a cheating, lying, and sensual varlet. He may have imbibed from his friend Socrates some of his humane notions on women or slaves, or he may have forestalled them; or, which is quite as possible, have reflected in his dramas a liberal feature of the time fostered alike by the poet and the philosopher.
The feelings of slaves towards a kind and gracious mistress are thus described in the "Alcestis." She, immediately after bidding the last farewell to her children, takes leave of her servants:—
"All of the household servants wept as well,
Moved to compassion for their mistress: she
Extended her right hand to all and each,
And there was no one of such low degree
She spoke not to, nor had an answer from."—(B.)
And again, in the same play, the slave appointed to wait on Hercules thus expresses himself:—
"Neither was it mine
To follow in procession, nor stretch forth
Hand, wave my lady dear a last farewell,
Lamenting who to me and all of us
Domestics was a mother: myriad harms
She used to ward away from every one,
And mollify her husband's ireful mood."—(B.)
The messenger, a slave, in the "Orestes," thus recounts to Electra his loyalty to her family:—
"Hither I from the country came, and entered
The gates, solicitous to hear the doom
Of thee and of Orestes; for thy sire
