Showing results by author "F. L. Light" in All Categories

The Persians: A Translation from Aeschylus There is no drama where the total multiplicity of horror in defeat is more cogently presented than in the Persians by Aeschylus, who fought in the Athenian triumph at Salamis, where the Persian fleet was rammed and wrecked.

This drama follows the myth of Iphigenia at Aulis, where she is subject to human sacrifice by her father Agamemnon. He draws her and Clytemnestra, her mother, thither with a promise of marriage to Achilles. The necessities of sacrifice are both in dialogue and in choral poetry weighed and judged. This play concludes either in an epiphany of wisdom or of violence. A form for tragedy in English, distinguished by seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances, is established in this play.

Frederick Lazarus Light's resolve to write a greater Iliad in English than Homer composed in Greek is manifest. This translation impersonates Homeric Greek. It runs with Achilleus and like man-shattering Hector in the shock of arms is resolutely sharp. As unrelenting as sublimity, not yielding lyrically, unprosaically vindicating Homer's vision, the brightest labor has been attempted and is brought over as a consummate attempt.

After Zeus has learned that Prometheus stole his sovereign property, fire, and conveyed it to mankind, he orders Hephaistos, under the direction of Power and Force, to bind his adversary to an arduous crag of most difficult remoteness on the earth. As the Titan responds to this punishment, the reader is inspired with the fire of individual affirmation, devoted indomitably to life and liberty.

The fifty daughters of Danaos have with their father fled by ship from Egypt, escaping compulsatory marriage with their fifty cousins, the sons of Aegyptos. They arrive in Argos, where, by supplication to the king and people, they seek refuge from their cousins, who sailed in pursuit. Their devout abhorrence of the marriage is the weightiest theme of the play.

Aristotle's assertion that in Greek tragedy there is no loftier work than Oedipus the King cannot be lightly contradicted. This drama is endued fearfully with nature, as she works against the conscientiousness of measure found in man. Heretofore no translation of this play has been a poem of Sophoclean worthiness and work. The rhythmic stature of this translation runs with the Greek in heat and light.

Prince Kreon, enforcing an arbitrary mandate, is enraged that Antigone would abide by a natural law of sisterly respect in contradiction of his will. As neither can be reconciled with the other's acts, the drama grows devoutly tenebrous. This translation is iambic, as is most of the text in Greek.

In 1580, the new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Arthur Grey de Wilton, came to Dublin with 3000 troops to end the Desmond Rebellion. Accompanied with his secretary, Edmund Spenser, the great English poet, he proved, in battle and in transactions with the enemy, formidable but flawed. This play follows the historical relation closely. This historical drama maintains the classical form of tragedy in English with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances.

The earls of Essex and Southampton are tried together for high treason before a jury of the noblest peers. Pleading not guilty, they strive in angry and arrant disputation with Attorney General Edward Coke and Francis Bacon. This drama is the third part of an Aeschylean trilogy and maintains the classical form of tragedy in English, with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances.

After his disobedient return from Ireland, the Earl of Essex was kept in house arrest, first in York House, then in his own palace, Essex House. He thought this punishment was extended by his enemies at court and plotted to rid Whitehall of those men. This play presents his imprisonment and subsequent plots pursued in London.

James Burbage, the founder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's acting company, is countered by Lady Elizabeth Russell in this play when he pursues the construction of a theatre inside the former Blackfriars' monastery in London. This historical drama maintains the classical form of tragedy in English with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances.

There was no larger steel mill in the United States than the Homestead works, a division of Carnegie Steel. The discord between the employed, represented by the Amalgamated Association, and the employers, defended by Henry Clay Frick, a major shareholder and chief officer for all parts of Carnegie Steel, was, when the contract expired at the end of June, 1892, unsettled and provoked severe hostilities.

Cato, the enemy of Caesar, escaped with other Roman senators and remnant legions from the battle of Pharsalus to the Libyan coast, where again Caesar defeated them. The senatorial generals decide to sail for Spain, but Cato prefers to stay in Utica, where no pardon from Caesar he'd permit.

In diverse financial scrimmages, Jay Gould and his adversaries fought to survive and prosper in the difficult markets of the early 1880s. This historical drama represents his promptitude against discontented creditors, prompt detractors, and provoked distrusters. This play is one of the Gouldium, a series of dramas on the life and times of Jay Gould. As in most of these plays, there are seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral episodes.

Cuthbert and Richard Burbage inherited the theater from their father, James, who was its builder and manager. Upon jarred transactions with their landlord, they resolve both to raze and restore the theater, preparing for a shift across the Thames. The Siblings Burbage presents the dramatic troubles of this action. This historical drama maintains the classical form of tragedy in English, with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances.

Rodrigo Lopez, former physician to Queen Elizabeth, and his supposed accessories are questioned in the Tower on the charge of treason. Both the Earl of Essex and Lord Burghley agree that his confession must conform to the charge. This historical drama maintains the classical form of tragedy in English with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances. By Aristotelian standards it may be recognized.

Rodrigo Lopez, a Portuguese converso who had resided in England for more than 30 years and was the chief physician to Queen Elizabeth, gave offense to the Earl of Essex, also his patient, by revealing his ailments at a feast to both Don Antonio, the deposed king of Portugal, and Antonio Perez, whom the king of Spain wished to kill for supposed treachery. These two lived in England as guests of the crown and were friends to Essex, whom they told of Lopez's indiscretion.

In the early 1870s Henry Clay Frick, bred in the coal-lands of western Pennsylvania, foresaw the importance of coke in the Bessemer or Kelly process of steel-making. Superiors and Inferiors presents his ascendancy in the business of coke and sets forth his heavy wrangle with the union. This historical drama maintains the classical form of tragedy in English with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances.

The day before the rebellion of the Earl of Essex in London, the Lord Chamberlain's Men performed upon commission Richard II, a play wherein Bolingbroke might be taken for Essex and King Richard for Queen Elizabeth. Amazing Insecurity presents two scenes from that performance, as revised by F. L. Light in Sophoclean English classicized. This historical drama maintains the classical form of tragedy in English with seven scenes of dialogue and seven choral performances.

Edward Stokes, from one the wealthiest families of Philadelphia, often impoverished himself in the illicit casinos of New York City. Associated with James Fisk in a business and cohabiting with Fisk’s former mistress, he contrived with her to bring various suits for monetary awards against the Prince of Erie. When Stokes was indicted for blackmail on a charge by Fisk, he declared, "This is the end!" This drama is part of the Gouldium, a series of plays on the life and times of Jay Gould.