MR. MACKAIL'S " IENEID."* THE services, direct and indirect, which

can be rendered to the world of English readers by a really good translation of a masterpiece like the YEneid are of so high an order that the appearance of a new prose version by so distinguished a repre- sentative of modern Oxford scholarship as Mr. Mackail cannot fail to awaken interest and provoke discussion. Moreover, the value of translations is likely to be further increased by the growing reaction against a too rigorous imposition of the study of the dead languages at our Universities and those of the United States. We may, perhaps, be allowed to illustrate our state- ment as to the value of translations, and their stimulating effect in other fields than that of literature, by one or two notable instances. It was almost always through the medium of trans. lations—and in the case of Faust, through the imperfect version of Gerard de Nerval—that the most colossal musical genius of France, Hector Berlioz, derived the inspiration for his greatest works. Keats's splendid sonnet on Chapman's Homer is a noble acknowledgment of the influence which a poetical translation may exert on an imaginative mind. The most curious and unexpected instance of what can be done with idiomatic translations was furnished us not long ago on the most unimpeachable authority. An artillery officer quartered a few years back with a small detachment at some outlying station in Ireland, where he and his men had next to nothing to do, employed a great deal of his leisure time in reading to his soldiers, and found that in all his repertory there was no more popular book than Jowett's Dialogues of Plato. From the fore- going remarks it may be inferred that we do not hold the most successful or valuable translations to be necessarily those which are the most scholarly or exquisite. Translations are not primarily made for scholars nor for schools, but for the benefit of such intelligent and curious readers as are debarred from studying the originals ; and it is when we view it in this light that we feel unable to pronounce Mr. Mackail's effort a success, in spite of its undoubted cleverness and the beauty of many of its descriptive passages.

Our first ground of complaint against Mr. Mackail is his preface. We have nothing to urge against the diffidence with which he ushers in his work, remarking that a prose translation of a poet "can only have the value of a copy of some great painting executed in mosaic, if, indeed, a copy in Berlin- wool is not a closer analogy ;" but we should have liked to learn for what class of readers his version is designed. And we wish, too, that he had stated the nature of his:indebtedness to Conington in a manner less likely to mislead the critic who has had occasion to compare his version with that published in the miscellaneous writings of his predecessor. For it so happens that a good many of the renderings given in the notes of Conington and Nettleship's commentary, which Mr. Mackail states he has used throughout, —renderings which are thus familiar to students of Virgil,—are incorporated in the version before us. And thus many neat and vigorous turns of expression which have struck us as noteworthy in the transla- tion of Mr. Mackail have on comparison turned out to be identical with those of Conington. We are ready to give fall weight to the chances of coincidence, and to unconscious assimilation ; but we are inclined to think that a residue is still left which Mr. Mackail might have done well to acknowledge in more precise terms than the brief statement that he had used Conington and Nettleship's notes throughout. The most prominent of these cases of identity or close similarity may here be mentioned. Thus (Book VI., 86), "Sod non et venisse volent " is translated, "But not so shall they have joy of their coming," where Mr. Mackail's version is practically identical with that of Conington. " Magno turbante tumultu " (Book VI., 858) is rendered "reeling beneath the

• The Zneidof Virgil. Translated into English by r. W. Mackail, MA., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. London : Macmillan and Co.

