Matthew Arnold's Merope and the Electra of Sophorles Trans- lated
by R. Whitelaw. Edited by J. Churton Collins. (The Clarendon Press. 38. 6d.)—Professor Churton Collins is to be congratulated on the happy thought which finds an expression in this volume. Matthew Arnold's Herops is, by common consent, the nearest approach to Greek tragedy that an English poet has ever been able to make. This the reader is now able to compare with an excellent rendering of a fine specimen of the thing itself. The Electra stands, it may be, second to the Oedipus Tyrannies ; but the interval between them is of the smallest, and there are powerful reasons, one of them being a certain affinity in the plot, for bringing the Electra rather than the other drama into the comparison. The juxtaposition of the two is most interesting and instructive, being not a little helped by Professor Churton Collins's very useful introduction. The ruling principles of Greek dramatic art, and some of its technical methods, are lucidly set forth, and there is some excellent criticism on similar experiments made by Arnold's predecessors. Scipio Maffei in 1713, and Voltaire thirty years later, took the same subject, and after a further interval of forty years Alfieri followed them. Milton's "Samson Agonistes" and Mr. Swinburne's "Atalanta in Calydon" suggest a highly interesting comparison and contrast. It is an incidental addition to the value of the book that Messrs. Macmillan permit the changes made by Mr. Arnold in the edition of 1883 to be used,— it is always instructive to see a great poet at the work of correc- tion. Nor must Mr. Whitelaw's courtesy in allowing the reprint of his translation be forgotten.
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