The whole aesthetic
effect is limited by ethical presuppositions; and to outrage these is to
defeat the very purpose of tragedy.
Specially interesting in this connection are the strictures passed on
Euripides in the passage of the _Frogs_ of Aristophanes to which
allusion has already been made. Euripides is there accused of lowering
the tragic art by introducing--what? Women in love! The central theme of
modern tragedy! It is the boast of Aeschylus that there is not one of
his plays which touches on this subject:
"I never allow'd of your lewd Sthenoboeas
Or filthy detestable Phaedras--not I!
Indeed I should doubt if my drama throughout
Exhibit an instance of woman in love!"[80]
And there can be little doubt that with a Greek audience this would
count to him as a merit, and that the shifting of the centre of interest
by Euripides from the sterner passions of heroes and of kings to this
tenderer phase of human feeling would be felt even by those whom it
charmed to be a declension from the height of the older tragedy.
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