17 APRIL 1886, Page 15

BOOKS.

brings out the second volume of his edition of Sophocles. Having regard to the brevity of human life, if not to the danger of such studies being forbidden as "frivolous," we are glad to see that he promises more speedy progress in the future. Such work as this, however, is worth waiting for, so well considered, so com- plete, we are almost disposed to say, so final is it. Its merits are due to a happy combination of fine literary taste and a thorough mastery of Greek scholarship. An editor so equipped renders to students a service that can hardly be estimated ; there are many to whom this volume will give, as did its predecessor,

the edition of the CEdipus Tyrannus, a quite new insight into the genius of Sophocles, as also into the greatness of the Greekdrama. The Introduction sets forth the argument of the play, its relation to its predecessor, the Tyrannus, both as a continuation of the CEdipus legend and as a development of the character of the hero. We then have a peculiarly interesting and valuable discussion of its local association. There is no Greek drama, unless we except the Person of Eschylus (who was probably an actor in the great struggle at Salamis), which is so closely con- nected with the personality of the writer as the Coloneus. Every feature of the place where the action takes place was familiar to him ; and it is because he knows it and loves it so well that his description is enriched with a beauty which it would not be easy to match elsewhere in Greek poetry. But the patriotic feeling of the Coloneus is more than local. It is intensely Attic. The old poet—Professor Jebb is partly disposed to accept the story of the recitation of the play as a defence against the charge of servility—leaves, it may be, his last work a noble

expression of his devotion to Athens. A chapter is given to the general subject of the criticism of the text, and Professor Jebb takes occasion to pay a handsome tribute to the good work of the London Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in publishing a fac-simile of the Laurentian manuscript. Another on the metrical analysis of the lyrical portion of the drama completes the Introduction.

The text is accompanied by a translation on the right hand page, by critical annotations, and by a very full commentary. The translation is executed with all the felicity which we expect from the editor's command of English style. We shall give two

short specimens, one from the famous appeal to Athens as the shelterer of the oppressed (ri ain. logs x.r.A.), and the other from the still more famous chorus (adz--rov, ziopet0:— " What good comes, then, of repute or fair fame, if it ends in idle breath ; seeing that Athens, as men say, has the perfect fear of Heaven, and the power, above all cities, to shelter the vexed stranger, and the power, above all, to succour him ? And where find I these things, when, after making me rise up from these rocky seats, ye then drive me from the land, afraid of my name alone ? not surely afraid of my person or my acts ; since mine acts, at least, have been in suffering rather in doing—were it seemly that I should tell you the story of my mother or my sire, by reason whereof ye dread me—that I know full

well." (258.270) " Stranger, in this land of goodly steeds thou but come to earth's fairest home, even to our white Colonns ; where the nightingale, a constant guest, trills her clear note in the covert of green glades, dwelling amid the wine-dark ivy and the god's inviolate • Sophocles : the Plays and Fragments. With Critical Notes, Commentary. and Trans'ation into English Prose. Part II. "The CEd:ptus Coloneus." By R. C. Jebb. Cambridge University Press. 1885. bowers, rich in berries and fruit, unvisited by sun, unvexed by wind of any storm ; where the reveller Dionysus ever walks the ground, companion of the nymphs that nursed him. And, fed of heavenly dew, the narcissus blooms morn by morn, with fair clusters, crown of the Great Goddesses from of yore ; and the crocus blooms with golden beam ; nor fail the sleepless founts whence the waters of Cephisus wander, but each day with stainless tide he moves over the plains of the land's swelling bosom, for the giving of quick increase; nor bath the Moses' quire abhorred this place, nor Aphrodite of the golden rein." (668-693.)

In the commentary on the former of these two passages, we may note the true explanations of xitnUyo; rsoi3i aarrir Agot%an>, " fair fame, if it ends in idle breath," as opposed to the certainly erroneous rendering (given, we see, by Messrs. Campbell .and Abbott) of "since it is falsely set abroad." The verb Ali, seems to have no such usage. There is a curious addition to Messrs. Campbell and Abbott's note, "00:;cre; implies ' passing away.' " In 296, TrarpZiom dozy yin i'xet is rightly given as " his father's city," not "ancestral;" and in 308, eat/ is, we feel sure, rightly explained as metaphorical. Theseus could hardly have been actually asleep. Four lines farther on, the editor's vigilance nods for a moment. He prints :— 464 Ka1 soKeire TOD TUVLOD Tip errpowv

3) 4ipos'rs&' Ray drag, awe eAesie mihas."

But he remarks in his note, "Join nlri, with ixOgiy, not with 460." Certainly this makes it much more pointed, " to come in person," but the punctuation must be altered. But instances of carelessness or omission are very rare. Indeed, we do not

remember to have encountered another. It is maturally in the matter of emendation that we feel most inclined to differ from Professor Jebb. It is seldom, indeed, that a conjecture com- mands universal assent, however much we may admire the ingenuity which has suggested it. In 1,113, CEdipus bids his daughters, who have just been rescued from Creon's satellites, come close to him, and goes on, as it is read in the ordinary text,—

" dLvaa'aVNErov roc, rpdafr ipiitou Toi; Sc avergivou srlavoy"

which is rendered, "and ye shall give me rest from my hapless wandering," &c. The manuscripts waver between CbCC7:CetnarGY and eivazat;accrov. The meaning is sufficiently good ; better, we think, than making 7.-7taiyo; refer to the carrying-off of the maidens, a forced interpretation, as we cannot but consider, which attracts Professor Jebb so much that he conjectures CiY47:1,EI;CaTOV, " repose from this late roaming." But this is a region of scholarship in which every man's hand is against his brother.