The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

■ U Y ■ 788 not been taken advantage of. The walls are useless in a military point of view, affording no lasting protection. The writer urges the propriety of fortifying the city, by strengthen ing some of these lines of, defence ; not mean ing that the Turkish operations should be limited to the protection of their capital, but in order that its maintenance may be safely entrusted to inferior troops, leaving the elite of the army free for more distant operations. Schumla, when visited by General Macin tosh, was almost unprotected. The defences had been allowed to fall into ruin, and, though they have lately been repaired, the town is described as " rather a fortified position, re " quiring a large body of men to defend it, " than a fortress." The Turks are in the habit of exaggerating the strength of this place, and their opinion has become general in Europe; but it may be turned both on the eastern and western side ; and even the en trenched camp in its vicinity, though on pre cipitous ground, "has never beep very strong." The position, however, is important, and it could not be blockaded without difficulty. Varna had been much injured in the war of 1828, and was under repair. The works are "on a plan of doubtful expediency, their cir " eumference very great, and therefore requiring " the presence of a numerous garrison.' Anapa, on the Caucasian shore of the Black Sea, was originally a Turkish fort, three times captured by Russia, and at last ceded to her by Lord Aberdeen's treaty of Adrianople. When seen by General Macintosh it mounted eighty guns, but was weak and badly laid out. Of the Circassian tribes we learn little that is new ; and, though the general visited Sebasto pol, its strength was then far inferior to what it is now. The soil of the surrounding coun try seemed rocky, and difficult of excavation, a circumstance which of course would add materially to the difficulties of a siege. From later information General Mackintosh adds, that last year Sebastopol was still undefended on the land side: time has now been given to Rus sia to repair this blunder, which she is doing vigorously. No mere descent, says our author, could possibly succeed : When we consider the great scale on which arrange ments must be made for attacking even an imperfectly fortified place, the heavy and cumbrous cannon and siege stores which it would be necessary to land here, the great qctantity of provisions requisite for the support of the be sieging corps, to last possibly some months, and which must be collected in a secure situation ; and when we take into calculation what a large force ought also to be kept in front to resist attempts to raise the siege ; when we c.insi der further that the army must land on a level shore, com manded at no great distance by heights of very consider• able strength, and that the area where it would have to make all its preparations is too confined for the operations of so large a force as would be required fur such an attack, I feel persuaded that my view of the subject will be ad mitted to be joust by all who have had experience in such matters, though it may not meet the wishes of many who are too impatient that a blow should be struck at any cost in that direction. The difficulty of disembarking an expedi tionary force on an island or peninsula like the Crimea consists mainly in finding a proper landing-place. The requisites are many : first, a good harbour for men-of war and trans ports ; next., a position such that the ships can afford protection to troops while disem barking; thirdly, a position not easily attacked in front or flank, but capable of defence against a superior force until all the troops shall be landed. General Macintosh thinks that the occupation of the Crimea can only be managed as follows :—first, by taking Anapa and the other forts on the Circassian coast, so as to set those tribes entirely free ; then, by occupying the whole mountain tract of the south shore from Kertch to Sebastopol, upon which the assailing armies might fall back if beaten, and from which they might advance if victorious. The Iliad of Homer. With Notes. By W. G. T. Barter. London : Longmans. WHETHER it be possible to give in English any adequate translation of the Homeric poems is very doubtful. The number of our consonants, and the recurrence of the harshest amongst them, make English a very difficult instrument for the imitation of a language so licit in luscious cadences as the Hellenic longue. The constant use of our propositions " of," " to," " with," &c., and the superior con- THE PRESS. ciseness and euphony resulting from the Greek declensions, interpose other obstacles in the way of spirited translation. Our blank verse, also, notwithstanding Milton's glorious achieve ments in it, is felt, by almost all persons, to be too