CUR,RENT LITERATURE.
THE COMEDIES OF ARISTOPHANES.
The Comedies of Aristophanes. Edited, Translated, and Explained by Benjamin Bickley Rogers. The Plutus. (G. Bell and Sons. 8s. 6d.)—It is quite needless by this time to praise Mr. Rogers's translations of Aristophanes. The Greek comedian has been singularly happy in his translators. Hookham Frere and B. B. Rogers make a pair such as no other classic has had to interpret him. But as translations, properly so called, Mr. Rogers's work easily holds the first place. He gives his readers the opportunity of testing his faithfulness, for he prints the Greek text on the left- hand page, and explains it in an admirable series of footnotes. We wish him most heartily health and strength to continue and complete the task. Seven out of the eleven plays have now been given to the world, the Acharnians, the Knights, the Peace, and the Dysistrata still remaining to be done. The Plutus is a remarkably interesting play. The very time of its pro- duction is a curiosity, for it was exhibited in the year 388 B.C., no less than thirty-nine years after the author's first appearance on the stage. Few dramatists have had so long a period of activity, and none, it may safely be said, have witnessed so great a change in their surroundings. Imagine the difference between the Athens of the two epochs ! The play, too, marks a great literary change. The Old Comedy has gone; the New Comedy is in sight, if not actually present.
In the play itself, among other interesting things, is the scene in the temple of lescubspius. This may be said to stand by itself as a record of a curious phase of ancient life,—indeed, of life at all times, for what we read about this place of miraculous cures reminds us forcibly of what may still be seen without travelling a thousand miles. Here is a specimen of M. Rogers's version :—
All people with me, I am sure, will agree, for to all men alike it is clear, That the honest and true should enjoy as their due a successful and happy career, Whilst the lot of the godless and wicked should fall in exactly the opposite sphere.
'Twas to compass this end that myself and my friend have been thinking as hard as we can, And have hit on a nice beneficial device, a truly magnificent plan. For if Wealth should attain to his eyesight again, nor amongst us so aimlessly
MOM,
To the dwellings, I know, of the good he would go, nor ever depart from their home.
The unjust and profane with disgust and disdain he is certain thereafter to shun, Till all shall be honest and wealthy at last to virtue and opulence won. Is there any design more effective than mine a blessing on men to confer ?
For our life of to.day were a man to survey and consider its chances aright. He might fancy, I ween, it were madness, or e'en the sport of some mis- chievous sprite. So often the best of the world is possessed by the most undeserving of men."
Mr. Rogers has been good enough to add, by way of giving us a specimen of the New Comedy when it was fully developed, a translation of the Menaechmi of Plautus, a play famous for itself, and as having been reproduced in other dramas not less notable.
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