Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ART. VII. The Iliad of Homer tranflated into English Blank Verfe. By the Rev. James Morrice, A. M. late Student of Chrift Church, Oxford, Rector of Betfanger, in the County of Kent, and Vicar of Flower, Northamptonshire. 2 Vols. 8vo. 326 and 313 p. 11. Is. White. 1809.

THAT any gentleman may, if he think proper, amuse himself in tranflating Homer or Virgil, and, if the expence be not an object to him, may employ the prefs to lay the refult before the public, is what no perfon can fairly deny. But ftill the public will naturally afk with what particular claims the new effort comes before them. This enquiry Mr. Morrice refufes to anfwer.

"By what motivés he may have been induced to add one to the verfions which have been given in the English language; it is not material to relate; nor, if related, could it be prefumed that others would fee in them fufficient reafon for obtruding it on the world, what influence foever they might have on his own mind.”. P. vii.

Under thefe circumstances, we will endeavour to answer for him by conjecture. This tranflation, he tells us," was began many years fince, and has been continued occafionally, during a life of retirement, as an amufement, rather than with a view to publication." For much the greater part of this period, Pope's tranflation muft have been the only one in poffeffion of the public attention. Now Pope's tranflation, with all its exquifite merit as an English compofition, is not calculated to fatisfy a difcerning man who admires the original, as a representation of Homer. Its beauties are great, but they are the beauties of full drefs, the fimple grandeur of the old bard is loft. Mr. Morrice therefore thought, as many others have thought, that the freedom of blank verfe might produce a more characteristic translation. Under this impreffion probably he began the work. But his progrefs was irregular, waiting the cafual returns of leifure or inclination. In the mean time the more practifed and diligent writer Cowper took up the fatne tafk; and foo appeared before the public. If Mr. Morrice faw the first edition of this work, we do not wonder that he did not relinquish his own. If he read only that, we cannot be much furprifed that he should perfevere even to publication, But if he faw and confidered the aftonishing improvement pro

duced

duced by Cowper's revision of his book; a revision of fuch care, diligence, and fuccefs as perhaps were never beftowed, in any other inftance, upon a compofition already publifhed; if he read this, and ftill preferred his own verfion, we can only account for the fact by a principle faid fometimes to operate with parents in favour of their own children; and from the influence of which fome critics have ventured to fufpect that the writers of verfe, and even of profe, are not always exempt.

A new tranflation in blank verfe, appearing after Cowper's, ought either to be more poetical, or more exact, or both. That which is now before us, we muft inevitably pronounce to be neither. To exemplify our opinion, let us take the part where the care and fpirit of the tranflator might be expected to be most complete, the opening of the whole.

"Sing, Mufe, the fatal wrath of Peleus' fon,
Which to the Greeks unnumber'd evils brought,
And many heroes to the realms of night
Sent premature; and gave their limbs a prey
To dogs and birds: for fuch the will of Jove,
When fierce contention rofe between the chiefs,
Achilles, and Atrides king of men,

"Say first who caus'd this most pernicious feud.-
Latona's fon; who, with the king enrag'd,

Sent peftilential fickness through the hoft,

Avenging the difhonour of his priest

Chryfes, a fuppliant at the Grecian fleet,
With ranfom large his daughter to release:
The fceptre of Apollo in his hand

He bore; and to the Greeks addrefs'd his pray'r!
To Atreus' fons, chief captains of the hoft.
"Ye fons of Atrens, and ye Grecian chiefs,
May the gods favour your victorious arms,

5

15

And grant you fafe return! Yet hear my prayer:

Reftore my daughter, and her ransom take;

201

And reverence Apollo, fprung from Jove.'

"The Greeks with one confent their wifh declar'd

The priest to honour and accept the gifts:

Not fuch the mind of Atreus' warlike son,

Who with reproach difmifs'd, and threat fevere.

25

Let me not find thee loitering at our fhips;
Nor fhall thy age, * shouldst thou return again,
Nor fceptre of thy god, protect thee here;

Not in the original,

I will

I will not let her go, till worn with age,

In Argos, in our houfe *, the ply the loom,
The partner of my bed: hence then, begone,
Nor wake my anger, wouldst thou fafe depart."

"He fpake; when Chryfes trembled, and obey'd:
Silent, he haften'd to the boisterous fhore,

And thus to Phoebus, from Latona fprung

Bright-hair'd, preferr'd his pray'r: "Thy fervant hear,
God of the filver bow; whom Cylla fair
And Tenedos obey: if, with pure hands,
To thee I've paid the grateful facrifice;
And with juft rites thy facred altars crown'd,
Hear me, O hear! foon may the Grecian hoft
Deeply regret my unavailing tears!'

"Thus Chryfes; and Apollo heard his plaint,
And swift defcended from Olympus' height;
His bow and arrows rattled at his fide:
Downward he bent his way; as night he mov'd
Baneful, and fent his fatal arrows forth:
Dire was the clangor of the filver bow.
"Firft the contagion, to inferior beasts
Confin'd, the dogs and mules alone destroy'd;
Then men a prey to his relentless ire

Nine days the fatal fhafts with force increas'd +

Fell; and inceffant burnt the funeral pile.