invading shock," by Mr. Mackail; "reels beneath the invading ahock," by Conington. "At saeva e speculis tempns clea nacta nocendi " (Book VII., 511) is translated by Mr. Mackail "seizing from her watch-tower the moment of mischief," where the two versions are identical. "Indulgent vino et vertunt crateras ahenos " (Book IX., 165) is turned "they drink deep, and set brazen bowls atilt," by Mr. Mackail; "they drink deep and tilt the brazen bowl," by Conington. The versions of" certatim crebris collucent ignibus agri " (Book XL, 209) are practically the same,-" the fields gleam with crowded rivalry of fires" [Mr. Mackail]; "gleam with thickening rivalry of fixes" [Conington]. In the same book the same phrase, "task and toil," occurs in both versions to render "opera atque labores " (1. 183) ; " super " (1. 226) is translated by Conington as "a crowning blow," by Mr. Mackail "to crown all." Further instances of dope resemblance or identity of rendering will be found in Book I., 11. 640, 718; Book IV., 324; Book VI., 209; Book VII., 111; Book V1TI., 709, 728, 730. We should observe, before quitting this point, that the discovery of these resemblances has not resulted from a systematic collation of the two versions, but only from comparing them in a good many places where we were impressed by the -vigour and felicity of Mr. Mackail's renderings. If we were asked to describe his style, we could do no better than borrow his own phrase and call it a mosaic, in which a good deal of Scriptural phraseology is not very appro- priately inlaid. " Sacrata eede " (Book I., 681) is rendered "in my holy habitation." The line "Jam flammm tulerint, inimiens et hauserit ensis " (Book II., 600), is turned "The flames ere this had made them their portion, &c." "Pater omnipotens " becomes "the lord omnipotent ;" and it is probable that the not

very felicitous rendering of 2Eneas's apostrophe, " Morere et fratrem ne desere frater " (Book X., 600), by "Die and be brother undivided from brother," is due to a reminiscence of David's lament over Saul and Jonathan. Further, to translate Jupiter "0 God" in one passage, and plain " Jupiter " in another, is, at any rate, inconsistent, setting aside the question of taste. If in this perverted use of Christian terminology Mr. Mackail has proved himself the apt pupil of Mr. Matthew Arnold, the influence of another Victorian poet is shown by his predilection for alliteration and rhythmical phrase. With alliteration we have no fault to find when it exists in the original ; but in too many places its introduction is gratuitous, and diverts the attention of the reader from the matter of Virgil to the form of Mr. Mackail. An example of this occurs in the translation of the lines,- " At Venus obscure gradientes at;re sepsit, Et melt° nebulae dream dea fadit amicta" (Book L, 411-412),-" But Venus girt them in their going with dull mist, and shed round them a deep divine clothing of cloud." We are inclined to prefer at every point the simpler version of Conington,-" But Venus fenced them [a truer rendering of sepsit '] with a dim cloud as they moved, and wrapped them, as a goddess only.can, in a spreading mantle of mist." Other instances of this gratuitous alliteration are to be met with in - "The sweet societies of the good "-" Amcena piorum concilia " (Book V., 734), a most infelicitous and sibilant rendering ; "god and ghost," for " superi manesque " (Book X., 34) ; "the sweep of the sword-arm," for " perfringere dextra " (Book X.,, 279). This trick is all the more unpardonable, because in more than one passage-e.g., Book XI., 11. 151, 470-a strong and intentional alliteration in the original is left unrepresented in the translation. Besides this capricious habit of alliteration, sundry other tricks of diction-" the blood of their slaying ;" "the steps of her going ;" "the flames of the burning "-which have come to be associated with a certain school of modern poetry, are constantly encountered throughout these pages ; and Mr. Mackail's fondness for the words "flutter" and. " flicker " amounts to a mania. Here is a notable instance of his use, or abuse, of the first of these hard-worked vocables,-" Simul onane tamultu conjurat trepido Latium" (Book VIII., 4)-" All Latium at once flutters in banded nprisal." The everlasting prettiness of Mr. Mackail's style makes us yearn for some sledge-hammer phrase in the style of Dryden ; but our yearning is never satisfied even in those passages where the leading characteristic of the original is weight and majesty. Take the often-quoted line, " Fleetere si negneo superos, Acheronta movebo," and who can for a moment hesitate between "If the powers of heaven are inflexible, I will stir up Acheron" (Mr. Mackail), and "if. I cannot prevail above, I will stir up the fiends of the deep" (Conington) Again, how tame is the rendering of " obstnpni steteruntqun comm et vox faucilrns hEesit " by "I was motionless, my hair stood up, and the accents faltered on my tongue !"

This lack of weight and massiveness is only enhanced by the translator's perpetual habit of changing transitive into intransi- tive verbs, and of, so to speak, depersonalising sentences. We have marked scores of passages where the translation suffers from this lack of straightforwardness, but will confine ourselves to a couple in order to illustrate our meaning. The picture in " ca3lumgne Aspicit et dukes merlons reminiscitur Argos."

