# Tragedies of Euripides (Way)/Advertisements

Advertisements and reviews from the end of all 3 volumes.
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The Alcestis, Medea, and Hecuba, are published separately in paper wrapper, price 1/6 each.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
THE ILIAD OF HOMER DONE INTO ENGLISH VERSE,
In 2 vols., price 9/- each.
"Close, spirited, swift in movement, and simple. . . The merits are such as to place Mr. Way's performance in the front rank of Homeric translations. . . Mr. Way's version is never bald, frigid, or pompous. In the point of metrical form it has advanced on all its predecessors; his metre comes very near, in length, volume, and movement, to being a genuine English equivalent for the Greek Hexameter." — Saturday Review.
"He is a trustworthy scholar; he has fire and speed enough and to spare. He holds our attention ; we read him for his own sake. . . A work which we heartily admire." — Athenæum.
"Mr. Way has accomplished a remarkable feat. A line-for-line translation . . rendered with absolute conscientiousness, with scholarlike accuracy, and with unflagging vigour, is a success of which the author may well be proud." — Oxford Magazine.
" Really a great success. . . There is a sonorous roll in it, and a variety of pause, a flexibility, a richness, and a dignity about it that make it approach nearer to the splendid music of the Greek than anything else that has been produced in the same line. The diction, too, of the translation is Homeric, while Pope has smoothed and polished away all character out of his original, and its fidelity is really remarkable." — Pall Mall Gazette.
" We feel confident that this spirited and powerful translation will grow in popularity and favour. Turn wherever we may, we read Mr. Way's verses with a different kind of pleasure from that which is derived from the ordinary run of translators." — Westminster Review.
"So accurate and forcible is this brilliant version of Homer's poem, that it will not only recommend itself to cultured readers, but it should also tend to popularise the study of the grand Greek poet's entire work." — Morning Post.
"A faithful line-for-line rendering of Homer. . . A swing and energy which leave most translators far behind. A very high level is maintained from first to last in the Iliad, as if the grandeur of the theme, the sense of noble action, had constrained him." — British Quarterly Review.
"Where the poetry of simple action reaches sublimity, this suits Mr. Way." — Academy.
​"Has given new life to Homer in an English metrical dress, and the fidelity of the version is matched by the fire and force infused into the rendering. Mr. Way is like Chapman in his freedom and swing, but he is richer in colouring, although he is rigidly close to his text. Trans- lates Homer as one poet can alone translate another. Has the true Homeric feeling, and he seems to live the verse that he renders with such remarkable force, fidelity, and spirit." — Public Opinion.
"He swings along as if he enjoyed it, and carries the reader by the force of his swift movement." — Atlantic Monthly.
"The general admiration with which Mr. Way's Odyssey of Homer done into English Verse was received will certainly be' revived by the present work. If the work be calculated to give students of Homer the greatest pleasure, it also deserves, by its original and brilliant qualities, to be esteemed as a great boon by all lovers of fine poetry." — Harper's Monthly Magazine.
"Perhaps the nearest equivalent we can hope for to the strong- winged music of Homer. No merely skilful versifier could produce a work of this kind ; it is marked by true poetic gifts. Readers anxious to become acquainted with the greatest of epics and the poetry of the time when the world was young, will not find themselves deterred by the faults which usually beset translations." — Literary World.
"As a poem his translation is full of simplicity and strength; as a translation, it is one of the most scholarly rendings of the Iliad that have appeared in the English tongue." — Bookseller.
"Far above any modern translations which have appeared."—Publisher's Circular.
"He is unquestionably the most Homeric of English translators since Chapman. Probably the nearest equivalent to the swiftly-moving various hexameter of Homer which the genius of English versification permits." — London Quarterly Review.
"It seems a far cry from Chapman to Mr. Way, and yet we doubt whether the interval offers any version of Homer which is not, by com- parison with these, formal and mechanical. . . This fascinating volume . . abounds in instances of the combination of freedom of expression with essential fidelity to the meaning . . has made a distinct contribution to the resources of Homeric translation. . . He has adopted a metre in which it would, we think, be impossible to main- tain a high level of poetry without a poetic gift of his own. Mr. Way's adventure admits of no mean between failure and success. We believe that he has chosen the measure which is best fitted to represent Homer to English readers, but we feel, at the same time, that it is a veritable bow of Ulysses, which only a master's hand will be able to bend."—Guardian.
