interest depends, not on the wildness of the absurdity, but on the very opposite, the probability, truth, and naturalness with which the action is worked out; in a word, we find here the interest that attaches to human beings like ourselves placed in ridiculous but intelligible situations. The satiric element, too, has a less conspicuous place; it is not commonly the direct satire of Aristophanes; but rather it underlies the plot, which for this purpose is usually a caricature of some social type, as the disappointed lover, the runaway slave, the parasite.

(b) The structural parts are as usual; the introduction, the development (which, in this species of poetry, involves the characters in some complication or perplexity), and the conclusion, which unravels the situation or clears up the difficulty. In addition to the essential plot, it is not unusual to introduce a by-character, such as the parasite in the "Two Captives" of Plautus, the hilarious slave in the "Stichus" of Plautus, the scheming slave in the "Phormio" of Terence. These are not essential to the plot and merely serve the purpose of furnishing a supply of comic incidents of their own.

A favorite method of complication is to involve the characters in some error which is cleared up at the end. In the "Mostellaria " of Plautus the father of a family, amazed to hear the sound of revelry issuing from his house, is deterred from entering by a slave, who assures him that the place is infested by evil spirits. This deception leads the slave into embarrassing difficulties, and at last his story collapses and the master comes into his own. The "Menæchmi" is founded on a case of mistaken identity like Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors."

In conclusion we may point out several points of difference in the external features of the Old and the New Comedy. First, the chorus has entirely disappeared. In its place we find that the dialogue rises occasionally from iambic

or anapestic to strictly lyrical metres, to give expression to passages of exceptional emotional significance. Secondly, the prologos is not an introductory scene of the drama, but a prefatory speech outside the play, addressed to the audience and containing a sketch of the action. Hence it is equivalent to the modern prologue. An epilogue is recited after the action is finished, asking the spectators to give their applause. Thirdly, with the disappearance of the chorus, disappears the formal division into epeisodia of the Old Comedy and Tragedy. In their place we have the beginning of the acts and scenes of our time, but with a difference of meaning. A new scene is numbered as often as a character enters or leaves the stage; an act is completed when all the characters retire, leaving the stage temporarily vacant.1

EXERCISES

1. Sketch in outline the plot of the tragedy of Macbeth, showing the introduction, the rise and fall of the action with the several stages of each, the turning point, the catastrophe, the conclusion.

2. Show how the character of Macbeth is so drawn as to be a fit subject for tragic action, i.e. to exhibit a soul-struggle against contending forces.

3. The "Hecuba" of Euripides betrays many defects of construction; point out the following:·

(a) Why there is want of unity in the plot.

(b) What is defective in the prologos, or introduction.

(c) Why Hecuba in the second half of the play is not suitable as a primary personage.

(d) Show to what extent the choral odes fail in appropriateness. (e) In the first stasimon, show how the imagery, in spite of its beauty, is not suggestive of the emotion to be conveyed.

4. Write an essay discussing the manner in which Shakespeare has handled the story of Macbeth, as found in Holinshed's Chron

1 On Comedy see Moulton, "The Ancient Classical Drama."

icle,1 in order to suit it to a tragedy, — noting in particular the following heads :

(a) His selection of material for the chief incidents of his plot. (b) His condensation of material for the sake of climax. (c) His invention of new material not found in the Chronicle. (d) His invention of details in the character of Macbeth.

5. Sketch briefly, and in order, the chief incidents in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," showing the double plot, the introduction, climax, and conclusion of each.

1 The relation of Holinshed is to be found in Rolfe's edition of the tragedy, pp. 136 ff.

1. Definition.

CHAPTER III

Lyric Poetry

The Lyric is that form of poetry in which the primary and direct object is to express the personal emotion or emotional conceptions of the writer.

In this definition note:

First, that what is expressed in lyric poetry is personal to the writer. This distinguishes lyric from dramatic poetry, in which the poet speaks not in his own person at all, but in the person of his characters.

Secondly, that the material which the poet lyricizes is emotion and strictly emotional thought. Here it may be objected that narrative poetry too expresses the emotion of the writer, and hence would not be distinguished from lyric poetry by the definition given above. In answer to this, note,

Thirdly, that to express personal emotion is the direct and primary object of the lyric. These words are meant to distinguish the attitude of the narrative poet from that of the lyricist. The formal object of all poetry, as we have seen, is to express emotion; now the strictly narrative poet fixes his attention on the emotion contained in the story which he is telling, the lyric poet on the emotion contained in his own breast. In other words, the narrator does not profess to set forth, primarily and directly, what he himself thinks or feels in a personal way about the narrative. If he is a good story-teller, he forgets himself entirely and is absorbed in what he is narrating, in its emotional char

acter, if he is a poet,-in other features, if he is a prose narrator. The lyric poet takes precisely the opposite attitude; what he tells us is primarily and directly what he himself thinks and feels, his musings, his meditations, his aspirations, his ravings.

Sometimes indeed the lyric poet uses a narrative as the basis of his lyric, as in the ballad, and then the difference between himself and the narrator becomes apparent. The latter literally tells the story (always, of course, in poetry, for its emotional value); the lyric poet does not tell the tale, but sings about it. It is as if his audience knew the story beforehand, and so he can touch the facts themselves lightly, off-hand, and indirectly, and, in unison with his hearers, can mourn, or rejoice, or ponder over the facts; that is, in a word, the lyric poet expresses what he himself feels about the narrative.

A poem with such a narrative basis, yet strictly lyrical in treatment, is "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (Golden Treasury, CCXXV). In this example the lyric character is manifest; in many other poems the subjective and objective elements are so nearly equal as to make it impossible to class them decisively as narratives or as lyrics; and in the midst of a narrative poem, even of a strict epic, we may find short passages approaching the lyric attitude, though retaining the epic form.1

2. Classification. - Lyric poetry may be classified according to various principles:

(1) According to intensity of emotion, as the passionate and the quiet. Such a classification has little significance, but we may cite "The Bard," and the "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," as representing respectively these degrees of emotion.

(2) According to subject matter, as amatory, political, religious, moral, and nature lyrics. This division is perhaps 1 See p. 95.