The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-05 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICE.

The AGAMEMNON of ./ESCH YLUS ; translated by Jou.w
SIMMONS, Ilsq. A.M. late Student of Christ Church.
This work has not long been before the pub-
; bat we hasten to hail its appearance as that
of a work-reflecting honour on the erudition and
the talents of the present age, and better qua-
lified to introduce the English reader 'to an ac-
.quaintance with the great Athenian dramatist
than,any production of a similar nature which
has Preceded it. One only translation of the
great and sublime tEschyins has hitherto, as. we
believe, been given to the British public ;—that
we mean by POTTER : a version by no means con-
-temptible, but deformed with many errors, in
consequence of its. author's inadequacy as a Greek
• scholar, and of a character altogether so dissimi-
lar to-that of its venerable and illustrious original,.
.as to-convey no just idea of him to any reader
who is unable to converse with him in his own
Athenian dialect. The present translator has
-long possessed, in a wide range of, the commu-
nity, a high reputation for his acquirements in
classic literature ; and his name has been diffu-
sively circulated, by his contemporaries at School
and at College, with the honourable epithet ap-
pended to it of Greek. But with the exception
of some articles of Greek criticism, which have
been generally ascribed to his pen in one of our
great:.Reviews, he has not produced to the Public
any evidence in support of his title to the distinc-
tion which has thus been paid to him. We have
the means, indeed, of knowing that, at-a very
early age, and whilst he was yet at school, he
wrote a translation of that difficult author, LY-
COPIIRON, and accompanied his version with some
learned notes. This work, however, which
would at once have placed him in the first class
.of the Greek scholars of Britain, was withheld
/from the press by the injudicious timidity, as
we conceive it to be, of his father ; and it still
remains in MS. in the family of his learned and
-venerable Master, the late Dr. VINCENT.- The
translation, therefore, of the _Agamemnon of
"Esehlilus, which is now before us, must be re-
garded as the first exhibition of himself by Mr.
SYMMONS to the public; and we cannot hesitate
to Fay that it gives substance and permanency to
that fame of him as a Greek scholar which had
previously floated vaguely on the general breath.
It effects even more than this; for it evinces not
only his profundity in Greek erudition, but his
sagacity as a critic, his taste as a writer, and his
powers as a poet. This may be regarded as high
praise : but, with his Agamemnon in our hand,
we are fully prepared to support, with incontest-
ible evidence, all that we have advanced in his
favour. In our projected remarks on the pro-
duction before us, we shall begin with the Pre-
face, with which it is introduced to us ; and here
we are surprised and gratified with a profusion
•of learning, unostentatiously poured out, and
,gushing, as it were,. from a spring, too copious to
be restrained from overflowing. The first part of
this composition, which altogether is not long, is
,an apology for translation in general, and parti-
cularly for translation front the rich and strong
languages of Greece and flow into the far less
.copious and expressive dialect of England ; or,
as he might with propriety have added, of any
---of the most distinguished nations of modern Eu-
" The •tints, custom., religion, and ina-u-
-fiers," as he judiciously observes, are changed ;
words which vibrated on the ear, and went
straight to the heart of all Athenians, causing a
thrill through his crowded theatres, are known to
..es only by the dim light of lexicons, context, and
• glossaries ; and even when understood we search in
,vain for corresponding expressions in our own
language. Words consecrated to religious usages,
long since forgotten, become untranshiteable ;
.how, for instance, can we render such a word as
T?ocrpo7mto; ? (and yet, perhaps, tin mere coml.-
-ciation of that word created an awful sensation,
arising from the combined effects produced by
the horror of murder and the terror of supersti-
-tion);and an infinite number of others relating to
• laws, religion, and manners :1 How render idioms
so different from our own ? Without taking into
consideration the great power and force of a lan-
guage appertaining to the most refined and civi-
lized people of the world, to which we are in-
.alebted for all our terms of civility and science,
and in which one word would sometimes require
for its translation a whole sentence of a modern
`language ; as, for instance, szczaass-xxxp:,- a dis-
, position to feel pleasure at the misfortune
.of others, which makes a sentence, and con-
stitutes a maxim in RocuerAucaueT. " II y a
-toujours dans le million' d'autrue quelque chose
--qui ne nous deplait .pas'." The mechanism,
„also, of the ancient languages is so much
. more perfect, being without the signs of
inflexion and declension, those necessary sup-
ports of ruder and more unfinished dialects :
:the building, to use their own expression, coal-
,posed of fewer, but grander and more tompre-
...bensive Materials (a.p.,:4Etoctz words
which would fill a. cart), presents a front of
Cyclopian architecture, built for perpetuity,
.whilst modern writers are compelled to raise
their edifices with Act of Parliament brick."
Our readers, as we are persuaded, will he
thankful to us for gratifying them with this long
extract from our Author's learned Preface, as it
with a just viewof
- presents them the great
power of the Greek Ivigtiage, and, consequent-
illustrates v strongly the dial.
.very cu ty of
translating from it, particularly'
whea it •
was em-
ployed by the sublime and daring genius of the
.ilellenic Musa, expatiating in the higher regions
of imagination, and seizing for the vehicles of her
burning thoughts, on words that breathe, and
metaphors that surprise. On the subject of the
-metaphors, in use with the Greek poets, our
Author rests ,for a moment to notice that of
the hypaltage, .unknown, as he says, to moe
dery lauguages, and almost inexplicable, as be
furtherobserwes in a note on the place, to a
mere English reader. In tins note, as it falls
In his Way) he •remarks on a misunderstand-
ing of this figure, discovered by, the present
learned Dean of Peterborough (Dr. MONK) in his
edition of the Ilopolstus, where, in line 67, for
altarEcEl:Xv the Editor substitutes I
Najitc W'rtflrEpt ay at+42.,, a made of • •
expression