"The first volume of Mr. Way's fine translation of the Iliad led us to place it above Chapman's. The second crowns the edifice of his Homeric labours so splendidly that we are able to express our pref- erence again with renewed confidence. . . We believe that a full and fair comparison of the two versions would convince even Lamb and Keats, whose names present themselves inevitably here, that in Mr. Way the delightful old fellow who ' spake out loud and bold,' has found more than his match."—Spectator.
"If we are right in ranking him, as we are inclined to do, as the best of this trio — Chapman, Professor Newman, and Mr. Worsley — there are few lovers of Homer who will not be eager to read him. And Mr. Way deserves to be read. His translation is instinct with that ' forcible liveliness ' which Mr. H. N. Coleridge notes as the leading character- istic of Homer's poetry. Its terseness, too, and literalness are really wonderful, combined as they are with such unflagging ' go,' if we may use that word, and such melodious vivacity." — St. James's Gazette.
​"Many an English student will realize from this version what the gifted young poet felt when he saw the new planet swim into his ken. The radiance of that planet is yet better represented to the English reader by Mr. Way than it was by Chapman, and this, which is the highest tribute of praise that can be accorded to the translator of Homer, is, we cordially and sincerely believe, not too high praise for the translator whose work is before us. . . The reader may surrender himself to the full enjoyment of the sonorous verse without that uneasy feeling which so often suggests itself in dealing with a translation which breathes the true spirit of poetry, that the poetical effect of the English has been attained by a sacrifice of fidelity to the original. . . It carries the reader along with it in the same irresistible rush which is the great charm of the Greek original, a charm which no other writer, not even Chapman himself, has so well succeeded in reproducing." — John Bull.
"His style is simple, clear, and vigorous, saved from baldness by a remarkably rich vocabulary." — Cambridge Review.
"Takes rank among the highest. It is full of spirit . . a poem as closely resembling the great original as we are likely to get." — British Weekly.
"A masterly and singularly vivid version, done in a measure that seems to reproduce Homer in sound as well as in sense." — European Mail.
"His swinging, strenuous verse is delightful to read. The abiding effect of his work is a lifting of the reader's spirit, which is certainly not the worst or least sympathetic state of mind in which to follow ' the light of the Maeonian Star.' " — Notes and Queries.
"An extremely able and scholarly rendering of Homer, and one which preserves a large measure both of the sound and fire of the original. ' ' — Scotsman.
"Everywhere distinguished by spirited movement, by brio, by swing and 'go.' " — Scots Observer.
"The fault to be found in the majority of such translations is that they are too technical, too formal, too purely mechanical, to give a lively or fascinating picture of the immortal Homeric scenes. This objection cannot be urged against the work of Mr. Way. His Odyssey has long been deservedly popular, and in the latest effort to which he has devoted his rare erudition, scholastic vigour, and poetic power, he has achieved marked success." — Glasgow Evening News.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR (Avia).
THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER DONE INTO ENGLISH VERSE.
Second edition, revised, price 7/6.
"The work of a poet of no mean merit. . . We had till now thought Mr. Worsley's Odyssey in the Spenserian Stanza as satisfactory a version as was possible, but Avia has shown cause why we should re- consider that judgment. . . Has given us, and we trust it will give many of our readers, real and genuine pleasure. . . Original and brilliant." — Saturday Review.
​"Has life and movement ; has what we might be allowed to call ' go,' in speaking of a work of a different character. . . Has secured what is absolutely essential in Homeric translation, something that answers to the ' bright speed ' of the hexameter. . . Scarcely a safe book to give to an imaginative boy, for he would shout his favourite passages about the house as loudly as Walter Scott, when a child, shouted ' Hardyknute.' . . Truly inspired by the Odyssey." — Athenaum.
"An achievement of considerable distinction, and one for which his readers who cannot read the Greek should be grateful, while those who can will be glad to see the Greek and the English idiom so happily recon- ciled. . A very spirited translation." — Daily News.
