V. PAPAVER RHOEAS. I I I 



I doubt not, mingled in Homer's thought with 

 the image of its depression when filled by rain, in 

 the passage of the Iliad, which, as I have relieved 

 your memory of three unnecessary names of poppy 

 families, you have memory to spare for learning. 



" (iiJkwv 8' w? erepuxre tcaprj ftakev, f/T evl k^ttco 

 KapirS ftpiOofievr;, vorifjcn re eldpivycnv 

 0)9 €T€pcoa r)p,v<re Kcip-q Tri]Kr)K\ fSapvvOev." 



" And as a poppy lets its head fall aside, which 

 in a garden is loaded with its fruit, and with the 

 soft rains of spring, so the youth drooped his head 

 on one side ; burdened with the helmet." 



And now you shall compare the translations of 

 this passage, with its context, by Chapman and 

 Pope — (or the school of Pope), the one being by 

 a man of pure English temper, and able there- 

 fore to understand pure Greek temper ; the other 

 infected with all the faults of the falsely classical 

 school of the Renaissance. 



First I take Chapman : — 



" His shaft smit fair Gorgythion, of Priam's princely race, 

 Who in ^Epina was brought forth, a famous town in Thrace, 

 By Castianeira, that for form was like celestial breed. 

 And as a crimson poppy-flower, surcharged with his seed, 

 And vernal humours falling thick, declines his heavy brow, 

 So, a-oneside, his helmet's weight his fainting head did 

 bow." 



