BOOKS.
DUBLIN TRANSLATIONS.* PROFESSOR TYRRELL, Dr. Ingram's brilliant successor in the Regius Chair of Greek at Dublin, may be cordially congratu-
• Dublin Translations into Gresk and Latin VOT118. Edited by Robert Yelverton Tyrrell. Fellow of Trinity College. Dublin, and Regius Professor of Greek. Dublin University Press Series. Dublin : Hodges, Figgis, and Co. ]ated on this volume, in which he has had for his colleagues a picked body of the best Irish scholars. The 217 pieces which it contains represent forty-two contributors, all of whom are, or have been, members of the University of Dublin. Some of the translators are, or have been, connected with other Colleges and Universities ; but Professor Tyrrell has their authority for stating that their versions have been "written under Dublin influences, and as the result of Dublin training." It is, then, in every way fitting that this handsome volume should have issued from the Dublin University Press, and no better proof could be afforded of the solid basis on which Classical studies rest in the chief seat of Irish learning. Men who can write verse of this stamp show that they possess far more than merely an exact knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. They must also have seized, in a rare degree, the spirit of the Greek and Latin literatures. A mere grammarian's knowledge would not go far towards clothing Moliere, as is successfully done here, with the garb of Aristophaues, turning a dialogue between Falstaff and Prince Hal into iambics which are really Plautine, or making the grandeur of the Prolog im Himmel resound through Greek anapaests of lEschylean force. At the present day, there exists a vast literature about the Classics. A show of erudition can easily be made by using the Germans, and a show of originality by abusing them. There is no reason why a manual of Greek literature should not be written by a compiler who could not construe a Greek sentence at sight, or write the simplest piece of Greek prose. But if Classical criticism is to have a really independent or original value, then it must rest on such studies as those of which this volume is the fruit.
While each of the principal contributors has his own traits, it may be said that the whole book has certain broad character- istics which distinguish it from similar collections. Here we recognise the justiee of the claim made for it by Professor Tyrrell, that it is essentially a Dublin book. The first of these general characteristics, to our thinking, is exemption from bondage to the letter of the originals, and a resolve to aim always at an idiomatic reproduction of the spirit. It need hardly be observed that this " note " is common to almost all the very best work which has appeared in other books of this kind ; but what strikes us here is that we find it as a nearly universal trait, present even in those pieces which do not other- wise reach the highest standard. The impression left on a reader's mind, after going attentively through the whole book, is that these translations arise out of a singularly genial school of scholarship, in which the enjoyment of the Classics as literature is fresh and keen, and in which, it may be added, a feeling for the music of language is highly cultivated. Another general characteristic which we remark is a love for tours de force, humorous or pathetic. For instance, we have "Tom Bowling" in Greek elegiacs ; "Three Blind Mice," in Greek iambics; the "Meeting of Saint Kevin with King O'Toole, at Glendalough " (a racy ballad, by an anonymous bard), in Homeric hexameters. Masterly Latin elegiacs render the verses "You are Old, Father William" (Alice in Wonderland), Hood's "Bachelor's Dream," and the ill-fated love of "Billy Taylor." These efforts, and others like them, show a cleverness, a sense of humour, and a linguistic power which are, in themselves, quite admirable ; but it should be clearly perceived, we think, that they belong to a distinct genre. They have nothing really in common, from the artistic point of view, with legitimate comic renderings into Aristo- phallic or Pla.utine verse. Their point depends essentially on the contrast between the grotesque original and the refined gravity of the new dress. In other words, the translator is mocking his own art. We know that some masters of expression contemporary with Isocrates and Aristotle displayed their resources by penning " encomia " on bees and mice, on salt and potsherds. An " encomium " of this class, if we found it placed between the Second and Third Philippic, would give us the same sort of sensation which we have once or twice experienced in turning over these delightful pages. "Juxtaposition is great," as Clough said ; and its virtue is two- edged.
When Lord Kimberley was giving the prizes at a London school last summer, he said that he did not often enjoy the pleasure of agreeing with Lord Salisbury, but that he felt satisfaction in corroborating some recent remarks of the noble Marquis about Classical verse-composition. "When I was at school," his Lordship added, "I wrote verses in all the metres of Sophocles ; but I knew that they were not real poems." Next to Lord Kimberley, whose versatility in this way could only be equalled by his modesty, we should say that the most versatile composer we know is Professor Tyrrell, He seems equally at home in all metres and styles, and if his' comic iambics, Greek and Latin, are perhaps the most striking, it is only because the special faculty which they show is rara• even among the best composers. Professor Davies, whose share in the book is nearly as large as Mr. Tyrrell's, gives a, preference to Greek iambics and. Latin hexameters, which, in style at once learned and individual, are very powerful. T. J. Brady and Mr. M. C. Callinan—Mr. Tyrrell's colleagues in Hesperidurn Susurri (1867)----are well to the fore in this: volume, maintaining the distinctive excellences which have made their work well known to those who can feel the Classical. xcipts. Professor Hastings Crossley proves that his skill in composition, both Latin and Greek, is not inferior to that which. he has shown in translating the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, a,. work which we hope to see him continue. Of Mr. R. W. West,. we should be inclined to say that he shines by flashes, and then brilliantly ; parts of his best pieces are unsurpassed. The- quality of Professor Palmer's work is so first-rate as to leave no regret, except that there is not more of it. A peculiar interest. attaches to Professor Maguire's versions. None in the book maintain a higher level throughout, and they have a cer- tain cachet of style which suggests an original mind and char- acter. Mr. Maguire is Professor of Moral Philosophy at Dublin,, and there are probably few other living instances of philosophical' and classical attainments being combined in a similar degree.
Space forbids us to dwell on other contributions which seem to us excellent, such as those of Mr. S. Allen, Mr. L. Dowdall,- Mr. W. W. Flemyng, Professor W. Ridgeway, and Mr. J. B.. Bury. Mention is due to the one undergraduate, Mr. J. Dicke,.. who has the distinction of appearing in this goodly company- " Corruttibile encore, ad immortale Secolo andd "-
dividing with Mr. W. H. Kelly the honours of a fine version or "Lady Clara Vere de Vere." We sometimes hear "verbal scholarship" contrasted (by those who lack - it) with a feeling for the " genius " of the Classical authors. A book like this in a good answer to such blustering cant. The " genius " of a literature is not likely to be finely appreciated by those who do not know the language in which it is written. The Dublin- translators not only reproduce the tones, but interpret the in- spirations, of their ancient models. And they also produce- work which has not merely an intrinsic literary worth of exquisite quality, but also, for every real scholar, a delightful and permanent charm.
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