SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
(Under this heading we notice such Boas of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.)
The Frogs of Aristophanes. Translated by E. W. Hantingford, M.A. (Methuen and Co. 2s. ed.) —Mr. Huntingford shows much ingenuity in his translation, and has evidently a keen apprecia- tion of the humour of Aristophanes. But his book does not satisfy us. If the English reader is fully to enjoy an Aristo- phanic comedy, it must be treated far more freely than a trans- lator can treat it, if he is to be a translator at all. The verse, too, is hardly of the quality that satisfies. It is too much like that which we associate with a Christmas pantomime. Here is a specimen :— "DIONYSUS. ICS just that kind of love consumes me for Euripides.
HERCULES. And him just dead, 0 lot 1"
But it would not be fair to give this sample only. Here is Euripides's account of his manner of writing tragedy :—
u You left the stage all verbiage, a mass of swollen tumours And hulking words. I starved it eras and so reduced its humours, With scraps of verse and wise discourse, and vegetable messes, Adding a flavour of small talk strained out of critics' essays; Then fed it up on monodies—Kephlsophon's ingredients, Avoiding complicated thoughts and commonplace expedients. The first man on explained the antecedents of the story-
.7Esarimas. Better than yours, and better than your parents bad before ye !
EURIPIDES. Then to each character I gave employment from the start, The women and the slaves as well each had to say their part,
The masters, maidens, and old women, every rank and station."
But does not Aristophaues rather mean that they all spoke in the same style?
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