(Book X., 782) is greatly weakened, we think, in the rendering, "And in death gazes on the sky, and Argos is sweet in his remem- brance." Mr. Mackail's avoidance of transitive verbs maybe illus- trated by his renderings of " largoque humectat flumine vultnm " (Book L, 465), "his face wet with a full river of tears," and of " attollitque globes flammarum et Eldora lambit " (Book

574), "and heaves balls of flame flickering up to the stars." At this point we may also notice his practice of treating " vir" as a pronoun,-so, too, " pubes" and " juventus,"-and of denying any demonstrative force to " tantus " (see Book I., 615; Book IV., 305; Book IX., 78). The next element in Mr. Mad/airs mosaic which calls for notice is the archaic-we have already mentioned the Biblical and the picturesque-and here again we cannot always congratulate him on his taste. Doubtless, he could give us good authority for such forms as " snspire," " attent," " fostress," " gnawn ;" but we do not think that in any case they are worth reviving. His partiality for adverbial forms in a- is quite remarkable. Thus we have " asway," " aswarm," " astrain," " arow," " aflow," " abrim" "atilt." " Corresponsive " and " desistence " are of a base Johnsonian coinage. And affected renderings such as " Ah me, the pity of thee, 0 bey !"-(" Hen, miserande puer," Book -VI., 883) ; " Dido (alas, and woe for her !) "-" miserrima Dido " (Book IV., 117) ; "time agone " - " dudum ;" " dispiteons gloom" - " cradelibus umbris" (Book I., 547) ; " foison of the clod "- " nbere glebm,"-though well enough in a uniformly archaic translation, jar upon the ear when they alternate with homely modern idioms or technical phrases. Thus " Consurgunt nantle et magno clamore morantur" (Book V., 207), is idiomatically, perhaps too idiomatically, rendered, "The sailors leap up and hold her with loud cries." So " aim-am latrantibus undis " (Book VII., 588) becomes "among waves slapping all about" -Mr. Mackail might just as well have said "yapping "-and "ad juga cogit equos " (Book VII., 639) "backs his horses into the yoke."

We think it will be allowed that when a metaphor is capable of direct transference from one language to another, the trans- lator should refrain from distorting it or substituting another. Mr. Mackail is a frequent offender in this-respect. For instance, he represents "stunt belli causEe " (Book VII., 553) by "the springs of war are allow ;" and the aptness of the Shakespearian

parallel does not justify his rendering of " cmlo refixa sidera " (Book V., 527) by "stars shooting from their

sphere," where Conington's version "unfastened from the firma- ment" is decidedly preferable. In spite of the studied elaborate- ness of many passages, signs are not wanting of carelessness and haste in the execution of this translation. In the first place, the omissions of words and whole lines, particularly in the latter books, are so numerous as to suggest very imperfect revision and comparison of the author's proof-sheets with the original. The following list will give a good notion of these gaps :-Book L, 1. 147, " sammas ;" 155, " prospiciens ;" 403, "vertice ;" 470, " lacrimans." Book III., 1. 301, almost all; 313, " furenti ;" 415, bodily; 643, " curva." Book V., 1. 49, "ni fallor;" 68, " jacnlo incedit melior;" 94, bodily. Book VI.,1. 61, bodily; 1. 132," laberts ;" 340, " vix ;" 375, latter half; 494, latter half ; 503," Pelasgam ;" 602, " atra." Book VII., 11. 56-57, " quem amore 197, "rates ;" 595, " sacrilego ;" 618, " pater ;" 766, "sanguine." Book VU!., 1. 273, latter half; 349, bodily ; 451, almost all;

590, bodily ; 621-622, " fatiferumque ingentem." Book IX., 1. 471, " pra3fixa ;" 606, bodily. Book X., 1. 753, "insignia jaculo ;" 816, " recondit ;" 894, " incumbit." Book

XI., 11. 55-57, "At non pater ;" 392, " fcedissime ;" 432, " egregia ;" 476, latter half ; 900, latter half. Book XII., 1. 316, " atque anferte metus;" 495, " sensit ;" 835, " tantum." In connection with such faults of absolute omission should be noticed a large number of inadequate renderings where no conscientious effort has been made to penetrate to the core of Virgil's meaning. For example,-

