SOURCE: Smethurst, Mae J. “The Style of Nō.” In The Artistry of Aeschylus and Zeami: A Comparative Study of Greek Tragedy and Nō, pp. 148-204. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.

In the following excerpt, Smethurst chronicles the extensive literary and stylistic similarities between Zeami's play Sanemori and Aeschylus's Persians.

From the discussion of structure in the two preceding chapters, it should be apparent that, although the finales of both Aeschylus's Persians and Zeami's Sanemori feature vigorous movements and gestures, excited rhythms and music, the effective use of “literary” sources, religious formulas, emotional intensity, and the most important presentation of the main character, the finale of the Persians lacks some of the interest that an audience can derive from that of Sanemori, namely, an engrossing account of the tragic event enacted by the main character. The messenger's narrative account of the battles of Salamis and Psyttaleia in the...