Page:On translating Homer (1905).djvu/287

 simplicité, the semblance simplesse. The one is natural simplicity, the other is artificial simplicity. What is called simplicity in the productions of a genius essentially not simple, is, in truth, simplesse. The two are distinguishable from one another the moment they appear in company. For instance, let us take the opening of the narrative in Wordsworth's Michael:

Upon the forest-side in Grasmere Vale There dwelt a shepherd, Michael was his name; An old man, stout of heart, and strong of limb. His bodily frame had been from youth to age Of an unusual strength; his mind was keen, Intense, and frugal, apt for all affairs; And in his shepherd's calling he was prompt And watchful more than ordinary men.

Now let us take the opening of the narrative in Mr Tennyson's Dora:

With Farmer Allan at the farm abode William and Dora. William was his son, And she his niece. He often looked at them, And often thought, 'I'll make them man and wife'.

The simplicity of the first of these passages is simplicité; that of the second, simplesse. Let us take the end of the same two poems: first, of Michael:

The cottage which was named the Evening Star Is gone, the ploughshare has been through the ground On which it stood; great changes have been wrought In all the neighbourhood: yet the oak is left That grew beside their door: and the remains Of the unfinished sheepfold may be seen Beside the boisterous brook of Green-head Ghyll.