than in the words of Professor Moulton, in his Ancient Classical Drama (p. 160):—
"Next to Shakespeare, Euripides has been the best abused poet in the history of literature. And the reason is the same in both cases: each has been associated prominently with a dramatic revolution vast enough to draw out the fundamental difference between two classes of minds—those that incline to a simple ideal perfectly attained, and those that sympathize rather with a more complex purpose which can be reached only through conflict. The changes in ancient drama promoted by this third of the three great masters are all in the direction of modern variety and human power: from the confined standpoint of Attic Tragedy they may represent decay; in the evolution of the universal drama they are advance and development, Euripides laid the foundation for an edifice of which the coping-stone is Shakespeare."