" populumque volentem Deponunt, animos nil magne3 laudis egentes " (Book V., L 750), is carelessly turned "and plant a people there, souls that will have none of glory." "Straining oars" is not an adequate rendering of " reductis remis " (Book VIII., 1. 689), any more than "Then the unnerving chill overspread her" conveys the picture in "Tam frigida tote Paulatim exsolvit se corpore " (Book XI., 1. 828). These shirkings of the translator's duty are all the more culpable in a translator who treats his readers to such conscious and studied elaborations as "pure crown of wife- hood" (" sanctissima conjux," Book XI., L 158); "To set the stain of steel on the winged horrors of the sea" (" Obscenas pelagi ferro fcedare volueres," Book III., 1. 241) ; "The hoarse clarion utters the ensanguined note of war" (" Bello dat signum ranee. cruentum Buccina," Book XL, 1. 474). This last render- ing strikes us as a sheer ineptitude, and may be classed along with such phrases as "the prophetic Dalian" (" Delius vates," Book VI., 1. 12) ; "the deadly divine Circe" (" dea saeva Circe," Book VII., 1. 19); and "the dim Ausonian Tiber" (" Ausonium, quicunque est, querere Thybrim," Book V., 1. 83). Conington's version, though often laboured, is dignified and intelligible. Now, it is precisely the absence of these qualities which often so seriously impairs the value of Mr. Mackairs work to the general reader. To make clear the meaning of an obscure passage, Conington is content with a paraphrase, where Mr. Mackail favours us with a picturesque and sounding sentence, signifying to the reader unskilled in Latin nothing, or next to nothing. Here is a specimen from Book IV., 1. 193 :—" Nunc hiemem inter se luau, quam longa, fovere "—" Now they hold their winter long drawn through mutual caresses." And the difficulty of "Devictam Asiam subsedit adulter " [(Book XI., 1. 268) is, if anything, enhanced in "The adulterer crouched over conquered Asia."

Mr. Mackairs grammar, furthermore, is often more than doubtful, unless it may be that he is endeavouring to reproduce the freedom of Virgil's style. Otherwise it is hard to explain such bold uses of the absolute construction as "Broken in war and so many years now slid away" (Book II., 13.14); "We once expelled, they trust nothing will withhold them" (Book VIII., 147). His constant and audacious employment of intransitive verbs must be held to be a special feature of his style. "0 tandem mag,nis pelagi defnuctexericlis "(Book VI., 83), becomes "0 past at length with the great perils of the sea." So we find (Book VI., 297) "disgorges into Cocytus with sand ;" "the reef ground" (" concusse cantes," Book V., 205); "he sweeps on .A.nteaus" ("persequitur Anteum," Book X., 561) ; and "the sea strikes over the cliffs in a wave of foam" (Book XL, 625,

" pontus scopnlosque superjacit undam spumens "). These constructions are obviously studied and intentional ; but we prefer, knowing what good work Mr. Mackail is :capable of, to regard the following slipshod sentences to be due merely to carelessness :—" Among the Latin weapons and the rough edge of war" (Book X., 237) ; "the Dardanian boy of Venus' son" ("Dardaniusque nepos Veneris," Book IV.,163); "wherefore have they reared this vast size of horse ?" (Book 11,150) ; "they set to fill up" (" implere parant," Book IX., 506). Other characteristic points about this translation are the rejection of the conven- tional distinction between the aorist and imperfect ; a constant and almost:wanton practice of inverting the subject ; substituting intransitive for transitive verbs and affirmative for negative sentences, and vice versa, (e.g., "nee candicla cursus Lima negat " becomes "and the white moonshine speeds them on ") ; and the disastrous adherence to the words chosen to render " trepidas," " cornscus," and "cure," "flutter," "flickering," and "dis- tresses." Minor points are the affectation of sundry archaisms, in addition to those mentioned above, such as " Agylla town," Privernum town," and" once and again," to render " quondam" in similes.

