29 JULY 1899, Page 22

The Bacchw of Euripides. A Translation into English Verse, by

Alexander Kerr. (E. Arnold.)—Professor Kerr has not the same idea of " English Verse " that we have. Thus in the messenger's story of the death of Pentheus (1,043-1,152) we have :—

" Where we stand, stranger, I have no view of the Maenads' place for dancing, But climbing a bank or a towering silver flr, I could see well the Maenads' shameless conduct!'

These three lines do not yield themselves to ordinary scanning, and the same remark is often suggested both by the iambic and the lyrical passages. To the translation we have little objection to make. Agave has torn away her unhappy son's shoulder :—

°be inr6 cre&ovs, AAA' Oebs dizapetay ireMou xEpoTv.

Professor Kerr has :-

" The god it was who taught her bands to war."

"Added" would be the right word for iefalSoe. But, on the whole, the version reads well—apart from certain peculiarities of metre—and keeps laudably close to the original.