Page:Prometheus Bound (Bevan 1902).djvu/13



put forth a translation of something which has already undergone translation at many hands is to provoke censure. For the undertaking (if not an ineptitude) is itself a censure of previous performances. It implies an opinion that they fall short, and an ambition to better them. Many perhaps will concur with the present translator in his opinion that English literature does not hitherto include any worthy rendering of the Prometheus of Aeschylus—the "most sublime poem in the world," Mr. Watts-Dunton has called it —will concur in this opinion, and at the same time add his translation to the list of failures. There are, however, considerations which encourage a new attempt. If the former translations were unsatisfactory, it is (in appearance) largely due to the translators having no clear view of the effect to be produced. They would seem to have thought it enough, if