28 JANUARY 1865, Page 19

£schylus Translated into English Prose. By F. A. Paley, M.A.

(Bell and Daldy.)—Mr. Paley is well known to students as the editor of the edition of 20schylus in the Bibliotheca Classica, and he has now put

forth this translation as a kind of appendix. It does not profess to be an exact verbal rendering, but as near an approach to one as is con- sistent with the production of readable English, the exact translation

of the words being given in a note when it is unattainable in the text. The choral verses in Xschylus are so extraordinarily obscure and figura-

tive that it is giving Mr. Paley very high praise to say that he has fairly succeeded. The reader will understand the "Agamemnon" in this version, but unless he has considerable knowledge of the Greek civilization and of the rules of Greek dramatic art he will probably think it great rubbish. This, however, is inevitable, and it is for classical students that the translation is intended. Mr. Paley mentions a curious fact, that on an average fifty Greek works require about a hundred English to convey their full meaning.