For them no more the blazing hearth shall | What is the meaning of this? Crossing the burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care; Nor children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.' We might have expected these familiar and universal images to have fallen more easily into any language: Mr. Hildyard, however, is so poor, that we shall not quote his version; in the other, though we miss much, the last expression is very happy, and compensates in some degree for what necessarily escapes: Illis haud iterum (we should prefer "amplius haud illis"] refovebitur igne caminus, Sponsave quod propriæ est sedula partis aget; Non balbo proles gratabitur ore parenti, Curret in amplexus, præripietve genas.' We turn to the well-known stanza, of which the author of the Pursuits of Literature' produced in such triumph Dr. Cook's version; and though, as Greek, it may by no means bear the severity of modern criticism, it is certainly fine and spirited. Α χάρις ευγενέων, χάρις ἢ βασιλήιδος ἀρχας, Δῶρα τύχας, χρυσᾶς 'Αφροδίτας κάλα τὰ δῶρα, Πάνθ ̓ ἅμα ταῦτα τέθνακε, καὶ ἔνθεν μόρσιμον ἁμαρ Ηρώων κλὲς ὅλωλε, καὶ ὤχετο κοινον ες "Αδαν. Mr. Macaulay's copy is here singularly neat and ingenious; what we miss is the life of the original. 'Stemmata longa patrum, magnæque potentia famæ, Quicquid forma potest addere, quicquid opes, Expectant pariter non evitabile tempus Scilicet ad tumulum ducit Honoris iter.' Rubicon? But it is in stanzas like these exquisite ones that the failure is most complete and evident- For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned, Nor cast one longing lingering look behind? On some fond heart the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires; E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.' What word can be spared here, or changed for another ---what thought either more strongly or more feebly given; how can we expand or compress? Even if every thought and word were embalmed without change or decay in another language, the fine music of the verse must escape; a change in the place of any word would do violence to the effect of the whole. Let any one construe literally the following fair verses, and find how much the Latin reproduces, or even suggests, of the original---how much is absolutely lost, or diluted, or perverted. cum, Ultima lachrymulam flagitat hora piam; The comic part of this volume we do not think equal to the serious; and it bears far too large a proportion to the whole. We are absolutely overrun with Gammer Gurton rhymes, we do not think in general very happily executed. The merit and the fun of such translations may be of two different kinds. It may consist in rendering comic and modern thoughts into purely classical language, so that they should read like genuine bits of old Latin or Greek verse. It is this quiet humour, this quaint contrast between the childish absurdity of the English verses and the very turns of language and expression of the Greek tragic drama, which constitutes the excellence of Porson's Three Children sliding on the Ice.' To the ear it sounds like a fragment of an old Greek drama-every word and idiomatic term is purely Attic and yet every thought and image of the nursery rhyme is represented with perfect accuracy. 'Three children sliding on the ice, All on a summer's day, It so fell out they all fell in, The rest they ran away. Now had those children been at school, You parents that have children dear, The other manner is broader and certainly less legitimate in its humour. It renders the most completely modern thoughts, usages or sentiments-the most remote from classical ideas-as best it may, into Latin or Greek. The ludicrousness arises from the odd contrast between the thoughts and the languagethe ingenuity with which the nearest analogous term is substituted-the mas tery over the language, which alone can fully exhibit its pliancy and call forth all its resources. In this consists the drollery of some of the better Westminster epilogues: we envy not the severe scholar who cannot laugh at the whimsical incongruities which these spoken caricatures often