PROF. JEBB'S EDITION OF THE ".ANTIGONE."* IT would be difficult
to praise this third instalment of Professor Jebb's unequalled edition of Sophocles too warmly, and it is almost a work of supererogation to praise it at all. It is equal, at least, and perhaps superior in merit, to either of his previous instalments; and when this is said, all is said. Yet • Sophoeles : the Plays and Fragments: with Critical Notes, Commentary. and Translation in English Prose. By R. C. Jobb, Doctor of Letters. Cambridge. Sc. Part III.: The Antigone. Cambridge : University Prem. 1889. we cannot refrain from formally recognising once more the consummate Greek scholarship of the editor, and from once more doing grateful homage to his masterly tact and literary skill, and to his unwearied and marvellous industry. So well, indeed, has he executed his task, that we cannot help suspecting the seriousness with which he appeals to his critics to temper judgment with mercy, because "the Antigone is a peculiarly exacting subject for a commentator." Be this as it may, his edition of this famous tragedy will assuredly meet with the same consensus of well-merited praise as his editions of CEdipus Rex and (Edipus Coloneus. And without entering on the debatable ground of comparisons, it will be felt with somewhat pardonable pride by English scholars, that in Mr. Jebb they have a Coryphmus whose name will be linked by future generations with the names of Bentley and Porson. A truce, however, to compliments that are as needless as they are sincere ; and without in the least "forgetting the difficulties of his task," let us see if there are not one or two points in this all but perfect work on which his critics may, with due respect and diffidence, dissent from the Professor's conclusions. Before attempting to do so, it behoves us to say a few words in favour of this edition, as a guide to those among our readers who, having no Greek, are still anxious to appreciate to the utmost the surpassing merits of Sophocles. In the introduction they will find much, and in the transla- tion nearly all that will enable them to gratify their wishes. And with this premised, we will indicate two unimportant flaws in the latter, which we should not dream of noticing in a performance of less mark and likelihood. In Antigone's last words (937-943), the genitive ein3rg occurs twice. In the first place, it is translated "of Thebe ;" and in the second, "of Thebes." Is the first form to be regarded as a lingering vestige of that foolish fancy for mis- spelling Greek names, which Professor Jebb has so long re- jected, to the confusion, we take it, of every good scholar that has entertained it? Perhaps; but in any case, " Thebes " should be the only form used; and we are contending a little too strictly for the rule, which we have always insisted upon, when we mildly say that we should prefer " Polynices " and " Tiresias "for " Polyneices " and " Teiresias." This, however, is a trifle too light to be worth mentioning ; but the Pro- fessor's rendering of lreptacci Bpiem by "to be over-busy," in line 68, is of more importance. "To labour in vain" would be better, and for this assertion no further warrant is required than the Professor's own rendering of ,r4o; wiproad; in line 780. For the rest, and again as a pure matter of form, we do most heartily commend Professor Jebb's style of translation for its combination of admirable faithfulness with a consistent avoidance of the blemishes which deface the work of him who forgets that in translation it is the letter that killeth. Of the introduction we can speak with unqualified praise, for we assent unreservedly to the writer's contention, that while Sophocles has allowed Creon to put his case most ably, and has not por- trayed Antigone as exempt from human passion and human weakness, he still intends us to feel that in the controversy on which the whole play turns, "the right is wholly with her, and the wrong wholly with her judge." We hold that " tender " is not an epithet felicitously applicable to Antigone in this drama. She is a woman nobly planned, indeed, but her "enthusiasm," as the Professor calls it, "at once steadfast and passionate for the right as she sees it—for the performance of her duty "—is far more characteristic of her noble nature than "the intense tenderness, purity, and depth of domestic affection" with which he associates it. He carries us with him in his justification of her treatment of Ismene, and he waxes eloquent, as becomes him, about her yearning, on the brink of death, for some human kindness of farewell. Soothed as Nelson was by the feeling of having always done his duty, he still asked Hardy to kiss him when he was dying. But before leaving the English portion, so to speak, of this work for the Greek, we must momentarily refer to the pleasant page in which Professor Jebb has described