Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

Hark! how the sacred calm that breathes around,

Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease, In still small accents whispering from the ground

A grateful earnest of eternal peace."

"Jamque oculos sensim sublustres fallere colles,

Omnis et in toto conticet aura polo: Tantum clausa procul tinnitus ovilia mulcet Somnifer, et resono cantharus orbe volat.

Lumen cui rutilæ tempora tæniæ Ambit versicolor; purpureæ genæ Subter dulce coruscis

Ardent roribus ebriæ. Incautum tenerâ corripui manu Somnos ne placidos discuterem, et sinus Sic in flore revinctum

Saræ sub niveos tuli."

But we cannot speak in eulogistic terms of some other contributors to the Anthology. The following speci

Interdum atque hederâ vestita è culmine men of Mr George Butler's composi

turris

Ad lunam auditur noctua moesta queri; Secretis si quis propiùs penetralibus errans Rumpat inaccessæ jura vetusta domùs. Audin'! ut insanos animi cessare tumultus Quæ spirat late pax veneranda jubet; Eque solo tenui gratissima voce susurrat, Crede, manet fessos non violanda quies."

The classical reader will not accuse us of indiscriminate panegyric, if we decline to find any fault in these lines. It is true, indeed, that the opening stanzas of the poem are by far the easiest to invest with a classical garb : they are almost entirely descriptive, and the images presented fall with more or less facility into any language: it is the subsequent train of sentiment and reflection, awoke by those images, which it is so difficult, if not impracticable, to embody in a Latin version. But this in no degree detracts from the honour due to the

Oxford translator: he has shown that he knows his own strength, and the capacities of the language; and he has triumphed where others and those scholars of no ordinary pretensions have conspicuously failed.

The following lines of Coleridge, translated into asclepiads by Mr Smith, show that his powers of versification are not confined to elegiacs:"As late each flower that sweetest blows I plucked, the garden's pride, Within the petals of a rose

A sleeping Love I spied:
Around his brows a beamy wreath
Of many a lucent hue;"

All purple glowed his cheek beneath,
Inebriate with dew.

I softly seized the unguarded Power,
Nor scared his balmy rest,
And placed him, caged within the flower,
On spotless Sarah's breast."

"Dum, quæcunque viget copia narium, Horti delicias persequor, in rosæ Nuper flore jacentem

Vidi fortè cupidinem ;

tion is, in our opinion, below mediocrity. It is designed for a version of Wordsworth's "Lucy," which is composed of three stanzas, characterised by peculiar simplicity-a trait which would have secured it a better fate at the hands of another translator. The first of these stanzas is thus massacred by Mr Butler

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways,
Beside the springs of Dove;

A maid whom there were none to praise,
And very few to love."

"Avia quà tacito perrepit flumine Dova,

Exiguam tenuit nostra puella domum: Rarus eam, semper rarus laudator adibat Vix quoque, qui colerent, unus et alter

erant.

It is fortunate that the reputation of the Oxford Anthology does not repose upon Mr Butler's shoulders. We never saw a version disfigured by so many faults. In the first place, the English is painfully diluted: and for this there is no excuse; for full expression has been given to the original in the subjoined elegiac couplet, by Mr De Teissiez of Corpus Christi College :

"Avia tesqua fovens, curvæ propè flumina Devæ,

Parca procis Virgo, nescia laudis, erat.”

The effect of semper rarus is extremely awkward; it is evidently not intended for an oxymoron: if it had been so designed, it would have been a very tasteless employment of that figure. As it stands, it presents the most grotesque, self-neutralising aspect imaginable. And we cannot, for the life of us, discern any distinction between laudator and colerent. Colo is not the classical expression for love; it usually signifies the homage paid by a dependant to his patronthe deference shown by man to man, not the devotion of a lover: instead of being distinguished from laudator,

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Adinstar is declared by the highest authority (see Andrew's Latin Dictionary) to be a post-classical usage. Lapidis musco is of very doubtful propriety as a classical construction. Etherio cælo is a terribly hackneyed phrase, appropriated by every tiro from the Gradus ad Parnassum: and-worse than all-the word calo is in the very next line repeated in the equivalent polo. To say nothing of the alliteration-torturing to every classical ear—it is rather superfluous to have two skies in the same couplet, especially when in the original English, as well as in the constitution of the universe, only one exists. Tenebroso is not only a gratuitous intrusion, like polo, but it is a false epithet. We, at any rate, have never seen stars shining in a dark night; but-no question-Mr George Butler* knows better how these things are arranged.

