Essays Critical and Imaginative (Volume 4); Homer and His Translators. Greek Drama the Agamemnon of Aeschylus (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1857. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... HOMER AND HIS TRANSLATORS.1 CRITIQUE I. iPRIL 1831.J Patriots as we are, as well as Cosmopolites, how relieving, how refreshing, how invigorating, and how elevating to our senses and our souls, to fly from politics to poetry--from the Honourable House to the Immortal Homer -- from the vapid feuds of placemen and reformers, to the deadly wrath of nature's heroic sons--from the helpless limp of any middle-aged Smith, to the elastic lameness of old Vulcan--from O'Connell and Hunt, with their matchless blacking, to " Atrides, king of men, and Thetis' godlike son " We are no great Greek scholars; but we can force our way, vi et arrnis, through the Iliad. What we do not clearly, we dimly, understand, and are happy in the glorious glimpses; in the full unbroken light, we bask like an eagle in the sunshine that emblazons his eyrie; in the gloom that sometimes falls suddenly down on his inspired rhapsodies, as if from a tower of clouds, we are for a time eyeless as " blind Maeonides," while with him we enjoy " the darkness that may be felt; " as the lightnings of his genius flash, lo before our wide imagination ascends " stately-structured Troy," expand tented shore and masted sea; and in that thunder we dream of the nod that shuddered Olympus. i The Iliad of Homer. Translated by William Sotheby. 1831. VOL. VIII. A Some people believe in twenty Homers--we in one. Nature is not so prodigal of her great poets. Heaven only knows the number of her own stars--no astronomer may ever count them --but the soul-stars of earth are but few; and with this Perryan pen could we name them all. Who ever heard of two Miltons--of two Shakespeares ? That there should even have been one of each, is a mystery, when we look at what are called men. Who, then, after considering that arg...