The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-26 00:00:00

acumen brought by Lord Lytton to the aid of his
labours as a translator, wa would here especially
direct attention, in passing, to the elucidatory argu-
ment prefixed to the twenty-eighth ode of the first
book, as to the apparition or not, in that ode, 01
Archytas, as a ghostly interlocutor. Reference might
also be made, with the same end in view, to such
dainty footnotes of explanation as that charming 0130
on page 80, in regard to Lalage duke ridentenz and
duke loquenteni —only that the whole volume is
sown plentifully all through with similar evidences
of the noble author's subtlety at once of percer
tion and of appreciation. As a signal instance of
Lord Lytton's mastery, not merely of the thought
and language of Horace, but of the lyrists
inner self, of his whole feeling, tone,
senti-
ment, we would instance his delicious rendering 01
the Ode (it. viii.) "To Barine"— and

" If for thy vows foresworn the loast infliction
Came from the gods, were one white tooth less pearl-
like,
One very nail loss rosy, then, Barine,

'I might &Alava thee.
But in proportion as that head perfidious
Thou doonist to Oreus, brighter shines thy beauty,

And grows still more the universal theme of

Youthful adorers.

Clearly with thee it prospers to be perjured:
Oaths 'by a naother's urn,' night's starry silence,'
'All heaven,' the deathless gods,' obtain thee blessings

Only when broken.
At all this treason Venus laughs, then ? laugh out
The Tery nymphs, so truthful, and fierce Cupid,

Sharpening his fiery arrows on a whetstone,
Rod with men's heart-blood•
Meanwhile, now youths grow up beneath thy thraldom;
Grow up new slaveries ; and the earlier lovers
Threaten each day to quit thy faithless threshold--
Threaten, and throng there•
For their raw striplings tremble all tho mothers,
And all the fathers of a thrifty temper ;

And as a gale retarding home-bound husbands,
Weeping brides fear thee.
Than this we know of no more perfectly exquisite
translation!. Hera is a flower —as if yet growing
upon the stalk, from which it has nevertheleso
been thus dexterously culled—still bearing 1113°11
it not merely the freshness and the bloom, but the
dew-drop and the fragrance. Here is a butterfir
caught at last with the golden meal upon its wine
untarnished. And it is worth catching, the &vier
is worth culling—for the bloom, in either instance'
if it can only be left unmarred, is it not perennial,
Other specimens, equally worthy of Lord Lytton°
scholarship, and of his poetic genius, as thus novii
manifested in the interpretation of the peerless
.
Odes of Horace, we might readily adduce in abund•
ance, if only our space permitted those addition
;
citations. It must suffice, however, if we hell
commend to the attention of our readers as Voce
translations, especially commanding their admiration'
Lord Lytton's impassioned version of the ode (11ci
xix.) Quantum distet ab macho ; the tender 11e
pathetic beauty of his rendering of the ode (11. 1%.)
Non server imbres nubibus hispidos ; and the deliell,,w
grace of his wonderfully exact echo of the one
0
beginning (11. v.) Nondunt subacta ferre PIO nf
valet, in which the girlish charms of the Lalage w
Gabinius are delineated. From the last-mentionl.ei
we are tempted, by the way, to make one I'l
fragmentary extract, as follows :

" Tolle cupidinem
Immitis Ilya): jam tibi lividos
Distinguet Auctumnus racemos
Purpureo varius colors."
Thus admirably and daintily interpreted—

"Till ripe, do not long for the grape ;
Anon varied Autumn shall deepen its both
And empurple the clusters that now
Do but pallidly peep from the leaf." fo
Reference has already been made to Lord Lytton
commentupon the marvellous skill often displaYeu ;
Horace in thesudden transformation of a picturelot°_,a
dramatic scene. A happier illustration of this ell
hardly be adduced, perhaps, than that Supplied
the closing of the ode to Thaliarchus—

Nunc et latentis proditor intimo
Gratus puellte risus ab angulo,
Pignusque dereptum lacertis

Aut digito male pertinacl.
the
According to Lord Lytton's view, Catullus is
equal of Horace in wit, and on a level with hira
in the intimacy of his acquaintance With ut,t,
most distinguished among his contemporaries der,
upon.a par with the Venusian bard (as we 1111G/tem
stand the comparison here drawn) neither in "
perfection of his finish nor in the permanence bit
scope of his popularity. In the exceptional art wo
just now referred to, as being one of which°ran,
was so consummate a master, namely, that of lot
stautaneously turning a picture into a scene the
dramatic situation, we cannot but think tha'oo
noble translator, with all his very couiPrehetl3loo
predilection the great lyrical poet of whom vw
elf
now shown himself to be so accurate and ri°.,o
gifted an interpreter, we cannot but thillk,
say, that Lord Lytton, in this particular, 'l° A
ungrudgingly accord the palm to Catullus•co,
single illustration shall suffice—it is from his

men ad Hortalum :
Ut missum sponsi furtivo munere maluns
Procurrit casto virginis e gremio,
Quod misera3 oblita3 molli sub vests locatuillf
Dum adventu matrix prosilit, excutitur ;
-

Atque Hind prono pra3ceps agitur decursu
Huic manat tristi conscius ore rubor. bole
Whether or not Horace may be regarded'
that
ever, as having been surpassed in this or ;Alo,.
i
particular by one lyrical poet or 033°'bere
here by Tyr tceus, here by rind at' „gat°
by Sappho, here by Anacreon—in the Aggir of
of his powers as a lyrist, he is, beyond all u°sin'
question, just simply matchless. And it jEI."-niobeci
comparable master of his art whose most`Therci
performances—his Odes and his BP°cles doe,
Lytton has had the daring ambition to rePr°o-
has had the signal triumph of reproducing 'Lois
lisp
as an exact and all but linear ouch
rhymeless translation. The mere formati°
a design was worthy of Lord Lytton---its re
ofeP
tion, in the way in which he has realised it,
or him, an achievement.