XIX.
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER
Like others whose work happens to lie in the classics as much as in English, I have been indebted to Professor F. M. K. Foster's English Translations from the Greek (Columbia University, 1918) and the deeper one sinks into bibliographical quagmires the more one appreciates the labor, as well as the infinite possibilities of error, involved in compiling such a list. I say this because it is a rather easy and ungracious thing to pick holes in one section of a bibliographical manual covering a wide field. An independent survey of Homeric translations, which I undertook in the course of an attempt to trace the history of classical themes in English verse, discloses a number of omissions and some apparent mistakes in Dr. Foster's section on Homer. In presenting this supplement to his work I abide (except in one or two items) by his own principles, and confine myself to literal translations, excluding excerpts, adaptations, paraphrases and the like. In the following chronological list the numbered items refer to Foster's book; those without numbers are additions:
"2. Penelopes Complaint: Or, A Mirrour for wanton Minions. Taken out of Homers Odissea, and written in English Verse, by Peter Colse. 1596. 4o." (Foster, p.62).
This is far from a literal translation of Homer, being a free adaptation and paraphrase of some passages. It should not therefore be included.
"8, The strange, vvonderfull and bloudy Battell betweene the Frogs and Mise:. . . .Paraphrastically done into English Heroycall verse by W. F. CCC. 1613. 4o." (Foster, p.63).
This also is not a translation, but a free, expanded paraphrase. The date quoted is probably a misprint for 1603.
"11. The Crowne of all Homers Workes Batrachomyomachia Or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise. His Hymn's—and—Epigrams Translated According to ye Originall. By George Chapman. [1624?] Fol.
Reprinted: [Introduction by S. W. Singer] 1818; [Edited by Smith] 1858; [Edited by Richard Hooper] 1887." (Foster, p.64).
I do not know any edition of Chapman's pieces by Smith. Hooper's edition was published in 1858, not 1887, and bears the imprint "London: John Russell Smith, Soho Square, 1858."
