EURIPIDES,
Alcestis. Edited with introduction and commentary by A.M. Dale.
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1954. 1st ed. XL,130p. Cloth wrps. Wrps at head spine damaged. With signature from Prof. W.G. Arnott on free endpaper. 'Miss Dale makes the aim of her edition clear in the preface; she is not writing for beginners. (...). The introduction (pp.V-XL) is divided into seven sections. The first deals with the tetralogy, describing the circumstances of the play's production, and giving short accounts of the three tragedies which accompanied it (...). The second section, on the legend, discusses the folklore origins of the story and the versions of it which we know from elsewhere in Greek literature (...). The third section is devoted to a very thorough consideration of the play as a substitute for a satyric drama, and the fourth deals al length with the characters and the action. (...) Miss Dale does well to emphasize the importance of rhetoric in Athenian life, and our need to understand this fact if we are to interpret Attic tragedy rightly. In the fifth section Miss Dale gives a short account of the manuscripts of the 'Alcestis' (...). She adds an account of the scholia and of the testimonia, of which she gives a most useful list (...). The final section discusses the 'hypotheses'. (...) The notes are thorough, and almost everywhere most helpful; perhaps the best are those which deal with problems of text and interpretation, which are models of brevity, firmness, and sound judgement.' (J.A. DAVISON in The Classical Review (New Series), 1955, pp.247-48). 'Miss Dale makes the aim of her edition clear in the preface; she is not writing for beginners. (...). The introduction (pp.V-XL) is divided into seven sections. The first deals with the tetralogy, describing the circumstances of the play's production, and giving short accounts of the three tragedies which accompanied it (...). The second section, on the legend, discusses the folklore origins of the story and the versions of it which we know from elsewhere in Greek literature (...). The third section is devoted to a very thorough consideration of the play as a substitute for a satyric drama, and the fourth deals al length with the characters and the action. (...) Miss Dale does well to emphasize the importance of rhetoric in Athenian life, and our need to understand this fact if we are to interpret Attic tragedy rightly. In the fifth section Miss Dale gives a short account of the manuscripts of the 'Alcestis' (...). She adds an account of the scholia and of the testimonia, of which she gives a most useful list (...). The final section discusses the 'hypotheses'. (...) The notes are thorough, and almost everywhere most helpful; perhaps the best are those which deal with problems of text and interpretation, which are models of brevity, firmness, and sound judgement.' (J.A. DAVISON in The Classical Review (New Series), 1955, pp.247-48). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott.
€ 20.00
(Antiquarian)