to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to
romance.




MODERN GREEK POETRY


(Pall Mall Gazette, May 27, 1885.)

Odysseus, not Achilles, is the type of the modern Greek. Merchandise has
taken precedence of the Muses and politics are preferred to Parnassus.
Yet by the Illissus there are sweet singers; the nightingales are not
silent in Colonus; and from the garden of Greek nineteenth-century poetry
Miss Edmonds has made a very pleasing anthology; and in pouring the wine
from the golden into the silver cup she has still kept much of the beauty
of the original. Even when translated into English, modern Greek lyrics
are preferable to modern Greek loans.

As 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