Page:On translating Homer (1905).djvu/141

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

moral genius', I cannot understand his suppressing them, and perverting the sense of my words.

2. In p. 52, Mr Arnold quotes Chapman's translation of ἆ δείλω, 'Poor wretchedbeasts' (of Achilles' horses), on which he comments severely. He does not quote me. Yet in p. 100, after exhibiting Cowper's translation of the same passage, he adds: 'There is no want of dignity here, as in the versions of Chapman and of Mr Newman, which I have already quoted'. Thus he leads the reader to believe that I have the same phrase as Chapman! In fact, my translation is:

 Ha! why on Peleus, mortal prince,
Bestowed we you, unhappy!

If he had done me the justice of quoting, it is possible that some readers would not have thought my rendering intrinsically 'wanting in dignity', or less noble than Mr Arnold's own, which is:

 Ah! unhappy pair! to Peleus[1] why did we give you, To a mortal?

In p. 52, he with very gratuitous insult remarks, that 'Poor wretched beasts' is a little over-familiar; but this is no objection to it for the ballad-manner[2]: it is good*

  1. If I had used such a double dative, as 'to Peleus
    to a mortal', what would he have said of my syntax?
  2. Ballad-manner! The prevalent ballad-metre is the Common Metre of our Psalm tunes: and yet he assumes that whatever is in this metre must be on the