"Passage after passage of true poetic power, and of genuine appreci- ation of the spirit of the great original was presented to us, and we were led on from passage to passage with a keen sense of enjoyment which is very unusual in the student of such productions. . . It is difficult by any extracts to give an adequate idea of the general level of excellence attained, and the great charm of his poem is to be found in the well-sustained power and melody of whole books, not of isolated passages. . . The most successful attempt made of late years to re- produce the vigorous ring of the original. The task of selection is no easy one, as almost every page contains some happy rendering of the Greek or some passage instinct with the true Homeric spirit." — John Bull.
"Took the literary world by a surprise that soon ripened into admiration." — British Weekly.
"Has already taken a high place amongst English versions of Homer." — Cambridge Review.
"Sounding Saxon such as no previous translator of Homer into verse has employed. . . We are unwilling to mention particular parts of the work for fear of intimating that some may be better than others. . . This fine, bold work is a literary achievement." — Public Opinion.
"The volume is a poem of more than average beauty, when considered apart from any original." — Literary World.
"No one can fail to recognise in many of the passages the grace and feeling of a true poet." — Notes and Queries.
"Its greatest recommendations, to those who are able to read and appreciate Homer in his native language, will be its wonderfully stricc closeness, not only to the sense, but even to the very forms of expression made use of by Homer, and the happy art which the translator has of finding exact English equivalents for Homeric words. English read- ers, again, will be no less charmed with the purely English verbiage into which he has contrived to convert the grand rolling lines of the grand old poet, thus preserving much of the poetical spirit which is so apt to evaporate in the process of translation, and much of which did, in point of fact, evaporate under Pope's more conventional treatment." — Scotsman.
"We have been most agreeably surprised and pleased ... a vigorous flow and ' lilt ' that seems as near an approach as the genius of our language is likely to make to the ' grand old rolling verse ' of Homer." — Guardian,
"We have said enough to prove that this is no ordinary work. It shows power as well as grace and literalness . . . his work is not a paraphrase but a real translation, very literal and yet full of poetic beauty." — London Quarterly Review.
The Alcestis, Medea, and Hecuba, are published separately in paper wrapper, price 1/6 each.
THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES
IN ENGLISH VERSE.
BY
ARTHUR S. WAY, M.A.
In 3 vols. Vol. I, price 6/- net.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"His accomplished performances in Homeric translation should certainly procure a cordial reception for these scholarly renderings, admirably calculated and apparently intended — if we may judge from the separate publication of each of the three plays of the Alcestis, Medea, and Hecuba—to stimulate the youthful student's appreciation of Greek Tragedy."—Times.
"The rendering is good. Mr. Way has very considerable skill as a writer of blank verse. . . The lyrics for the most part go with great swing."—Saturday Review. [On first three plays published in advance.]
"Something more than an ordinary welcome seems to be due to this volume. Mr. Way's version is faithful. It is poetical. It affords a good idea of the original. A play read through in his translation may be appreciated as a real piece of literature. ... In the iambic passages, Mr. Way has translated line-for-line. . . In the lyrics, he has given himself a freer hand, and has produced some really fine poetry. . . The more advanced student, and especially the intelligent lover of literature who does not read Greek with ease, will be genuinely grateful to Mr. Way for having enabled them to appreciate for them- selves the genius of Euripides."—Athenæum.
"We have only congratulations to give him. The six plays in this volume are rendered into choice English and accomplished rhythms ; indeed Mr. Way's wealth of metrical variety is remarkable. . . It is in the choric lyrics, with their singular beauty of phrase and movement, that Mr. Way has excelled. Apart from all questions of scholarship and fidelity, he has produced translations that are fine poems ; and his poetical felicity is not purchased at the expense of accuracy . . Such work is worth many wordy essays, which comes to no conclusion : from Mr. Way's volume the reader, however little of a scholar he be, will catch much of the original spirit. ' Soft Pity's Priest,' to take the phrase of Dr. Warton, appears now for the first time in the fulness of his glory before English readers : the sad and splendid poet of a thousand faults, who yet, without insincerity and with exquisite art, 'wept tears of perfect moan.'"—Daily Chronicle.