It would be injustice both to the Anthology and to our readers to omit the following exquisite gem, Mr Roundell Palmer's version of Wordsworth's Laurel:

""Tis sung in ancient minstrelsy

That Phoebus wont to wear
The leaves of any pleasant tree
Around his golden hair,

Till Daphne, desperate with pursuit
Of his imperious love,

At her own prayer transformed, took root
A laurel in the grove.

Then did the penitent adorn

His brow with laurel green;
And 'mid his bright locks, never shorn,
No meaner leaf was seen;

And poets sage, in every age,
About their temples wound

[blocks in formation]

"Phoebus, ut prisci memorant poetæ,
Siqua per silvam placuisset arbos,
Nectere auratos solitus capillos
Fronde decorâ :

Donec audacem fugiens amorem
Constitit Daphne, et precibus petitâ
Stirpe decrescens, nova laurus almis
Se dedit umbris.

Conscius culpæ miseransque Raptor
Cœpit ex illo redimire dios
Laureâ crines, neque viliorem
Ferre coronam.

Inde per cunctos pia turba vatum
Laurea frontem religavit annos;
Inde Dîs pugnæ sacra laureatus
Solvere victor.

Sic ab arcanis veterum tenebris
Fama virtutis repetenda castæ,
Turpium audentis vetitos honorum
Spernere calles :

Quæ, nisi juncti coeant amores,
Dona contemnit, neque cedet armis ;
Provocans morti, nisi laus supersit

Integra vitæ."

With one exception-the grammatical oversight in provocans morti, the construction undoubtedly requiring ad mortem-we are only at a loss what most. to admire in this translation: the harmonious modulation of the rhythm, the ease and facility of the construction, the close fidelity to the original, combined with an exquisitely classical tone, which gives it all the air of a native effusion. May the example of its gifted and eminent author inspire the juvenile votaries of the classical Muse on the banks of the Isis! His name will, at any rate, never cease to remind them that there is not quite the antipathy between elegant scholarship and forensic or parliamentary fame which certain Liberals would have them believe. Space, unhappily, forbids the citation of his brother, Mr Edwin Palmer's, translation of Spencer's Daphne into Latin

The bay; and conquerors thanked the gods elegiacs. They will be found at p.

With laurel chaplets crowned.

111, and are written in a style which

It is only fair to say, that at page 83 of the Anthology a set of Greek hexameters will be found, executed in a style very creditable to this gentleman's Greek scholarship.

shows that the classical vein is rich in his family.

We hardly think Mr Linwood has consulted well for the classical fame of Lord Grenville, by inserting so large a proportion of that nobleman's translations. We say translations, for the original effusions in the latter section of the volume fully sustain that reputation for taste and elegance which we always associate with the name of Grenville. The latter speak for themselves; but it concerns us to establish solid grounds for the opinion we have expressed of Lord Grenville's Versions from Modern Poetry. We will accordingly present to the reader a few specimens of these compositions, vouching that they shall be fair samples of their average quality. At page 21 we find the 137th Psalm rendered into Latin elegiacs. The first verse

"By the rivers of Babylon we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Sion," is represented by four Latin lines"Euphratis ripe acclines, ubi limite longo

Porrecta, Assyriæ tristia culta patent, Amissam memores patriam, sanctumque Siona

Flevimus, et summi diruta templa Dei.” Will any one contend that the exquisite pathos and melancholy tenderness of the original are not utterly lost and frittered away? In the first two lines, Lord Grenville has violated the axiom, that deep emotion, whether expressed in profound melancholy, or angry invective, or passionate sorrow, never indulges itself, finds no relief, in prolix local description. One touch of the Poet's pen, by the rivers of Babylon," designates the scene, which itself is all-important, once for all; but in the noble translator's feeble expansion the idea evaporates, the energy and the pathos of simplicity are lost. It reminds us exactly of a schoolboy's expedient, anxious only to fill up the line, no matter at what sacrifice of relevancy, taste, or harmony. The same fatal languor of expression haunts the following distich: its redundancy and repetition are totally incompatible with strong feeling. In justice to Lord Grenville, we can only suggest that what the editor has published as his choicest effusions, were in reality mere school

boy exercises, religiously embalmed and preserved by the affection of friends or relatives, and afterwards injudiciously published without any distinction of date, which would have enabled the critic to contrast the crude performances of the boy with the severe taste of the ripe and gifted scholar. The succeeding couplet is, however, a far more adequate version of the following line: "We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof:"

"At quà moesta salix invisam offuderat umbram,

Pendebant tacitæ, pristina cura, lyra.” The epithet "tacitæ," and the apposition "pristina cura," are far from censurable additions; they develop, instead of weakening, the sentiment. A few lines below, we find a very suspicious quantity in ergone. Such licenses were, however, common in the less fastidious days of Lord Grenville.

