Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/523



"Brilliant and scholarly. As regards execution, a strange thing has come to pass. Mr. Way is actually more successful in his rhymed lyric choral odes than in the dialogue. The choral odes have been the despair of translators, who have essayed every means of overcoming and evading the difficulty. Clearly the English lyric in the manner of Dryden or Collins is the best substitute; but who can be trusted to strike a clear and harmonious note on that lyre which is so irresponsive to a feeble touch? Mr. Way can the lyrics have a real lyric swing about them. There is hardly a choral ode in which we do not find really successful efforts to combine a highly poetic style with a faithful reproduction of the thought of the poet. The introduction on 'Euripides and his Work' is admirable: it is instructive, judicious, and eloquent  most interesting. The student of Greek will admire his work for its fidelity and scholarship; and he who has no Greek will get nearer to Euripides than he ever approached before."—Saturday Review.

"We are glad to recognise in this volume a faithful and poetical version of the great tragedian, and wish Mr. Way success in what remains of his task of producing the first complete translation of Euripides into English verse within the present century."—Athenæum.

"Admirable the workmanship is, if anything, even better, the style more facile and finished, than that of the first volume. By way of preface, there is prefixed a very interesting paper on 'Euripides and his Work.—Guardian.

"Wonderfully successful: maintains a high level of dignity. We like more than ever the lilt of his rendering of choric metres. Will stand alone in the English language as the nineteenth century translation of Euripides."—Speaker.

"Mr. Way is, perhaps, the most successful living translator of the Greek poets. His Iliad is as spirited as Chapman's, and is, therefore, better than any other English version. His Euripides has the same fidelity to the original, with a spirit and movement which make the translation as readable as an English poem."—Daily News.

"Mr. Way carries on his work of translating Euripides with spirit and success never more adequately presented to the English reader."—Spectator.

"We welcome with pleasure the second volume To the excellence of Mr. Way as a translator we have already paid our tribute, and it is unnecessary to do more than subjoin specimens of his work."—Oxford Magazine.

"Mr. Way's reputation as a translator is so thoroughly established that he scarcely needs commendation. His scholarship is sound, his renderings extraordinarily close to the original, and often extremely vigorous. These are a few points of detail (in the Herakles) on which we