"To the schoolboy with a natural taste for good literature, but who has to spell out his ' Greek play construe' in painful gobbets of twenty or fifty lines two or three times a week, it will come as a revelation and surprise that he has been reading poetry without knowing it — and exciting poetry too. For the general reader — if we can imagine one likely to take up this book, but so innocent of the classics as never to have heard the name of Euripides or his plays — we believe that, if he were a man of judgment, he would hail Mr. Way's volume as the work ​of a great dramatist, so successfully has the translator escaped from the trammels of the Greek . . He has brought Euripides home to us, and we do not know how to pay him a greater compliment."—St. James's Gazette.
"After producing the best existing translation of Homer in English verse . . Mr. Way has turned to Euripides . . it was not only because the ground was unoccupied that he embarked on his task, but because he had found in Euripides a kindred soul. . . The young scholar who would fain unsphere the soul of Euripides will be grateful for such a piece of embodied criticism as Mr. Way's sympathetic ver- sion, so faithful to the spirit of the Greek, and at the same time to the genius of the English language."—Journal of Education.
"His latest achievement in this sphere of literary work will not lower the high reputation gained for him by his respective renderings of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. To all who wish for a trustworthy metric version of the plays of Euripides, Mr. Way's admirable workmanship may be cordially commended."—Leeds Mercury.
"While it is scholarly in the sense of giving a scholar's attention to peculiar shades of meaning in the Greek, it is free enough to be also poetical. . . Students will find his renderings profitable and stimu- lating to an intelligent interest in the dramas. But a general reader ignorant of Greek, who wished access to the richest monuments of the ancient classical literature, could find no better introduction to Euripides than this."—Scotsman.
"So far Mr. Way is to be congratulated on his success. There is no doubt ihat Mr. Way, by his skill in translating the choruses, secures for them the interest of the English reader to at least a proportionate ex- tent to that with which they were regarded by those who saw the tragedies acted in the Athenian Theatre. . . If Mr. Way keeps up the spirit and general excellence of his present volume in those that are to come, Euripides will probably not require to be again rendered as a whole for British readers for another hundred years."—Glasgow Herald.
"Mr. Way won his spurs as a translator by his versions of the Iliad and Odyssey ; he certainly will not lose them by the present work, if vols, ii and iii prove as good as vol. i. ... So far as we know, Euripides has nowhere else been so vigorously presented. . . . Mr. Way has deserved thoroughly well of Euripides — not the least, perhaps in the very fine prefatory sonnet to him."—Academy.
"His industry as a translator is not more conspicuous than his merit. . . We can unreservedly congratulate Mr. Way; for we are much mistaken if this work, (of translation from the Classics), has not been the recreation of a lifetime ; . . it must surely be delightful to own a favourite pursuit which can produce honourable and useful results. Useful the book is designed to be, and we have found it an extremely close and reliable rendering of the iambic passages. . . The more we have looked at it, with or apart from the original, the better we have liked it. In the more difficult task of rendering lyrical passages, it is at least equally successful, and the preface contains some excellent remarks upon this matter."—Spectator.
"Mr. Way is already favourably known to the public by his excellent verse translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. There is obviously a demand for the work he has taken in hand ; no complete translation of Euripides has appeared since 17S3. . . It is a real feat to combine such vigour and lilt with lineforline fidelity. . . The small points which the Momus of verbal criticism has here noted are as nothing compared to the genuine spirit inspiring the whole, and the ingenuity displayed in most of the lyrical passages. Enough to say that a reading of this volume has enabled the reviewer for the first time fully to appreciate the mastery of human feeling which is the secret of the longevity of Euripides, and the utter flimsiness of many of Schlegel's cavillings."—Speaker.
WORKS BY ARTHUR S. WAY, M.A.
THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES IN ENGLISH VERSE. 3 vols. Each vol. price 6/- net.
The Alcestis, Medea, and Hecuba are published separately in paper wrapper, price 1/6 each.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON VOLUME II.
