Great indeed it is when the poet presents his tragic hero for popular admiration and dares to say: ‘Weep for him, for he deserves it’; for there is greatness in meriting the tears of those who deserve to shed them; great indeed for the poet to dare hold the crowd in check, dare discipline people into testing their own worthiness to weep for the hero, for the waste-water of snivellers is a degradation of the holy.