cold for the language of poetical emotion. In saying so we do not forget the harmony which it received from Akenside, as well as the popularity of Thomson and Cowper's per formances. On the other hand, our recog nised heroic verse, as employed by Pope in his version of the " is felt to weary by its monotonous tinkling, and to want the deep-toned sound requisite for epic utter ances. Racine and the French tragedians have even less of the elinquant than " Pope's Homer," on account of the laws of French verse requiring a succession of mute cadences at the end of the alternate couplets. Possibly a less mechanical construction than Pope employed would compromise the difficulty between the ,jingling monotony of our penta meters, and the stiffness of our blank verse. Mr. Barter has chosen the Spenserian stanza for his " metrical " version of the " Iliad." For such a choice there is nothing to plead but the harmony of its cadences. But it is obviously fitted only for picturesque or con templative poetry, and its characteristic lan guor renders it unsuited to an epic, where rapid action and violent contrasts with pas sionate characters are everywhere presented. Of all stanzas, also, the Spenserian must be written with the strictest attention to euphony; and Mr. Barter has no ear for poetical sounds. Before commencing his work he did not prac tise his powers in writing verse. In the histrionic profession, when an artist attempts special parts, it is necessary that he must first be a genuine actor and thoroughly versed in stage business. So translators should be skilled in the use of the poetical lang uage of their own tongues before essaying land give versions of classical poets. In recording our emphatic disapproval of the present performance, we are obliged to recollect the first and last pages of the vo lume. Mr. Barter tells us in his preface : The following, then, is offered as the most literal me trical English version of the Iliad hitherto published, and certainly the most literal in rhyme. • • • • That he has always succeeded it would be vain to assert ; but he can conscientiously declare that he has never swerved without a feeling of discomfort proportioned to the stre nuous efforts he has always made to avoid the necessity. And this constant endeavour, he ventures to flatter him self, has been attended with at least this result, that a closer version has been produced than the reader would, perhaps, at hearing of a rhymed translation, have expected. But a poem may be rhymed without melody, as verses may scan without smoothness. His version is wholly deficient in sweetness, be sides abounding in several defects of con struction. We regret being obliged to say so when we meet the following pathetic postscript to this laboriously-composed volume : My task is ended, and the looking back upon it seems like the retrospect of a life ; not for the space it covers, for some six years, reckoning back from the 28th of April, 1813, when toe last stanza was written, would suffice for that; but from the recollections that crowd within it : with all of which is associated one, who is now no mote, and in whose society it was for the most part composed. To her solicitude it is owing that this work, as it now stands, and which seems to me as her property, was ready for press, even to the transcription of all but the few last notes, when she was taken from me. To the task of publication, which now seems a melancholy duty, as carrying out her wishes, I address myself, but with feelings how different from those with which the work was begun! But I have felt it a duty, and its discharge in this case, as in most others, has not been without its benefit, for the mechanical labour of passing it through the press, at a time when I am not ashamed to confess myself to have been little fit for any higher occupation, has beguiled some heavy hours and heavy thoughts. And now it is done, I look to the re sult with very mingled sentiments, ns one who feels that on this side the grave he shall see no more that face which would have brightened at its success, and which its failure, on the other hand, can now no longer cloud. We respect these feelings, but we must express our surprise at one of Mr. Barter's lingual accomplishments, to whom the Italian tongue is known, asking readers to approve of the constant cacophony and harsh con struction in this translation. Take, for ex ample, his mode of rendering the opening lines of the fifth book of the " Iliad." : And then to Plumed Tydides gave Pallas Athene strength and might that be I)istinguish'd far above all Argives brave lie should, and win renown exceudingly. SATURDAY, And kindled from his helm and buckler she Unresting tire. E'en as th' autumnal star, That wash'd in ocean showeth lustrously, Such fire from head and shoulders gleaming far She lit; and drove him where they fought iu