Comedies of T. Maccius Plautus. Translated in the Original Metres
by Edward H. Sugdon. (Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)— This is the first volume of a translation which is intended to include all the plays of Plautus, and, Mr. Sugden hopes, the seven comedies of Terence as well. The translator has allowed himself a certain amount of freedom in alteration. He expects that he " shall offend the pedants and shock the prudes," but "hopes to find some who will be glad of the chance of enjoying Plautus without having at times to hold their noses." Of course this is not an easy thing to do ; but, as far as we have been able to examine his work, the translator has exercised a sound judgment. It must be confessed that the wit of Plautus is apt to disappear in the process of translation ; it certainly cannot stand it as well as does the more robust humour of Aristophanes. Still, readers will be able to get a fair amount of entertainment out of Mr. Sugden's volume. He rhymes all the verse other than the ordinary iambic, representing each by its equivalent or approximately equivalent metre in English. The versification is easy, and the difficulties of rhyme well overcome, though now and then the language may be a little strained. For instance, in the line,-
" For my spear the diee.box, for my breastplate some luxurious weed,"
the last word was a little puzzling till one turned to the original and found, " Pro lorios, malacum capiam pallium," and saw that " weed" was employed in the unusual sense of a " garment." Here is a specimen from the Aultaaria, one of Euclio's soliloquies, in which he expresses his anxieties about the pot of gold :—
" Gone at last, yo gods immortal 'tie a perilous affair When a poor man gets entangled with a wealthy millionaire. Bee how Megadorus tries to catch me every way !
He pretends %was in my honour that he sent th.se cooks to•day Don't believe it I No I he sent them just to steel my little stook. Then, as might have been expected, my confounded dung-hill cook, Bought with the old woman's savings, ruined me within an ace, For the wretch began a-scratching with his claws all round the plea Where the gold was lying buried; piercing anguish thrilled my breast,
So I took a stick and slew him as is burglar manifest."
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