Edward Bruce Hamley

“ That he chose a classical subject for his essay in tragedy was owing partly to the fashion set by Racine and Corneille, partly to his recent studies at the Jesuit College; and he chose this particular story because, as he tells us, he did not approve of the Œdipus either of Sophocles or of Corneille, and endeavoured in his own play to avoid the faults which they had committed. But it was a subject that no genius could make attractive in our day. To represent a good man as the sport of a malignant destiny is of itself an idea belonging to a pagan rather than a Christian age ”

“ In thus focussing the whole drama into a crisis in the lives of the characters, and making no demands on the imagination of the spectators to furnish anything except the epoch, the dramatist proceeds on the assumption that all the illusion which the stage can afford is not attained except under these conditions. ”

“ Within their entrails bear the doom of men!
Not so. To seek in this way hidden truth
Is to usurp the rights of power divine.
Our priests, far other than dull crowds believe,
Owe all their lore to our credulity."
These two last lines have often been quoted as indicating the revolt against religious belief which was then stirring in the mind of the dramatist. But what they really prove is the extraordinary jealousy and intolerance which could find such a meaning in them. ”