EURIPIDES. Meanwhile, the Chorus would pour forth as many as four tirades one after the other, without stopping, and the characters would still maintain their stony silence.
DIONYSUS. I liked their silence, and these mutes pleased me no less than those characters that have such a heap to say nowadays.
EURIPIDES. 'Tis because you were a fool, understand that well.
DIONYSUS. Possibly; but what was his object?
EURIPIDES. 'Twas pure quackery; in this way the spectator would sit motionless, waiting, waiting for Niobe to say something, and the piece would go running on.
DIONYSUS. Oh! the rogue! how he deceived me! Well, Aeschylus, why are you so restless? Why this impatience, eh?
EURIPIDES. 'Tis because he sees himself beaten. Then when he had rambled on well, and got half-way through the piece, he would spout some dozen big, blustering, winged words, tall as mountains, terrible scarers, which the spectator admired without understanding what they meant.
Studies
