Part 24

The feeling is more mixed with which we touch upon Mr. T. Hart Davies's _Translation of Catullus into English Verse_ (London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879), the author of which is a quondam Oxonian in the Indian Civil Service. Fully persuaded that Catullus is very untranslatable, and that the subtle charm of his dainty versification evaporates, it is evidence alike of Mr. Hart Davies's courage and culture that, afar from classical libraries, he has recreated his mind and tastes with the reproduction of one of the most genuine classical poets; given us anew the touching songs to Lesbia, and the unequalled nuptial songs (lxi. and lxii.); and rendered with more or less success the pictorial epic, in petto, of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and the pathetic allusions to an early-lost brother in the poem to Hortalus. He deserves, too, the praise of having read carefully the recent literature of the subject, and guaged with creditable acuteness and discrimination the lucubrations of Professor R. Ellis, the criticisms of Mr. Munro, and the critical essays of Schwabe, Heyse, and Couat. He hesitates, however, it would seem, to accept Munro's well-sustained rehabilitation of Cæsar and Mamurra (_à propos_ of Poem xxix. on Cæsar), and in two or three passages seems to us to err in point of prolixity, which is as foreign as can be conceived to the style of his original, as well as, in one or two places, in misconception of his sense. In either aspect, he cannot be regarded as competing (which indeed he does not aspire to do) with Theodore Martin: but we cannot honestly say that we regard his version of the Atys as an improvement in readableness on that of one of the ablest of critics, but most puzzling and hopeless of verse-translators, Professor Robinson Ellis. Indeed, it is a question whether he has imported any improvement into the rendering of his Galliambics by adopting the Tennysonian rather than the Catullian rhythm and measure. Mr. Hart Davies is mostly happy in his shorter versions. The invitation to Cæcilius is bright and brisk (p. 33): there is a touching sadness in the lines to Cornificius (p. 35). The stanzas to the poet's self on the "Coming of Spring" (p. 43) breathe much of the tiptoe of expectation and love of adventure infused into the original lines. And as a neat sample of the translator's muse may be quoted the transcript of the "Lines to Sirmio," adequately executed, and endorsed with some of the original pathos and picturesqueness--

"Sirmio, fairest of all isles that be, Or all peninsulas that ocean laves, Whether around them roll the mighty sea, Or a lake's placid waves. Thee with what joy, what rapture do I view, Returned from Thynia and Bithynia's plain! I scarce can credit that the bliss is true Thee to behold again. Oh! what more blessed is than labours past! In weary wanderings abroad we roam, Then spent with toil we come again at last, Seeking our rest at home. This for our toils the sole reward is found, Hail, lovely Sirmio, and thou Lydian mere! And now, my home, let all thy laughter sound, Now is thy master here."

Mr. Hart Davies's temporary exile has obviously the solace of scholarship.

