des larmes. Sophocle, qui semble avoir été le plus malin des
dramaturges, comme il est le plus parfait des écrivains
dramatiques, a cherché là un effet de contraste dont l'effet est
immanquant sur le public.'

These and other like remarks of one of the best-known critics of the
Parisian stage show that the dramatic art of Sophocles is still a
living power.

I am well aware how feeble and inadequate the present attempted
reproduction must appear to any reader who knows the Greek original.
There is much to be said for the view of an eminent scholar who once
declared that he would never think of translating a Greek poet. But
the end of translating is not to satisfy fastidious scholars, but to
make the classics partially accessible to those whose acquaintance
with them would otherwise be still more defective. Part of this
version of Sophocles was printed several years ago in an imperfect
form. The present volume contains the seven extant plays entire. As
the object has been to give the effect of each drama as a whole,
rather than to dwell on particular 'beauties' (which only a poet can
render), the fragments have not been included. But the reader should
bear in mind that the seven plays are less than a tithe of the work
produced by the poet in his lifetime.

It may very possibly be asked why verse has been employed at all. Why
not have listened to Carlyle's rough demand, 'Tell us what they
thought; none of your silly poetry'? The present translator can only
reply that he began with prose, but soon found that, for tragic
dialogue in English, blank verse appeared a more natural and effective
vehicle than any prose style which he could hope to frame. And with