CHAPTER III.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
The "Prometheus Bound" is probably not the earliest even of the few remaining plays of Æschylus; and yet, for many reasons, it is the fittest of the seven[1] to begin with, for it is the easiest, the most typical, and the most interesting.
It is, in several respects, as simple as it could be. The interest is undivided, for the one hero is present throughout, and the other persons who appear from time to time are all introduced directly for the sake of their connection with him. The unity which all plays, and indeed all works of art, ought to possess, is generally attained, if at all, by less simple means. The main thread is often lost sight of for a time, and our interest is temporarily engaged in some side-plot, which is only afterwards and indirectly seen to bear upon the main issue; so that the poet's skill is shown in enlisting our sympathies in the separate aims of a number of persons, and yet making all those aims
- ↑ Æschylus is said to have written seventy or even a hundred plays, but we have only seven extant.
