SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading lee notice such Books of the week as hare not been reserved for review in other forms.] Andromache : a Play in Three Acts. By Gilbert Murray. (W. Heinemann. ls. 6d.)—No one ought to know better what a Greek play should be than Mr. Gilbert Murray, but he has given us what looks like a " Stop-the-War" pamphlet. Andromache's great wish is to stop blood feuds. Her son Molossus goes on a raid with his father Pyrrhus, and comes back with great delight, having slain a herd-boy. She is greatly disturbed, and insists on the lad making atonement. But this was not Homer's Andro- mache, at least as her husband judged her. Was it not part of his prayer for Astyanax-
"The slaughtered foemen's spoils blood-dyed May he bear, that the heart of his mother may swell with Joy and pride"?
Nor has this a Greek look, when, Andromache having been stabbed by Herraione (for Mr. Murray follows a legend of his own), we have the following. First Orestes offers himself unarmed to Molossus, and he answers :- " I will take no more. I will have peace. ORESTES : Peace let it be I—Her face seems strangely joyful. moLossrs : I never saw her looking so full of happiness.
ANDROMACHE (holf-raising herself, with a radiant smite): Hector ! Hecwr
That is a very modern death-bed. Nevertheless, there are some powerful passages in the play.
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