MR. MACAULAY'S TRANSLATION OF HERODOTITS.*

NOTHING could be more praiseworthy than Mr. Macaulay's conception of a translator's duties. He begins with the deter- mination to have as definite an idea as possible of what it is that he has to translate. Accordingly, he has devoted much trouble to the matter of text, paying it, indeed, more attention than many editors think it necessary to give. To the actual work of translation he has brought, besides other gifts, a most painstakino. carefulness. And he has constructed an index of names which is a monument of industry. The nine books of the Histories are full of names. Herodotus's gossipy, personal style brings them in continually. What Oxford man who had to " get him up " under the old system, does not remem- ber the infinite trouble it was to be ready for questions which demanded a knowledge of even the most insignificant :—" What was the name of the slave who followed Democedes into the Persian treasury ?" " Who was the Halicarnassean who carried off the tripod from the temple of the Triopean Apollo?" This particular use for a Herodotus index is pre- sumably obsolete ; but it is not less meritorious to have con- • The History of Herodotus. Translated into English by G. C. Macaulay, M A. 2 vo's. London : Macmillan and Co. 1890.

structed one so complete as that which Mr. Macaulay here gives us.

After so much by way of preface, let us try to estimate the translation itself. First comes the question of style. It will be as well to let Mr. Macaulay speak for himself. After telling us that his aim has been "above all things faithful- ness "—a point of which more will be said hereafter—and deprecating a " severe consistency," he goes on :-

" Nor again must his simplicity of thought and occasional quaintness be reproduced in the form of archaisms of language ; anti that not only because the affectation of an archaic style would necessarily be offensive to the reader, but also because in language Herodotus is not archaic. His style is the 'best canon of the Ionic speech,' marked, however, not so much by primitive purity as by eclectic variety. At the same time, it is characterised largely by the poetic diction of the Epic and Tragic writers; and while the translator is free to employ all the resources of modern English, so far as he has them at his command, he must carefully retain this poetical colouring, and by all means avoid the courtier phrase by which the style of Herodotus has too often been made more noble.' " We must own to finding this a little vague, and on one or two points questionable. The freedom to " employ all the resources of modern English" is a freedom which might lead a trans- lator of Herodotus into the use of phrases which would seem to any person of taste very much out of place. It might almost be said that there is an incongruity between the word "modern" and our conception of Herodotus. He was a traveller, a geographer, a historian, but most unlike the modern type of such writers. We must go back for more than a couple of centuries to find anything like him,— to match, for instance, his nail, wondering temper. We cannot but think that Mr. Macaulay would have done better if he had proposed for himself as a model of style some writer not less remote from our time—say, Sir Walter Raleigh—not, of course, pedantically binding himself to his vocabulary and turn of phrase, but keeping in the main to his colour and form. We do not quite follow Mr. Macaulay when he writes that the " affectation of an archaic style would necessarily be offensive to the reader." There are archaisms and archaisms. No reader, we venture to say, was ever offended with Thackeray's Esmond, a masterpiece of style, but, to speak strictly, archaic. In fact, a certain archaism, always stopping short, of course, of the obsolete, has always been recognised as a literary necessity—perhaps we should rather say, an adornment—in reproducing some originals, and even in treating some subjects. Who would translate Froissart with " all the resources of modern English" ?

Practically, we do not find much fault with Mr. Macaulay's work in this matter of style. We may give as a specimen a passage which may fairly enough represent the average level of Herodotus :—

" When he was doing these things, Crcesus the Lydian judged it right to admonish him in the following words : 0 King, do not thou indulge the heat of thy youth and passion in all things, but restrain and hold thyself back : it is a good thing to be prudent, and forethought is wise. Thou however art putting to death men who are of thine own people, condemning them on charges of no moment, and thou art putting to death men's sons also. If thou do many such things, beware lest the Persians make revolt from thee. As for me, thy father Cyrus gave me charge, earnestly bidding me to admonish thee, and suggest to thee that which I should find to be good.' Thus he counselled him, manifesting goodwill towards him; but Cambyses answered : Post thou venture to counsel me, who excellently well didst rule thine own country, and well didst counsel my father, bidding him pass over the river Araxes and go against the Massagetai, when they were willing to pass over into our land, and so didst utterly ruin thyself by ill government of thine own land, and didst utterly ruin Cyrus, who followed thy counsel ? However, thou shalt not escape punishment now, for know that before this I had very long been desiring to find some occasion against thee.' Thus having said he took his bow meaning to shoot him, but Cr0313118 started up and ran out : and so since he could not shoot him, he gave orders to his attendants to take and slay him. The attendants however,

knowing his moods, concealed Crcesns, with the intention that if Cambyses should change his mind and seek to have Crcesus again, they might produce him and receive gifts as the price of saving his life ; but if he did not change his mind nor feel desire to have him back, then they might kill him. Not long afterwards Cambyses

did in fact desire to have Crcesus again, and the attendants perceiving this reported to him that he was still alive : and Cambyses said that he rejoiced with CIUSUR that he was still alive, but that they who had preserved him should not get off

free, but he would put them to death : and thus he did."

