s regards the quality of this poetry, if the old Greek spirit can be
traced at all, it is the spirit of Tyrtaeus and of Theocritus. The
warlike ballads of Rhigas and Aristotle Valaorites have a fine ring of
music and of passion in them, and the folk-songs of George Drosines are
full of charming pictures of rustic life and delicate idylls of
shepherds' courtships. These we acknowledge that we prefer. The flutes
of the sheepfold are more delightful than the clarions of battle. Still,
poetry played such a noble part in the Greek War of Independence that it
is impossible not to look with reverence on the spirited war-songs that
meant so much to those who were righting for liberty and mean so much
even now to their children.

Other poets besides Drosines have taken the legends that linger among the
peasants and given to them an artistic form. The song of The Seasons is
full of beauty, and there is a delightful poem on The Building of St.
Sophia, which tells how the design of that noble building was suggested
by the golden honeycomb of a bee which had flown from the king's palace
with a crumb of blessed bread that had fallen from the king's hands. The
story is still to be found in Thrace.

One of the ballads, also, has a good deal of spirit. It is by Kostes
Palamas and was suggested by an interesting incident which occurred some
years ago in Athens. In the summer of 1881 there was borne through the
streets the remains of an aged woman in the complete costume of a
Pallikar, which dress she had worn at the siege of Missolonghi and in it
had requested to be buried. The life of this real Greek heroine should
be studied by those who are investigating the question of wherein
womanliness consists. The view the poet takes of her is, we need hardly
say, very different from that which Canon Liddon would entertain. Yet it
is none the less fine on this account, and we are glad that this old lady
has been given a place in art. The volume is, on the whole, delightful
reading, and though not much can be said for lines like these:

There _cometh_ from the West
The timid starry _bands_,

still, the translations are in many instances most felicitous and their
style most pleasing.

Greek Lays, Idylls, Legends, etc. Translated by E. M. Edmonds. (Trubner
and Co.)

OLIVIA AT THE LYCEUM

(Dramatic Review, May 30, 1885.)

Whether or not it is an advantage for a novel to be produced in a
dramatic form is, I think