New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-11
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
BULWER's HORACE.


Brothers
Miss Milford in her delightful "Our village says
u enc her heroes man of leisure, he translated
Horace as all gentlemen DO" Probably American
,ducat,on Is modernized OF amplihed. or impaired,
Or in some way altered and certainly the word
gentleman" has more liberal rendering. We
know several American gentlemen who never trans
lated Horace and in fact never heard his name men
Rsned Yet the fame Of the original Horace him of the
odes, Horace the Dainty" as Mrs. Howe calls him,
Is as fixed in literature as that of Plato or Shake
spearc 1t lives to assure US. in this OF haste
that perfection of execution counts for something
Fame may endure without great mission OF
even great inspiration, if man only does his WORK
well Though Horace is no longer an esSehVlai "
the American gentleman. yet happy that man VINO
can find delight in translating Horace as wen as ~
elnb-bouses and cancuses. We have seen a copy oil
Horace that was carried into camp during our ciNH
war where not a dozen books penetrated IL i'eS DC
fore us now underscored In red ana o'Oh WIN iiiS
ink The owner. had he captured c2sket such as
Al.vo,dor c,ntpred from Darius would have used it
for his Horace as Alexander proposed TO use that
casket for Homer
Lard Ivtton came 10 Horace, not by the avenue OF
the army. but OF tho university. As be never yet
failed in winning any prize that pluck and perse-
verance could obtsn, he has succeeded now, III 50
far as those gifts could give success. Bat trasia
tor like a poet must be born. Indeed, the translator
of Horace must be poet too. No theory can make
translator Compare, for instance, LonsfeLow's
Dante with the hOpelesSly prosaic quality OF MT
Charles Norton's d" Vita Nuova' by the same poet,
which was undoubtedly constructed on the same
plan To be sure Dante is one OF the most dlihcnlt
subjects for translation but perhaps there Is no poet
save Homer so hard to render as Horace Such light
such al nE
ezace: tone so characteristic Of his era, so I'M
transferable to any other; system of meters so
complex. so perfect 50 utterly incommensurate with
the meters Of any modern language. Compare the
rroblem Of translating a German ballad, with its
loose and simple flow, to that of adapting the meas
ures of Horace to English verse. Yet this is what
Lord Lytten has attempted, and it is something to
cav that he has not always failed.
Indeed his best successes (rather TO surprlse)
arc in the highest style of poetry. In the famous de-
scrpton Of the return of Regulus, for instance o.
III Ode g. the translation preserves tone Of strong
simplicity that almost recalls the Odes of Milton.
Then. IL ia said, he turned from the embrace
OF his chsste wife ard children, man
OF social rites heTctt
citizen no more, and bent to earth
Instern humility his manly face,
Til his inhexible persistence Fixed
The Senatss waVeTing VIII;
And forth bewept, the glorious exi!e passed
But when We come to the finer touches Of senti-
ment, we are pretty sure to find them diluted and
enfeebled. For instance that high-watar-mark IN
Horaoes expressions of feeling lin Book H., Ode 49,
"Ah! te mes 81 partem anim9 raplt
EaturiOr Wis, qud mOror alteTa,"
is terribly sacrificed in the translation:
Al! II some fatal force. prematurely bereavlug
W:enehed from the onehsf of my soul. could the
I.pcer on, With its dearer part lost,
And the fragment OF what was wholoF
IND urba furu IN phrases
Horace. the immortal decacies, Lord Lytton almost
Invariably disappoints. "VitamQue sub divo' loses
al its charms when diluted into days beneath I'M
sheltered skies and the "loquaces lymphG cease
70 charm the ear when spread into the vague confu-
Son Of
Leap thy sarrulous silvery waters"
But the answer TO all criticism is the question,
Who has done it betteri Nobody, perhaps, except
Milton and he but for ode 1t is satisfaction
to know that we have here good, careful scholarly
translation Of the Odes of Horace, often nearly as
accurate as prose version, aud always giving more
of the spirit Of the original. The Latin odes arc
printed on the opposite pages, from the text Of
Orelli the notes and explanations are admirable,
and no book perhaps could be so well adapted to
revive scholars interest in this charming author,
or give to casual reader glimpse of his charm
And though the version may have defects the intro
ductory treatise really has Is it not the best
essay on Horace ever written, in any languagef
The picture of the man aud his period is strong
clear and delicate; and the style is such an admra
bic specimen of simple and vigorous English that 1t
seems wonderful how it could have proceeded from
the once turgid and pompOus Bulwer. Its whole
tone too has tho genality and charity that should
belong TO advancing years and when the greater
English writer's as Carlyle and Ruskin. only grow
more soured and vehement time goes on 1t is
pleasant to see that in that climate the inferior wine
ct least improves with age.
An agreeable illustration Of this kindly influence
of maturer years is to be found the assigned
for not including the satires Of Horace in this YER
sion. Whatever merit be ascribed TO his satires,"
saws Lord LyttOn. lit is scarcely in the power Of
genius TO raise satire to elevated rank in poetry.
Satire. indeed. is the antipodes of poetry in Its
essence and its mission. Satire always tends TO
dwarf and it cannot fail to caricature." This adj
mission is most frank and manly, coming from the
author Of The New Timon," and it will always be
60 Lord Lytton's honor that he has withdrawn from
the later editions Of his own satirical poem the
peevish illusions to TennysOn. Such acts test the
elevation Of mans nature Ii is as if Lowell had,
at length withdrawn from The Fable for Critics"
the bitter personalities against Margaret Fuller Os-
soil Does our American literary atmosphere pro-
duce lower grades of generosity or 1t easier TO for
give the living than the dead
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