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If a wide divergence from the beaten track into fresh fields and pastures new be a merit, as it must be to jaded schoolmasters, if not to school-boys, some praise should be accorded to Mr. Heitland, a Fellow and Lecturer of St. John's, Cambridge, and his coadjutor, Mr. Raven, for having furnished the Pitt Press Series with so good an edition of that part of the _History of Quintus Curtius_, which relates to the Indian expedition of Alexander the Great. The subject, author, and hero are to modern readers novel and unhackneyed: and there is that suspicion of imperfect knowledge attaching to all three which sets the mind on the qui vive to acquire what is knowable about them. For such an undertaking no better guides could be needed. An introduction primes the student with the needful information (=a=) as to Curtius and his book; (=b=) as to Alexander's career; while Appendix D (187-9) supplements from Mr. Talboy Wheeler's "History of India from the Earliest Ages" the general and current information as to the plan of his Indian campaign. Anent the date and authorship of Curtius's history, it is shown to be the work of Q. Curtius Rufus, a rhetorician of the reign of Claudius, and referable to the silver age of Latin literature. His transparent imitation of Livy has suggested the not improbable supposition that he may have been even that historian's pupil, nor is it an impertinent criticism of the editors' that in common with that master Curtius seems to ignore the "high aims and farsightedness which give its grandeur to Alexander's character." The string of notable usages in Curtius's style, given in pp. 14-15, exhibits more than one palpable Livianism; and the use of poetical language bespeaks his attentive study of Virgil. Tiros will be comforted by hearing that "if Curtius is less pleasant to read than Livy, he is also less difficult." The criticisms of the editors on the grounds of his historical value at the revival period are interesting and perspicuous, and the special interest of the particular portion of history adopted as a specimen of the author needs no apology in a country where the reigning sovereign has the collateral title of Empress of India. Six chapters of the eighth Book bring the reader through the country west of the Indus to the bank of that river, its passage, and the ensuing battle on the eastern bank, with the defeat of the army of Porus; whilst the ninth Book embraces Alexander's advance through the Punjab, his operations in descending the Jhelam and Chenab, his descent of the Indus, and exploration of its mouth, with an account also of the homeward march; and the least that can be said of Messrs. Heitland and Raven's editorial work, whether critical or explanatory, is, that no difficulty of text is overlooked or imperfectly handled, no discrepancy, as comparing Curtius with parallel authorities, ignored. A test-passage, wherein to prove this statement, may be taken in the fourteenth chapter of the eighth Book, the battle between Alexander and Porus, which is described with unflagging care and zeal from first to last, the situations and details being compared, and, where possible, reconciled with Arrian, the poetical phrases characteristic of Curtius pointed out and illustrated, and the unusual words, _e.g., copidas_ ("choppers" like a Goorka knife, the =kopis= from the same root as =koptô=), clearly though succinctly explained. On Alexander's order to Coenus in §§ 15 of the battle chapter, "ipse dextrum move et turbatis signa infer" (advance the right wing, &c.), an excellent note, for which Mr. Heitland undertakes the sole responsibility, accredits him, in our judgment, as a most sound historical commentator, by the exhaustiveness wherewith he reconciles Arrian and Curtius's view of Alexander's position and movements, and those of Coenus. The former with the main body took the Indian horse in flank, before they could change their front, and enabled Coenus to fall on what had been their front but was now their disordered flank: and as to the difficulty in the way of this explanation, that according to Arrian the war-chariots were in front of the Indian horse, it is justly deemed easier to conceive Coenus eluding these clumsy adversaries, than Alexander expecting him to see from the Macedonian left the right moment for his own charge, and then wheel round the whole Indian army, and execute his orders opportunely. With the same lucidity is the whole narrative commented on: and every geographical, historical, or military difficulty investigated, with a commendable eye both to ancient and modern references and authorities. Equally interesting, too, will be found the elucidations of questions of style, such as in viii. §§ 10, where "igni _alita_ sepulchra" reveals a certainly post-Augustan but doubtfully Ciceronian form; or as in viii. 14 §§ 41 the use of "malum" (plague take you) borrowed interjectionally from the comic poets and, as is shown in the notes ad loc., from Cicero De Off. ii. §§ 53. Students, however, must search this volume minutely to understand aright the helps it affords to their just estimate of Quintus Curtius Rufus as a rhetorical moralist and historian, worthy of perusal in the wake of Livy and of Seneca. Maps, indices, and list of names, are given, which will be found of service.

