Orestes

Orestes Was Produced In 1750 An Experiment Which Intensely Interested The Literary World And The Public. In His Dedicatory Letters To The Duchess Of Maine Voltaire Has The Following Passage On The Greek Drama: We Should Not I Acknowledge Endeavor To Imitate What Is Weak And Defective In The Ancients: It Is Most Probable That Their Faults Were Well Known To Their Contemporaries. I Am Satisfied Madam That The Wits Of Athens Condemned As Well As You Some Of Those Repetitions And Some Declamations With Which Sophocles Has Loaded His Electra: They Must Have Observed That He Had Not Dived Deep Enough Into The Human Heart.