The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-18 00:00:00

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HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Dec. 17.
ller Majesty the Queen, their Royal Ilighneges
Princes% Louise, Prince Leopold, Princess Beatricei
and PI ince Christian Victor of Schleswig-llolstell
left. the Castle this morning at half-past ten o'cloc
fort Osborne.

The Marquis of Sligo has left the Clarendon
Hotel on a visit to Lord Delantere, at Valo loyal, eh'
shire.

LITERATURE.

Enochus Arden. Poema Tennysonianum. Latoe

Redditum. Ed. Moxon et Soc.

It was only the other day that we had occasion
to comment upon a singularly beautiful tribute
proffered by art to the genius of the Poet Laureate.
We have now to direct attention to a tribute no
less beautiful of its kind, which has been offend
to that same genius not by art, but by scholarsl4'
Professor William Selwyn has in this elegant trans
tion of " Enoch Arden " into Latin very sigualli
rivalled, if he has not indeed actually surpassed t
latest achievement of Monsieur Gustave Dore as an
fed
illustrator of one of the masterpieces of Alf- a
Tennyson. Thanks to the exceeding purity $1)
grace of his latinity, the translator has contrivedtl
this his version of "Enoch Arden," to transmute in°
the classic tongue a poem eminently entitled.--b 5
reason of the various charms of style and diction
so conspicuously appertaining to it in the original;
pre-eminently entitled, we might say, to what b
long since come to be so very exceptional an honou'„.
It is in terms of deprecation no less winning and
s
gracious than these, that Professor Selwyn
preludes what we cannot bat regard as his Oallp
masterly performance :

Si qua notes longo culpanda in carmine ; si qua
Archetype iwrinia.s male respondentia, chartte,
Judicio leni, velut eebri somnia, pauses :
Forsitan et tua to docet oxporientia, sonsum
Subtilom, et magni felicia verbs p3etco,
Multaque temporibus non coaveniontia priscis,

" Difficilo illitstraro Latinis versibus esso." f;10
There is a noticeable echo, in this, of the flora--
reference to the curios; felicitas verborum,
in the allusion thus made to the " sensum subtilelll
and the " felicia verba" of this charming love-stni,
of the unconscious bigamist Annie Lee, wife °I.-;
of all of Enoch Arden, and afterwards (though //,,-4
yet a widow) of Philip Ray. In the render'l
of this tender idyll into Latin verso, we known
whether to admire more those portions of it whie
are descriptive of the picturesque little English 0;
port where the loves of Annie Lee follow the Or
upon the other in their mournful sequenoa,
those other portions comprising within them
Tennyson's magnificent celebration of the trop'";
scenery where the shipwrecked mariner is lame°
ing for his lost home, and love, and life, in 5 6°'litude as awful as that of Robinson Crusoe's
type, Alexander Selkirk, on the ocean island 00
Juan Fernandez. Thus, for example, in tig)
later passages, do we find Professor Selwylf° ar,
sion of the IN ords relating how Enoch—

. . heard
The myriad shriek of wheeling ocean-fowl,
The league-long roller thundering on the reef;"
thus faithfully echoing their noble resonance--

Audiit innumeros ululara ad litora mergos ;

Itninanes fluctus subinersa in saxa, tonantos• „it
The scrupulous exactitude with which the transist
follows out the lightest turn of phrase, the subtles
touch of imagery, could hardly be more sigll3lict
yet mora delicately indicated, by the way, tiPl
il'p
through rome passing reference, here, to ra

when—

" Rim like the working bee in blossom-dust
Blanch'd with his mill, they found;''
Ilium, apis in morem perfuszo polline forum,

