Guardian from London, Greater London, England • Page 37

THE GUARDIAN, MAY 1, 1895. I shall go exiled to another land, ere I have joyed in you, have seen your bliss, ere I have decked for you the couch, the bride, the bridal bower, and held the torch on high. me accurst in this my ruthless mood. For nought, for nought, my babes I nurtured you and all for nought I laboured, travail-worn, bearing sharp anguish in your hour of birth. Ah for the mine hopes of ministering hands about mine age, of dying folded round with loving arms, all men's now 'tis past, 'tis past." For ohoruses Mr.

Way follows very largely the lead of Swinburne; he approaches more to the manner of Mr. Morshead's than of Mr. Whitelaw's Sophocles." The result is Agamemnon not altogether unfelicitous, though it is in curious contrast to his severer blank verse. Here is a stanza from the opening of a famous choric ode ia the happy the race in the ages olden Of Erechtheus, the seed of the blest God's line, In a land unravaged, peace-enfolden, Aye quaffing of Wisdom's glorious wine. Ever through air clear-shining brightly, As on wings uplifted, pacing lightly, Where they tell how Harrnonia of tresses golden Bare the Pierid Muses, the stainless Nine." We have said enough to show that Mr.

Way's is a considerable and successful effort. We shall look forward with interest to its completion. Another successful effort is Mr. J. H.

Hallard's Idylls of Theocritus (Longman's), plainly a labour of love, and labour by no means wasted. It would perhaps have been better if the work had been confined to the genuine idylls of Theocritus; the spurious poems are not in themselves of any special interest, and one or two of them are unpleasant reading. The volume which contains them cannot be unreservedly recommended, but it deserves full praise for much graceful and pleasing verse. Mr Hallard's metres vary a good deal, from blank verse to hexameters, and the measures of attained success vary also in various poems We may quote, as a specimen, the opening lines of the first idyll Sweet is the murmur of yon rustling pine, Beside the spring; and goatherd, sweetly too Thou pipest. Next to Paris wore thy award.

Were his the horned sire, thine were the dam; If his the she-goat, then the kid were thine, And dainty is the flesh of umnilked kid." A pleasaut volume of graceful and witty verse comes next, Mr A. D. Innes's Verse Translations (Innes). The verses were written, for the most part, as "fair copies" for schoolmasters who wished to show their pupils that poetry may dwell in difficult Greek and Latin. They are, accordingly, for the most part renderings of well-known extracts, Claudian's Who has passed his days Amid the fields his fathers held, Whose home is still, in days of eld, The home that knew his boyhood's ways," or the Beacon race in the Agamemnon," or the death of Pallas in the iBneid," or the "Sirmio''' of Catullus.

They were obviously not written to order Mr. Innes has liked the task and has some poems naturally more than in others. The rendering of Sirmio is one of the less who will over translate "Sirmio" as it should be translated? On the whole, the rhymed pieces are, to our thinking, rather better than the imrhymed, as might perhaps be expected, and some versions of Martial are distinctly clever. We prefer, however, to quote part of a translation of Propertius in a graver mood And so, whene'er it shall befall that with shut eyes in death I sleep, hear now the rites thy care shall keep, the service of my funeral. The slow procession shall not wend with waxen masks, an endless show; for me the trumpet shall not blow, vain wailing for the destined end.

Enough of pomp, enough for mo, these three slight books of mine to the richest gift that I can make for homage to Persephone." The origin of the metre and stylo is obvious, but the felicity of the version is none the less striking. As an occasional translator in a manner that suits him Mr. Innes achieves successes of no mean order. Very pleasant moments may bo spent over his book. The daintily dressed volume would form a delightful gift alike for thoso who have not yet forgotten and for those who are just learning the charms of classical pootry.

Wo are afraid that wo cannot speak quite so highly of Mr. J. II. Deazeley's Odes of Horace, ii. (Frowdo).

Mr. Deazeley shows a genuine admiration for Horace, and his translations are by no means wanting in happy turns and readable versos. But his metres seem to us somewhat ill selected and awkward, his diction is uneven, and the result must be placed in the second, not in the first, class of Horatian translations. The two noxt books on our list are experiments. In the Hippolulos of Euripides, by H.

B. L. (Williams and Norgato), wo have a continuation of an attempt made by the author to translate Euripides into English in its original and identical metres. The present volume is the third of its kind, having boon preceded by versions of tho Alcestis and Ion." The result as a literary performance is somewhat extraordinary. Here is a chanco Hpeeimen from the oponing of what tho author calls a Khoros Oh 'its a boon, when aggriev'd, to reflect how tho gods from on high watch love and protect us; tho' my faith by my reason is of times rudely shock'd, when wC regard men's lots, mark whilt haps in a life's course." Neither tho diction nor tho metro, nor the metrical device of marking short syllables, can bo commended; but tho experiment has a definite interest even in its failure, and tho book'has not boon written in vain.