We will give the following version of Thomson's "Redbreast" at length, as it consists of a few lines only:"The redbreast, sacred to the household gods,

Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky,
In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted

man

His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights

On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor,

Eyes all the smiling family askance ; And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is ;

Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs Attract his slender feet."

"Ingenuæ mentis, pulchræque rubecula for

mæ,

Conviva, et nostris hospes amica focis, Quæ patrios olim campos saltusque relinquis,

Frigus ubi et brumæ sævior hora venit Et rostro primum pulsans alâque fenestram Perlustras dubio lumine cauta domumFrustula tum raptim excipiens furtiva recedis,

Mox repetis tenuem non satiata cibum ; Hospitium donec certosque experta Penates,

Lascivis vostros fortior ante pedes." It is impossible to deny the elegance and spirit of these verses, and equally impossible to deny that Lord Grenville has paraphrased where he ought to have translated, and has chosen elegiacs where he ought to

have chosen hexameters. The second error clearly was the parent of the first metrical exigencies inserted the first line, which, though confessedly a pretty, is quite a gratuitous piece of additional colouring. In the third the epithets, which Thomson never destined for expletives, are summarily cancelled, and that without any plea of metrical necessity: the remaining lines are elegant, but needlessly periphrastic. We are astonished that the structure of the English original, the cadences, breaks and pauses, did not naturally suggest the Virgilian bexameter as the fittest vehicle for a Latin version: a passage less congenial to elegiacs could scarcely have been found.

We turn from Lord Grenville to another patrician contributor, the Marquess of Wellesley, eminently successful, in our opinion, in both paths of composition. At the ninety-sixth page of the Anthology will be found a translation of Milton's "Speech of the Genius of the Wood" into Virgilian hexameters, at once classical and faithful. It is too long to quote here; but we cannot resist the temptation of presenting to the reader the following beautiful lines in honour of Eton, as full of piety as they are of eloquence:

"Sit mihi primitiasque meas tenuesque triumphos,

Sit revocare tuos, dulcis Etona! dies.
Auspice te, summæ mirari culmina famæ,
Et purum antiquæ lucis adire jubar
Edidici puer, et jam primo in limine vitæ,
Ingenuas veræ laudis amare vias:
O juncta Aonidum lauro præcepta salutis
Æternæ et Musis Consociata fides!
O felix doctrina! et divinâ insita luce !
Quæ tuleras animo lumina fausta meo;
Incorrupta, precor, maneas, atque integra,

neu te

Aura regat populi, neu novitatis amor: Stet quoque prisca domus (neque enim manus impia tangat),

Floreat in mediis intemerata minis; Det Patribus Patres, Populoque det inclyta Cives,

Eloquiumque Foro, Judiciisque decus, Conciliisque animos, magnæque det ordine genti

Immortalem altâ cum pietate fidem! Floreat, intactâ per postera sæcula fama, Cura diu patriæ, cura paterna Dei." The vigorous and rushing verse of the concluding lines towers above the

Ovidian distich, and soars to the majesty of Virgil. The "Epitaph for the Statue of the Duke of Wellington" is, both in style and conception, thoroughly Roman :

"Conservata tuis Asia atque Europa triumphis

Invictum bello te coluere ducem.
Nunc umbrata geris civili tempora quercu,
Ut desit famæ gloria nulla tuæ."

Side by side with this we must place Lord Wellesley's tribute to the Great Conqueror's rival,-his "Imitation of a Greek Epitaph on Bonaparte's Tomb at St Helena :""Fulmen Alexandri, et victricia Cæsaris

arma,

Alpinumque Afri qui superavit iter,
Quem super Europam rapido Victoria curru
Vexit, et alatis gloria duxit equis,
Rupe sub hac ejectum, inopem, bustoque
carentem,

Fortunæ verso numine, condit humus.
Ira tyrannorum, et Vesana superbia regum
Sæviat in cineres insatiata tuos !
At non Victrices aquilas famæque per
orbem

Immortale decus deleat ulla dies.
Illa tui memor usque, tuisque superba
triumphis,

Gallia, jurâta stet tibi firma fide,

Te desideriis, alto te pectore servat,

Hæc sola, hæc tanto digna sepulchra viro."

