Eclogues of Ca4furnius. Translated into English Verse by Edward J.
L. Scott. (Bell and Sons.)—Mr. Scott has made the best of an indifferent poet, who imitated, with no great success, Virgirs least successful style. Mr. Scott's verse is more fluent and musical than the somewhat stiff hexameters of his original, and the points, such as they are, are made with at least as much force. The best of the eclogues is perhaps the third, where a lover, who in a fit of jealousy has torn his mistress's clothes and beaten her, offers to make her amends. After telling the young lady that he is a better singer than his rival, and, what was more im- portant, richer, he goes on :— " But if you may not even yet,
Sweet Phyllis, those ill blows forget, See, I surrender here my hands, Bid them be bound with firmest bands Of withes behind my back, and tough Vine saplings add correction rough, As Tityrns late [ly] to the side Of nightly-prowling 3lopsus tied His thievish arms, and high among The folded sheep that robber hung.
Seize, seize them, do not hesitate ; Each hand alike deserves its fate ; And yet 'twas oft their lucky hap To fill with turtle-doves your lap ; Oft, too, a trembling leveret, Snared with its mother in my net, These self-same hands to you conveyed ; The earliest lilies by my aid, The earliest roses, you possessed, Pearce had the bee some floweret, press'd For honey, sipped, a garland bound Your brow with circling blooms around."
We have ventured to write " lately " for "late," which spoils the metro; we see that " matre " is mis-spelt " matra," Vite, in "lento, post tergam vite domentur, " suggests the well-known in- strument of correction, but, of course, the meaning must be that Phyllis may tie his hands with osiers or vine at her pleasure. — The Loves of Tibuilus, 4.c. By the Rev. J. Cowden-Cole. (Houlston and Sons.)—Mr. Cowden-Cole has taken two fine originals (he has given some translations from Catullus), and has done anything but justice to them. It is difficult sometimes to recognise what it is that he is rendering into English. " Sulpicia's Avowal," however, marks "No. vi.," on p. 55, as intended for "Tandem venit amor." Here is one stanza :— " I asked for Love, and sign complete Whereby that Love was wholly mine. So brooding thought might scruples heat, And lull to rest each impulse sweet, As low I lay before Love's shrine."
And so on for thirty lines more, which have not even the merit of being intelligible.
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