The Preface contains some remarks on tho play with which wo do not agree, but which aro certainly suggestivo and noteworthy. Mr. A. C. Auchmuty's Oedipus at Colonus (Simpkin and Marshall) is described as an experiment in metre," the experiment being apparently confined to tho choric metres.

Wo regret that wo do not very much care for the result. So far wo have been dealing with verso translations. Wo have also before us four prose translations of prose authors. Isocrates, by W. J.

H. Freeso (Bells), the Agricola and Oermania of Tacitus, by Mr. R. B. Townshend, Bix Dialogues of Lueian, by Mr.

S. Irwin, and some Select Speeches of Cicero, by Mr. H. Blakiston, the last three belonging to Messrs. Methuen's library of Classical Translations." All four volumes seem to be marked- by accurate scholarship and a good English style; none of' them rises above itself, into the very highest regions of translation.

For the general reader the "Dialogues of Lucian" will, perhaps, be found to contain the most interesting matter, but all the volumes are. readable and pleasant matter. We may, perhaps, put in a word of special praise for Mr. Townshend's Agricola and Oermania, which seems to us to be the best' English version with which we are acquainted of these two essays of Tacitus. Messrs.

Methuen certainly deserve well of English resfders by this series. CLASSICAL SCHOOL-BOOKS. The classical school-books which have reached us during the last few months are few; we have only twelve volumes on our table. The largest and perhaps the most important is Mr. W.

H. Forbes's Thucydides I. (Clarendon Press Series), a stately octavo containing 132 pages of Introduction to Thucydides in general and 280 pages of Text and Notes for Book it is, we gather, the opening volume of a commentary on the whole of Thucydides. It is a large book, and we must premise that we should hardly have ventured to include it in this article if Mr. Forbes had not stated in his Preface that his Notes were intended for the upper forms of schools, Universities, and University colleges." We confess size and cost of the book seems to us to be greater than we look for in a school edition of one book of Thucydides, even when swollen by a long general Introduction, but as Mr.

Porbes himself professes to write partly for schoolboys, it is fair to give him the compliment of a notice in this article. We may say at once that his book is marked by sound scholarship and sober judgment-; the whole volume is plainly the result of much and careful preparation, and reveals a thorough acquaintance with the best results of Thucydidean criticism. The Introduction is avowedly meant for teachers, and need here only say that it contains a great deal of valuable and interesting matter, and is perhaps the best introduction to Thucydides which exists in English. At the same time, it might have- been shorter. The notes, meant for boys inter alios, are perhaps rather more open to criticism.

They are, of course, admirable in point of scholarship, they are often most interesting to read, and they are in bulk not unduly long; but they present two features about which we venture, with much deference, to disagree with Mr. Forbes. In the first place he translates too much. It is, for example, hardly needful to explain that rvpawov Hvra means "he was tyrant when he was killed." It is, of course, true that Thucydides and most other Greek writers preferred, for the principal verb of the sentence, to select that which denotes the final action or (dose of the incident. They said uvriUan Tupxwot because the man's death was the event which closed the incident.

Tho Englishman says, almost indifferently, "he died while king," or ho was king wheu he died." This fact has to be romembered by all whose business it is to turn Greek into English or English into Greek. But it is, after all, a fact which might be left to the teacher, or, if it must be explained, the principle should be stated. Mr. Porbes translates, but, instead of stating tho principle, repeats the translation in certain Notes on Grammar," with the somewhat useless observation that the leading idea in a sentence is often expressed by a participle which is in form subordinate to the final verb." This method of comment appears several times in Mr. Porbes's pages, and we are inclined to think it appears too often.

Further, we think we note an occasional excess of caution in Mr. Forbos's views he deals with the difficult and corrupt passages with sound scholarship, but, perhaps, with over-sound judgment. He avoids the Scylla of alternative explanations: on this indeed, ho is a model commentator; but he is rather inclined to sail into the Charybdis of no explanation. A schoolboy who used his notes might easily come to think that the cruces of Thucydides were all hopeless, and that it did not much matter that they were. For all this Mr.

Forbos's notes aro likely to be extremely helpful to many students; they contain much that is well suited to boys, and we shall be very sorry if the general size and scale of the book should prove a final bar to its use in schools. The other texts with notes which we have on our table are Latin. Dr. J. F.

