PHILOCTETES

The hopes of those who love the drama and of those who pay due reverence to the glory that was Greece are raised by an announcement that the Harvard Classical Club will produce the "Philoctetes" of Sophocles next year. Once it was the custom of the Club to present a play annually, and the productions were famed for their excellence. In 1900 "Agamemnon" won the admiration of all classicists the National Students League in partichere and in Europe; even the celebrated Professor R. C. Jebb of Cambridge University praised the performance. But lack of funds has prevented several of the annual productions, and interest in them has waned.

These presentations should not be regarded as theatrical curiosities, like Christopher Morley's "After Dark," but as art of the highest order. It was the classical drama, staged by English school-boys, which inspired the great development of the English theatre during the Renaissance. The influence of Greek playwrights on the drama of the present day is forcibly demonstrated by the work of Mr. Eugene O'Neill. The policy of the Classical Club in staging the ancient plays may have this same effect, and at the same time should stimulate interest in the classics, which, though they once formed the background of all learning, have been chosen by only nine members of the class of 1935 as a field of concentration.

Entirely apart from any actual results which the presentation of the "Philoctetes" may have, it is good to be able to know these dramas. Little need be said of the increased prestige which they will bring to the Classical Club and likewise to the Department of the classics. But to see gorgeous Tragedy in sceptered pall come sweeping by, is enough in itself to make one urge that the project be carried through. The University will repay the Classical Club for its efforts in thanks, if not in gold.