exhibit; and the cleverness with which phrases, if not always of the purest Latinity, yet chosen with sufficient regard to the genius of the language, are found for things which it would have puzzled a Roman to name or comprehend. And these subjects of low humour test the knowledge which is most rare in the finished scholar, that of the more familiar and vernacular language of the ancients. The more utterly incongruous, therefore, the original with classical thought, the more apparently untranslateable the better, if the translator can succeed at all. The vulgar ballad, the childish ditty, may be an amusing trial of skill; but then it must remain vulgar and childish in the translation-mock heroic, if the translator will-but never, like some of the versions 'Billy Tailor was a brisk young fellow, Full of mirth and full of glee, And his heart he did discover To a maiden fair and free. Four-and-twenty press-gang fellows, But his true-love followed a'ter By the name of Robert Carr ; Χρυσταλλοπήκτους τρίπτυχοι κόροι ῥοὰς *Αλλ' ἔιπερ ἦσαν ἐγκεκλεισμένοι μοχλοῖς, *Αλλ' ὦ τοκεῖς, ὅσοις μὲν ὄντα τυγχάνει, 'Seduxit miles virginem, receptus in hibernis, Miseram Baliam, infortunatam Baliam, Billy Tailor was, as far as we know, open ground; and Mr. Drury has suc ceeded much better: nor do we so much object in this instance to the half-sentimental turn of the Latin, which here perhaps aids rather than softens the absurdity. We do not, however, much like the comparison with Penthesilea - it was enough to turn Sukey into an Amazon. 'Fortis in apricæ Gulielmus flore juventæ Oris erat lepidi lætitiæque satur; Sex quater insiliunt Caci (?) crudeliter illum, Sed sua de cunctis longe fidissima nautis, "If you seeks your Billy Tailor, Know he's inconstant and severe, (Poor Sukey's heart beat high and heavy, And she dropped one very big tear.) "Rise up early in the morning, At rise of sun and break of day, Then she called for sword and pistol, Which when the captain came for to know it, Of the gallant Thunder bomb.' We know not whether from the stronger contrast, which makes the incongruity more amusing, the still greater apparent remoteness of English nursery nonsense from Attic Greek, and the severer test to which scholarship appears to expose it 'THE MAN OF THESSALY. And when he found his eyes were out, And scratched them in again.' Illa, virum ritu, furit in certamine primo, Obsita sulphureis, nec tremefacta, globis, Horrisonos ignes inter; dum, veste solutâ, Purior intacta est prodita mamma nive: Quâ visa Ductor, "Quisnam huc te ventus adegit," Postulat: "Ereptum quærimus," illa, "pro cum, Quem tu prendisti fecistique ire per altum !" "Hunccine amas? eheu quam tibi læsus amor! Nam scito, infelix, inconstantem atque severum, "Surge age, et aurora primo sub lumine flavæ, Continuo sibi tela furens letalia poscit; Itur-et in digitis ignis et ensis erant ; Stravit et atroci plumbique et sulphuris ictu Prensantem, interitus quæ sibi causa, manu. Virtutis Dux magnanimæ non immemor illi self; or simply, perhaps, from the more happy execution, unquestionably the best, after Porson's, of the comic versions, are two into iambics and Aristophanic trochaics-the former by Bishop Butlerthe latter by the head master of Eton. Ἐξ οὗ τυχόντων θέτταλος τις ἦν ἀνήρ, ὃς ἔργον ἐπεχείρησε τλημονέστατον ἀκανθοχηνοκοκκόβατον ειςήλατο, δίσσας δ ̓ ἀνεξώρυξεν ὀφθάλμων κόρας. ὡς οὖν τὰ πραχθέντ' ἔβλεπεν, τυφλός γεγώς, οὐ μὴν ὑπέπτηξ ̓ οὐδὲν, ἀλλ' ἐυκαρδίως βᾶτον τιν' ἄλλην ἤλατ ̓ εἰς ἀκανθίνην, καί τοῦδ' εγένετ' ἐξαὖθις ἐκ τυφλοῦ βλέπων. The living scholar's trifle strikes us as that diner-out of celebrity, and faithful extremely clever: the quiet gravity of reporter of ancient small-talk. We have the supposed scrap from Athenæus reads the advantage of quoting Dr. Hawtrey like a genuine excerpt from that chroni- from a corrected copy in his privately cler of amusing nothings, as well as of printed Trifoglio :' valuable anecdote and excellent poetry, 'Athenæi Fragmentum in palimpsesto bibliothecæ Ambrosianæ ab Angelo Maio inventum, antehac vero non editum. — περί δὲ τῶν κοσσύφων, ὡς ἐκ κριβάνου τοῖς δείπνοῦσι