Courts, and the removal of one of the judges from each to the Sudder Courts, in the capacity of recorder; whereby a considerable saving would be effected. The second should be conducted in a spirit worthy of so great and glorious an undertaking; not less a sum than £50,000 per annum should be devoted to the purpose; the system of instruction should embrace medicine (including botany), engineering (including geology and agriculture), law, astronomy (including the Christian religion), and the fine arts. The youths should be taken from among candidates of all castes, preference being given to intelligent boys of the lower classes, who can quit the country without suffering the deprivations and penalties imposed upon members of the aristocracy; they should be sent overland, monthly, in such numbers as to form a society amongst themselves, to divert their minds from regret at separating from their friends; they should not be under ten years of age; and their residence in England should be measured by circumstances having reference to health, proficiency, and the like. Let the experiment be tried, and in ten years the brahmins and chettriahs will send their sons to private seminaries in England, at their own expense, to prevent their total supersession by men of lower birth. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Southern India, November 4th, 1844. * TRANSLATION OF PERSIAN POETRY. TO THE EDITOR. SIR: Oblige me by inserting the following in the Asiatic Journal, in reply to some remarks in your last number by "An Old Judge.” There must always be a wide difference between translations from European and Eastern languages, not only on account of the essential difference in manners, habits of thought, &c., but also of the frequent flights of nonsense in which the poets of the East indulge far more daringly than their brethren in the West. Surely a translator is not to be bound to his author's Pegasus, to follow him through all his freaks and vagaries, like Tappecoue and his horse in Rabelais, "qui se mist au trot, à bondz et au gualot, à ruades, fressurades et doubles pedales, tant qu'elle rua bas Tappecoue, quoyqu'il se tinst à l'aulbe du bast de toutes ses forces." Wherever I have deviated from Hafiz in consequence of obscurity, or nonsense, or allusions which would seem pointless to the general reader, I have almost invariably inserted passages from some of his other odes; and I have done this on purpose to avoid the fault your correspondent has censured, viz. that of filling one's author with the common expletives of "Helicon's rhyme-jingling crew." I had hoped that one so skilled in Persian literature as "An Old Judge" seems to be, would not have failed to see this. I am, Sir, yours obediently, Ipswich, Jan. 13, 1845. * Pantagruel, iv. 13. E. B. COWELL. ON THE ORIENTALISMS IN ÆSCHYLUS. NO. III. BEFORE proceeding to view critically the two other plays of the Trilogy, it will be best, as was done in the case of the Agamemnon, to give a short sketch of their plot; and as they almost immediately follow one another in action, it will not be necessary to examine them separately. Of the occasion on which the Eumenides was written nothing need be said, as it is foreign to the present purpose, namely, that of seeing how far the principle, which has been demonstrated in the opening drama of the 'OpeσTεía, may be discerned in the following two. A short time after the departure of Agamemnon for Troy, Orestes, his infant son, was conveyed, principally through the instrumentality of his sister Electra, to a safe retreat at the court of Strophius, king of Phocis. Here he formed a friendship, so close as to have become proverbial, with Pylades, that monarch's son. The play of the Choëphore, or libation-bearers,' commences with the entrance of Orestes, who returns to his native land, in company with his friend, to avenge the cruel murder of his unfortunate father. The scene is laid at Agamemnon's tomb. Orestes proceeds to offer, according to ancient usage, a lock of his hair to the river flowing through the spot where first he saw the light, and where his earliest years were spent-the Inachus. While thus engaged, he sees approaching his sister, accompanied by the Chorus, robed in black, sent by Clytemnestra to pour libations on the murdered hero's sepulchre. The Chorus is composed of female slaves, who on entering sing of the poignancy of their grief, the terrors and sorrows of their lot. Electra then goes through the customary ceremonies; after concluding these, she remarks the lock just offered by Orestes, and the foot-prints of himself and Pylades left around the tomb. With the natural eagerness of affection, she compares the hair and the footsteps with her own, and finding them to correspond, at once decides that her beloved brother is returned. Orestes can conceal himself no longer; rushing from his hiding-place, he makes himself known* to Electra by his hair and his mantle, the work of her own hand; and both offer a prayer for divine assistance in avenging their father, at the same time bewailing his death. This ended, Orestes learns from the Chorus a dream which led Clytemnestra to send the offerings to the shade of Agamemnon: *To account for the necessity of these tokens, we must remember that Electra and Orestes had been separated for many years. from this dream he concludes that he is destined to avenge at once his father's murder, and adopts the following plan to obtain access into the palace, without awakening suspicion. Assuming the appearance of a traveller from Daulis, he knocks at the door; Clytemnestra appears, and he represents himself as sent by Strophius to announce the death of Orestes. Electra keeps up the delusion by feigning to lament his fate. Clytemnestra sends an old slave, the nurse of Orestes, to summon Ægisthus and his bodyguard, to confer with the stranger. The slave enters, and expresses, in a short but beautifully written speech, full of the solecisms which such an event would naturally cause in the language of a person of that kind, her despair on hearing the fatal news. The Chorus advises her to summon Ægisthus alone; she consents; and the choral ode which follows is a prayer for divine assistance, for vengeance, and expiation. Ægisthus comes to hear the pleasant news of Orestes' fate, but is at once put to death by him. Orestes then seizes his mother. Her pathetic adjurations for mercy at first unnerve him; but a few words from Pylades restore his resolution, and he consummates his vengeance. "You have committed," he replies to his mother's entreaties, << an inhuman crime: receive as its reward an inhuman punishment."