PREFACE

Summary

IT is probable that while many will freely blame the haste, few will care to praise the industry, of an editor who brings out a second volume, containing a large portion of the works of a really difficult author, within a year after the publication of the first, and, indeed, without allowing himself even the briefest interval of rest. It will naturally be objected, that a work of this kind, which no one will pretend to call a light one, cannot be done well, if it has also been done quickly. Sophocles truly said,

ϕιλεῖ γὰρ ὀκνεῖν πρᾶγμ' ἀνὴρ πράσσων μέγα

and the words well enough represent the hesitation with which this edition was commenced, though such a feeling may perhaps appear to be scarcely consistent with the rather rapid progress that has already been made in it. To edit and annotate upon the whole of Eueipides carefully, thoughtfully, and with a strict view to practical utility, is certainly a formidable undertaking; and it is one that, under any circumstances, must require at least some years of nearly exclusive attention. The mere labour of consulting so many editions, and the constant intellectual effort of deciding between the conflicting opinions of critics and interpreters, is a very heavy task in itself.