Davis sends a Cwsar, Gallic War, (Hachctte), with brief notoR and vocabulaiy, which seems suited to elementary learners and is, in any case, not ambitious. Two selections from Phaedrus aro before us, one by Mr. G. H. Nail (Macmillan's Elementary Classics), a translation-book with rather full notes and a vocabulary, tho other by Mr.

S. E. Winbolt (Blackie) containing less translation, rather shorter notes and a 1 variety of exercises, parsing questions and tho like. Both aro useful additions to tho schoolmaster's library. Mr.

C. H. Keeno contributes Selections Illustrative of Roman Life from tho Letters of Pliny (Macmillans). Wo do not care for the earlier selections, which are awkwardly broken up, and we doubt if tho title of tho book is quite borne out by its contents, but it may woll be useful to upper fourth or fifth form masters in search of a change A picture containing specimens of tho as seems to bo superfluous, if not misleading. Finally wo have, for more advanced scholars than thoso books just mentioned, Mr.

J. II. Gray's Terenti Hauton Timorumenos (Pitt Press Series). Tho notos aro brief, to tho point, scholarly; tho book is eminently adapted for schoolboys and deserves, if only for tho practical sense shown in its notes, to be highly recommended. It is something to find an editor who is willing to omit tho names of commentators and the vagaries of manuscripts.

Among the aids and exercise-books wo may give the first place to Mr. W. Greenstoek's Primer of Greek Exercises (Rivingtons), adapted to Abbott and Mansfield's Greek Grammar and recommended by a preface from tho pen of Dr. Percival. Tho book is intended, we gather, to bo tho official exercise-book to accompany tho grammar.

It seems to us to bo a very good book, though it is hard to judge without practical experience in use, as Mr. Greonstook will readily understand. Another useful Greek book is a Card of Common Regular and Irregular Greek Verlis Mr. G. H.

Nail and Mr. A. G. Grenfell. Wo do not understand why regular verbs need havo been introduced, but tho card itself is an excellent piece of work.

It contains only Attic or authenticated forms it distinguishes between active and passive meanings simply and intelligibly, and it contains some useful notes. We recommend it warmly to fourth form masters who use a Greek verb "card." In a second edition we should like to sco rivrri) altered; and aro useless to hoys, and arc 'necessary. Messrs. W. C.

Collar and M. G. Daniell's Beginners' Greek Composition (Boston, U.S.A.: Ginn) is a small oxerciso-book which is apparently intended to suit certain American requirements. For Latin exercise-books wo havo only a very useful little volume of elementary Latin Grammar Papers from tho practised pen of Mr. F.

T. Ritchie (Longmans) and a Latin Translation Primer, by Messrs. A. and G. B.

Gardiner (Arnold), an attractive selection of Latin extracts, for translation into English, with a vocabulary; its weak point lies in two or three" conversations." Sohreiber's Kultur-historischer Bilder- Atlas" is an oblong volume of 100 plates, containing about 800 cuts, which illustrate various departments of classical antiquity, withnrefatory letterpress containing explanations. The "edition for English use which is now before us is very similar in' size and and almost identical in its illustrations, but much modified in the matter of text. Mr. Anderson has very rightly endeavoured to improve the explanations, and, so far as we can judge, he has done so with signal success. He has also rearranged them vis-a-vis to the cuts to which they refer.

Faults can, of course, be found. Plate xli. 4 is hardly described best as eques singularis" the inscription quoted in xli. 9 is wrongly expanded; and in general the Greek part of the atlas seems better done than the Latin. But there is really nothing to complain of in any part of the work, and there is a good deal to admire.

Schoolmasters would do well to get this book added to their school library or sixth-form book-case. It is useful for reference; it is, to our idea, still more useful as an amusement for a few spare moments, which, if spent in turning over the leaves of the atlas, are often productive of much interest and inspiration. It is eminently a book for teachers to leave about; boys who are worth anything will learn out of it for themselves. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary for the use of Students. By JOHN E.

CLARK HALL, M.A., Ph.D. Swan Sonnenschein. At last we have a complete Anglo-Saxon dictionary, complete from A to the very end of the alphabet (there is no in Old English), complete in the sense of containing practically the whole vocabulary, as far as it has been registered up to the present date. Mr. Clark Hall's dictionary is, we think, in every respect the ideal of what a students' dictionary should be.

Such a work should bo at once complete, compendious, scholarly, cheap, and all these qualities meet in the book before us. In the first place, its vocabulary appears to be practically complete. The aim of the author has been to make his dictionary as comprehensive as possible. He has looked through certain texts, such as Wulfstan, the English Beda, iElfric's Homilies, has searched the volumes of Anglia," and has inserted and given a reference to many words not to be found in previous dictionaries. Mr.

