f Euripides, in the brief
space occupied by a chorus, her daughter Polyxine is led to the tomb of
Achilles by Ulysses, and sacrificed there, in presence of the whole
Greek army, to procure favourable gales for the return of the troops
from Troy. In the _Electra_ of the same author, during the strophes of
one chorus, Orestes and Electra effect the death of the husband of
Clytemnestra; during another, murder their unhappy mother herself. In
the _Phoenissae_ of Euripides, the duel between the two sons of
Jocasta, their mutual slaughter, and the self-immolation of that fated
mother on the body of her beloved son Polynices, take place while the
chorus were reciting a few verses, and are described when the actors
return on the stage. In truth, it is often in the tragic events which
thus take place behind the scenes during the chorus, but in close
connexion with what had just before been exhibited on the boards, that a
material part of the interest of the piece consists, and the art of the
poet is shown. The interest is never allowed for a moment to flag; it is
wrought up first by the anticipation of the catastrophe, then by its
description; and the intervening period, when it was actually going
forward, is filled up by the recital of sublime lyric poetry, at once
causing the stop of time to be forgotten, affording a brief respite to
the overwrought feelings, and yet keeping up the enthusiastic and
elevated state of mind in the audience.

It is impossible to conceive a more perfect drama than the _Antigone_ of
Sophocles. The subject, the characters, the moral tone of the piece, are
as perfect as its execution is masterly and felicitous. It possesses,
what is not frequent in Greek tragedy, the interest arising from
elevated moral feeling and heroic courage devoted to noble purposes. The
steady perseverance of Antigone in her noble resolution to perform the
last rites to her dead brother, in defiance of the cruel threats of
Creon; the courage with which she does discharge those mournful duties;
the rage of the tyrant at the violation of his commands; the momentary
reappearance of the woman in Antigone, when she thinks of her betrothed,
and contemplates her dreadful fate, to be shut up in a living tomb in
the rock; the despair of Haemon, who kills himself on the body of his
beloved; the silent despair of his mother, which, unable to find words
for its expression, leads to her self-immolation--the last victim of the
curses bestowe