FLO RILEGIUM LATINUM.
Pioritegium Latinuns. "Victorian Poets," Vol. II. Edited by F. St. J. Thackeray, M.A., and E. D. Stone, M.A. (J. Lane- 21s. net.)—We welcome another volume of the " Bodley Head Anthologies." Two hundred and three pieces of Latin verse translation by forty-three contributors make up the contents of the volume, one of the editors (Mr. Stone) furnishing almost exactly half. Mr. Thackeray is represented by fifteen transla- tions. Add a dozen to the fifteen and we get the whole of the Oxford contributions. Is there really such a disproportion in the Latin verse-writing of the two Universities ? We cannot pretend to form a definite or complete judgment of so considerable a book. Each piece represents considerable labour, and should be care- fully considered. One danger besets the hasty critic. . He sees a phrase or usage of a word that seems to him late, or even modern, and lo ! he is confuted by some Augustan authority. There may be some such authority for the use of examen in trans- lating "murmuring of innumerable bees" by apum dense mussant examine campi, but we should say that it should be used of a "swarm's in the technical sense, not of a scattered multitude at work. Horace uses it of a dense body of troops, and it corresponds to the apcivos pfAltIrCal, (Aesch. Pers. 126). One criticism on the selection we have to make,—that where there is already a good translation it is a pity to insert an inferior. Calverley in his "Verses and Translations" gives a version of "In Memoriam," CVI. We give the last stanza of this and of that numbered CXI. in this volume. The English runs :—
" With festal cheer, With books and music, surely we Will drink to him, wbateer he be, And sing the songs he loved to hear."
PLonimourst. Cat.vsatav.
" Perte libros precor "Huns dedicamus laetitiae diem quos ille amavit : sit iidibus modos lyrisque musisque. Mins, illius aptare, sit terms beatum da quicquid audit; 1100 silebunt ter cyathis celebrare nomen." qui numeri placuere vivo." .
Instances might be multiplied by any one acquainted with modern Latin veize. But it would be ungracious to disparage what is a. very praiseworthy collection of correct and elegant work.
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