On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
by him , at Willis ' s Rooms , on Friday . The room was bright With W noble head round Which the halo shone ; nor was Beauty wanting . Where is Beauty wanting when Poetry is the theme ? The manner of the lecturer was too closely allied to that of preachers to be altogether agreeable to En-lish audiences—in Scotland that objection is not felt . The matter of the lecture disappointed us , being composed of the -information and illustrations more suitable to a Rhetoric class than to the audience of Willis s Rooms . Many and serious would be the objections we should make to the critical principles laid down in this lecture , had we time and space at our disposal . Next week we may re-open the subject ; it will keep till then .
Untitled Article
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The Plays of William Shakespeare . Edited by J . Payne Collier , Esq ., ^ - ^ . ^^ Qq Rosalie ; or , the Tntth shall make yon Free . By Mademoiselle E . B . De P j— ^ ^ ^ ^ SfflS *— « - * a— « - « . J 5-SSSSS The Frontier Lands ' of ' the Christian and the Turk ; comprising Travels in the Regions of the Lower Danube , in 1850 and 1851 . By a British . Resident . 2 vols „„ .., , TAfe Iv The Poems of Goethe . Translated in the Original Metres . With a Sh ^ \ ^ ° ^^ J ^ g ^ BoI ^ n ^ tSrtibfary . -TU Chronicles of Henry of Huntingdon . Translated by T . Foreater , A . M . * . » w ' p Rohn ' Bohn ' s Classical Library . —The Politics and Economics of Aristotle . «¦• **• » vun . Bolm ' s Illustrated Library . —Cage and Chamber-Birds . By J . M . Bechstein , -M-. l ^ ^ ^^ 2 ? oftn '» Standard Library . —Fred erika Bremer ' s Works . The Home , or Life in Sweden and Strife and Pence . Translated by Mary Howitt . £ ¦• «¦ ¦ £° 2 £ *^ S ^ f ^!^ J ^ 5 K ^^* ' ^ " ^ ^ 2 S ^ a ^ T 7 , / . iVoWft . British Review Hamilton , Adams and Co . The AortJiliritisliJteviem . Bradbury and Evans . Handley Cross . Part III . Bradbury and Evans . S ^ Abroa * . <^ Cha 4 unCh 0 ffice - YJ ^ F&ttst * * MaZe 0 / lf 0 ^ »^ IifSThe Charm Magazine . £ * Jg ^ g * The Picture Pleasure-Book . W Cman The Monthly Christian Spectator . . ™ y ™ T > av Jjaivson ' s Merchant ' s Magazine . m' -p' . ' j \ JL The British Journal . James ' Watson The Political Examiner . w & olr and Co ' The Portrait Gallery . $ . S . Orr and Co . The Poultry BooJt . W . S . Orr and U ^ ^ . < W «*« . Kenfand Co . Home Thoughts . ^ _ .. „ ., -n t tj -ix ^ o The Lake Scenery of England . A Series of Twenty-Five Picture * . By J . B j ^ 1 ^^ and gon > The Educational Institutions of the United States , their Character and Organization By . F TJown jonn tnapman Judgment Before Trial . By B . H . Stronsberg , P . R . G . S . & E . Pettio
Untitled Article
A GREEK TRAGEDY . 2 Esc 7 iyli Eumcnides . The Greek Text with English Notes , critical and explanatory ; anJSnalish verse translation ; and an Introduction , containing an , Analysis of the Dissertations of C . O . Miillcr . By Bernard Drake , M . A . Macmillan and Co . "We begin with a convenient assumption , namely , that you have forgotten the Eumenides , if you ever read it ; and , acting on this assumption , we will endeavour in an . analysis of this play , once a favourite study of our own , to exhibit its elementary structure and peculiarities , and thus introduce you to a Greek tragedy . Although this analysis is mainly taken from our notebook , wherein it is entered under the date of March , 1844 , we adapt it to the present occasion , by weaving in some specimens of the translation before us—a translation , lot us ackl , which has throughout the common mistake of disguising the original by attempting to improve it . But of that anon _ _ _ _
. . The Eumcnides is the last of the trilogy named the Orestiad . The Agamemnon opens the trilogy , wherein the King of Men is slain by his Lady Macbeth , named Clyterrmestra ; in the Chocphorce , or second act of the trilogy , Orestes avenges this murder , arid slays his own mother ; and now tho third act opens , wherein the Avenging jb uries , or Eumenidcs , are to claim his life . The- curtain rises , and discovers a Priestess of Delphi , who launches out into long mythological monologue , as instructive to Grecian youth as Magnall ' ri Questions , but very bnld and supremely tiresome to minds of a less historical east . What her long speech lias to do with the p iece one cannot divine ; but artless old iHschy ' lus did not much trouble himself with such " conniderations . Having thus unburdened hor mind of its mythological
