The Novelist (1870-1898)
choruses, and the function of a chorus is the same to-day as it was yesterday. The same will he found to apply to other ancient dramatic precedents now seldom used, but revived and adapted by Mr. Hardy to his gigantic scheme and then disclaimed. As to the observance of the various species of dramatic decorum, and other classical and pseudo-classical requirements, it may possibly be shown that The Dynasts, considered as a play, is more nearly related to the most ancient type of Athenian drama than to the usual play of the present time. Of course no on will attempt to deny the essential "modernity" of The Dynasts—it has been hailed by philosophers of the day as one of the few combinations of modern poetry and an up-to-date view of life—but the terms "modern" and "ancient" are sometimes less than valueless when used as criteria to judging serious intellectual works of any period. Original ideas of any time can nearly always be regarded in two lights—as restatements of something that had already been hinted at, and as foreshadowings of later developments. Certain great and insoluble problems have ever attracted speculative poets, whose reactions have generally varied not so much according to the age in which they lived as according to the general type of temperament and intellect they represented—and these contrasted general types have repeated them¬ selves since the invention of writing. The invocation of comparisons of certain aspects of Hardy's genius and the ideals of the oldest Greek tragedy will perhaps be regarded as a not entirely unreasonable procedure if these considerations are borne in mind.
Turning now to the investigation of the extent of the
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