POPE'S ILIAD.
Pope's Iliad of Homer. Edited, with an Introduction, by Pro- fessor A. J. Church. (Cassell and Co. 29. net.)—We welcome this edition of what must always be considered a great poem, even though it is not Homer. Professor Church contributes an excellent introduction, in which he not only discusses Pope's work, but provides useful prolegomena for those unfamiliar with the original. He gives a succinct account of the Homeric question, on which he himself holds the most conservative view, and he discusses the characteristics of the Homeric world. We are glad that he has printed Pope's own preface, which has always 'seemed to us a very fine piece of criticism, much in advance of the usual criticism of the poet's age. Nothing could be more dis- criminating than the comparison drawn between Homer and Virgil, and, though much has been said on the subject, Popos'a statement will not be easily improved upon. 'The poem itself is a magnificent Georgian epic, which, though it has little of the simple majesty and fire of the Greek, is yet full of a dignity 8414 fire of its own. Sometimes the poet is overmastered by the vices of the literary tradition under which he wrote, as in the famous concluding lines of Part VIII., which Tennyson bad so nobly rendered.
"Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole,"— •
is not Homer, or, indeed,. any kind of poetry. But, on the other hand, how excellent, and in its way moving, is the speech of Sarpedon to Glaucus in Book XII. :—
" Could all our care elude the gloomy grave,
'Which claims so lean the fearful than the brave, For lust of Some I should not vainly dare In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war; But mince, alasl ignoble ago mast come, Disease, and death's ieenorable doom; The life which others pay, let us bestow, And give to fame what we to nature owe;
Brave though we fall, and honoured If we live,
Or lot us glory gain, or glory give I"
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