PREFACE
It was said of Goldsmith that he would travel to Kamschatka and bring back a wheelbarrow as a novelty. I am prepared to hear that much in this volume is unoriginal and has been better said elsewhere. For my reading in the literature of the subject has been casual and fragmentary. But my object has been to give expression to some thoughts which have long haunted and troubled me. The result may be a poor thing, but it is my own.
My love for Shakespeare dates from 1838, when my poet-cousin presented me with the copy of his edition which I still possess. I have revered Aeschylus since 1847, when I read the 'Prometheus' for the first time at school; and in the following year I improved my acquaintance with Sophocles by reading the seven plays without assistance for the Greek Blackstone prize at Glasgow. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν μνήμῃ κεχαρίσθω.
It may seem strange to have omitted Euripides from a survey such as is here attempted, and he has certainly many affinities with Shakespeare. But
