Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/293

 9* s. xii. OCT. 10, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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will be observed, are in a much larger pro- portion than in the earlier entertainments. E. RIMBATJLT DIBDIN. Morningside, iSudworth Road, New Brighton. (To be continued.)

TRANSLATIONS, GOOD AND BAD. On trans- lation in general it has been smartly said by somebody that, even at the very best, a trans- lation of any given work may be compared to the stuffed specimen of any given animal. The stuffed figure of a fox or of a pheasant in a glass case actually and accurately represents the appearance of the animal when it lived, but the life is gone, it is dead. The parallel is clever, but, like many clever things, it is scarcely true ; at all events not invariably or necessarily so. It is quite possible for translation to preserve not merely the form, but also the life of the original. Some translations have done so ; some few have even surpassed the life of the original. Who was the blasphemous critic who, greatly daring, ventured to assert that Pope's Homer's ' Iliad ' was actually better than Homer's Homer's * Iliad ' 1 Well, there 's many a true word said in jest, and paradox always enfolds some germ of fact.

More true than the foregoing, though lacking its Attic salt, is the comparison made by Swinburne in his essay on Dante Gabriel Eossetti, and possibly by others before him the comparison with the trans- fusion of a liquid from one vessel to another. The translator is figured as pouring the wine of verse from the golden bowl into the silver .vase ; and it is conceivable that this opera- tion might be performed by a skilful operator without spilling a drop. Finally, Walter Pater, in his ' Appreciations,' I think, com- pares a good translation to a copy of a drawing faithfully produced by a careful delineation of the original through the medium of tracing paper.

Some time ago, in some review or magazine, a fanatical champion of classical educa- tion vehemently repudiated the idea that any adequate notion of the masterpieces of antiquity could be derived from the perusal of translations, however good these might be, and maintained that in order to under- stand them, or to derive any benefit from them, it was absolutely necessary to learn Greek and Latin. Well, I would merely ask this champion the question, How about the book of books the Bible? I believe ' this work is a translation probably the out- come of many translations, and of transla- tions of translations ; and I believe it has afforded comfort and direction to a few

billions of human beings. Is it waste of time to read it, and must we all learn Hebrew and Syriac and Greek in order to understand it 1 This is mere fudge. And I would ask, Is Jowett's 'Plato' destitute of value? PATRICK MAXWELL.

Bath.

[See 9 th S. xi. 481 ; xii. 15, 275.]

MRS. JORDAN IN DUBLIN. (See 9 th S. vii. 221.) On making further inquiry I find there is some foundation for the statement that Mrs. Jordan (as Miss Francis) made her first appearance on the stage in Dublin as Phoebe in 'As You Like It,' but none at all for Mr. Fitzgerald Molloy's assignment of the event to the year 1776. I would fain refer all those who are interested in the novitiate of Mrs. Jordan to the opening section of an interesting book of reminiscences called ' Irish Varieties,' written by Mr. J. D. Herbert, and published in London in 1836. The author had been both portrait painter and actor, and in the latter capacity he earned a niche, if I mistake not, in Wilson Croker's 'Familiar Epistles.' In the sketch referred to he narrates with much particularity how " Miss Francis" and her mother came to Dublin when he was living there as a boy, how he made their acquaintance, and the circum- stance of the young girl's ddbut at Crow- Street. He gives her opening character as Phoebe, and mentions the year 1780 in con- nexion with the event. Personally, I am inclined to believe that Miss Francis's d&ut took place at Crow Street towards the close of the year 1779. ' As You Like It ' was in the bill on 20 November, and again on the 24th, with Ryder as Touchstone, Clinch as Jaques, and Mrs. Crawford as Rosalind. Owenson was then a member of the company, and might very well have played Oliver.

W. J. LAWRENCE.

HEUSKARIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY.' N. & Q.' has already extended its hospitality to some letters about the religious books of the Basks, almost the only books that they have had in their own language. May I, therefore, have an opportunity of announcing in its long- lasting pages a new fact in Baskish biblio graphy 1 The library of the city of Hamburg possesses, under the press - mark " Hamb. Stadtbibl. Realcat. PO., vol. viii. p. 93, 12mo," a book of seventy-two pages, of which there is no mention in the 'Essai d'une Bibliogra- phic de la Langue Basque par Julien Vinson ' (Paris, 1891). Its full title runs thus :

"Cantico Izpiritualac, Missionetaco eta bertoe demboretaco hainitz abantaillossac ordena hobeago batean emanac eta emendatuac. Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum. Izpiritu guciec lauda begate