not to be justfied by any example to be produc-
ed from either of the Greek tragedians. This
unfortunate substitution was adopted, as we be-
lieve, by the learned Editor On the suggestion of
Professor GAISFORD, under the' encouragement of
the celebrated VALCKNAER, who objected to the•.
common reading. But the common reading is
here most firmly established by our author, who
adduces many instances of precisely., a similar
figure from the pages of the Attic tragedians. Of
these the most extraordinary, as it strikes us, is
the kl,ccitiatcs'ss-faC:ap.oci (the quadruped bridles)
in the Phmnissm of Euripides. If he had not
• written any thing besides, this note alone would
bear unquestionable testimony to the learning
the taste, the critical sagacity, and, as we might
add, also to the candour and the good-nature of
Mr. SYMMONS In a subsequent note, suggested
by the mention of the tragic poet, Cwmtemots,
some few and small fragments of whose works
have alone floated down to us, our author has
most happily corrected a beautiful passage of
this Athenian bard's, preserved by Athanwus ;
and has restored, as we feel to be unquestion-
able, the integrity of the original text. We
shall let the critic, in this instance, speak. for him-
self ; and with this specimen of his powers in the
province of emendatory and conjectural criti-
cism, powers not inferior to those of his great
predecessors, BENTLEY and PousoN, we shall
conclude our remarks on his preface, strongly
-tempted as we may be to pursue it through
. its rich course to its beautiful terminatioa.
In some subquent papers, it is our inten-
tion to continue our observations, and to vx-
tend them through the translation, confirming
them occasionally with citations from the poetry
of the text, and the erudition of the notes.

