New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-05-13
Mr.. GLADSTQNE'S ODES.
SOME OF THE MERITS AND SOME OF
THE DEFECTS OF HIS RENDERING
OF FIVE LOVE ODEs" FROM
HORACE.

London, May 2.
Criticism on Mr.. Gladstone's translations from
Horace in THE Nineteenth Century" may seem
ungracious in view Of the fact that these verses
were the solace of darkened hours The ex-
Prime Minister betook himself TO the rendering OF
the Roman poet as a rest for his eyes. He knew
the Odes by heart. He translated perhaps from
the heart certainly without help in the first
place. from pen and ink from commentators
and critics. This. which was time since
put forth as probability, know from an indis-
putable source to be true. Criticism. accord
ingly, has been in a subdued tone. OF criticism
In the hostile sense there has been hardly any
II scholars shake their heads over some parts Of
these versions they shake them for the most
part in private Perhaps It depends a little on
whether they care more for Horace or more for
Mr. Gladstone. There Is. even among the Con-
servatives a kind OF pride in the versatility and
unquenchable energy Of the great Englishman
who has just laid down the burden Of Empire
and betalses himself once more In his leisure to
the classics, and to that one among the Latin
poets who has ever been the favorite OF the
gentlemen OF England; Of those among them who
could read him in the original.
Still, a statesman is under no obligation to be
a poet, to be himself capable Of metrical ex-
ercises. to publish his experiments In transa-
ton. To publish them is. in truth, challenge
or. II not a challenge. avowal OF his beliet
that they will bear the light of day. I don't
doubt that Mr.. James Knowles. whose zeal as
editor is interchangeable ought to bear part of the
responsibility.
Mr. Gladstone long since tried his hand at
translation with no very conspicuous success
The success Is not conspicuous now. 1t almost
never is in the of English versions OF lyric
or epic or dramatic poetry from any foreign
tongue ancient modern. There is no good
English translation OF Virgil; neither Dryden's
nor the late Lord Bowen's. and still less Pro-
fessor Conng,ons. There Is no good Homer,
though there are most interesting poems on
Homeric basis by Chapman and. in a different
way by Pope. There is no good English Dante,
TO Moerc, no Goethe. There has never been
and probably never will be an English Horace
which will convey to the mind OF the English the
same Ideas, the same impressions, the same sense
OF beauty and Of perfect form which Horace
himself conveyed TO his own countrymen. or to
the generations OF countrymen not his own who
have read him and loved him and lived with him
for nineteen hundred years.
Perhaps what Is most remarkable Of all In
these verses Is their vlgor. There Is no hint
OF falling energy or Of mental confusion IL the
strength is rugged that IS because the muscles
are put to new There Is concentration
also and directness In place OF the dffuse am
biguity which Is often so marked in Mr.. Glad
stones speech and writing. altogether, there
Is enough In the present specimens. as the trans
lator calls them. to show that Horace is dear
to him; not enough 10 show that the true Hora-
tian spirit has penetrated his soul or become
part Of his intellectual or spiritual existence
Seldom. as one often has 10 say Is the great
orator at his best pen in hand. He certainly 10
not now. II Is with him an ,Gott OF the Will
10 put his own or another's thoughts In a poetic
form. You miss the spontaneous note. the sense
OF the irrepressbe impulse. which must express
Itself metrlcally or not at all. The elaboration
and selt-consclousness Of the act OF choice are
fatal. or. II not fatal they impair the effect OF
kind of art which. like almost all kinds Of art
must be. or must seem, natural and not acquired
or forced Mr.. Gladstone is at times obscure
and though obscurity Is consistent enough with
certain states Of poetic sensibility. II must not
as In his case. be the obvious result Of an imper-
fcct.y successful attempt TO move in "A medium
which is not his own
The want OF the qualities most peculiarly Ho-
rattan Is n more serious defect The transa-
tor must have the Horatian spirit. II he is to
d. any good but the attraction which Horace
has for him must not be that which springs from
unlikeness Men may genuinely admire writer
or a friend because he possesses the very traits
OF mind or OF character which they themselves
lack Not so the translator. He must enter
into the soul OF his author breathe the same
air be of the same race spiritually speaking
The attraction must be sympathetic. not anti
pathetic The scholar may be deeply imbued
with the classic spirit; appreciate It genuinely,
-
tries his best Macaulays Lays Of Ancient
Rome" are an instance. He had a free hand
because he was not translatng. and all the re-
sources Of Roman antiquity were open to him
end familiar to him. Yet how labored and how
remote from Ancient Rome they all are.
Mr. Gladstone, with no aim before him but TO
English a few verses OF the Latin lyrist Is Ia
bored also and modern. His lines seem so many
pieces Of cunning mosaic BIZ by bit ne mas
chosen his material; word by word he mas pieced
them together II he shirks no difficulty, ne cre>
ates some new ones for the reader. II he col
ects the sense. the breath OF life which the
charming Venusian breathed into his incompar-
able lyrics has escaped him. The movement Is
that OF the marionette; never quite smooth, never
quite the flowing grace of the living creature
with flowing veins The best woven strings
will not transmit the wishes Of the brain as do
the nerves There is, moreover an emphasis
which might we'll be spared. Horace Is arti-
fetal. II YOU like. but you will find 1t. in his case,
difficult to distinguish artince from art. II was
7 think OF him that the phrase "curiosa felicitas
was first used. and 1t has never since been used
of any writer more apty Yet his sense or the
value OF a word is not more requisite than his
sense OF the lyrical Wilderness or oneness WITH
out which the lyric is naught. But there seems
no sure reason why Mr. Gladstone's specimen
should begin at point or end at another.
Nor will he accept the limitations which Horace
imposes on himself, nor abide by the same laws.
The turn of the thought and OF the phrase are
alike in Horace OF an almost irreproachable deli
cacy His loyalty to the laws OF his verse Is