, prompting ^ , she enters the Temple to see if any ono has come to consult the ! oracle ; and rushes out again , terrified at having seen a man suppliant there , with a naked sword and an olive branch in his hands . Jt is Orestes . At his feet arc the Furies—asleep , lie does not recognise the Furies but calls them " A wondrous troop of women ; yet not women , but rather Gorgons ; yet not Gorgons , they have not forms resembling them . She describes them : they are black , terrible to all ; they swore , but " not with plastic breathings" ( whatever that may be—shall wo say , " notwithin-a-yard-approaciiable breath ? " —pcyicovai & ov 7 rAncrrrn < ri ^ va-iaftcuriv ) . ; U 1 (| from their eyes in distilled a dreadful poison . These are the Furies VEschyhiH brought upon the stage , which were so terrible , according to tradition , thai , they frightened the women into hysterics .
. Having thus introduced the hero and bin pursuers , the . Priestess retires ; the . scene opens at tho back , and discovers Orestes amid the sleeping Furies . . Apollo addresses him ; having put the Furies asleep , he promises liiin protection , bidding him as a last effort to seek the city of Pallas and embrace her statue . The Athenians had the same sort of feeling about Athens ns tho Parisians have about Purin , and were never tired of flattery on the subject . Orestes departs , and the Shade of ( Jlytomnestra ( by Mr . Drake somewhat inappropriately termed the Ghost—which is too northern a word for u (* reek tragedy ) rises furious to upbraid the Eumenides with uleoping instead of avenging her cause . " Behold my wounds , " she says , " for the mind in sleep has keener sight , by day it is the fate of mortals to 1 ) 0 blind . " An excellent motto for M esineriats , which we oiler them in auoient Greek . tvSovan yap Qpijv o / ifiaaiv Xa / iirpwirai tv rifitpq . dt uuip anpooKonoc fiporuiv .
Mr . Drake improves this into the paraphrastic : Though slumber hath sealed up the natural eyesight It brighteneth the vision of the mind And darkness maketh plain what daylight veils * This is not translation , but imitation , de hqnnefoi , The Furies snore their reply— " snore ! " sarcastically adds Clytemnestra " snore ! while the man flies away . " They snore again . She becomes ea «* er . They groan . At length she awakens them and utters her reproach . es , " like a dog they hunt in dreams . " She disappears , leaving them ferocious , and as every chorus , on being made aware of the necessity for instant fhVht . has from time immemorial chosen that as fiie occasion
for lengthened vocal display ; and whenever you hear a chorus shout " ± o arms ! " or "Let us haste V' you may take your oath they are about to remain for a quarter of an hour howling their intentions—the chorus , we say , instantly commences a frantic song , and a long reproach to Apollo for having favoured the flig ht of their victim , whom they do not try to overtake . Apollo is not the " party" to be bullied in his own Temple , and accordingly he drives them away . In his speech there occurs one ot those ^ Eschylean figures which Mr . Drake , like most translators , carefully avoids . Apollo threatens to shoot from his golden bow " a white-winged serpent , " tttjjvov apyjjtrrrjv o < piv , and Mr . Drake renders it' Lest from rny golden bowstring I shoot forth
A . hissing shaft . Hissing shaft is the meaning of ^ Eschylus , but to paraphrase it thus is to rob the poet of his peculiarity . # The Furies depart , with vengeance on their tongues , and Apollo also departs , resolved on protecting Orestes . Here the scene changes place , to the consternation of all who fancy the Gregks were great sticklers for The Unities ( there are several examples of violated Unities both ot lime and Place ) , and we are led to Athens and to the Temple of Minerra . Orestes enters , supplicating Minerva to receive him . The Furies quickly follow . They have tracked him ' as a hound tracks the wounded deer . They know he must be here , " for , " they inform us , " the scent of human blood laughs in their nostrils "—a strong expression doubtless , and carefullv avoided by Mr . Drake , who renders it in the language of the ( xiant Cormoran , "I smell the blood of mortal man . " Translators cannot be allowed these liberties . The phrase in JEschylus is one which ought to be preserved , as among the many evidences of transition from one sense to the other in ancient poetry . Catullus has the very phrase