παρατεθέντες ᾄδουσι, περί δὲ ὀρνιθίων τινων, ὡς τῶν παιδισκῶν τὰς ῥῖνας καταπτάμενα ἁρπάζει, τῶν κωμικῶν τις δυτως γράφει —ἀλλὰ νῦν ὑπάδετ', ἄνδρες, “ ᾄσμα τοῦ τετρώβολου βασιλικῷ τῆς ἦν ἐν οἴκῳ θύλακος ζειῶν πλέως· κόσσυφοι δὲ κριβανῖται τετράκις ἓξ ἐν πέμματι· τοῦ δὲ πέμματος κοπέντος, η στόμησαν τώρνεα ου τόδ' ἦν ἔδεσμα δείπνοις καί τυρυνικοῖς πρέπον 'Sing a song of sixpence, VOL. LXIX. 32 32 ἐν μυχῷ δόμων ὁ βασιλεὺς τ' ἀργυρι ̓ ἐλογίζετο, The King was in the parlour We cannot quit the Trifoglio,' as we and from English into German-all exehave thus already trespassed on the pri- cuted, if we may venture to judge on all vacy of a volume printed only for limited these points, not merely with surprising distribution among the author's friends, accuracy of phrase, but with a graceful without expressing our admiration at the felicity in catching the turn and genius of singular versatility of talent, and com- each tongue. We have given a specimand of various languages, displayed in men of the accomplished author's comits pages. It contains translations of mand of Greek: though perhaps out of short poems-with a few original pieces place, we will venture to gratify our Gerin Greek, Italian, and German (we have a man and Italian readers with an instance Latin composition in the Arundines' by of his skill in each of these languages. Dr. Hawtrey, which our space allows us We hesitate between the 'Burial of Sir not to quote). The versions are from John Moore' and those perhaps less fa. French and English into Greek-from miliar lines of Byron :Latin, English, and German into Italian We select the Italian translation of fidelity of the translation, as well as the Horace's famous ode, as most appropriate spirit, appear to us remarkable, even though the languages are so nearly al to the present article: the closeness and * Pessimè, codd. refrag. Lege, meo periculo, "little bird." Bentley. lied : 'HORATIUS. 'Donec gratus eram tibi Nec quisquam potior brachia candida Persarum vigui rege beatior. LYDIA. Donec non aliam magis Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloen, Multi Lydia nominis Romana vigui clarior Ilia. HORATIUS. Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit Dulces docta modos, et citharæ sciens, Pro qua non metuam mori, Si parcent animæ Fata superstiti. LYDIA. Me torret face mutuâ Thurini Calais filius Orniti, Pro quo bis patiar mori, Si parcent puero Fata superstiti. HORATIUS. Quid si prisca redit Venus, Diductosque jugo cogit aheneo, Si flava excutitur Chloe, Rejectæque patet janua Lydia? LYDIA. Quamvis sidere pulchrior Ille est, tu levior cortice et improbo Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.' 'Mentr' era io sol piacevole, Nè al collo tuo diletto Quando per me sol fervido Il regno suo ripiglia, Di te morire allato;" Under the guidance of a master gifted old monkish hymns, with their barbarous with such varied accomplishments, and phrases and barbarous rhymes, appears to us of such cultivated tastes, our great pub-carrying the prevailing passion for medieval lic school is neither likely to degenerate antiquity far beyond its proper bounds. from its ancient fame, as the nurse of fine No one can have more profound admiration classical attainments, and the genuine than ourselves for some of the ancient church love of ancient literature, nor to refuse hymns, the Dies ira,' or even the 'Stabat to admit the study of modern languages, Mater,' which embody the highest and most as far as they can be advantageously in- awful truths of our religion, or perhaps more troduced, into the general system of edu- questionable poetic sentiment, in brief lines cation. of inimitable spirit and pregnancy. Two or To return, however, to the Arundines. three of these might stand alone, even withThe third part consists of religious pieces, out the association of the magnificent ecclesisome of which are very pleasingly executed-astical music to which they belong, and which in all we cannot but approve of the devotional is inseparable from them; and others, being and Christian spirit. But the imitation of the really ancient-part of a church service |