Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/462

 "Has given new life to Homer in an English metrical dress, and the fidelity of the version is matched by the fire and force infused into the rendering. Mr. Way is like Chapman in his freedom and swing, but he is richer in colouring, although he is rigidly close to his text. Trans- lates Homer as one poet can alone translate another. Has the true Homeric feeling, and he seems to live the verse that he renders with such remarkable force, fidelity, and spirit." — Public Opinion.

"He swings along as if he enjoyed it, and carries the reader by the force of his swift movement." — Atlantic Monthly.

"The general admiration with which Mr. Way's Odyssey of Homer done into English Verse was received will certainly be' revived by the present work. If the work be calculated to give students of Homer the greatest pleasure, it also deserves, by its original and brilliant qualities, to be esteemed as a great boon by all lovers of fine poetry." — Harper's Monthly Magazine.

"Perhaps the nearest equivalent we can hope for to the strong- winged music of Homer. No merely skilful versifier could produce a work of this kind ; it is marked by true poetic gifts. Readers anxious to become acquainted with the greatest of epics and the poetry of the time when the world was young, will not find themselves deterred by the faults which usually beset translations." — Literary World.

"As a poem his translation is full of simplicity and strength; as a translation, it is one of the most scholarly rendings of the Iliad that have appeared in the English tongue." — Bookseller.

"Far above any modern translations which have appeared."—Publisher's Circular.

"He is unquestionably the most Homeric of English translators since Chapman. Probably the nearest equivalent to the swiftly-moving various hexameter of Homer which the genius of English versification permits." — London Quarterly Review.

"It seems a far cry from Chapman to Mr. Way, and yet we doubt whether the interval offers any version of Homer which is not, by com- parison with these, formal and mechanical. . . This fascinating volume . . abounds in instances of the combination of freedom of expression with essential fidelity to the meaning . . has made a distinct contribution to the resources of Homeric translation. . . He has adopted a metre in which it would, we think, be impossible to main- tain a high level of poetry without a poetic gift of his own. Mr. Way's adventure admits of no mean between failure and success. We believe that he has chosen the measure which is best fitted to represent Homer to English readers, but we feel, at the same time, that it is a veritable bow of Ulysses, which only a master's hand will be able to bend."—Guardian.

"The first volume of Mr. Way's fine translation of the Iliad led us to place it above Chapman's. The second crowns the edifice of his Homeric labours so splendidly that we are able to express our pref- erence again with renewed confidence. . . We believe that a full and fair comparison of the two versions would convince even Lamb and Keats, whose names present themselves inevitably here, that in Mr. Way the delightful old fellow who ' spake out loud and bold,' has found more than his match."—Spectator.

"If we are right in ranking him, as we are inclined to do, as the best of this trio — Chapman, Professor Newman, and Mr. Worsley — there are few lovers of Homer who will not be eager to read him. And Mr. Way deserves to be read. His translation is instinct with that ' forcible liveliness ' which Mr. H. N. Coleridge notes as the leading character- istic of Homer's poetry. Its terseness, too, and literalness are really wonderful, combined as they are with such unflagging ' go,' if we may use that word, and such melodious vivacity." — St. James's Gazette.