Jucundo visit odore . JEschylus in the Trometlieus ( v . 21 ) says , < pcovr ) v oyf / ei—and Sophocles in the Mectra eXa / x - ^ e ( papa . Sophocles has many examples of the same transition . ... . ^ , i Having discovered him , the Furies vow that it ia m vam any God now be entreated , a mother ' s blood demands blood in return . They threaten him with their vengeance , the terrors of which they describe . * Minerva enters , having heard his supplication , and the student is astonished to find her astonished at the presence of these Furies whom , Goddess as she is and Goddess of Wisdom too , she does not recognise . " Who are ye ? ye resemble no created beings ; the Gods have never seen ye amongst the Goddesses , ye hav p no resemblance to women . " She adds , however , with great naivete ,
" But to speak of their deformity before their faces is far from being right . Minerva must be a " low comedy part ! " The Furies announce themselves , and tell her she will quickly learn tlieir honours , which draws from her tho remark , "I shall learn it if you speak openly . " Minerva , we fear , was given to platitude ! She is however called upon to decide whether Orestes is to bo pardoned or given to them , lie admits his crime , but urges his expiation of suffering and time . Minerva declares the affair to bo too important for any mortal to judge , and then—with a contradiction more feminine than Minervalike—she resolves on calling together some of her citizens , and allowing them to judge the cause . The Furies are furious they declare Minerva to be a socialist , one whose principles are " subversive of order" —and warn her that the laws of the universe will be
overturned if matricide remains unpunished . The Areopagites enter with Apollo and a Herald . Minerva bids tho Herald announce to the people that the Tribunal now to bo founded will last for ever . Exit Herald . Tho chorus demands the cause of Apollo ' s presence . "To defend the accused . " We are them presented with a dramatic picture of a trial in all its formalities ; Avhich to a litigious people like tho Athenians must have been peculiarly interesting , apart , from its historical interest . In the trial we Bee the " moral" of the tragedy elicited . It is quite true that Clytemnestra deserved death ; it is quite true that Orestes was bounded by all laws human and divine , as then conceived , to avenge the death of his father ; but it is equally true that lie is a matricide , and that his crime is horrible .. This is one of the dramatic ; "
collisions" the Greeks delighted in . To show tho balance , tho citizens givo equal votes , thus symbolizing their conviction of his crime and of its necessity . Minerva gives the easting vote in his favour . The balked Furies declare they will punish Athens for the sentence . Minerva intercedes , and appeases them by the promise of a T » mple in hor city , where they shall be worshipped with all the honours . IlyiniiH of joy and prayers for the welfare of Athens conclude the play . This is the play of which editors become . Bishops ! It may bo excellently adapted for translation in that sense , but us a poem addressed to tho nation which boasts of Shukspoaro and souk ; other writers not wholly
uninspired , we cannot in all gravity think well of it . As a work of Art it is interesting , in the sense iu which the . / Kginotan sculpture is interesting — it shows us the Art of an early epoch . But the translator who wishes to introduce it to the English render , must dismiss from bis mind every thought save that of the most minute accuracy , because the value of tho work lies in its peculiarity 7 iot in its beauty . Mr . Drake , who has given us a version which is elegant and at times poetical , lias missed the real olliee of a translator , according to our conception of it , by endeavouring to produce a line noem instead of a facsimile ; and the . English reader will be much misled by his version . Tho scholar , however , will thank him ibr hia careful edition of tho
Untitled Article
m _
THE LEADER . [ Satcr ?^ , , \ , - „ . . -, ' " *• ¦ " * " ' ... - ____ - ^^» irT ~*~^ "
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1853, page 452, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1985/page/20/
-