" But now I am on the subject of Chwremon,"
says 11,1 r. S. " I may be permitted, by the way,
to restore a corrupt reading in his play of the
Centaur, which stands thus in Schweighaeuser's
Athenwus

7E:10E% p..EY aVrC.CY sic arElpV2. G-7.FerOY
'AY.OECV, CCAOXWV EG-rf27EVCCC/r,3ovctic,
whore the word caoxwy is evidently corrupt, and
contrary to metre and sense. Schweighaeuser is
very unfortunate in his conjecture, aF.-oozwv,
dactyl in the second place), and Fiorillo in his
ax.foiwycoy. I. read co4^/xccy (without spears),
an epithet which much heightens the beauty of
the description, and prettily qualifies the meta-
phor. After representing a field of flowers like
an army in array, a description admirably adapt-
ed to represent their numbers and their thick-
ness, the poet, by the subsequent limitation, re-
moves what is foreign from his subject, the bris-
tling of spears, and restores to Iris flowers their
innocence and their harmlessness. This manner
of qualifying bold metaphors is very common in
the Greek tragedians," &c.

We cite a part only of this note, as the whole
of it would extend our present article to too
great a length. But, in the course of the note,
two other corrupt passages in the fragments of
the old Greek poets, one of liermesianax, and
one of iEschylus, are amended by our critic
With the same, or with nearly the same', felicitous
effects. The scholar, as we are persuaded, will
be delighted with them.

COURT OF KING'S Br.NCll—(Tins DAY.)

E KING V. COWLING.

This was an indictment for a scandalous and
malicious libel upon the character of Hilton
JOliffe, Esq., M.P., for Petersiield. The de-
fendant did not deny being the author and pub-
lisher of it, which was proved in evidence.

Mr. John Wells
,sworn—Examined by Mr.
ScAnLETT. Saw the defendant, and asked him
how he got on with Mr. Jollitre ; he said he had
been annoying him with letters, and if witness
would go with him, he would give him one of the
placards, adding he had distributed several.

Cross-examined by the Defendant—Upon your
oath, did you not come on purpose to obtain that
bill ? Witness—Certainly not ; have heard de-
fendant say that Air. Jollitfe had oppressed him
and his family very much, but never heard that
Mr.Jolliffe offered to allow him a yearly income,
but heard the defendant say so.

Defendant—Now candidly say, whether you
have not heard it at various times from different
persons, whether I was not the most oppressed
and inj.ured man hi 11)1. kingdom ? Witness—l
lave heard it from others, but don't know it as a
fact.

Defendant—What do you receive for coming
here to give evidence ? Witness—What is ne-
cessary on such occasions.

The Defendant then addressed the Jury from
a written Paper, which was couched with the
most vindictive lal►guage against M. Jolliffe—it
accused him of perjury in getting possession of
the estates, which, he maintained, belonged to
him as the heir-descendant, and also that Mr.
Jolliffe had made-about 50,0001. by disposing of
seats in Parliament to different Meer►bers.

Mr. Justice 'ATTE.; DALE suniled up the evi-
dence, and the Jury, without hesitation, found
the defendant Guilty.

OLD BAILEY.—(Tars DAY.)

POST OFFICE ROBBERY.— William Whalley,
who stood charged withyurloining a letter con-
taining a five pound note, directed from the
Military College, Sandhurst, was this day
put to the bar to take his trial for the .of-
fence. The witnesses against him were the
same as those who appeared on the various
examinations at Bow-street, viz.:—Mr. C. Cas-
sene, the secretary to the College, Roger Mor-
rison, Richt!. Hammond, Wrn. Swi tilers, Mr. Wm.
Wood, J. Poppin, and Mr. Cox. Mr. and Miss.
Poren proved changing the note for the prisoner.
The purport of the testimony of the other wit-
nesses were merely a repetition of their former
evidence. The prisoner merely said he was in-
nocent. lle called five witnesses to character,
and the Jury found him GuiltJ—jleatji.

In The London Gazette of this evening, will
be published the following average prices of Grain for the 12
maritime districts, in the week ending on the 26th May last :
Wheat 635. 10d., laye 41s. 2d., Barley :13s. 2d., Oats 265. 4cl.
Beans 38s. 51., Pme. 38s. 2d.,,per quarter.. ,