The New York herald., 1922-02-26

bEcW OLF. IT3lSldtSu Dy H. h- f>totl
Moncrieff. E. p. Dutton & Co.
~APTAIN MONCRIEFF has a
valiant appetite for difficulties,
for attempting the impossible
and he comes out Of the fray un-
vanquished, and with no small meas
ure of success. The tasks he set him
self. however, remain, at least In
some sense. impossibilities. though
one may say without exaggeration
that probably he has made as good a
job Of It as can be. His version of
the Chunson de Roland, reviewed in
THE NEW York HERALD not long ago.
is undoubtedly the best approxima-
ton to the form of the original text
that has been done in English. Now
he has tried to do the same service
for Beowulf (adding the fragments
Of Widsith, Finnsburgh. Waldere
and the stray lyric of Deorl. pre-
serving the meter and the ailitera-
tions of the Saxon, and giving on the
whole a quite literal version of the
texts. 1t is very well done under
the circumstances, and probably it is
worth doing, though il may be ques-
toned whether it is the most salts
factory manner of treating such
alien masterpieces.
If assonance is foreign to the
genius OF modern English verse.
making ii difficult for the unframed
ear TO follow the effects of the old
French Of RoiGnd in an Anglicized
form, ALTERATION is almost as much
so. IL is. of course, still effective in
some forms; In the mellow mur-
murings OF Swinburnian song, or in
keats's magic. "faery lands for
lorn." for example. but the effect is
In fact, it is more apt to be comic
1t has almost sunk to the restricted
uses of the parodist or writer of
flippant humorous verse-as in the
opening Of a certain ode to the Dino
saur:
Majestic. monumental mass of meat,
Moreover. as Captain Moncrieff
himself points out. there has been
large apparent loss of alliterative
value In words whose form has
changed since their early Eng
lish incarnations. He has tried
to escape this. occasionally. by
alliterating g with where the
latter represents an old English e.
Even worse difficulties arise from
the loss of the aspirates. He shows
great ingenuity and patience in find
Ing passable alterations, and the
effect is, after all, fairly close to that
of the original. But in keeping so
closely TO the form perhaps there is
a corresponding loss Of the spirit.
To illustrate. here IS a passage
from the episode OF Wiglaf's coming
to the aid of the hard pressed
BeoWulf in his fight with the mon
ster. which Captain Moncrieff trans
lates thus:
WaGed he then through that blood
reek his war head bore
His friend TO comfort, and few words
Quoth
Dearest Beowulf. do all things well.
Even as thou in thy youth time OF
yore didst say
That thou wouldst not let. from thy
self living
Glory dwindle; now must thou, great
in thy deeds.
Atheiing one minded. with all thy
might
Save thy life: and support thee"
For comparison here is the open
ing OF the original (us:ng tn for the
old letters and ae for the um-
lauted al:
Wod tha thurh thone wael-rec, wig
heafolan baer
Frean an fultun. fea worda cwaeth.
As an example OF another method
Of solving the problem, here is the
same passage as rendered by Pro-
fessor kennedy IN his translation OF
Ten Brink's Early English Litera-
ture":
He rushed through the reek of death :;