Alboutem farre inveniunt. t of
The original, and the translation, in pain"
fact, might be ahnost taken line fir lie's'
here and there, even word for word.
is the same—with a difference ! The -c.ng
ciency alone discernible in the reflection behl,,-0
that peculiar to many other reflectionslvP-ar
viewed, as it were, apart, or from without.
ra
meaning in saying which, we would be a
more clearly indicate, by comparing this n3g3f
reflection of "Enoch Arden" to the reflection c't
any one else's countenance in a mirror, as tb,,,/'
reflection appears to our own eyes—not to his
when gazing upon it. To us the outlines and P;a,
portions of the features of that reflected 0'113;31
nance, by t
reason of the mere fact of their revers
in reflection (the right side, thereupon, becoming Pr
left and the left the right)—the outlines and 13;:o.
portions of those features, to our eyes, be it rerocery
bered, evidence always an appreciable yet a Yoe
subtle distortion. Just such a divergence fronl
symmetrical beauty of the original, we hiveir,
consciousness of when examining this 133 au
vellous shadowing forth in Latin of "9%,
Arden"—a divergence, doubtless, hardly reenglag
able to the eye of Professor Selwyn himself, oee fil,
that he is, there, scanning it, so to speak, 004°Iti'a!
the original, like the very alter ego of the Lltire`i jo
What is, here, far more worthy of note, however',
the fact that from the first line to the last, fr°l33

Litorew rupes übi fisss3 in chasms rocedunt,

Sic anima inTicta pollens virtuto recossit ;
Cum vero efferrant funus, viz lautior unquani
Portum per tenuein doducta est pompa sopularl

from— ,
"Long lines of cliff breaking have left a closo3,

" So past the strong heroic soul away

And when they buried him the little port
Had seldom seen a costlier funeral"— rad
throughout the whole (we would say) of this -octi
careful, almost conscientious, translation of "Entr of
Arden" into Latin, there is manifest on the P3",f0l
Professor Selwyn, a genuine love for the gra° er
labour undertaken by him, together with an of
quisite appreciation of those various beuil6e: of
thought and of diction for which the veil-y,
Tennyson, when at his best, is always so reularl°loo
Such is the success with which the translaterto
here accomplished the task upon which (p 0 with
it has been to admirably completed) he ulairwety
full reason be congratulated upon having a'o/
tured—that we are fain to express an earnest 13(4010
one born from this very success of his—a h°l)° blot
he may yet be tempted to give the world a far /11)%t0
work than Enochus Arden—a tranalatioa hit° the
of the poetry, the philosophy, the morality', oci
eloquence, the pathos, of all the many exclilisr„itelor
bewitching beauties appertaining to Alfred •erof,
son's incomparable masterpiece, meaningtbe4ol.
of course, his grand elegiac poem In 51072°'03e0
In saying which, we would commend this eaconSl'
hope of ours to Professor Selwyn's gracious

deration.
Motor's PENNY READINGS.—AnotIiOrt
.volume of this charming series of Penni -,tlOf
lugs, gives fresh promise, let us hope, of-4131-006
and yet another. The handy size of the I%ipe;
the easy opening of it, the largo &aria °'
the ample margin, the felicitous select:l-,l3ti/,
pieces—alternately humorous and I)s"edi4"
all contrive to render Moxou's Penny illescileAll
the 71C plus ultra for those who take part in the
and popular entertainments so designatell• 4, DOI
for example, in this additional instahnent,l/0- 001
Selections as perfect as—Tennyson's 0;`;
Keats's " Ode to the Nightingale," 1-43031).:siece5',
Familiar Faces," Hood's " Domestic .2esll,
Locker's " My Neighbour Rose," and P0,0'613;11:
laratiug, delightful, radiant, riant " t')‘l
It is a feast with the poets, simply turning che
leaves.
0113
tic
,bratcd D ranl3l6o/

Mr. J. W. Anson's celebra,
Musical Almanack appears as usual--for I,o'
well. up to time in anticipation of Clirlo'f 01
It is worthy of so distinguished ineioberi3O-00:
profession the well-known S •re‘t•try of 1t°1,5
Dramatic College and treasurer ofSe
the T4'3,:rn°
Adelphi. Every actor and lctress not only in P°:4°,/Llol3i'
throughout the provinces allc over, the Uoited
ought to secure hotlines a copy of thisbij tertsi'll c°:ll'ol's
Almanack, as a useful as well as a most en
membrancer!