Translations from Horace, and a Few Original Poems. By Sir
Stephen E. de Vero, Bart. Second Edition, Enlarged. (Bell and Son.)—We reviewed the first edition of Sir Stephen de Vere's translations on its appearance at some length, and expressed an opinion on his theory of translation, and on the success which he has attained in carrying it into execution. This theory he states anew in his preface to this enlarged edition,'addnoing some additional authorities and illustrations. And he has greatly enlarged the num- ber of specimen odes, having increased it, indeed, from ten to thirty- one, the additional translations being, he tells us, more condensed than those first published. This was doubtless a point on which many readers felt improvement to be wanted. On the whole, we think that the new versions are as successful as the old. The first, indeed, of them seems to us quite perfect in its way, if we only allow that rhyme can be dispensed with. Oar own feeling is in favour of rhyme; but it must be allowed that a rendering as good as the following rather shakes one's conviction
"To Caton (" Vitas hinnuleo "I. Yon fly me, Chloe, fly me aa a fawn That seeks her startled dam o'er pathless hills, Trembling with vein alarm When through the forest pipes the fitful wind.
If some green lizard gliding through the brake Stirs the wild bramble; if to Spring's first breath Vibrate the ruffled leaves ; With quivering limbs she stands and panting heart.
Fear me not, Chloe mine no tiger's rage
No Lybian lion I, that rends his prey.
Fly not ; nor longer hide Thy ripened charms within a mother's breast."
We may give as a specimen of quite another strain, the conclusion of " Banc eat bibendum :"—
" She sought no refuge on a foreign shore. She sought her doom far nobler 'twat to die Than like a panther caged in Roman bonds to lie. The sword she feared not. In her realm once more,
Serene amongst deserted fame,
Unmoved 'mid vacant halls she stood ; Then to the aspic gave her darkening veins, And sucked the death into her brood.
Deliberately she died: fiercely disdained To bow her haughty head to Roman scorn, Diecrowned, and yet a Queen captive chained ; A woman desolate and forlorn."
The last line here is, it seems to us, the weak point. We do not see the tooth in Horace at all. It is, indeed, out of keeping with his picture. There are blemishes which may be pointed out. In " Video, rat site," guadrimum Babinunt was not "long-stored wine," but wine of four years old, and of quite a moderate quality. Really old wine were the casks that had escaped the wandering Spartacus some forty or fifty years before. Possibly there is a touch of sarcasm in the " Sabine," as if one were to say, " Don't spare your Gladstone claret." We must object to the total omission of the picturesque " Apris at lapis rapacibas" in the account of the desolation of the Phocosan shrines. Bat the faults are but of small account in comparison with the merits of these very felicitous translations.
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