Editing Gilbert Murray (section)

=== Greek drama ===
Murray is perhaps now best known for his verse translations of [[Greek drama]], which were popular and prominent in their time. As a poet he was generally taken to be a follower of [[Algernon Charles Swinburne|Swinburne]] and had little sympathy from the [[modernist poet]]s of the rising generation.<ref>[[T. S. Eliot]] was rude: "As a poet, Mr. Murray is merely a very insignificant follower of the pre-Raphaelite movement." (from [http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw6.html ''Euripides and Professor Murray'', an essay in ''The Sacred Wood'' (1920)]). Swinburne was in fact a youthful enthusiasm of Murray's, and Eliot's identification of it has stuck; but Murray probably preferred Tennyson for content among the Victorians ([[Mary Berenson]] reported this in 1903, and it still held good 50 years on {{harv|West|1984|p=249}}.</ref> The staging of Athenian drama in English did have its own cultural impact.<ref>From the 1880s onwards, amateur performances in Greek had been popular, particularly for students dramaticals. See ''The Invention of Jane Harrison'' (2000) by [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]].</ref> He had earlier experimented with his own prose dramas, without much success.

Over time he worked through almost the entire canon of Athenian dramas ([[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]], [[Euripides]] in tragedy; [[Aristophanes]] in comedy). From [[Euripides]], the ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]'' and ''[[The Bacchae]]'' (together with ''[[The Frogs]]'' of [[Aristophanes]]; first edition, 1902);<ref name="atheniandrama3">First published in: ''The Athenian Drama, vol. III: Euripides'' (Euripides: Hippolytus; The Bacchae. Aristophanes: The Frogs. Translated into English rhyming verse), 1902 ({{OCLC|6591082}}); many reprints (together, separate, repackaged).</ref> the ''Medea'', ''Trojan Women'', and ''Electra'' (1905–1907); ''Iphigenia in Tauris'' (1910); ''The Rhesus'' (1913) were presented at the [[Royal Court Theatre|Court Theatre]], in London.<ref>See ''The Court theatre 1904–1907: a commentary and criticism'' by [[Desmond MacCarthy]], 1966 reissue with Stanley Weintraub.</ref> In the United States [[Harley Granville-Barker|Granville Barker]] and his wife [[Lillah McCarthy]] gave outdoor performances of ''The Trojan Women'' and ''Iphigenia in Tauris'' at various colleges (1915).

The translation of ''[[Oedipus Rex|Œdipus Rex]]'' was a commission from [[W. B. Yeats]].<ref>R. F. Foster, ''W. B. Yeats: A Life'' I p. 334; early 1905. Foster also notes that Yeats and Murray corresponded about the [[Stage Society]]. Yeats was being provocative: ''Oedipus Rex'' could not be publicly presented on the British stage [https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-32,GGLJ:en&q=%22Oedipus+Rex%22+censorship], because the incest was unacceptable to the censors. Foster (II p. 338) notes that it was two decades later that the play was actually performed, but by then Yeats had adapted the Murray text, and [[R. C. Jebb]]'s, and made cuts, for a rather different result.</ref> Until 1912 this could not have been staged for a British audience, due to its depiction of [[incest]]. Murray was drawn into the public debate on censorship that came to a head in 1907{{sfn|Wilson|1987|p=172}} and was pushed by William Archer, whom he knew well from Glasgow, [[George Bernard Shaw]],<ref>Shaw was a friend, from Murray's time around 1902 looking into [[Fabianism]]—Shaw had used Murray's marriage to Lady Mary Howard in 1905 as the basis for that of Barbara and Adolphus in ''[[Major Barbara (play)|Major Barbara]]''; see for example [[Michael Holroyd]]'s biography of Shaw, for Murray providing ideas for Act III; also ''"In More Ways than One": Major Barbara's Debt to Gilbert Murray'', Sidney P. Albert, Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 (May 1968), pp. 123–140</ref> and others such as [[John Galsworthy]], [[J. M. Barrie]] and [[Edward Garnett]]. A petition was taken to [[Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone|Herbert Gladstone]], then Home Secretary, early in 1908.