CHAPTER III.
SURVEY OF HIS WORKS.
25. The ancients possessed, under the name of Euripides, ninety-two dramas, a few obviously spurious letters, and some poetical trifles, such as epigrams, of doubtful authority. Even of the dramas only seventy-five were recognised as genuine, and among them eight satyric dramas, one of which, the Cyclops, is fortunately preserved. Only seventeen of the tragedies are now extant, if we exclude the Rhesus, which is probably a later composition substituted for the lost genuine play on this subject. But of many of the remainder there have survived considerable fragments, and we know the titles in all of sixty-eight.
26. When we compare this inheritance with that left us by Æschylus or Sophocles, its relative greatness makes us forget its actual poverty; for we only possess one-fifth part of Euripides' poetry, and even in quality it is not richer than in quantity. There is no reason to think that the selection preserved was by any means chosen on the grounds of excellence. The allusions of contemporary literature rather suggest to us that many of the lost plays—the Andromeda, the Antiope, the Erechtheus, and others—were the most popular, while several of the poorest and least successful were, by some accident, handed down to us in a single MS., of which we have two imperfect copies (the Vatican P and the Florentine C as they are commonly designated), both MSS. of the fourteenth century.
