Chorus
Cease then, and raise the voice of grief no more;
For all these things are ratified by fate.
It has often been said on the authority of Tully, let it be said once more,
and in the words of his elegant Translator, that "Sophocles continued in
" extreme old age to write tragedies. As he seemed to neglect his family af-
"fairs whilst he was wholly intent on his dramatic compositions; his sons in-
"stituted a suit against him in a court of judicature, suggesting that his un-
"derstanding was impaired, and praying that he might be removed from the
" management of his estate: agreeably to a custom which prevails likewise
" in our own country, where if a father of a family by imprudent conduct is
" ruining his fortunes, the magistrate commonly interposes and takes the ad-
" ministration out of his hands. It is said that when the old bard appeared
" in court upon this occasion, he desired that he might be permitted to read
a play which he had lately finished, and which he then held in his hand:
"it was his Edipus in Colonis. His request being granted; after he had
" finished the recital he appealed to the judges, whether they could disco-
"ver in his performance any symptoms of an insane mind? and the result
was, that the court unanimously dismissed the complainants petition."....
Melmoth's translation of Tully's Essay on Old Age.
" Sophocles had almost attained his hundredth year when he composed
"this tragedy; in which the marks of decayed genius are so far from ap-
"pearing, that it was deemed by the ancients an unrivalled master-piece of
" dramatic poetry." Melmoth from Valerius Maximus.....There are some
modern critics who affect to speak of it with contempt. The translator gives
it the preference to any of the tragedies of Sophocles;
