, and outran, in the estimation of society, the works of the older school. It is proved by the very complaints of Aristophanes.
94. Much of what has here been said applies to those lyrical soliloquies, or monodies, which are in Greek