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For our next topic of criticism recourse must be had to Ciceronian Latin, and to the famous speech of Rome's greatest orator, which is generally reckoned the first of his public and political orations. Called in the MSS. the speech "De imperio Gnæi Pompeii" "apud Quirites" it is better known as the oration _pro lege Maniliâ_, and because there is no compendious school edition of this speech, apart from others of the same orator in the hands of English school-boys, Professor Wilkins, of Owens College, has judiciously undertaken to prepare an edition of it, with the cognizance, sanction, and assistance of Karl Halm, of Munich, and his smaller edition for English students. The English professor's name is a sufficient earnest of his work's thoroughness, and though it might be matter of doubt whether his historical introduction of over forty pages is not unnecessarily circumstantial (we note that in Chambers' preface to the same oration in the "Ciceronis Selectæ Orationes," 1849, of their Educational Course, it is limited to two), it must be admitted that a complete preliminary summary has the result of shortening afterwork by admitting of copious references to it in the notes in place of explanation. Such is certainly the case with Mr. Wilkins's present task (_M. Tullii Ciceronis De Imperio Gnoei Pompeii Oratio ad Quirites_, by A. S. Wilkins, M.A., Professor of Latin in the Owens College, Manchester. London: Macmillan & Co., 1879), where the introduction traces consecutively the career and campaigns and varying fortunes of Mithridates, during over twenty years, through his struggles with Lucullus, and his easy resistance to Acilius Glabrio, down to the period when the tribune Manilius proposed a Bill to commit the conduct and consummation of the war to the then favourite of fortune, Pompey the Great. Against this Bill were arrayed the Moderate Republicans, and the talents of the orator Hortensius, whilst on behalf of it spoke Julius Cæsar, either with an eye to a future precedent in his own case, or perhaps to create a reaction. It is probable, however, that the masterly eloquence of Cicero in defence of the Bill, and his exhaustive demonstration of Pompey's fitness for the supreme command against Mithridates, were the causes of the general and irresistible acceptance of the Manilian proposal. As Mr. Wilkins notes at the close of his introduction, this speech contains the best example from antiquity of the regular arrangement of a speech of the deliberate class, while the third section of the argument presents a model of demonstrative oratory scarcely paralleled in the days of the Republic, except in the funeral orations. As has been already remarked, the fulness of Professor Wilkins's introduction tends to disencumber his commentary and its notes of digressive and indirect matter; and the result is highly favourable to the due mastery of the sense and gist of the oration by the patient student. Every passage has its critical difficulties explained; every uncommon construction or use of a word is noted; every antithesis is pointed out by the observant editor. In the first class may be instanced the use in c. ii. of _vectigalibus_ in the masculine gender for _tributaries_, which has its parallel in § 45; in the third the contrast in c. iii., between "In Asiæ luce h.e," "in the foreground of Asia," _lux_ being used of what is present to the eyes of all, and open to extensive commerce, as opposed to "_Ponti latebris_," as the hiding-place of Mithridates is termed just before. In the same chapter there is an antithesis, as is well shown in the description of past generals having carried off _insignia victoriæ, non victoriam_, "only triumphs, not a victory;" and as a sample of other notes dealing with fiscal duties and such like, we may notice those in c. vi., on "ubertate agrorum" "magnitudine pastionis," and the sources of revenue farmed by the "publicani." In the same passage _scriptura_ is the "rent for pasturage," and _custodiis_ (§ 16) = "coastguard posts, to prevent vessel unloading unless at the emporia where there were custom-houses." For _publicanis omissis_, a despaired-of reading in c. vii. § 18, the editor adopts the conjecture _publicanorum bonis_ or _fortunis amissis_; and indeed seldom fails in the likeliest cure for a corrupt word or text. Incidentally he is rich in rules for orthography, as where on "tot milibus" he cites Lachmann (Lucret. i. 313) for the use of the single _l_ where a long _i_ is followed by a short one in the next syllable; nor does he fail to note any memorable change of construction, _e.g._, where in c. xiii. in the sentence, "_Hiemis_ enim non _avaritiæ_ perfagium majores nostri in sociorum atque amicorum tectis esse voluerunt," we have a change from the objective to the subjective genitive, "a refuge _from_ the winter, not _for_ avarice." But enough has been said to signify the merit of this handbook; and we must deal more briefly with such other Latin volumes as are still on our list.

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Among these perhaps Mr. Reid's Lælius (_M. Tullii Ciceronis Lælius de Amicitia_, by James S. Reid, M.L.: Cambridge University Press, 1879) is the most notable, an edition based mainly on Seyffert's elaborate edition, yet evidently strengthened by seasonable comparison with the best German editions. Mr. Reid disowns acquaintance with any English edition of the Lælius, having only heard of that of Mr. Arthur Sidgwick, when his own was far advanced through the press. The object and purpose of the edition is twofold, viz. (1) elucidation of the subject-matter and comparison of the editor's own conclusions touching it with those of other editing scholars; and (2) a thorough elucidation of the Latinity of the dialogue, a task to which all who are cognizant of his edition of Cicero's speeches for Archias and for Balbus will admit his eminent fitness. A fourfold introduction summarises the salient points of Cicero, as a writer of philosophy; the scope of this treatise on "Friendship:" the structure, personages, and other circumstances of the dialogue, and a quasi-dramatic analysis of the same. It will be found that Cicero, whilst having no sympathy with the Epicurean philosophy of his day, sided mainly with the Peripatetics, though inclining in a few points of detail to the Stoics. An instructive disquisition on the sources of the dialogue opens out various clues to inquiring students, and suggests particularly minuter testing of the question how far Cicero directly imitated Plato's Lysis, which is perhaps more probable than that he used for it the Nicomachean Ethics, although, in form, beyond a doubt the Lælius is more Aristotelian than Platonic. The "mitis sapientia Læli" in the dialogue stands out in contrast with the genial learning of Mucius Scævola and the severer cultivation of Gaius Fannius. An interesting passage in the dialogue is that in which Lælius states a question relating to friendship, in which he was to some extent at issue with Scipio, viz., the difficulty of friendship enduring a whole lifetime. Scipio held the negative view, and Lælius demurred to it, and in c. x., xi., &c., the occurrences which tend to break off friendship are enumerated. In the tenth chapter are to be found two or three very apt elucidations of the text, such as that on the construction of "contentione condicionis," and the sense of condicio (not "conditio") in § 34, but one note (16) on "optimis quibusque" stands out as a sample of exhaustive criticism. The argument of Lælius is that there is no greater curse in friendships than, in the run of men, the desire of money; in the best, the desire of honour and glory: "in optimis quibusque honoris certamen et gloria." Let us see how Mr. Reid examines this last clause, which he compares with the sentiment, "optimus quisque gloria maxime ducitur," in the oration for Archias. The best authors, it is shown, use only the _neuter_ plural of _quisque_, and that with a superlative; Cic. Fam. vii. 33, where we have "literas longissimas quasque," being exceptional, because literæ, "an epistle," has no singular. Mr. Reid instances, indeed, from the De Officiis ii. 75, "Leges et proximæ quæque duriores," but only to propose an emendation to a senseless reading, viz., "Leges, et proxima quæque"--_i.e._, "laws, and harsher each of them than its predecessor." In the present case, he adds, "quibusque" may be used for =hekastois= in the sense of "each set of people," or the plural may be due merely to assimilation with "plerisque." In a note on the difficult passage, p. 41, "et minime tum quidem Gaius frater, nunc idem acerrimus," Mr. Reid, rightly, it should seem, adopts the interpretation of Madvig, Opusc., 2, 281, that _minime_ qualifies _acer_ to be supplied from "acerrimus." This sample of interpretational tact must suffice from a copious inventory; and with reference to helpful elucidation of matter and illustration of proper names, quotations, adagia, and what not, it need only be said that it is in this edition always sound and seasonable.