* The deed, according to the dramatic rule, is transacted behind the scenes, while the Chorus sings a song of triumph. The eccyclema is then opened, and Orestes stands exulting over his victims. Soon, however, the Furies of his mother, with their black robes and snaky locks, present themselves to his affrighted view, and he flies to Delphi, to seek aid and deliverance from his protector Apollo. Here ends the Choëphora. The Eumenides, or 'Furies,' opens with the speech of the Pythian prophetess, who relates that she has seen in the temple a suppliant, surrounded by women with snaky hair, who keep guard over him. Apollo then enters with Orestes, and assures him of protection. Next, the shade of Clytemnestra appears, and after calling up the Furies with many imprecations, vanishes. They awake, and come forward; on which Apollo drives them from his temple, and forbids them to touch the man under his protection. They refuse to obey him, and menace Orestes, who calls on Pallas to come and release him. A choral ode follows, in which the Furies declare their resentment at the interference of Apollo with their office; at the end of it, Pallas appears, and hearing the statements of Orestes and of the Furies, resolves on deciding between them by a solemn trial. The Furies loudly exclaim against this new and unprece * According to Sophocles, in the Electra, Clytemnestra meets her death first. Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.IV.No.22. 3 B dented proceeding; but the Council is assembled, and the judges take their seats. The Furies interrogate Orestes, and he defends himself, whilst Apollo appears as witness in his favour. At length the votes are called for; Pallas throws a white pebble, the sign of acquittal, into the ballot-box; all are in suspense; Orestes exclaims to his protector, "How, O Phoebus, shall this trial end?" "0 gloomy Night, our mother, seest thou this?" the Chorus rejoins. But soon the anxiety of all is terminated by the voice of Pallas: "Orestes is acquitted; the number of the votes is equal." Then Orestes breaks out into a speech full of praise and gratitude, while, on the other hand, the Furies indulge in mournful wailings at the loss of their power, and the slight cast upon them. But Pallas soothes them, and promises them a temple where they shall be revered and worshipped; and the play terminates with the arrival of the лрожоμжой, whо are to conduct them to their future abode. The Oriental cast does not certainly appear so strongly in these plays as in the one last examined; they are more active; there is no prophetess, no female assassin who shrouds her fatal purpose under dark and deceitful words; but we see in them the punishment of crime, and the terrible effect of revenge. For though Orestes had good reason for effecting his mother's death, and was afterwards by a divine arbitrator acquitted of all crime, yet it was after a severe struggle with his supernatural enemy, and even then the judges were equally divided against him. Yet in the choral odes, the passionate exclamations of Electra and Orestes, and the threats and lamentations of the Furies, we can still observe the tone which, as has been seen, pervades the Agamemnon. The only new characters introduced are Electra, in the Choëphore, and Orestes, in both the plays; for the part of Pylades contains but three lines; and the Nurse, the Pythoness, and the two deities, can hardly be said to possess a peculiar character of their own; certainly not one to which such a parallel can be drawn as to prove them Oriental, or the contrary. Electra seems to be a favourite character of the poet's, a beau idéal of womankind. A devoted sister, an affectionate daughter, pious and modest, yet determined and indefatigable, he paints her in the brightest colours in which his heroine can be arrayed. And though she appear vindictive, what is this but earnest love for her father, guided by a feminine passion? Or if she seem not retiring enough for the perfection of womanly nature, is not this rather to be attributed to the style of the Greek drama, than to any defect in the writer's conception, or his mode of delineating it? It would be hardly fair to attempt to prove, by comparing her with Scriptural or historical personages, that her character partakes of the Oriental cast; fraternal attachment is, we may hope, not confined to the East; but the deep affection she professes for Orestes, who seems to be the only link that binds her to earth, "réooapas poipas exwv" (v. 238), holding four parts, that of father, mother, brother, sister-was very likely suggested to the poet's mind by a well-known Persian story, to be found in Herodotus.* Intaphernes, being detected in conspiring against king Darius, was, agreeably to an Eastern custom which exists to the present day, condemned to death with all his male relations. His wife was, however, allowed to save any one of them she pleased. She selected her brother, and, on being asked the reason of her choice, replied, "If God will, O king, I may obtain another husband, and other children may be born to me; but, my parents being dead, I can never by any means have another brother." The character of Orestes is one which, though perhaps not equal to that of his sister, is drawn with a master-hand. In him we see very much of the Eastern hero. His expressions of love for his sister are not so fervent as we might desire; but this apparent coldness is only that reluctance to betray an attachment which Oriental habits, foster rather than repress. But in parental reverence, -a completely Oriental virtue,―he surpasses her. He follows up his plans, not so much for the sake of revenge, as of avenging his father; and a mother's prayers cause him to waver in the very act of destruction. He professes no love, but reverence for his parent: “ τί δράσω; μητέρ' αἰδεσθῶ κτανεῖν;” ν. 899. But his meeting with his sister cannot fail to remind us of some incidents in the story of Joseph. His concealment, and sudden discovery of himself, when mentioned; the doubts at first raised as to his identity, and the scene which ensues on their being cleared up, bear all a very strong resemblance to the occurrences related in that beautiful and pathetic narrative. And, allowing for the different circumstances under which they are presented to us, there is no inconsiderable resemblance between Orestes and Joseph. The same fraternal and filial affection, the same love of their people, the same humble dependence on the Divine power, characterize both; and the principal difference between them is this, that the one exhibits his virtue in paying due respect to a murdered father, the other in providing for a living one. The characters of Clytemnestra and Ægisthus are kept up * Thalia, 119. |