POPE. "Achilles heard, with grief and rage oppress'd, And calm the rising tempest of his soul. While half-unsheath'd appear'd the glittering blade, Sent by the sister and the wife of Jove; COWPER. "He ended, and Achilles' bosom swell'd With indignation; wracking doubts ensued, Or to command his stormy spirit down. So doubted he, and undecided yet Stood drawing forth his falchion huge; when, lo! Were dear, and who alike watch'd over both, Pallas descended. At his back she stood, To none apparent, save himself alone, And seized his golden locks. Startled, he turn'd, And instant knew Minerva. Flash'd her eyes Terrific, whom in haste he thus bespake." SOUTHEY. "He spake-Achilles flamed-wrath, deep disdain, In this dread doubt, while now in act display'd, Who watch'd the rival chiefs with equal love, Seized his gold locks, and curb'd his madd'ning mood. Let Achilles has now lost all desire-all power to speak-and he late so insultingly, and scornfully, and savagely, and fiercely, and ferociously eloquent, is dumb. "ns páro® IInλeíwvi d'axos yéver'. Homer then in four lines says, that the heart of Achilles deliberated-to kill Atrides, or to subdue his own rage. The words he uses are strong as strong may be, and direct as his alternate purposes of slaughter or silence. them be so, therefore, in all translation. Old Chapman deserves to have his grave disturbed for having said "his heart bristled his bosom," which either means nothing, or that the hair thereon bristled, which is mean and miserable falsehood of the chest of the youth who excelled all living in heroic beauty. "Stood vext," is perhaps good-to them who remember Shakespeare's "still vexed Bermuthes." "This discursive part," no doubt, gives the right meaning, but is too formal and philosophical for the occasion. What follows on to the Apparition of Pallas, is forceful and rather grimwhich is good-but there is a dignity in the original-in the verbs, especially-which has forsaken Chapman's eyesight. Minerva, sent by Juno, the protectress of both heroes alike, comes from heaven, and takes Achilles by his yellow hair, who, astounded, turns his head, and by her stern eyes recognises the Goddess. Now when Chapman says that Athenia "shined about his temples," he is manifestly thinking not of her Person, which was there, but of Wisdom, of which she was Goddess-and this open expression of Homer's hidden meaning is as bad as can be, and brings out marringly the lesson which the great moral bard doubted not all the world would read for itself.-Otherwise the translation has the merit of much vigour. Dryden's version is, of course, also vigorous; but it is not literal, but licentious; and he wilfully violates throughout both the style and the spirit of Homer. The "hero sourly VOL. VIII. B. smiled," is in itself good, but not in the original; and one hates to see heightenings of the expression of any strong passion beyond the aim of the mind that depicted it. "And, justly by two tides of equal sway, Stood for a while suspended in his way," is coldly conceived and inaccurately expressed, as are the two, indeed the six lines, which follow-a sorry sort of declamation, in which the plainest statement is perverted and falsified, and fire made mere smoke. The rest is sweeping and sonorous; but thirteen lines of Greek into twenty-one of English, is a dilution that must be severely condemned. Pope's translation is very fine. It flows freely, and has few faults, except that it is somewhat too figurative. "Now fired by wrath, and now by reason cool'd," is an antithesis not to be found-though there is something like it-in Homer. "This whispers soft, his vengeance to control, And calm the rising tempest of his soul," sounds like commonplace to our ears now--though it is likewise common sense. "A soft whisper" did not suit the ear of Achilles—at least not from cool reason, though assuredly from warm Briseïs-and “A sable cloud conceal'd her from the rest,” is not in Homer; for Homer never spoke nonsense; and nonsense it would have been to have said that a sable cloud was present on this occasion. It Sotheby's translation, we may safely say, is admirable. has but one line more than the original—and loses little either of the style or sense of Homer. "Swell'd his high heart, and thrill'd in every vein,” is a line, the construction of which Pope was too fond of, and its latter half is weak and futile; and the last line of all,— "As from her eyes the living lightning flew," is a sorry substitute in its meretricious glitter, for δεινὼ δέ οἱ ὄσσε φάανθεν. But with these blemishes-which to some people may not seem blemishes at all, but beauties-the translation is such as probably to surpass the power of any other of our living Poets. Even more admirable is the translation by Cowper. It is almost as literal as translation can be; and we do not scruple that it is faultless. to say "Stood drawing forth his falchion huge; when lo! Down sent by Juno, to whom both alike Were dear, and who alike watched over both, is perfectly Homeric. But were we to indulge ourselves in criticism, we should find ourselves re-transcribing the whole" passage. Cowper is bald-Cowper is dull-Cowper is tame! So drivel the dunces—but even at this time of day, few feel, and fewer know, what is the power of blank verse-and of blank verse Cowper was a great master. Pallas has vanished away in the mansion of Ægis-armed Jove, and Achilles is left again to struggle with his own great heart. The awe of that sudden celestial visit yet lies upon him, and his sword is chained in the scabbard. But though he will obey the mandate, he feels free in his obedience still to fling scorn and wrath into the face of the King. Enough that he slays him not where he stands, but yet allows him life. Juno herself, nor Jove either, shall wrong him out of another—and a lasting revenge. Nay, Minerva's self-the Goddess of Wisdom-had given him the privilege to shoot through Agamemnon's heart the arrows of disdain-swift as those of death-and foretold that the day is doomed, when his great loss will be far greatlier repaid. Such, we may believe, was his mood; the wrath of Achilles again bursts forth, and Homer says, ere Πηλείδης δ' ἐξαῦτις ἀταρτηροῖς ἐπέεσσιν This is introduction enough-and in the usual style of Homer. But it does not satisfy Dryden; and he chooses to tell us how Achilles looked and felt, contrary to the positive assertion of Homer. "At her departure, his disdain return'd; The fire she fann'd with greater fury burn'd; Rumbling within, till thus it found a vent." Homer does not say that Minerva fanned the fire-that would have indeed been a work of supererogation, and a Mile sian fulfilment of the mandate of Juno. "Rumbling within," is in the vein of old Chapman's "bristling his breast." Pope saw the simple words, and felt their power-and therefore says sufficiently well "Nor yet the rage his boiling heart forsook, Cowper writes, "But though from violence, yet not from words which is stiff and formal-as if written by a Quaker. "But Peleus' son again, with gather'd ire, Hurl'd on the monarch words of living fire.” Just as But why He did so. His words were of "living fire." from Minerva's eyes "living lightning" flew. should Mr Sotheby say what Homer did not either in this passage, or in any other in the Iliad or Odyssey? All the translators-except Pope perhaps-have failed; so difficult must it be to do apparently a very easy thing. But Achilles speaks and we cry "Hear! hear! hear!" though he is sadly out of order and others may cry "Chair chair! chair!" The son of Thetis excelled in a reply. Had Lord Brougham "the accomplishment of verse," we think he would give the closing speech of Achilles with characteristic power. DRYDEN. "Dastard and drunkard, mean and insolent, |