[Hardy-l] Greek chorus

[Rosemarie Morgan]

A sideline-- Hardy evidently planned some of his  work along the lines of 
Greek drama and tells Harold Child that RN was in fact was structured along 
the Three Unities classical format. He then goes on to say (of his 
play,  The Queen of Cornwall) :

         "Wishing it to be thoroughly English I have dropped the name of 
Chorus for the conventional onlookers, and called them Chanters, though 
they play the part of a Greek chorus. I have also made them ghosts (I don't 
for the moment recall an instance of this in a Greek play).. "

No doubt with Shakespeare also as his model -- especially in his use of the 
rustics as commentators on the action (chorus) -- he writes about this 
somewhere but for the life of me I can't remember where --  .Possibly the 
Notebooks?  Or his essays on writing fiction?

Cheers,
Rosemarie

>history plays, Hardy seems nonetheless to have precedents from Greek 
>literature chiefly in mind.  The novel as a whole resumes with more 
>sophistication and less obtrusiveness the attempt earlier made in The 
>Return of the Native to recapture certain aspects of the techniques and 
>experience of tragic drama" (p. 232).
>
>Richard Nemesvari