SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Plaice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent nfoiciej
KTHMA BY, AEI. Selected by A. L. Irvine. (Charterhouse : A. C. Curtis ; and H. Milford. 3s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Irvine is one of those wise masters who believe in setting boys to learn poetry, classical or English, by heart. Superfine critics may scoff at the old practice, but what the youthful mind absorbs is indeed a possession for ever. Many of us wish that we, when young, had been forced to learn ten times as much poetry as was required from us, for those who, like Macaulay, retain their verbal memory unimpaired into middle life are few and far between. Mr. Irvine has made for the higher forms at Charterhouse a capital selection of Latin and Greek poetry, faced on the opposite page with translations, usually in verse, by well-known hands. For the Lucretian extracts there are Goldwin Smith's spirited renderings ; for Catullus's "Sirmio" there is Calverley's " Gem of all isthmuses and isles that lie."
For Virgil Mr. James Rhoades, Sir Richard Fanshawe, and Sir G. K. Rickards are the translators ; Milton's famous version faces Horace's " Quis molts gracilis to puer in rose."
Mr. Irvine has, of course, drawn upon Professor Murray for the renderings of Euripides—such as the great scene from the Medea —and upon Lord Derby for the Homeric parting of Hector and Andromache. It is a charming little book, which many old- fashioned readers will be glad to have.
Previous page
