a. [f. L. Sophoclē-us, ad. Gr. Σοφόκλειος, f. Σοφοκλῆς, -κλέης (see def.). Cf. F. Sophocléen.] Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, Sophocles, the Athenian tragic poet, or his works, style, etc.

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1649.  Quarles, Virgin Widow, III. Wks. (Grosart), III. 303/2. Then shall the learned Bayes … Immortalize the Sophoclean Stage.

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1746.  Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., II. i. 220. IV. 201.

        How Æschylus and Thespis form’d the Stage,
And what improv’d the Sophoclean Page.

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1870.  Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 182. But this is to measure him by a Sophoclean scale.

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1880.  Swinburne, Stud. Shaks., 46. Rather an Ovidian than a Sophoclean grace of bearing and speech.

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