Eweryman's Sophocles
Sophocles, The Antigone. Translated by Gilbert Murray. (Alle° and Unwin., 3s.) THIS is the nineteenth Greek play which. Professor Murray his translated ; of five of these translations more than 30,00o conies, have been sold, and the Electra (of Euripides) has reached 5o,000: this is a measure of Professor Murray's work in bringing a knowledge of Greek drama to the Greekless. His hand lost none of its cunning. There will be critics of hic chorus' renderings, reminiscent of Swinbume and Shelley. But Shellell, manner is the nearest thing in English to the choric style ei Sophocles and Euripides; and no one can read Professor Mort% without realising that the Greek choruses are poetry—which not the impression left by most translations of Greek phi About the dialogue there can be hardly two opinion-;. It.7; the terseness and " bite " of the original ; not a word is wasted' the full meaning is given ; there is no paraphrase ; it is yet literature. And where some coloured phrase lights up 01"., iambics, the translation reproduces it perfectly but without go heightening of the colour; as with the description of the dust storm, " an anguish of the air."
An earlier translator wrote that every English boy and girl should be familiar with at least ten plays of Shakespeare and one of Sophocles, and of Sophocles put the Antigone first. It has neither the tragic quality nor the superb construction of the Oedipus Rex, nor the brilliant melodrama of the Electra (the most eiketive play of Sophocles for acting). It heals the clash between the State and the individual, between the commands of the government and private conscience. But Sophocles is not interested in the problem and treats it perfunctorily. Where then is the heart of the play? Its title tells us ; as does Shelley's saving that he had fallen in love with Antigone in some previous life and therefore could not be satisfied with any earthly love. The interest of the play is in the girl who gives her name to it. She is not very amiable. The chorus are just when they detect in her the high and headstrong character of her father. Most men—who are generally- cowards in matrimony and prefer a comfortable to a heroic home—would rather marry Ismene. (Shelley, characterically, took another view.) Yet Antigone has strong feminine affections—witness her feeling for Haemon and her passionate devotion to her brother. And she has feminine weaknesses—she betrays the woman in her tears and shrinking from death. This collapse of hers is perhaps the most moving thing in the play. She is breaking the law. Popular opinion, in the shape of the chorus, is unfavourable. Her sister thinks her mistaken.- She is losing her lover. She begins to think that God has forsaken her. She is going to die, and she is a mere girl—about sixteen. She has no joy or triumph in her sacrifice.
What carries her on, when all others have given in, beyond despair? Two things, perhaps. A sense of
The unwritten and .undying laws of God ; Not of today or yesterday, the same Throughout all time they live;
and an intense loyalty and sense of unity with her family that appears in the great speech before she is led away to die:
0 grave, 0 bridal chaMber ; 0 thou deep Eternal prison-house, wherein I keep Tryst with my people . . .
In the presence of such feeling the common-sense view of her sister that it is really useless for unaided women to oppose the State is burnt up, as Creon's solemn and ignoble. commonplace "An enemy is hated even in death" is burnt up by Antigone's reply, " My nature is to join in love, not bate." There is no arguing witk such intensity. It is the fire which burns the chaff out of life and consumes prudential calculations and reasons of State as well as meaner and uglier things. This is not the rational determination of Socrates, compelled to " follow the argument where it leads," even to death. It is a transcendental, almost religious, devotion. It can inspire a Joan of Arc (a figure comparable to Antigone) and a St. Theresa ; and can also be the strength of a bad cause, for it is step-sister to fanaticism. Sophocles gave us the first and greatest representation of this martyr-spirit, and Professor Murray's translation is the more timely, for we live in an age which needs it, has shown it, and can
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