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The Tragical in Daily Life
impossible. Indeed, to me it seems to exist already. Most of the tragedies of Æschylus are tragedies without movement. In both the 'Prometheus' and the 'Suppliants,' events are lacking; and the entire tragedy of the 'Chœphoræ'—surely the most terrible drama of antiquity—does but cling, nightmare-like, around the tomb of Agamemnon, till murder darts forth, as a lightning flash, from the accumulation of prayers, ever falling back upon themselves. Consider, from this point of view, a few more of the finest tragedies of the ancients: 'The Eumenides,' 'Antigone,' 'Electra,' 'Œdipus at Colonos.' 'They have admired,' said Racine in his preface to 'Berenice,' 'they have admired the "Ajax" of Sophocles, wherein there is nothing but Ajax killing himself with regret for the fury into which he fell after the arms of Achilles were denied him. They have admired "Philoctetes," whose entire subject
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