The meadows trembled, as she mov'd along ; The Naiads wail'd, the lakes and rills among. Amaze and fear the soul of Jason felt; Yet, in his thoughts Medea's warning dwelt. Nor turn'd him, ere he reach'd the social train.' Vol. i. p. 169 We must close our extracts with the following pathetic description of Medea's flight from the royal palace, which is deeply pathetic in the original, but given, we think, more tamely and prosaically by our translator, than many other passages. -She kist her bed, And parting tears with eager passion shed.- Tore from her beauteous head a tress of hair, She calls her mother's name, with heartfelt sighs. When cruel fate bids some fair captive roam, The bolts and bars obey the magic song; To seek the fane her eager thoughts were bent, Vol. i. p. 181. Each nerve in flight, meantime, the virgin strain'd. On Phrontis' name she call'd, with shrilly sound, Plaintive she spoke, while piteous tears distill'd; He gently rais'd her, as his knees she grasp'd; The virgin's hand, with plighted hand, he prest.' Vol.i. P. 183. The entire poem is concluded in the first volume: the second is devoted to notes upon it; and the third to literary essays connected with its story. The notes are less critical than explanatory, occasionally derived from Mr. Stephens and Mr. Fawkes, but far more frequently from the very valuable Oxford edition. To these notes we have two objections to offer, in their present state: the first is, that they possess no reference, either of page or verse, to the poem itself, whence we often find great difficulty in connecting them; and the next (by which this difficulty becomes very considerably increased) that they refer to another, and probably an anterior and less correct copy, of the writer's translation; in consequence of which, the text quoted in the second volume does not always correspond with the text in the first. Thus, p. 10 of the notes cites 'Apheidas' happy reign.]' while, in p. 10 of the poem itself, it is written 'Apheidas' happy realm So again, in the notes, p. 19, we have Acastas adventurous youth.]' while, in the corresponding passage, in the poem, p. 18, we have no such expression as adventurous youth, nor even any thing that will match with it. Thus, once more, in p. 47 of the notes, we have • Idai Dactyli.]' although, in the passage of the translation to which this note refers, the English reader, for whose benefit, we presume, the note is written, will not only find neither of these words, but nothing that in the remotest manner alludes to them. We might select innumerable instances of the same inattention and want of adjustment; but the present are sufficient. Independently of these blemishes, which we hope to see corrected in a second edition, the notes are generally perti ment and useful, though bearing too frequently the marks of carelessness in composition, and at times too trivial, as well as pleonastic. They were probably a juvenile performance. We meet, as we have already remarked, with no display of recondite criticism, or elaborate philology: but they are designed for the English reader, rather than for the scholar; and we observe, that, for the benefit of the former, the Greek quotations are occasionally printed in Roman characters. This must, unquestionably, prove a prodigious source of instruction and entertainment. As our author has given numerous instances of parallel passages and imitations, both in Greek and Latin, we would suggest the propriety, in the event of a second edition, of accompanying them with an English version; and, if we have not already prepared for him too much labour, it would be a convenience to have the portions of the original poem, which are either cited or referred to, arithmetically specificated by the number of the line from which they are brought. Deep revolved.] The word, in the original, is porphuresken, which comes from porphura, a kind of fish, which is found in the most profound depths of the sea.' Vol. ii. P. 23. What the author here means by a kind of fish, we know not:-as for the rest, never having sounded the sea in its most profound depths, we cannot speak as to the accuracy of the gauge. We apprehend, however, that this kind of fish is the murex, so celebrated by ancient writers for the brilliancy and durability of its dye-purpureus colos conchyli-and which, instead of being dragged from the most profound depths of the sea, was originally discovered on the Tyrian coasts, and continued, while it was in use, to be a source of considerable wealth to that industrious island. We cannot forbear to observe, that the inaccuracy we have just noticed, of quoting from a passage which does not exist in the translated poem, is here equally manifest. In the copy of the version before us, there is no such term as deep revolved. We apprehend it alludes to v. 743, in which we meet with • Much he revolved the perils of the way :' but we cannot be certain. In reality, although not at the bottom of the sea, we are quite out at sea, and that without a compass to direct us throughout the whole of this and the anterior page; in which not half the references correspond with the English version of the poem. * Cyanea's rocks.] These rocks were called the Symplegades.-They had this name from their colour.-See a preceding note. Book 1 Vol. ii. P. 93. . Never, perhaps, did so short a note contain so many proofs of inaccuracy and want of precision. The English readet, having perused it, has still to inquire-what note? what name? what colour? and the Greek scholar, who, or what, is Cyanea? If the former be a grammarian, he will necessarily suppose, from the construction of the sentence, that the rocks were denominated Symplegades from their colour: but he will here be mistaken-Symplegades alluding merely to their reciprocal projection, or overhanging prominences: from their colour, they were termed Cyanea, or the Black rocks. But who or what Cyanea was, we have yet to learn. • Now behind earth.] He means here, that the sun sunk beneath the horizon. The poet seems to suppose, that the confines of Ethiopia bounded the two hemispheres.--The ignorance of the ancients in geography, was very extraordinary. It appears, that Herodotus did not believe that the earth was of a globular form.' Vol. ii. p. 177. Herodotus was not the only man of learning who accredited this error. The spherical figure of the earth, and the existence of antipodes, was not generally admitted, till the bold adventure of Velasco de Gama into the Indian Ocean, by the Cape of Good Hope; and the tenet, even at this last period, was regarded as heretical. The stoics were the only philosophers of ancient times who allowed to the earth a spheroidal configuration: they had no idea, however, of antipodal nations; and only admitted the former, from the conceit that the universe itself was globular, and that the earth and planets partook of the same form consecutively. The more general, and indeed almost universal, opinion was that of the Epicureans, who imagined that the earth towards its basis became gradually more attenuate and symphoneous with the nature of the air, on whose bosom it was supposed to rest. Thus Epicurus, in his epistle to Herodotus, την γην τω αερι εποχεισθαι, ὡς συγγενη. So also Lucretius, pursuing the same doctrine, Rer. Nat. v. 535. Terraque ut in mediâ mundi regione quiescat, Had we not made the observation repeatedly before, we should be again tempted to remark, upon this note, that the reference which introduces it-Now behind earth-does not occur in the text of the tranlations. But enough of the notes: we advance to the third volume, the contents of which, as our allotted space is more than occupied, we must reserve for future remark. (To be continued.} |