th►ck of war. These lines cannot be accepted as "metrical" in any but the lowest sense, and the gram matical construction does not accord with either Greek or English. But the next stanza is infinitely worse: — Was 'rnongst the Trojans Dares, blameless, rich, Priest of Ilephaistos he. His sons were twain Hight Phegeus and blteus, skilful each In tight. These, leaving then their folk, were fain On him make onset. From their car maintain The contest they, he ou the ground on foot. When rushing on they nigh each other been Then Phegeus first the long-shade spear sent out Which o'er Tydides' shoulder pass'd, and smote him not. Our readers will cry " Hold, enough!" for we are sorry to say that these stanzas only too faithfully represent the qualities of the whole translation. Even the must common rules of rhyme are neglected by Mr. Barter. In the last line of the foregoing stanza he offers '• not" as a rhyme for " out," and takes similar liberties elsewhere. A well-known passage in the fourth book is thus rendered : When these then rushing on in one place met Then shields, and spears, and might of mail•clad men Together dash'd, and bossy bucklers set Against each other hurtled. Rose the din And shout, and moan, of slaying and of slain, And earth ran blood. As torrents rushing down The hills their headlong flood do mid•vale join In hollow bed, from mighty fluwings grown; Afar the shepherd in the mountains hears the sown. The last line would puzzle any reader, and Mr. Barter's explanation does not justify the use of the word " sown." In a note he quotes Chaucer : "And through thy dronken nose seemeth the soun." But Chaucer cannot be accepted for " sown," as spelt and used by Mr. Barter, even if a writer of the ago of Queen Victoria was at liberty to use obsolete words. Even as a literal translation this version fails in many places. Thus, in the parting between Hector and Andromache, we have these lines given as a rendering of the passage where Andromache is represented as smiling through her tears : He said, and child t' his wife's hands gave, who him T' her fragrant breast receiv'd and laugh'd so drear. The words " laugh'd so drear " utterly fail to convey any idea of the tender pathos of the original. The notes to this work exhibit extensive reading, and Mr. Barter might more profitably employ his knowledge than on subjects re quiring poetical accomplishments. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. IT is satisfactory to observe that Blackwood main tains the high standard of political writing which has secured for it the first place among our monthly magazines. The principal article in the present number exposes with great force and eloquence the mischiefs which have been brought on the country by that abnegation of principle which wive birth to the Aberdeen Government. Hatred is a poor bond of union, but it is the best the present Administration can boast Not even love of place would keep its members together were that intense jealousy of its political opponents absent, which for a time suffices to smother its internal discord. What will the Peelite members of the Cabinet, who profess such un bounded reverence for their master's memory, say to the quotation made in this article from Sir R. Peel's speech in 1840, condemning in unqualified terms the " cunning scheme" of open questions which the Coalition has practised to an extent unknown before in our political history ? , " But there is a new resource for an incompetent Ad. ministration—there is the ingenious device of open ques• tions, the cunning scheme of adding to the strength of a weak Government by proclaiming its disunion. It will be a fatal policy, indeed, if that which has hitherto been an ex ception, and always an unfortunate exception in recent times, is hereafter to constitute the rule of Government If every Government may say, We feel pressed by those behind us—we find ourselves unable, by steadily maintain ing our own opinions, to command the majority and retain the confidence of our followers, our remedy is an easy one — let us make each question an open question, and thereby destroy every obtacle to every posible combination ;'—what will be the consequence ? The exclusion of honourable and able men from the conduct of affairs, and the unprin cipled coalition of the refuse of every party. The right honourable gentleman has said that there have been instances of ' open questions ' in the recent history of this country. There have been ; but there has scarcely been one that has not beenpregnant with evil, and which has not been branded by an impartial posterity with censure and disgrace They were fatal exceptions from the 10 Le re ly e- in- ch ily nt ho by he of Lon its its ces lite an- r to el's the the ore Ad- aes. of a bo I ex- cent ent. lose Lain- :tain ae— reby what able prim right been this been s not u and u the 11. •