The History of Literature (Volume 1); Or, the Progress of Language, Writing and Letters, from the Earliest Ages of Antiquity to the Present Time with (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1843. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... ANTISTROPHE I. Thou CEdipus beyond the rest Of mortals wert supremely bless'd; Whom ev'ry hand conspir'd to raise, Whom ev'ry hand rejoic'd to praise; When from the sphinx thy all-preserving hand Stretch'd forth its aid to save a sinking land. STROPHE II. Thy virtues rais'd thee to a throne, And grateful Thebes was all thy own: Alas how chang'd that glorious name Lost are thy virtues and thy fame. # * The above is the fifth and last song or intermede of the chorus, who lament the fate of their unhappy master in a very affecting manner; drawing from his example some moral reflections on the instability of human happiness, suitable to the occasion. The songs of the chorus throughout this play are to the last degree beautiful and pathetic. The other tragedies extant of Sophocles are, CEdipus Coloneus--Ajax--Philoctetes--Antigone--and the Trachinia;. CEdipus Coloneus, or CEdipus at Colonus, is a continuation of CEdipus, king of Thebes. He is here represented as old and blind, banished from his realm, reduced to indigence, and wandering from city to city; until he arrives at last, conducted by his daughter Antigone, at Colonus, a hill not far from Athens, where stood a temple and grove sacred to the furies,1 or as they are styled, the venerable goddesses, where he is destined to die. The subject of this drama is simple, containing little more than a narration of the most remarkable circumstances attending the death of CEdipus. The principal emotion which it awakens in the breast of the reader is pity. The unshaken fortitude of the mind of 1 Alecto, Megsera, and Tisiphone. CEdipus, the dignity he sustains under his afflictions, demand our respect; but we feel a deeper sorrow for the exile at Colonus than we felt for the monarch at Thebes. Antigone, with cheerful and u...