LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 365 called embolima, because they were arbitrarily inserted as a lyrical and musical interlude between the acts, without any reference to the sub- ject of the play; much in the same way as those pauses are now-a-days filled up with instrumental music ad libitum. We are told that these embolima were first introduced by Agathon, a friend and contemporary of 'Euripides.* The tragedy of Euripides did not, however, on this account lose its lyrical element; it only came more and more into the hands of the actors, in the same proportion as it was taken from the chorus. The songs of persons on the stage form a considerable part of the tragedies of Euripides, and especially the prolix airs or monodies, in which one of the chief persons declares his emotions or his sorrows in passionate outpourings.! These monodies were among the most brilliant parts of the pieces of Euripides: his chief actor, Cephisophon, who was nearly connected with the poet, showed all his power in them. A lively ex- pression of the emotions, called forth by certain outward acts, was their chief business; we must not expect here that elevation of soul which is nurtured by great thoughts. With Euripides in particular, this species of lyric poetry lost more and more in real, sterling value ; and these descriptions of pain, sorrow, and despair degenerated into a trifling play with words and melodies, to which the abrupt short sentences, tumbling topsy-turvy, as it were, the questions and exclamations, the frequent repetitions, the juxta-position of words of the same sound, and other artifices, imparted a sort of outward charm, but could not make up for the want of meaning in them. There is a feeble, childish, affected tone in these parts of the later pieces of Euripides, which Aristophanes, who never spares him, not only felt himself, but rendered obvious to others by means of striking parodies. J The laxity and shallowness of these lyrical pieces is also shown in the metrical form, which is always growing looser and more irregular in several ways, especially in the accumulation of short syllables. In the Glyconic system, in particular, Euripides, after Olymp. 89. (about b. c. 424.), allowed himself to take some liberties by virtue of which the peculiar charms of this beautiful metre degenerated more and more into voluptuous weakness. §
- A Latin critic of some weight, the tragedian and reviewer Accius, who in his
Didasca/iee imitated the similar labours of the Alexandrine grammarians, says in a fragment quoted by Nonius, p. 178 ed. Mercer., Euripides, qui choros temerarius in fabulis. — Former critics have supposed that a choral song in the Helena of Euripides (v. 1301) has been interpolated from another tragedy; and indeed some things in it would be more intelligible if the choral song had originally belonged to the Protesilaus. f See above Chap. XXII. § 13. I See Aristophan. Frogs, v. 1330 foil. § G. Hermann has in several places called attention to the revolution which oc- curred in Olymp. 90. in the mode of treating several metres.
