The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-12 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICE.

The AGAMEMNON of lESCHYLITS ; translated by Joa
SYMMONS, Esq. A. M. late Student of Christ Church.

In our last notice of this learned and able pro-
duction, we took a slight and imperfect view of
the Author's Preface, not extending our observa-
tions on it to its close, but producing from it
some very striking specimens of his erudition, and
of his peculiar sagacity in the department of
emendatory criticism. Without resting any longer
on this introductory portion of Mr. SirmstoNs's
Work, which impresses us with as strong a feel-
ing of his candour and his modesty, as of his
learning, his critical acuteness, and the singular
rectitude of his judgment, we will now proceed
to remark on the Work itself, from which we shall
hereafter gratify our Readers with some copious
extracts, presenting occasionally to the Greek
scholar, in our progress, a few citations from the
very learned and critical notes. We must, how-
ever, introduce our extracts from the translation,
with some preliminary observations on its general
character and the style of its execution. Faith-
fulness to his original, and an anxious desire to
preserve all the thoughts, and to reflect all the
images of the writer, whose representative he
makes himself, seem to be the principle and the
impulse on which our translator acts; and, it
consequence, lie has sometimes been induced to"
dilate the sinewy compactness of the great
Athenian's diction into a bulk incompatible with
strength, and sometimes to bring forward meta-
phors, to which the mind of the English reader
cannot easily and at once be reconciled. Of both
these instances of error, as we conceive them to
be, occasioned by the resolute fidelity of the
translator, we could adduce, if it were our in-
clination, more than one example. But as the
beauties, springing from the same source, are
more than sufficient to compensate for these trivial,
and, on this rigid plan of translation, almost un-
avoidable, defects, we shall satisfy ourselves with
merely suggesting them ; and shall turn from
them with pleasure to the more agreeable part of
our undertaking. To exhibit the venerable An-
cient to the British public, our translator has not
dressed him in an embroidered coat, or tricked
him out in meretricious finery to catch the eyes
of critics of St. James's-street, but has ventured
to show him to us in his own grand simplicity,
uninjured by the littleness of any alien or mo-
dern ornament. Over the whole Work there is
thrown a certain cast and character of antiquity,
which must engage the attention of the possessor
of genuine taste, and which must strike him like
the hoary majesty of an old Grecian temple,
placed by the side of one of the gay and fantastic
edifices raised by Mr. NASH. Of the two parts
of which the Grecian Drama consists, the dia-
logue and the chorus, we think that our trans-
lator has succeeded the most happily in the
latter. He flings a bold and careless hand over
his lyre ; and though we may be sometimes dis-
posed to censure him for the lawlessness of his
execution,—for his capricious use and rejection
of rhyme in the same ode, by which our ears are
occasionally exposed to disappointment, we can-
not refuse to his performance the praise of gene-
ralfie,hehr erdenof
tus ecgpcoht,v,i
ean
ralc
sl
principle
es omfof
radoca:
nhs wto
constructed
oot
s the
ophfoac%ry meßroA nyooi
fnobuai sdpvr
omee
esr
tuyA las tdos.
0:
hurry us along with him, and not to allow us
either time or inclination to notice his minor of.
fences. In his dialogue, as we conceive; he has
not been equally felicitous ; for here he may be
sometimes charged with that diffuseness of ex-
pression at which we have already hinted,
and may sometimes be censured for a want of
ease in its more elevated portions, and perhaps
for a deficiency of dignity in some of its more
humble. To his dialogues, however, we must as-
sign considerable praise, though we cannot regard
it as entitled to equal commendation with his
lyrics. But we must not any longer withhold
from our Readers the means of forming their own
judgment on the whole of the subject before us ;
and we will begin our citations with the opening
speech of the Drama. On his leaving her for the
war against Ilion, Agamemnon had promised to
his wife, Clytemnestra, to announce to her the
capture of the hostile city by fire-signals, to be
planted in a line of stations, from the Troad to
the palace of Mycenw. Clytemnestra had, con-
sequently, placed a watchman (ovct)uAsE) on one
of the towers of her royal residence, to observe
the first appearance of the promised signal, and
with the soliloquy of this man, on the night when
the beacons communicate their long-expected in-
telligence, commences the action of our majestic
Drama.*

In a note replete with learning, but too long
for us to extract, Mr. S. vindicates his version of
Puvaixoc av3pCouMv....xEab " Our Queen, a man
in counsel;" and remarks that POTTER, while he
very properly censures STANLEY for rendering
avaeonuAov, viro insidiantern," has fallen himself
into a greater error, by rendering it, " thinking
of her lord." There can be no doubt, as we feel
convinced, of the justness of Mr. S.'s translation
in this instance. In a note of equal erudition,
which immediately follows, Mr. S. corrects some
errors of SCHUTZ'S, and some of the Bishop of
CHESTER'S, and MUSGRAVE'S. But we can do
nothing more, from the want of space and time,
than direct the attention of the learned Reader
to the note itself.

We are obliged, by want of room, to postpone the So'
liloquy till Monday.