Mr W. B. Jones, Fellow of University College, is a very frequent contributor to this collection. Shrewsbury prepossessions on the part of the editor may in some degree account for this; for Mr Jones, though many of his pieces are not devoid of elegance and taste, is by no means the Coryphæus of the Anthology. Shortly after the appearance of the volume, a contemporary* of considerable and deserved reputation ventured the assertion that the translation of Shakespeare, at p. 52, "might appear as a recovered fragment of Terence, without the most acute scholar being able to impeach its genuineness from internal evidence alone." It is difficult to say whether extravagant eulogy renders its author or its victim most ridiculous. The challenge thus rashly given was not long unanswered. The Classical Museum took up the gauntlet, and exposed four blunders within nine verses-blunders whose flagrancy must, we fear, exclude this modern

* The Christian Remembrancer, No. lvii., art. "Anthologia Oxoniensis."

VOL. LXXVI.-NO. CCCCLXIX.

2 P

Terence from the honourable competition designed him by the reviewer a sad warning this for friendly critics and indiscriminate panegyrists! Mr Jones has attempted, however, with considerable success, rather an ambitious task in translating the following beautiful lines of Coleridge :"Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth: And constancy dwells in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain;

And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain. Each spake words of high disdain

And insult to his heart's best brother; They parted-ne'er to meet again!

But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining;They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between ;But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween,

The marks of that which once hath been."

"Heu! illis olim fuerat conjuncta juventus;

Sed potis est mendax lingua levare fidem; Mens levis est juvenum; spinis via consita vitæ ;

Jampridem in cœlis incola fidus amor: Estuat infelix, capiti succensus amato,

Et mala vecordem distrahit ira sinum—
Mutua dixerunt dulces convicia amici,
Jamque dies sociis ultimus ille fuit:
Haud tamen inventum vacui solamen
amoris,

Nec desiderii disperiere notæ.
Ingentis veluti divulsa cacumina montis,
Distinet iratis æquor inane fretis;
At non tristis hyems, neque sol, non ful-
minis ictus,

Obruet antiqui fœderis indicium."

No foreign version can adequately express the deep melancholy pathos of this passage. We doubt, however, whether it would have fared much better in other hands.

We turn with pleasure to the contributions of Mr John Conington, the recently appointed Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford, an election of great promise to the cause of classical scholarship. Space will not allow of our doing full justice to his compositions: the following, however, may be quoted as a fair specimen :66 By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,

:

By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed; By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned, By strangers honoured, and by strangers

mourned!

What though no friends n sable weeds

appear,

Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year,

[blocks in formation]

"At tibi languentes manus extera clausit ocellos,

Extera composuit membra decora manus, Addidit ignoto cultum manus extera buste, Externi luctus, exterus auxit amor.

Quid si pullati pro te non cernet amici

Hora breves lacrymas, annus inane decus? Quid si non videant simulati insignia luctus Urbani lusus, noctivagique chori? Quid licet illacrymans tua non notet ossa cupido,

Mortua nec fallax exprimat ora lapis? Si non sufficiat tellus sacrata sepulchrum, Nec capiat flentûm murmura sancta cinis; At tumulus multo decoratus flore virebit, Urgebitque levi pondere terra sinum?" Anthol., p. 84.

The emphasis of the four first lines is here admirably preserved. We cannot help thinking, however, that, in the fourth line, auxit is an awkward expression in connection with cultum busto. It is unfortunate, too, that luctus is repeated in the seventh verse, after its occurrence in the fourth; then fallax is by no means an equivalent for polished; it substitutes a totally different idea: capiat murmura is surely a very bald prosaic phrase; and mullo flore is not rising flowers.

In Greek composition scarcely any contributor to the Anthology can dispute the palm with Mr Riddell. At page 60 there is a version of some noble lines of Byron into Homeric hexameters an exquisite gem: and there are several of his translations from Shakespeare into Greek iambics which embody the pure idiom of the Greek tragedians with fidelity to the English, and without the slightest regret that this collection presents pedantry or affectation. We much but one specimen of Mr Osborne Gordon's well-known taste and scholarship: it consists of a few lines on Sir F. Chantrey's "Monument to Two Children," in Lichfield Cathedral, which represent to admiration the icy coldness and the antithetical conceit for which Greek epitaphs are proverbial.

« AnteriorContinuar »