A Hint: Touching the Greek Drama [pp. 552-554]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
offices and honors. It would indeed be perfectly amusing, if it were not at the same time a subject of sad
contemplation, to hear the terms aristocratic and demiocratic, in the party contests of the day-fatmiliarly applied to things and persons hlaving no one quality-to
justify such idle distinctions. The man for example
who is "clothed in purple and fine linen, and fares
sumptuously every day" —wlio drives his splendid
equipage with liveried servants, who "lies down in
luxury and rises in sloth"-that man is a mnember, or if
you choose, the leader of the plain republican partywhilst the humble homespun pedestrian, who walks by
the wheels of the other's chariot-whose bread is earned
by the sweat of his brow, but who is sufficiently independent to think for himself-is denounced as an aristoeat, or what is worse, a Fedleralist of the genuine
stamp-and is thought unworthy of all communion
with the faithful, or at least of all participation in equal
political benefits. Epithets are the powerful weapons
with which bad and ambitious men have in all countries
finally succeeded in overturning all that was valuable
and good-all that was wise and beneficent; and unless
the people of these States shall in time become sufficiently enlightened, to distinguish the qualities of things
from their names, we shall assuredly ere long add another to that gloomy procession of republics, WHICH HAVE
VANISHED FOREVER FROM THE EARTH. H.
Not the gaily-je.,well'd dead
Tempt the waters from their bed
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glassNo swellings hinitt that winds may be
Upon a far-off happier sea:
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
VVhile from the high towers of the town
Death looks gigantically down.
But lo! a stir is in the air!
The wave-there is a ripple there!
As if the towers had thrown aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tideAs if the turret-tops had given
A vacuum inl the filmny heaven.
The waves have now a redder glovwThe very hours arc breathing lowAnd when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down, that town shall settle hence,
All Hades, firom a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence,
And Death to sonme more happy clime
Shall give his undivided time.
A HINT,
THE CITY OF SIN.
BY E. A. POE.
Lo! Death hath rear'd himself a throne
In a strange city, all alone,
Far down within the dim westWhere the good, and the bad, and the worst, and
the best,
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines, and palaces, and towers
Are-not like any thing of oursOh no!-O0 no!-ours never loom
To heaven with that ungodly gloom!
Time-eaten towers that tremble not!
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No holy rays from heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town,
Buit light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silentlyUp thrones-up long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptur'd ivy and stone flowersUp domes-up spires-up kingly hallsUp fanes-up Babylon-like wallsUp many a melancholy shrine
Whose entablatures intertwine
The mask-the viol-and the vine.
There open temples-open graves
Are on a level withl the wavesBut not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye,
TOUCHING THE GREEK DRAMA.
While there is an active literary faction in America,
who decry the study of the ancient classics, it is still
pleasing to observe, upon a comprehensive survey, that
these consecrated remains are assuming in public esteem
the place which they deserve. I hope therefore to meet
with some indulgence when I offer a few desultory remarks, not in behalf of classic lore in general, so much
as in commendation of a single branch. The observations which follow are meant to shew some reasons why
our scholars should devote special attention to the Greek
Tragedies.
It is believed that these relics, unfortunately not more
than thirty in number, have been more neglected in our
schools and among our private scholars than any portion of ancient letters. That this has not been the case
in England will be very apparent to any one who is
familiar with the lives and labors of such men as Bentley, Porson, Markham, and Blomfield. Especially in
the University of Cambridge the ardor with which these
works have been restored to purity of text, and elucidated by indefatigable research, has been almost excessive.
The intrinsic difficulties in the Greek plays are not
such as should deter any well grounded scholar. After
an ordinary training in the Attic idioms of Zenophlion,
Plato, and Demosthenes, the labor will be small. From
the nature of the versification, there is a limit to the construction, so that the sense cannot be thrown beyond a
few lines. And the metres themselves, except in the
most difficult choral parts, have been robbed of their
intricacies by the labors of the critics.
There is this obvious inducement for the scholar to
take up a Greek tragedy, that it is short. Even if he
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