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body'd find out: but they tell appealing to 'Bias and reaching out a hand for the cage.

me it can't be trusted with ladies."

"Is that why you're takin' it for a walk? ... Well, I'll risk five bob, if it's goin' cheap."

Mr Philp's face fell. "I'd ha' gone half-a-crown, myself," he murmured resignedly; "but I can't bid up against a rich man like Mr Rogers. You don't know what he says?"

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"No more'n Adam that it's too shockin' for human ears. If Mr Rogers cares to take the bird for five shillin', he's welcome and good riddance. Only he won't never find out what's wrong with him."

"Honest?" asked Mr Rogers. "Honest. I've lived alongside this bird seven years; he was bought off a missionary; and I don't know."

“Ah, well!" sighed Mr Philp. "Money can't buy everything. But I don't mind bettin' I'd ha' found out."

"Would ye now?" queried Mr Rogers with a wicked chuckle. "I'll put up a match, then. The bird's mine for five shillin' but Philp shall have him for a month, and I'll bet Philp half-a-crown he don't discover what you've missed. Done, is it?"

"Done!" echoed Mr Philp,

"Done!" echoed 'Bias. "Five shillin' suits me at any time, and I'm glad to be rid o' the brute."

"There's one stippylation," put in Mr Rogers. "Philp must tell me honest what he discovers. . . . You, Tabb's child, you're jogglin' my chair again!"

So 'Bias, the five shillings handed over, went his way; relieved of one burden, but not of the main one.

"Well, if I ever!" echoed Dinah, returning to the kitchen at Rilla. "If that wasn't a masterpiece, and no mistake!"

"Is the bird gone?" asked her mistress. "Then you might fry me a couple of sausages and lay breakfast in parlour.'

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Dinah sighed. ""Tis lovely," she said, "to be able to play the fool with men 'tis lovely, and 'tis what women were made for. But 'tis wasteful o' chances all the same. There goes two that'll never come back."

"You leave that to me," said Mrs Bosenna, who had dried her eyes. "Joke or no, you'll admit I paid them out for it. Now don't you fall into sentiments, but attend to prickin' the sausages. You know I hate a burst sausage."

(To be continued.)

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A SATYRIC DRAMA OF SOPHOCLES.

IN the numerous additions which Egyptian papyri have lately been making to the remains of Greek literature, the tragedians, if not especially conspicuous, have by no means been left out in the cold. The first considerable gainer was Euripides, of whose lost 66 Antiope substantial pieces were extracted from the cartonnage of a mummy some twenty years ago. More recently large fragments of the same dramatist's "Hypsipyle," of sufficient compass to elucidate much of the structure, were disinterred at Oxyrhynchus in Upper Egypt.

Now has come the turn of Sophocles; and the latest discovery, which was also made at Oxyrhynchus, and has just been edited, is without doubt the best. Not only is the find more satisfactory in point of preservation than others in the same category which have preceded, but the work proves to be a Satyric drama, not an ordinary tragedy; and with Sophocles as a writer of Satyrplays we are wholly unfamiliar. As is well known, the only complete extant specimen of that branch of dramatic composition is the "Cyclops" of Euripides; of the older authors there remain but the titles of some of their plays and short disjointed fragments preserved in the citations of grammarians

and others. A fair sample of a Sophoclean Satyrie drama therefore reveals what is almost a new side of the poet.

The salient features of Satyric drama were happily summed up by the critic Demetrius in the often-quoted phrase "playful tragedy. Its principal characters were the gods and heroes of the national mythology, which also supplied the tragic stage; but the stories chosen were such as were adapted to a lighter treatment, and a comic setting was provided in the invariable chorus of Satyrs. In Euripides' "Cyclops," where the giant Polyphemus, who is blinded of his eye, may be called a tragi-comic figure, and Silenus and his satellites are buffoons, Odysseus preserves a grave and decorous demeanour. Similarly in the new piece of Sophocles, to which we shall come directly, Apollo and the nymph Cyllene maintain their dignity unimpaired. No doubt, as Horace has remarked in his "Art of Poetry," these sedate figures look a little out of place in such surroundings: "Tragoedia . . . intererit Satyris paullum pudibunda"; it was upon this contrast of diverse elements that such compositions largely depended for their humorous effect. They lay on the border

1 Published in Part VI. of the 'Oxyrhynchus Papri,' 1908. 2 Ibid., Part IX., by the present writer.

land of tragedy and comedy, distinct from, though partaking of the qualities of, both. But they were always written by tragedians, whose practice it was to append a Satyrio drama to each trilogy or set of three tragedies. The high tension of the serious plays was thus relaxed by the lighter afterpiece.

Let us now turn to the new example which illustrates this by way of the Attic drama. The papyrus containing it, which dates from about the end of the second century A.D., was found in a much damaged condition, but the broken parts have fitted together satisfactorily, producing large remains of seventeen columns from the beginning of the piece. To judge from the "Cyclops," the length of a Satyric drama was considerably less than that of the average tragedy, and the amount recovered in the present case may well represent one half, at least, of the original whole. The play is the "Ichneutæ," or "The Trackers," of which no more than the title and three insignificant fragments were previously known; one of these fragments certainly recurs in the papyrus, thus establishing beyond question the identity, already sufficiently evident, of the work. No one had succeeded in divining the plot, which turns out to be derived from the familiar myth of the exploits of the infant god Hermes - his theft of Apollo's cattle and his invention of the lyre. The scene is laid on Mt. Cyllene in Arcadia; the characters are Apollo, Si

