25 OCTOBER 1890, Page 26

The Agamemnon, Ch,oepliorm, and Eumenides of £schylus. Rendered into English

Verse by John Dunning Cooper. (Simpkin and Marshall.)—We cannot compliment Mr. Cooper on his work. Had he no candid and competent friend, that a reviewer has to tell him that what he has done has been done better before, and that more than once ? Here is a specimen :-

"Then loosing from her snowy throat

Her vestal robes of violet dye, Her cruel slaughterers she smote With one glance from her glist'ning eye; Such loveliness the limner's art Ne'er to the canvas could impart, As she revealed when she essayed In vain t' invoke compassion's aid."

Why "violet dye" for apciaou 19acpas? Why "snowy throat" and " glist'ning eye " ? Lord Carnarvon's translation is not perfect but it is incomparably better :— "And silently and piteously

In saffron robe that swept the ground,

She passed along with glance of eye

Smiting each priest that stood around ; Beauteous as though by limner's art portrayed, And tho' to silence bound she oft to speak essayed."