51 



able : the original author's words must find then- equivalents in 

 the translation : it seems a plausible argument, but the method 

 is unworkable: sometimes for instance a single word of the 

 original would require three or four words to represent it ; many 

 expressions can only be rendered by a corresponding EngHsh 

 idiom and will not admit ofbeinghterally translated: contraction 

 here becomes essential, otherwise the spirit, and movement, and 

 "swing" we may ventm-e to call it, of our author would be 

 missed ; the ornamental word must be replaced not by its exact 

 equivalent but by one of a similar character. Again the exigences 

 of rhyme and the propriety of rhythm require accommodating : 

 some tenderness has to be shown to the difficulties that these 

 introduce. To illusti-ate these remarks the reader took a passage 

 fi-om Homer, and gave the renderings of the passage by Pope and 

 the late Lord Derby. Among the translations which readily 

 occur to me, and which are sufficiently representative of that 

 branch of our Literature, are those of Homer by Chapman, Pope, 

 and Lord Derby. I have said something already of the compar- 

 ative merits of these two last-named : the first is considered to 

 porti-ay the fire of the original more successfully than the others, 

 his metre is more fitted for the Homeric rhythm than either the 

 neat couplet of Pope or the iambic hne of Lord Derby. Virgil 

 has been translated by Dryden, and his ^Eneid by Conmgton and 

 Morris : also the second and fourth books of the ^neid were 

 rendered into Enghsh blank verse by the Earl of Surrey in Henry 

 the Eighth's reign, this bemg the first instance of the employ- 

 ment of blank verse in our Uterature. We still want readable 

 poetical translations of the Greek plays, for none that I know of 

 can be said to occuj)y such a position in om- literature as to be 

 reckoned a classic. Browning has translated one ]A&y at least, 

 but the translation is so much more difficult to comprehend 

 than the original, that the number of readers who can gather 

 from the perusal what the original was hke must be hmited. 

 Frere's translation of the plays of Aristophanes is satisfactory, 

 and gives a good idea of the vigour of the Greek comedian. 

 There is room in several departments for abihty in portraying in 

 Enghsli dress the thoughts and expressions of the ancients to 

 display itself. 



Leaving the department of translations, we come now to that 

 of imitations or adaptations, and in accordance with the intention 

 I expressed some time back, I shall take the two different classes 

 of poetiy in order. The highest form of poetry is the Epic, and 

 the poems which ai-e generally considered to exhibit epic poetiy 

 in its perfection are those which were fii-st composed, and are 

 known by the names of the Ihad and Odyssey of Homer. 

 "Whether these were oiiginally complete poems, or whether they 

 were a collection of poems put together by an energetic compiler, 