lenus and the chorus of Satyrs, the nymph Cyllene, who was the nurse of Hermes, and no doubt Hermes himself, though the text breaks off before he has appeared. In the opening act Apollo announces the loss of the cattle, for which he had vainly sought in various districts of Hellas, and offers a reward for their recovery. Silenus comes forward with his attendant Satyrs, professing his readiness to assist, and Apollo promises them gold and freedom for success. The Satyrs sing a short song, and then, encouraged by Silenus, start out in search; they are the "Trackers," from whom the play was named. Confused traces of the cattle are soon found, their baffling character being due to the wiliness of the thief, who had made the animals walk backwards to a cave where he had hidden them. At this point the seekers are suddenly alarmed by a strange sound, the note of the newly invented lyre, upon which Hermes was playing in the cavern below. Silenus scolds them severely for their cowardice, and promises the encouragement of his presence. They take heart, and sing a lively little ode; but their ardour soon cools as the terrifying sound is repeated with greater clearness, and they are with difficulty prevented from decamping by Silenus, who at last himself beats loudly at the cavern's mouth, and summons the occupant to come forth. Thereupon the nymph Cyllene emerges, and after protesting against the rough behaviour of

her visitors and cautioning them to preserve secrecy, explains that she is the nurse of the child just born to Zeus and Maia, and tells them of his astonishing growth and of the wonderful instrument which he had constructed from the shell of a dead animal and some cowhide; the names of this animal and of the instrument, after a sort of guessing-match, are finally disclosed as "tortoise" and "lyre." But the mention of the cowhide has given the "Trackers" another clue, and they now express their suspicion that the cows from which the hide had been taken were none other than those of Apollo. Cyllene indignantly repels this accusation, and is still stoutly maintaining the innocence of her nursling when the text becomes fragmentary. A broken column indicates that Apollo, summoned by Silenus and the Satyrs, soon reappeared upon the scene, and accepted their evidence as having earned the promised reward. Presumably the sequel resembled that of the Homeric "Hymn to Hermes" the culprit was confronted with Apollo, whose wrath he appeased by the gift of the lyre, receiving in exchange the stolen cows.

For the general purposes of Satyric drama this was a favourable theme. There was a well-marked vein of comedy in the thievish and lying propensities of the infant god, which in the Homeric "Hymn" move Father Zeus to mirth, and were taken by Lucian as the subject of a dialogue; and it was per

VOL. CXCII.-NO. MCLXIII.

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haps towards the close when the six-days-old robber was confronted with the indignant Apollo, that the humour of the piece was chiefly developed. In what has actually survived there is nothing so amusing as the scene in in the "Cyclops where Silenus acts as cupbearer to Polyphemus, and surreptitiously to himself. The mimicry by the Satyrs of dogs upon the scent would no doubt lend itself to fun of a boisterous and perhaps broad kind, though there is throughout much less coarseness of expression than in the play of Euripides; it is, however, known from other sources that Sophocles was not always blameless in this respect. Here he writes with restraint, though with a lightheartedness and geniality which must have made this drama, if we had it complete, extremely attractive. Merriment was indeed of the essence of a Satyrplay; in season and out of season, as Cyllene says of them, its grotesque chorus would have their jest.

But this story of the invention of the lyre must have had a special attraction for the poet on personal grounds. Sophocles was himself an adept upon that instrument, and he is stated to have turned his accomplishment to account by playing in his "Thamyras," when that tragedy was brought out. That he performed also in the "Ichneute" is not recorded; but it is no hazardous conjecture that here, too, he took an active though unseen part by producing behind the scenes the strains which so much alarmed the

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Satyrs. He would therefore be likely to approach this subject with more than usual interest and pleasure; and he seems to have succeeded in investing it with a peculiar charm.

The dualism to which attention has been drawn above in Satyric drama extends to its diction. Here again there was something of a compromise between the manner of tragedy and comedy. Style and vocabulary were largely tragic, but there was a certain admission of words and phrases of common parlance. Doubtless some variation in this regard would be found in the individual plays of a single author. Here, at any rate, it may be said that the Silenus and Satyrs of Sophocles have less licence in language, as in sentiment, than those of Euripides. The same is true of the metre, which shows an unexpected severity. This is not the place for technical details, and it will suffice to remark that the rhythm of the dialogue differs very little from that of a Sophoclean tragedy. The lyrical parts, as

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To translate Sophocles worthily is never an easy task, and its difficulty is much increased when, as in the present instance, the translation has to be made from an imperfect text. The appended version follows the Greek closely where it is intact; where it is mutilated I have sought to keep up the connection by a certain amount of conjectural supplement. Το mark in the printed English text the distinction between translation and restoration would be tiresome, even if it were practicable. The reader who is unable to compare the original will, it is hoped, accept the assurance that where liberties are taken, as for example in some of the choral songs, my imagination has been strictly regulated by the existing remains, which I have aimed at reproducing with as much fidelity as possible.

(The action passes on MT. CYLLENE in ARCADIA. The stage represents a rugged woodland scene, in a corner of which there is a hidden cave.)

Apollo. To gods and men I cry, to one and all,

With promises of rich reward, I, Phœbus.

A grievous loss is mine: some thief has stolen

My milch-kine and my calves, my pretty heifers;

All, all are gone, and vainly I pursue

The furtive strayers from the cattle-stall,

By treachery concealed. Ne'er had I thought

That god or mortal creature of a day

Had dared so greatly as to do this deed.
Straightway on learning it, distraught with fear

I go in search, making full proclamation

To gods and men, that all may hear and know,
While frenziedly I follow up the trail.

The tribes of Thrace's host I visited,

But none would own a knowledge of the theft...

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