Now, this is good enough, though it might be better. The chief blemishes we find in it mostly come from a too scrupu-

bons fidelity, though there seems also to be a want of feeling for the picturesqueness of the original.

For " thou killest men's sons also," we would suggest " thou killest children," there being an evident allusion to the cruel murder of the young son of Prexaspes. In the next sentence, " If thou do," &c., there is a needlessly strict following of the Greek order. Why not put " beware lest," first ? In the pas- sage about the Araxes and the Massagetai the English reader somehow misses the force of the original, to " pass over into

our land" not giving the idea of "coming to attack us." To the rendering of "Cambyses said that he rejoiced with Crcesus that he was still alive," we decidedly object. Of course it is a literal rendering of Kpolord fcia avyiBudiat gq:14 arEptdrrt. But too much stress is put on the ova. Cambyses

would not speak of his sympathy with Crcesus in his escape. He simply says that he was glad of it.

Why, to take a few instances from the following chapters, is 1.-vybcceiou ciapeic pt,gcmotc rendered "likeness of a dwarfish

man"? Why not " pigmy "? A pigmy is not of necessity a dwarf, a word which connotes unahapeliness. "He mourned for his loss " is hardly vigorous enough for ervizgeg ixpirro, said of Polycrates when he had thrown away his ring. Might we venture on "made the most of his loss " ? In chap. 46,

where the despot is said to have gathered together " the children and wives of his subjects, and confined them in the

ship-sheds," to use them as hostages in case these should join

the exiles, we miss something that should give the force of Tidy 157i imovc"., gymr oraorriers, contrasting them with the

returned exiles outside. Some twenty chapters further on,

where Cambyses confesses his murder of his brother Smerdis, we should prefer "the thing I sought to keep concealed," to the thing " I was wont to keep concealed." 'Expem-vor seems

here to be the true imperfect.

As another sample of Mr. Macaulay's work, we may give the rendering of a passage which has been the object of what seems to us an unreasonable scepticism :—

" While the Barbarians were engaged upon this work, Attaginos the son of Phrynon, a Theban, having made magnificent prepara- tions, invited to an entertainment Mardonios himself and fifty of the Persians who were of most account ; and these being invited came ; and the dinner was given at Thebes. Now this which follows I heard from Thersander, an Orchomenian and a man of very high repute in Orchomenos. This Thersander said that he too was invited by Attaginos to this dinner, and there were invited also fifty men of the Thebans, and their host did not place them to recline separately each nation by themselves, but a Persian and a Theban upon every couch. Then when dinner was over, as they were drinking pledges to one another, the Persian who shared a couch with him, speaking in the Hellenic tongue, asked him of what place he was, and he answered that he was of Orchomenos. The other said : Since now thou haat become my table-companion and the sharer of my libation, I desire to leave behind with thee a memorial of my opinion, in order that thou thyself also mayest know beforehand and be able to take such counsels for thyself as may be profitable. Dost thou see these Persians who are feasting here, and the army which we left behind encamped upon the river ? Of all these, when a little time has gone by, thou shalt see but very few surviving.' While the Persian said these words he shed many tears, as Thersander reported ; and he marvelling at the speech said to him : Surely then it is right to tell this to Mar- donios and to those of the Persians who after him are held in regard.' He upon this said : Friend, that which is destined to come from God, it is impossible for a man to avert; for no man is willing to follow counsel, even when one speaks that which is reasonable. And these things which I say many of us Persians know well; yet we go with the rest being bound in the bonds of necessity : and the most hateful grief of all human griefs is this, to have knowledge of the truth but no power over the event.' "

This has all the simplicity and dignity that could be desired. Mr. Macaulay has added a few notes which are always

useful and to the point. His system of transliteration is reasonable. A few names, when the Latin form is well estab- lished, as Egypt, Carthage, Egean, Cyrus, are left ; others are written in the Greek orthography, the hard "c " in English representing the unsightly "k." Darius, a very familiar form indeed, and possibly one or two more, might have been added

to the list.

We congratulate Mr. Macaulay on the successful completion of a laborious work.