CRITIQUE

...stage, as Philostratus teaches. When he composed his verses, he original: "ταυρηδὸν βλέπε" looked like a bull, according to Aristophanes, so that he might express the wildness of his thoughts in his face as well. Indeed, the representation of his plays sometimes appeared so terrible that his Scholiast records that when he first performed the Eumenides in public, many of the children admitted by their parents to the spectacle suddenly went stiff and died of horror and fear. Furthermore, some pregnant women, terrified by the image of the deadly masks, perished in the theater unexpectedly.

René Rapin says that Aeschylus supports the manners and decorum with which he adorns his actors with almost no principle; his plots are too simple; the arrangement of them is mournful; his phrasing is obscure and intricate; and the tragedy of Agamemnon is scarcely intelligible among the others. Because he thought the whole secret of the theater lay in high-sounding language, he placed all his art in words, neglecting excellent sentiments. But Rapin adds that this poet is nevertheless of a happy genius and sound judgment; the designs of the dramas in him breathe something magnificent; he is pathetic in his expressions; and finally, together with Sophocles and Euripides, he presents a model of tragedies. Rapin, Reflection 22 on Poetry, part 2.

Le Fèvre writes that this poet was of an ample and vast imagination, but disordered and furious. He was fertile in wonders, and it is likely that he loathed anything too common. Short Lives of the Greek Poets, page 54.

This poet is most difficult to understand. Salmasius, the famous critic, who delighted in explaining difficulties occurring in the most intricate authors, professed himself weary of those he found in Aeschylus. In one of his books, he says this poet is more obscure than Holy Scripture. Certain things in the writings of this poet are most choice, and deserve to be numbered among the most famous ancient tragedies in Greece. Journal des Sçavans, March 1665.

Aeschylus was the first to add high-sounding language to tragedy, and he made it so that the cothurnata buskined muse truly walks. Vossius, book 2 of the Institutes of Poetry, chapter 14.

Lycurgus, that most celebrated orator of the Athenians, is said to have held Aeschylus in such high regard that he took care to have a bronze statue of him erected, and another for Sophocles, and commanded that the tragedies of both be kept publicly. He also appointed a public scribe to read them to the actors. Lilio Gyraldi.

Aeschylus the tragic poet had been condemned for impiety because of a certain drama. When the Athenians were already prepared to stone him, Amynias his younger brother, having cast off his garment, showed his arm which was missing a hand. Now Amynias had been one of those who fought most bravely at Salamis, where he lost his hand and was the first of all the Athenians to obtain the prize for bravery. When the judges perceived the man's spirit and felt pity, recalling the memory of his deeds, they acquitted Aeschylus. Aelian, Various History, book 5, chapter 19.

One may gather that he was devoted to wine from the fact that Callisthenes relates in Lucian that Aeschylus was accustomed to write tragedies while in wine; hence the meaning of that saying is clear: that Aeschylus, when he wrote, had invoked Bacchus more than Apollo.