LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 327 



is all that we have. Cowper attempts to give the ring 

 of the dpyvpeoto (Sioio by 



" Dread-sounding, bounding on the silver bow," 



which only too fatally recalls the old Scottish dancing- 

 tune, 



" Amaisit I gaisit 



To see, led at command, 



A strampant and rampant 



Ferss lyon in his hand." 



The attempt was in the right direction, however, for 

 Homer, like Dante and Shakespeare, like all who really 

 command language, seems fond of playing with asso- 

 nances. No doubt the Homeric verse consented at will 

 to an eager rapidity, and no doubt also its general char- 

 acter is that of prolonged but unmonotonous roll. Every- 

 body says it is like the long ridges of the sea, some 

 overtopping their neighbors a little, each with an inde- 

 pendent undulation of its crest, yet all driven by a 

 common impulse, and breaking, not with the sudden 

 snap of an unyielding material, but one after the other, 

 with a stately curve, to slide back and mingle with those 

 that follow. Chapman's measure has the disadvantage 

 of an association with Sternhold and Hopkins, but it has 

 the merit of length, and, where he is in the right mood, 

 is free, spirited, and sonorous. Above all, there is every- 

 where the movement of life and passion in it. Chap- 

 man was a master of verse, making it hurry, linger, or 

 stop short, to suit the meaning. Like all great versifiers 

 he must be read with study, for the slightest change of 

 accent loses the expression of an entire passage. His 

 great fault as a translator is that he takes fire too easily 

 and runs beyond his author. Perhaps he intensifies too 

 much, though this be a fault on the right side ; he cer- 

 tainly sometimes weakens the force of passages by crowd- 

 ing in particulars which Homer had wisely omitted, fo/ 