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For the same employers, the Syndics of the Pitt Press, Mr. A. G. Peskett, M.A., of Magdalen College, has carefully edited the fourth and fifth books of Cæsar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, _Gai Juli Cæsaris De Bello Gallico Commentariorum, IV. V._ (Cambridge University Press, 1879), with a helpful commentary derived from study of German and English editors, and speculations on the topographical, geographical, and astronomical problems involved in Cæsar's account. These books, it will be remembered, contain _inter alia_ the description of Cæsar's Bridge over the Rhine, his preparations for invading Britain, his first somewhat abortive attempts, and then, after a winter in Italy and Illyricum, his maturer arrangements, and landing--not without damage to his fleet--on the shore of Britain. The second of these campaigns embraces the narrative of the treachery of Ambiorix and the utter defeat of the Romans, v. 36-7. In the fourth book, one of the most interesting problems is the construction of Cæsar's Rhine Bridge, c. 17; whether Cæsar's method of strengthening the four bearing piles with their transverse beams was (as Kraner and Heller practically agree) by four fibulæ at each junction of the beam with the piles (eight in all), or, as Cohausen believes, by two fibulæ at each end, one serving instead of cross-piece c, in fig. 1, for the beam to rest upon. Napoleon's view of the fibulaæ, given in fig. 4, p. 63, is far less tenable, and the most reasonable view is that of Heller. In c. 36, Book V., note, we have good examples of the actual words of Ambiorix to Titurius, as they may be gathered from the _oratio obliqua_ in which the historian casts them. In c. 37, it should seem that the reading _lapsi_ has less likelihood, though better authority, than "elapsi," and Napoleon's identification of the site of the battle is shown to be accurate, in a note discussing the topography of Tongres, the Geer, and the village of Lowaige. From a cursory examination of this edition of two interesting books of Cæsar's Gallic War we should be disposed to congratulate the young student of intelligence, into whose hands a volume at once so helpful and so lucid may fall. There remains on our list only one Latin volume, the third part of Professor Mayor's Juvenal for Schools, containing Satires X. and XI. But this, as well as a batch of recent editions of Greek plays and Greek authors, such as Xenophon, Lucian, &c., must be postponed until another time.

III.--ESSAYS, NOVELS, POETRY, &c.

(_Under the Direction of_ MATTHEW BROWNE.)

In referring to two more of Messrs. Macmillan and Co.'s _English Men of Letters_ we shall reproduce, reckless of the charge of "damnable iteration," the charge we have made before. Here is _Burke_, by Mr. John Morley, and _Hume_, by Professor Huxley, each volume containing over two hundred close pages; and most admirable volumes they are. But let us turn again to the prospectus and note its language: "These Short Books are addressed to the general public with a view both of stirring and satisfying an interest in literature and its great topics in the minds of those who have to run as they read." This language is both wide and careful; the old metaphor may be read more or less loosely, of course; and it may be said that those who care much for Burke and Hume must be provided for in the series, and that the writers who deal with them have treated their topics as pleasantly as may be. We do not deny this, and the little volumes are substantial additions to the literature of the day. But they are not for readers who have to run with their books in their hand.