accidental. Whatever has been consciously adopted from elsewhere has been acknowledged in a foot-note, unless so familiar as to have become common property. Thus I have not thought it necessary to avow obvious obligations to Shakespeare, nor the "airy rings" of the vultures' flight, in the first chorus of the Agamemnon, to Jonson, nor the "sleep of swords" that fine rendering of the Homeric χάλκεος ὕπνος, to Kingsley, nor the rhythm of one choric passage in The Libation-Bearers to Mr. W. Morris. Such things are public property now.
Part of this translation, viz., the Agamemnon, having been already published, I have had, for that part, the advantage of public criticism. I have carefully considered all such criticism, so far as it has reached me, and have removed, I hope, all positive errors that have been detected. Those critics who have complained rather of the general faults of the translation—such, e.g., as diffuseuess, or a modern tone—than of particular errors, will, I hope, believe my assurance that their words have been duly weighed. If I have not recast the translation to the extent their criticism demanded, it is neither from doubting its substantial truth, nor the seriousness of the fault. But I am not sanguine, after various attempts, of my being able to translate in a closer and more pregnant style. It is not a question of how the thing could be done best, in the abstract; it is, unfortunately, the more limited and painful question, how a particular individual can do it least imperfectly.
My main obligations, in the matter of Æschylus, are expressed in the dedication: in addition, I am indebted to the Rev. W. A. Fearon, Assistant Master of Winchester, for revising a large part of the Agamemnon; to Mr. C. Kegan Paul for useful criticisms, mainly, though not wholly, on the same play; to Mr. A. O. Prickard, Fellow and Lecturer of New College, Oxford, for incidental assistance throughout
