The Life of Thomas Hardy
repeated denials of any real intellectual affinity between himself and the ancients, and his occasional misunderstanding of the classical authors to whom he alludes.
The casual references to Greek literature range from Homer, Sappho, Hippocrates and Sophocles, to Menander, Plato, Diogenes, Laertius, and Eudoxus, the astronomer, but the most numerous and the most striking direct uses of the remains of ancient writings are found in his employment of phraseology and of complete excerpts from Æschylus the tragedian. The intensely ironic close of Tess of the D'Urbervilles is of course the first instance to come to mind: "'Justice' was done, and the President of the Immortals (in Æschylean phrase) [1] had ended his sport with Tess." Of equal significance is the reference found in the most tragic section of Jude the Obscure:
"I am a pitiable creature," she said, "good neither for earth
nor heaven any more! I am driven out of my mind by things!
What ought to be done?" She stared at Jude, and tightly held
his hand. "Nothing can be done," he replied. "Things are as they are and will be brought to their destined issue." She paused. "Yes! Who said that?" she asked, heavily. "It comes in the chorus of the Agamemnon. It has been in my mind continually since this happened."
W. S. Durrant has also called attention to the strong "atmospheric" effect produced by Sue's comment upon the tragic story of the Fawleys' ancestor who was gibbeted near the Brown House: “It makes me feel as if a tragic doom overhung our family as it did the House of
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- ↑ πρύτανιζ μακάρων, Æsch. Prom.
