Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustractions
- PREFATORY NOTE BY PROFESSOR W. W. GOODWIN
- INTRODUCTION
- I THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY
- II SOPHOCLES
- III “OEDIPUS THE KING”
- IV THE PREPARATION OF THE PLAY
- V THE PERFORMANCES
- VI IN RETROSPECT
- APPENDIX 1 THE CIRCULAR OF THE COMMITTEE
- APPENDIX 2 THE PROGRAMME
- APPENDIX 3 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PLAY
- Plate section
PREFATORY NOTE BY PROFESSOR W. W. GOODWIN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustractions
- PREFATORY NOTE BY PROFESSOR W. W. GOODWIN
- INTRODUCTION
- I THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY
- II SOPHOCLES
- III “OEDIPUS THE KING”
- IV THE PREPARATION OF THE PLAY
- V THE PERFORMANCES
- VI IN RETROSPECT
- APPENDIX 1 THE CIRCULAR OF THE COMMITTEE
- APPENDIX 2 THE PROGRAMME
- APPENDIX 3 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PLAY
- Plate section
Summary
The performance of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles in the Theatre of Harvard University in May, 1881, was a memorable event in our quiet academic life. After months of preparation and anxious thought, it took us all by surprise. We had hoped to have a dignified academic performance, which should give classical scholars a vivid impression of one of those tragedies “of stateliest argument,” whose full power is beyond the reach of the mere student, which might revive pleasant recollections in some whose Greek was chiefly a memory of the past, and which might perhaps also interest a few others, who would regard an ancient tragedy, like any other ancient curiosity, with kind and charitable consideration. None were more surprised at the almost universal enthusiasm which the actual performance excited — none, indeed, were more surprised at the effect of the performance upon themselves — than those of us who should have understood “best the power and grandeur of a tragedy of Sophocles. This was due in no small measure to the scrupulous fidelity with which every one who took part in the performance devoted his best strength to its success; but it was due also, and more than to all else, to the native power of Attic tragedy, which suddenly revealed itself, even to those who were ignorant of its form and its language alike, as a veritable “possession for all time.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Account of the Harvard Greek Play , pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1882