Page:On translating Homer (1905).djvu/61

 shown that Chapman's conceits are un-Homeric, and that his rhyme is un-Homeric; I will now show how his manner and movement are un-Homeric. Chapman's diction, I have said, is generally good; but it must be called good with this reserve, that, though it has Homer's plainness and directness, it often offends him who knows Homer, by wanting Homer's nobleness. In a passage which I have already quoted, the address of Zeus to the horses of Achilles, where Homer has,

ἆ δειλώ, τι σφῶϊ δόμεν Πηλῆϊ ἄνακτι θνητῷ; ὑμεῖς δ' ἐστὸν ἀγήρω τ' ἀθανάτω τε! ἦ ἵνα δυστήνοισι μετ' ἀνδράσιν ἄλγε' ἔχητον ;

Chapman has,

Poor wretched beasts, said he, Why gave we you to a mortal king, when immortality And incapacity of age so dignifies your states? Was it to haste the miseries poured out on human fates?

There are many faults in this rendering of Chapman's, but what I particularly wish to notice in it is the expression 'Poor wretched beasts' for ἆ δειλώ. This expression just illustrates the difference between the ballad-manner and Homer's. The ballad-manner—Chapman's manner—is, I say, pitched sensibly lower than Homer's. The ballad-manner requires that