s. The performance was not intended
to be an absolute reproduction of the Greek stage in the fifth century
before Christ: it was simply the presentation in Greek form of a poem
conceived in the Greek spirit; and the secret of its beauty was the
perfect correspondence of form and matter, the delicate equilibrium of
spirit and sense.

As for the play, it had, of course, to throw away many sweet superfluous
graces of expression before it could adapt itself to the conditions of
theatrical presentation, but much that is good was retained; and the
choruses, which really possess some pure notes of lyric loveliness, were
sung in their entirety. Here and there, it is true, occur such lines as--

What wilt thou do? What can the handful still left?--

lines that owe their blank verse character more to the courtesy of the
printer than to the genius of the poet, for without rhythm and melody
there is no verse at all; and the attempt to fit Greek forms of
construction to our English language often gives the work the air of an
awkward translation; however, there is a great deal that is pleasing in
Helena in Troas and, on the whole, the play was worthy of its pageant and
the poem deserved the peplums.

It is much to be regretted that Mr. Godwin's beautiful theatre cannot be
made a permanent institution. Even looked at from the low standpoint of
educational value, such a performance as that given last Monday might be
of the greatest service to modern culture; and who knows but a series of
these productions might civilise South Kensington and give tone to
Brompton?

Still it is something to have shown our artists 'a dream of form in days
of thought,' and to have allowed the Philistines to peer into Paradise.
And this is what Mr. Godwin has done.

PLEASING AND PRATTLING

(Pall Mall Gazette, August 4, 1880.)

Sixty years ago, when Sir Walter Scott was inaugurating an era of
historical romance, The Wolfe of Badenoch was a very popular book. To us
its interest is more archaeological than artistic, and its characters
seem merely puppets parading in fourteenth-century costume. It is true
our grandfathers thought differently. They liked novels in which the
heroine exclaims, 'Peace with thine impudence, sir knave. Dost thou dare
to speak thus in presence of the Lady Eleanore de Selby? . . . A
greybeard's ire shall never--,' while the hero remarks that 'the welkin
reddenes i' the west.' In fact, they considered that