GENERAL INTRODUCTION
lead do-nothing lives; then the real world with its entangle-
ments catches up with them, and they are miserable. His
choruses are not the first to long for the wings of the dove, but
they do it oftenest; in him the drive to escape becomes an jrt-
sistent, recurrent motive. Even his own iiiverition, bright opti-
mistic"romantic comedy, becomes drama of escape. Usually,
escape is impossible. He believed in a world he disliked. His
gods represent this world.
With Euripides, tragedy is either transcending itself or go-
ing into a decline, in any case turning into something else. If
Euripides is less of a master in his own medium than Aeschylus
and Sophocles, it is partly because he was less happy in that
medium. This shows in faults which his greatest admirers will
concede. His pathos may degenerate into sentimentality.
There are signs of haste, slovenliness, inconsequence, windi-
ness, in most of his best plays. Some whole plays are mediocre.
His most characteristic fault is to try to get toomuchinto a
single plot or charactef "oFsSuation".' His Medea is several kinds
of worn anunsuccessfulTyassembled; his Andromache has two
badly connected plots. He wrote some lovely lyrics, but often
(as in Helen) they have nothing to do with what is going on
in the play. And so on. His faults are obvious. Equally obvious
is his genius. He is the father of the romantic comedy, the
problem play. He has given us a series of unforgettable char-
acters. There has never been anyone else like him.
RICHMOND LATTIMORE
Bryn Mawr College