Were fcatter'd through the hoft: when, on the tenth,
Achilles fummon'd all the Grecian chiefs,

Warn'd by the watchful care of heav'n's high Queen;
Who faw and deeply forrow'd at their fate." P. 1.

36

35

45

50

55

When we obferve of this whole paffage, that it wants the air and life of poetry, and in many parts is flat profe, we naturally expect that exactnefs has been the object of the tranflator, and that, if he has not given us the animation of his author, he has endeavoured to make amends by preferving his precife meaning. But, on examination, this appears not to be the cafe, in line 3 we have " many heroes" for "many valiant fouls of heroes;" 1. 4. " their limbs," for "themfelves" or their bodies, which is equivalent, after the fouls are fent away. L. 6. " When fierce contention" should be" fince fierce" &c. L. 7. is exactly the fame as Cowper':: both want the epithet diss, by which Homer at once raifes high the character of his hero. L. 7. "Latona's fon” xai Aiòs,

* Very familjan

+ Not in Homer.

omitted.

omitted. 10. The confequence of fickness omitted, λéxovo de Aaoi," the people perifhed." 14. He drops" the facred fillet," Erupal Exwv Ev xepov, and again in verfe 28. But Homer thought it material, or he would not have repeated it. 16. "To Atreus' fons;" here we entirely want the μlusz, chiefly to the Atridæ." L. 17.

66

"May the gods favour your victorious arms,

And grant you safe return."

Befides being complete profe, this is too loofe and general. Chryfes specifies,

6 Εκπέρσαι Πριαμοιο πόλιν.”

L. 20." reverence Apollo," the epithet Exmoor" fardarting" is not inert here, as the confequence proves. 26. ypov omitted. L. 30. two very important words, λ9 παΐρης, "far from home," wholly paffed by. L. 34. "Silent he haftened;" there is no authority for the old man haftening, which is rather out of character, В d' axéwv, "He walked in filence" gives a very different picture; nor has the tranflator given any equivalent for Πολλὰ δ ̓ ἐπειτ' ἀπάνευθε κιών κράθ'. "He went apart and prayed much." L. 37. is Χρύσην ἀμφιβέβηκας. It is peculiarly odd to omit the Iland Chryfa, as the priest feems to take his name from it. 39. Zu, the title of Apollo omitted. It would be tedious. to our readers, and to ourfelves, to go on with this degree of minuteness. What we have here done is fufficient to prove, that minute exactness is not the quality by which this tranflator can claim diftinction. We will now give the parallel paffage from Cowper, marking in Italics the Homeric words or ideas which he has preferved, and his fucceffor has loft.

"Sing Mufe the deadly wrath of Peleus fon *
Achilles, fource of many thousand woes

To the Achaian hoft, which numerous fouls

Of heroes fent to Ades premature,

And left their bodies to devouring dogs,

And birds of heav'n (fo Jove his will perform'd)
From that dread hour when discord first embroil'd

Achilles and Atrides king of men.

"Fatal", for "deadly" is the only change of Mr. Morrice in this line."

Who

Who of the gods impell'd them to contend?
Latonas' fon and Jove's. For he, incenfed
Against the king, a foul contagion raifed
In all the hoft, and multitudes defroy'd,
For the affront from Atreus' fon received
By his priest Chryfes. To the fleet of Greece
He came, with precious ranfom to redeem
His captive daughter, and Apollo's wreath
And golden fceptre bearing in his hand.
"His fupplication was at large to all
The hoft of Greece, but most of all to trvo,
The fons of Atreus, higheft in command.
"Ye gallant chiefs, and ye their gallant hoft,
(So may the gods who in Olympus dewell
Give Priam's treasures to you for a spoil,
And ye return in fafety) take my gifts
And loose my child, in honour of the fon
Of Jove, Apollo, Archer of the skies.

"At once the voice of all was to respect
The priest, and to accept the bounteous price;
But fo it pleas'd not Atreus mighty fon,
King Agamemnon who with harth rebuke

And with loud threatnings, ftern, him thus difmifs'd.
Beware, old man! that at thefe hollow barks
I find thee not now ling'ring, or henceforth
Returning left the garland of thy god

And his bright fceptre fhould avail thee nought;
I will not loofe thy daughter, till old age
Find her, far diftant from her native foil,
Beneath my roof in Argos at her task

Of tissue work, and partner of my bed,

Move me no more. Begone; hence while thou may'ft.
"He fpake, the old prift trembled and obey'd,
Silent he roam'd the loud remurm'ring shore

Till far retired the venerable man

Pray'd to his fovereign god, Latona's fon.

God of the filver bow, who with thy power
Encircleft Chryfa, and who reign'ft fupreme
In Tenedos and Cilla the divine,
Sminthian Apollo! If I e're adorned
Thy beauteous fane, or on thy altar burn'd
The fat acceptable of bulls or goats
Grant my petition. With thy fhafts avenge
On the Achaian hoft thy fervant's tears.

4

* More exact than the new translation."

+"Here the new is more exact.

"Such

« AnteriorContinuar »