the celebrated music which Mendelssohn composed for this drama, and to the splendidly good-humoured way in which that composer did justice to Punch, then in its early prime, for rubbing in the failure which attended the first perform- ance of his music in London on January 2nd, 1845 :—" See," he wrote to his sister, "if you cannot find Punch for January 18th. It contains an account of Antigone at Covent Garden, with illustrations,--especially, a view of the chorus which made me laugh for three days?? With regard to Professor Jebb's "critical notes and com- mentary," there is nothing for them, speaking generally, but the old, old story of continuous and well-earned praise. In. lieu, however, of gilding his refined gold with acquiescence similar in kind to that of the Bristol citizen who said ditto to Mr. Burke, we shall select a passage for comment where we can combine the expression of our dissent from Professor Jebb with a striking example of his painstaking thoroughness. In line 39 the manuscripts have Mrrouda, which is nonsense. For this error Brunck conjectured i '0,'-cirzouacc, and Porson irroucra, and Professor Jebb prefers the German correction. We strongly prefer the English one, but this is a matter of no great importance. What we wish to insist upon is the full justice which the Professor has done to Porson's correction. Hermann, it may be remembered, said of this correction, with pungent ignorance,—" Quem sensum habere possit non patet." Professor Jebb carefully shows how much may be said in its favour, and only prefers Brunck's reading because he thinks that " d'er eirrovaa would have been much less likely to generate the Aciirrovaa of our MSS., since the intermediate d Briirzovax, being obviously unmeaning, would have been likely to cure itself." We respectfully submit to his consideration that the intermediate d Bei rrovea is a thing of naught. The copyist finding et9X7:TOVOW, and being ignorant of that use of the single ftr£, went at once per saltum for jBeiirrovea. So far as we can judge, Professor Jebb has exercised a most wise discretion in the readings which he has adopted, always with scrupulous acknowledgment, from other scholars. We may differ from him with respect to two or three, but we have not the shadow of a doubt that his text of the Antigone is the best that has been published either in this country or in Germany. And with regard to the modest five emendations of his own, we accept four with confidence, and only prefer ityreniAv 6axeipeopoc Bpiczor r in line 126, to his oi. l. dpcizovrn, because we think that Suaxdpmf.za can be dissociated from 4Zotorz-r, though, of course, in that case, no comma must be placed after 'Apo;.
We are unable, also, to agree with Professor Jebb's view of that famous passage in this play "which affords," he says, one of the most interesting exercises for criticism which can be found in ancient literature." Antigone, as all readers of the drama will remember, having, from the strongest sense of duty, staked her life and lost it, in obeying Heaven's law rather than man's, changes front in lines 904-920, and says that though she might, if the State so willed it, have left a husband or a child unburied, it was because Polynices was a brother who could not be replaced, that she had persisted in burying him. "The simple and direct words," as the Professor calls them, "of Goethe " seem to go to the root of the matter here. "In the course of the piece," he said to Eckermann, "the heroine has given the most admirable reasons for her conduct, and has shown the noble courage of a stainless soul ; but now, at the end, she puts forward a motive that is quite un- worthy of her (ganz schlecht), which almost borders on the comic." And then the great poet expressed a hope that scholars would prove this passage to be spurious. Professor Jebb, at least, has done his best to fulfil Goethe's hope. But he feels, apparently, that he has not succeeded in. doing so, and his verbal criticisms do not weigh much against the fact that Aristotle quoted and defended this passage in his Rhetoric. We entirely assent, however, to the Professor's asser- tion that the passage itself is one that needs defence from admirers of Sophocles. But we are not greatly concerned if it should be proved that the greatest of Greek tragedians sleeps sometimes, as Homer did; and if a reasonable probability could. be established that he had discussed with his friend Herodotus the argument used by the wife of Intaphernes, we should feel amused rather than pained by the flaw which he has thus been induced to leave in his drama. And with the utmost respect, but most firmly, we must protest against the assumption. which Professor Jebb makes that this passage, if accepted, "must profoundly affect our conception of the great drama as a whole."
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