"Brilliant and scholarly. As regards execution, a strange thing has come to pass. Mr. Way is actually more successful in his rhymed lyric choral odes than in the dialogue. The choral odes have been the despair of translators, who have essayed every means of overcoming and evading the difficulty. Clearly the English lyric in the manner of Dryden or Collins is the best substitute; but who can be trusted to strike a clear and harmonious note on that lyre which is so irresponsive to a feeble touch? Mr. Way can . . . the lyrics have a real lyric swing about them. There is hardly a choral ode in which we do not find really successful efforts to combine a highly poetic style with a faithful reproduction of the thought of the poet. The introduction on 'Euripides and his Work' is admirable: it is instructive, judicious, and eloquent . . . most interesting. The student of Greek will admire his work for its fidelity and scholarship; and he who has no Greek will get nearer to Euripides than he ever approached before."—Saturday Review.
"We are glad to recognise in this volume a faithful and poetical version of the great tragedian, and wish Mr. Way success in what remains of his task of producing the first complete translation of Euripides into English verse within the present century."—Athenæum.
"Admirable . . . the workmanship is, if anything, even better, the style more facile and finished, than that of the first volume. By way of preface, there is prefixed a very interesting paper on 'Euripides and his Work.'"—Guardian.
"Wonderfully successful: maintains a high level of dignity. We like more than ever the lilt of his rendering of choric metres. . . . Will stand alone in the English language as the nineteenth century translation of Euripides."—Speaker.
"Mr. Way is, perhaps, the most successful living translator of the Greek poets. His Iliad is as spirited as Chapman's, and is, therefore, better than any other English version. His Euripides has the same fidelity to the original, with a spirit and movement which make the translation as readable as an English poem."—Daily News.
"Mr. Way carries on his work of translating Euripides with spirit and success . . . never more adequately presented to the English reader."—Spectator.
"We welcome with pleasure the second volume . . . To the excellence of Mr. Way as a translator we have already paid our tribute, and it is unnecessary to do more than subjoin specimens of his work."—Oxford Magazine.
"Mr. Way's reputation as a translator is so thoroughly established that he scarcely needs commendation. His scholarship is sound, his renderings extraordinarily close to the original, and often extremely vigorous. . . . . These are a few points of detail (in the Herakles) on which we ​disagree. It would take numerous columns to mention all the renderings which we applaud, even in this single play."—Journal of Education.
"Very scholarly and skilful. Will be read with pleasure, even by those who cannot read the Greek. The lyrical passages are rendered with great spirit; their musical effect and power of language are undoubted."—Educational Review.
"Reflects credit on his enthusiasm, his energy, and his taste."—Pall Mall Gazette.
"Mr. Way keeps up the reputation which he has won as a translator."—Westminster Gazette.
"Mr. Way is doing good service by carrying on his excellent translation of Euripides. The blank-verse rendering is close and vigorous: in the choric passages he employs a great variety of metres, for the most part with noteworthy skill. Can be read with real pleasure, and ought to find a wide welcome."—Manchester Guardian.
"The second volume deserves the same praise as was here accorded to the first . . . Is likely to prove exceedingly helpful to English students of Greek literature."—Leeds Mercury.
"The continuation of a series of translations, at once so faithful and so poetical, will be looked forward to with impatience by both learned and unlearned readers. The introduction, on 'Euripides and his Work,' will be read with advantage by every student of Greek literature."—Scotsman.
"When the first volume of this spirited translation appeared, we ventured to predict that, if its successors were like it, Mr. Way's translation would take its place as the definitive English version of 'Sad Electra's poet.' The contents of the present voloume are in nowise calculated to make us unsay that prophecy. Mr. Way's accomplishments as a classical scholar make his translation an essentially faithful one; but it is perhaps less for that useful quality than for the much rarer one of literary merit that the reader's debt to him is owing. Thanks to him, one is now in a fair way to find the whole works of the most modern and intelligible of Greek tragedians in something else than a merely prosaic English medium. There is a remarkable variety in the rhythms and stanzas adopted for the choruses ; and altogether the renderings of these supremely difficult adornments of Greek tragedy must be pronounced the most brilliant part of the present translator's work."—Glasgow Herald.
THE ILIAD OF HOMER DONE INTO ENGLISH VERSE. In 2 vols. Price 10/6 net.
JUST READY. Extra fcap. 8vo. Price 2/-
THE EPODES OF HORACE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE.
PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.
OUR DEBT TO SHAKESPEARE. Papers read before the Melbourne and Clifton Shakespearian Societies.
THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER DONE INTO ENGLISH VERSE. Third and cheaper edition.