The Fourteen Phi/ippic Orations of M. Tullius Cicero. A Now
Trans- lation. By John R. King, MA. (James Thornton.)—If Mr. King in- tended this volume for a "crib," to uso a common phrase, or to put it more politely, to help examinees through their examination, he has doubtless achieved his object. No examiner could refuse to pass a young gentleman who had sufficiently acquainted himself with Mr. King's renderings. The translation is evidently the work of a compet- ent scholar, from whose views it would be possible, of course, to differ, with more or less plausibility, but who is beyond all question meter of the text. But if Mr. King has aimed at more, we cannot accord our praise. The ideal of a good translation is to transfer a classical work from one language into another. This class may be reckoned on the fingers. But there is a second class which, without possessing this high literary merit, are praiseworthy efforts of scholarship and taste, and which, possessing the sine 'end nand accuracy, represent a great original in fairly pleasieg and idiomatic English. We should scarcely place Mr. King's Philippics in this class. If we consider only the requirements of examinations, a translation of this rank should give a student models of Latin-English renderings. Now, we do not think that Mr. King supplies such models. He has not the courage to deal boldly with his original. Doubtless, if he had a passage of English to turn into Latin, he would take very considerable liberties with it,—would turn, for instance: half-a-dozen short sentences into one long, complex period, of genuine Latin character. But he is not equally courageous in pursuing the converse process. Take, for instance, this sentence (Phil. XL, ii.) :— "And 130, my lords, although you need not any one to urge you on, for of your own accord you caught the tiro of eagerness to regain your liberty, yet I beg you to maintain your freedom with the greater zeal and resolution, in proportion to the pressure of the slavery which you see proposed en punishment for the vanquished." "And so" is a fair equivalent for getantobrefri, but probably an English orator would not use the phrase. No one would scruple to insert it in an English-Latin translation. What difficulty should there be in omitting it in a Latin-English translation ? The whole of the pas- sage has a quite alien and un-English look. For instance, "You caught the fire of eagerness to regain year liberty," is not what any Englishman would say. We might multiply these examples.
Mr. King sometimes indeed, reaches the higher level, and is always faithful and painstaking.
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