This play, being a dramatising of the chief scenes in Homer’s
_Odyssey_, and not a recast of the story in dramatic form, is as
a stage-play open to evident objections; to which, if it be not
successful, there can be no answer. How closely Homer has been followed
need not be pointed out, as translations of the _Odyssey_ are common,
and the recent accurate version by _Mr. Lang_ is in every one’s
reach. Reference to that will measure the author’s fidelity, and show
where he has altered, where added; and it may also excuse him from
any acknowledgment of obligation to his friend, beyond the general
confession that he has borrowed from his book whenever it suited him to
do so.
It was necessary for the play to make the hall of Ulysses’ house
different from its description in the _Odyssey_; and considering the
disagreement of critics as to Homer’s meaning, this was a matter
of less regret. The hall required for the last three acts has the
following necessary parts. Of the three walls the back wall has,
running along it at a convenient height, a practicable _gallery_,
which communicates at either end with the upper rooms. This gallery
joins in the left corner a short _staircase_ against the left wall,
leading down to the hall, not so far as to the floor, but ending on
a daïs-like _platform_, which is raised two or three feet above the
rest of the floor. This is the elevation on which Penelope sits to
receive the gifts, and on to which Ulysses leaps when he makes himself
known. It has steps also down from it to the floor of the hall. The
gallery spoken of is supported by pillars, behind which a bench for
the suitors runs along the wall; and this arrangement may follow round
what is seen of the right wall of the room. But the centre of the back
wall is broken by the _doorway_ which leads into the outer court: its
threshold is three steps above the floor of the hall; it has double
folding-doors, through which, if they are open, the _outer court_ may
be seen; and this outer court is on a higher level than the inner hall.
The _postern gate_ is in the right back corner. The _fireplace_ is at
the right front.
With this skeleton given, the text is clearly descriptive of all the
disposition; but there is one stage direction it may be well to add:
that is, that the _chair_, in which Penelope sits on the daïs to watch
the contest with the bow, is thrown down on the floor of the hall in
the fighting when Eurymachus is killed; and is set up for her there in
the centre of the stage by one of the maids for the last scenes.
1884.
P.S. The translation of the _Odyssey_ referred to above is the joint
work of Mr. S. H. Butcher, Fellow and Praelector of University College,
Oxford, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of Mr. A.
Lang, late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Published by Macmillan and
Co.
OXFORD: HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY