PROPERTIUS IN PROSE.*
A TRANSLATION of Propertius into English prose written by a Professor and published by the Oxford University Press would have surprised scholars of a past generation. But since Sir R. Jebb unhappily encumbered his great edition of
Sophocles with a prose rendering, such versions have become fashionable, and their aims are of the loftiest. Indeed, the word " crib " is now antiquated, and, by a new euphemism, the present translation becomes "one of the pieces in a scheme of exposition, which also comprises text, index Latinitatis, and commentary." Nor is it designed only for "the service of students " ; but its beneficent purpose extends even to such rare persons as "having no Latin may yet be curious to explore Propertius," while it also claims to some extent to be a new experiment in literature. For Professor Phillimore has discovered that the English language is in a condition peculiarly adapted to the requirements of translators. "In the elasticity of youth," he tells us, "translation is a natural diet and exercise of language "; later on, when "the receiving idiom is grown classically precise and firm-set," it can be less easily moulded and modified for that purpose ; but just now "the incipient senile ataxy of English restores us something of the receptiveness which in the Elizabethans was an effect of juvenal elasticity." What Professor Philli- more exactly means it would be presumption to say, but his rendering of the opening lines of the third book may serve to indicate what "senile ataxy of English" can accomplish, even in its "incipient" stages. These are the first six lines :—
" Shades of Callimachus, and hallowed office of Coan Philetas, suffer me, pray, to enter your close-boskage. I am the first who take my way, the priest from a pure well-spring, to carry Italian mysteries according to the ceremony of Grecian measures. Tell me in what cave did you alike refine your song ? With what foot made you your introit? Or what water did you drink ?"
To those who "have no Latin" such a passage must appear mad or meaningless, while those who have even a little will recognise that it is at least three times more perplexing and eccentric than the original. But then Propertius never speaks of doing anything "according to the ceremony" of Greek metres, nor does he ask his favourite poets anything about their "introit," whether made with feet or without ; and he is simple enough to describe the woodland which they haunt merely as "a grove" (nemus) and not as "close-boskage" with a hyphen. " Close-boskage" is, however, probably one of a new group of words which " ataxy " allows translators to invent, for elsewhere we find such charming compounds as "toy- seaboard," "scholar-flute," and " scholar-mistress" ; while in one instance, by a fine inspiration, even the hyphen is rejected and Cupid is referred to, in a word which would have gladdened Calverley, as "The Boygod." Indeed, because Propertius is often affected, the translator has deliberately set himself, as it were, to mimic his faults, so as, for instance, constantly to call a stream "a sluice," to speak of "a hem-frocked boy," or to introduce what the preface calls "a reflected Tenny- sonianism in phrasing" by applying to the Father of Latin Poetry such a mongrel title as "Dan Ennius." But Pro- pertius, with all his failings, affected, meretricious, decadent though he often shows himself, was still a poet, and a Roman poet. Amid much that is pinchbeck there is much that is sterling gold, and, although he sometimes drivels like a dotard or a pedant, his language is often simple, masculine, and strong. Take, for instance, the couplet in which he bids Cynthia despise dress :—
" Credo mihi, non ulla tun est medicina figura3; Nudus Amor forme non amat artificem."
It is perfect in its truth, beauty, and carefully rounded com- pleteness, but the rendering is this : "Take my word for it,
all, this leechcraft of yours to mend the looks is naught : Master Love is naked and loves not one that makes a craft of
• Propertiss. Translated by Professor J. B. Phillimore. Oxford : at the Clarendon Press. [3s. 64. net.]
beauty." Assuredly all that makes the Latin unforgettable is lost, partly because to rob a couplet of its form is necessarily to destroy it—imagine Pope put into prose !—and partly because the translator wants strength and vigour, as a second instance will clearly show. This is how Propertius breaks out into an invective against his mistress :— " Hoc verum eat, tots, to Ferri, Cynthia, Roma, Et non ignota rivers nequitia ?"
and this is how a Professor renders it : "Is this true, Cynthia, that you are all over Rome and living in unconcealed naughti- ness ? " Whether the translation "that you are all over Rome" will recommend itself either by its force or accuracy may perhaps be disputable, but the final word positively amazes by its absurdity. A reader of Propertius can imagine Cynthia being called many things, but until the present translator had demonstrated the opposite he could never have dreamed of her being called "naughty."
Professor Phillimore, in fact, lays himself open to much criticism, which, although it may appear harsh, is assuredly not unwarranted. His version, as might be expected from such a scholar, is often good, and even admirable. But if the publication of a prose rendering of Propertius can possibly be justified, it can only be so on the ground of some eminent and striking excellence. Such excellence, however, this work certainly does not possess. Indeed, it would be a paradox to expect that its writer, so long as he holds his present views about the English language, should ever produce anything that is of real value. English is still what it has ever been,—the speech of a strong, virile, and energetic race. Doubtless there are writers who misuse it and who mistake affectation for brilliancy or eccentricity for genius, but no man of judgment would take them for a model or treat their follies as anything but an insult to his native speech. Nor is there any just reason why even a translator of Propertius should make it his chief concern too faithfully to reproduce what is faulty and artificial in his author. That is at best a poor skill, and the exact cause why Propertius still lives is that although he reflects the decadence of his age, although he is steeped in corruption to the very lips, he yet retains a certain purity of taste and a certain manliness of utterance which appeal directly to the heart and make us forget all his weaknesses. Unhappily, it is the immortal part of Propertius which the present translator, in his admiration for "senile ataxy," fails almost wholly to reproduce.
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