PREFACE.
The favourable reception which has been given to the first edition of this translation, in spite of its many imperfections, has shown that I was not wrong in thinking that such a work was likely, if only it were worthily executed, to fill a gap in the translated literature of our time. New versions of the Iliad and Odyssey appear in almost every conceivable form of English versification. Of Æschylos there have, of late years, been several partial or complete translations. In working upon Sophocles I have but three predecessors: Francklin, in 1758; Potter, in 1788; Dale, in 1825. English versions of single plays have been published: the Antigone by Dr Donaldson in 1848, and the Aias by Mr D'Arcy Thompson in 1862. A few choruses, tendered with great skill and elegance, are to be found in the late Mr Anstice's Translations from Greek Choral Poetry. These have, all of them, I believe, been for several years out of print,