Lastly, we have to notice certain renderings which are either undoubtedly incorrect or else unsupported by sufficient evidence to warrant their adoption. The translation of "Notus " (Wok I., 1.85) by" West-wind" is probably a slip. "All else is answerable [sic] to thy mother's words," quite misrepresents " Dictis respon- dent cetera matris " (Book I.,1. 585). Mr. Mackairs fondness for the picturesque leads him to adopt the word " swing " for the various compounds of " surgo " in connection with rowing. But the notion of rising to the stroke conveyed by the word is thus wholly lost. Passing over some trifling errors, we come to a curious blunder in Book VI., 761, where "proximo, sorte tenet lucis boa" is rendered "holds the nearest place allotted in our groves." All that can be said in favour of this rendering is that it is possible. But even that cannot be urged in favour of the rendering (Book XI., 757) "Even so Tarchon carries Tiburtus out of the ranks," for it was Vennlus whom Tarchon had seized ; and " Tiburtum ex agmine" is simply "from the ranks of the Tiburtines." Mr. Mackail translates " ardentes eqnos " (Book VII., 781), "ruddy steeds ;" " ta,citis incumbere remis " (Book VIII., 108), "rest on their silent oars "date vina volentes " (Book VIII., 275), " pour the glad wine ;" " impellite remos " (Book IV., 594), "swing out the oars " diluvio ex ilk vecti " (Book VII., 228), "borne by that flood ;" " populique Latini" (Book VII., 716), "the tribes

of Latiniam ;" " Lycio cornn " (Book XI., 773)," with a Lycian horn ;" but in no case has he given any authority for renderings

which differ in every case from those of Conington. The reading " Cybele " for " Cybebe " (Book X., 220) has hardly any MSS. authority to warrant its introduction into a translation ; and we are not aware that the reading " Aletes " (Book V., 73) has any such authority at all.

Mr. Mackail has given us such pleasure as a writer of scholarly and often exquisite verse, that his failure, in the main, to do justice to the task in hand has been a source of genuine dis- appointment to us. We are inclined to believe that his venture would have been far more successful had he cast it in a poetic form, since some of the very defects of his performance, viewed as a piece of prose, would then have become venial faults, or even virtues.

We gladly turn, in conclusion, from the long and irksome task of finding fault to that of commendation. In many of the descriptive passages, Mr. Mackairs version is decidedly morevivid and effective than that of Conington, and his renderings of single

lines are often singularly neat and terse. "The sight of death at every turn "—" plutima mortis imago" (Book II., 369)—is

much simpler and better than Conington's "the vision of death in many a manifestation." So, again, we prefer "was trapping and coursing game "—" ineidils cursuque feras agitabat lulus" (Book VII., 478)—to "was hunting with the snare and the course" (Conington) ; and, indeed, the whole of this episode is more gracefully rendered in the new version. The following passage from Book VIII.,11. 86-96, though we cannot agree with the translator in his way of taking " refluens " (1. 87), " noctemque diemque fatigant " (1. 94), or " variis " (1. 95), may yet serve to exhibit the merits and defects of his method :—

"All that night long Tiber assuaged his swelling stream, and silently stayed his refiuent wave, smoothing the surface of his waters to the fashion of still pool and quiet mere, to spare labour to the oar. So they set out and speed on their way with prosperous cries : the painted fir slides along the waterway : the waves and unwonted woods marvel at their far-gleaming shields and the gay hulls afloat on the river. They outwear a night and a day in rowing, ascend the long reaches, and pass under the chequered shadows of the trees, and cut through the green woodland in the calm water."

Unfortunately for Mr. Mackail, the greatness of Virgil does not consist in his picturesqueness so much as in his virile strength, his pathos, and dignity ; and it is just where Virgil is at his greatest in the sixth book that Mr. Mackairs inferiority to Conington is most strikingly displayed. Had our space per- mitted, we should have liked to quote the two versions of the splendid passage in that book beginning, "Ecce autem, primi sub lumina solis et ortus," 11. 255-281 ; but we must content our- selves with referring our readers to them, in the assurance that it will confirm them in our belief as to their relative merits.