Hall tells us The number of words thus given, which are not to be found in the parts of Bosworth and Toller already issued, is upwards of two thousand, and there are probably as many in the later section of this dictionary which are lacking in the older Bosworth and in Ettmuller." Secondly, the work is compendious. This very comprehensive vocabulary, comprising with the variants moro than 40,000 entries, is all contained within the space of 370 pages of moderate size, with three columns on a page. We have the key to Old English literature in one moderate-sized, handy volume. The meanings of every word in the Old English vocabulary are given, without quotations from texts. In the case of words in common use the meanings appear alone; in the case of words of rare occurrence there is given as well reference to text or glossary by a system of extremely compact abbreviations.

In the case of any word presenting peculiarities in grammar or phonetics reference is similarly made to grammatical works such as Siovors's "Grammar" or Sweet's Header," or to some learned article in a Gorman Zeitschrift. In this way each article in the dictionary is made capable of conveying a considerable amount of valuable information in a very compendious form, so that the student who uses the book diligently and conscientiously will learn from it not only tho meanings of Old English words, but much that is important to know besides in English grammar and phonetics. In what we have just said we have indicated that the book has the third qualification for a student's dictionary; that it is scholarly. On every page thero is clear evidence that Mr. Hall is a well-trained English scholar.

There is no parade of philological lore, no display of comparative philology, no diacritic points, no e's or o's with hooks to trip up the lover of literature pure and simple, and yet one cannot help seeing that the whole work rests on a solid foundation of sound scholarship. Of course, in a work covering to much ground as this dictionary does there must be some errors of detail. It is impossible that this should not bo tho case, especially in tho first edition of a work of such difficulty. And it is the duty of the critic to pick holes. Wo find that some mistakes havo crept in through accepting tho ovidenco of the Vocabularies, as edited by Dr.

Wiilker, with insufficient caution. In preparing a second edition the author would do well to read through carefully Sievers's reviow of the vocabularies in Englischo Studien," 149; Klugo's notos on Anglo-Saxon glosses in "Anglia," 448; and Sievers's notes on tho same in "Anglia xiii. 333. Ono or two examples of errors duo to tho vocabularies may be given Leso sbf. numen; W.W., 450, 27." Tho referenco is to Wiilker.

It was pointed out by Sievers in 1884 that leso is not an English but a Latin word, and that tho gloss should bo road laeso uumine." Bansegn sin. standard, banner. Thoro of W.W., 357, 32." The reference is to Wulkcr, 357, 35. Thoro is really no O.E. bansegn it has arisen from a misreading of tho gloss segn." Walcspinl sf.

curling iron, crisping piti. W.W., 198, 1." This is another bogus word due to tho vocabularies, being an error (as Sievers shows us) for dale, spinl. Dgmetcunda Calaleclico W.W., 437, 4." This is a reference to Wiilker 487, 4, for which gloss ono ought to read dy meter- cundum, as in 370, 39. SvodcM sf. coil'or.

W.W., 485, 15." This gloss wo should read loctdum wood, cist." Undor tho word lac one of the meanings given is medicine;" tho word in this sense is really an abbreviation for Idcnung. There is no authority for lac boing used in tho sense of medicine In a rapid inspection wo havo noted other errors, of which the following may serve as "ml for a correction of this erroneous equation seo Klugo's "Etyra. Diet." (s.v. aide). "Carl ceorl;" tho words aro not really idontieal, as ono may see by referring to tho Now English Dictionary." "priost priest a of 'prior' This marvellous etymology is duo to tho ingenious brain of a German professor, and might well serve as a telling example of tho absurdity of proposing an etymology for an ecclesiastical term without some slight knowledge of ecclesiastical history.

Under dream joy, song," our modern English "dream appears as au equivalent: tho two words, however, aro probably quito distinct, the primary meaning of O.E. dream being "joyous noise," while our dream is tho cognate of Icelandic draumr, dream, the primary meaning of which is "a decoptivo vision." Cool ia wrongly explained by "keel;" the word ctiol neither means keel," nor in form has any connection with keel; the two words are perfectly distinct. We havo noticed that Mr. Hall is sometimes inaccurate in his primitive forms of O.E. example, taon (1) goes hack to Icon (2) to Hihan, and teon (il) to We havo not spaco for tho mention of a few other inaccuracies wo had noted for correction, but all taken together diminish but very little from tho general excellence of the book, and they can bo easily corrected in a second edition.

Finally wo have to mention an Atlas of Classical Antiquities, by Th. Schrciber, edited for English use by W. C. F. Anderson.

From the Oreelcs to Darwin. By H. F. OSUOEN. Columbian University Biological Series.

Macmillans. Professor Osbom's central aim in tho present volume is to show that tho idea of evolution is a complex one, a clustor of.