Ben Jonson on Elizabethan Translations of Homer and VirgilAuthor(s): Herbert WrightSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul., 1918), pp. 322-323Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3714235 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 09:12

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend accessto The Modern Language Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.14 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:12:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

the Second Quarto. Hamlet, after his irony about the funeral baked- meats, relapses into the note of reverie:

My father, me thinkes I see my father. Bora. Where my Lord? Ham. In my mindes eye Horatio. Hora. I saw him once, a was a goodly King. Ham. A was a man take him for all in all

I shall not looke vppon his like againe. Hora. My Lord I thinke I saw him yesternight.

When Horatio says, I saw him once, a was a goodly King,

he is beginning another of his descriptive reminiscences confined to a definite occasion, like the reference to the angry parle. But to Hamlet the phrase 'a goodly King' seems cold and weak: he interrupts Horatio, and all his love and reverence for his father shine out in' that sudden tribute. Note that Hamlet's speech is delivered without a break in the Quarto text-' trippingly on the tongue.' Horatio, instead of picking up the dropped thread, catches at the clue supplied by 'look upon his like.' His interrupted speech should be printed in a modernized text,

I saw him once-a' was a goodly king-

to show that Hamlet cuts him short. There is no inconsistency. PERCY SIMPSON.

OXFORD.

BEN JONSON ON ELIZABETHAN TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER

AND VIRGIL.

In the course of his conversations with William Drummond of

Hawthornden, Ben Jonson remarked 'that the translations of Homer and Virgill in long Alexandrines were but prose.' What were the trans-

lations here referred to ? David Laing, who in 1842 edited the Conver-

sations for the Shakespeare Society, was of opinion' that the Virgil translation alluded to by Jonson was that of Phaer, which was completed by Thomas Twine in 1584. To this no objection can be made, for even if Phaer's labours were commended by Nash, Puttenham and Arthur

Hall, Jonson's verdict was undoubtedly just. But when Laing proceeds to state that the translation of Homer

mentioned must be Chapman's, we feel that he is on insecure ground. The friendly relations which existed between Jonson and Chapman

1 p. 3, note.

the Second Quarto. Hamlet, after his irony about the funeral baked- meats, relapses into the note of reverie:

My father, me thinkes I see my father. Bora. Where my Lord? Ham. In my mindes eye Horatio. Hora. I saw him once, a was a goodly King. Ham. A was a man take him for all in all

I shall not looke vppon his like againe. Hora. My Lord I thinke I saw him yesternight.

When Horatio says, I saw him once, a was a goodly King,

he is beginning another of his descriptive reminiscences confined to a definite occasion, like the reference to the angry parle. But to Hamlet the phrase 'a goodly King' seems cold and weak: he interrupts Horatio, and all his love and reverence for his father shine out in' that sudden tribute. Note that Hamlet's speech is delivered without a break in the Quarto text-' trippingly on the tongue.' Horatio, instead of picking up the dropped thread, catches at the clue supplied by 'look upon his like.' His interrupted speech should be printed in a modernized text,

I saw him once-a' was a goodly king-

to show that Hamlet cuts him short. There is no inconsistency. PERCY SIMPSON.

OXFORD.

BEN JONSON ON ELIZABETHAN TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER

AND VIRGIL.

In the course of his conversations with William Drummond of

Hawthornden, Ben Jonson remarked 'that the translations of Homer and Virgill in long Alexandrines were but prose.' What were the trans-

lations here referred to ? David Laing, who in 1842 edited the Conver-

sations for the Shakespeare Society, was of opinion' that the Virgil translation alluded to by Jonson was that of Phaer, which was completed by Thomas Twine in 1584. To this no objection can be made, for even if Phaer's labours were commended by Nash, Puttenham and Arthur

Hall, Jonson's verdict was undoubtedly just. But when Laing proceeds to state that the translation of Homer

mentioned must be Chapman's, we feel that he is on insecure ground. The friendly relations which existed between Jonson and Chapman

1 p. 3, note.

322 322

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.14 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:12:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Miscellaneous Notes

make such a curt judgment seem unlikely, even if allowance is made for the epigrammatic turn of the Conversations. The well-known

story which tells how Jonson voluntarily joined his collaborator

Chapman in gaol when the latter had been arrested for writing East- ward Hoe and their second imprisonment in 1605 corroborate Ben's statement that Chapman was 'loved of him.' A priori, therefore, it does not seem probable that Jonson would so summarily dismiss the work of a highly esteemed friend and collaborator, who was, like himself, an accomplished classical scholar. This first impression is borne out by another passage in the Conversations where Chapman's Homer is men- tioned by name. 'Sir Edward Wotton's verses of a happie lyfe,' says Drummond, 'he hath by heart; and a peice of Chapman's translation of the 13 of. the Iliads, which he thinketh well done.' It is astonishing that Laing did not see how absolutely these words contradict his

explanation. However, if the translation of Homer in question is not Chapman's,

whose is it? Undoubtedly that of Arthur Hall, who in 1581 published a rendering of the first ten books of the Iliad, based on the French version of Hugues Salel. His lines are of fourteen syllables, or the

'long Alexandrines' which Jonson speaks of. The prosaic character of his work may be illustrated by the following specimens:

The valiant Knights the two Aiax on th'other partie doe it, With Dliomede and Vlysses they pray the Greekes stande to it.

If yee thinke good, to Countrey home I wil them wil to hie, And with faire words wil counsayle them, & willing seeme, wil I.

Who now long sith, when we in peace and suretie al did swim, Was vnto me brother in law, and I sister to him.

Againe Priam perceiuing well, that thus this geare would fodge, Said to the Greekes and Troyans both, I thinke it best I trodge.

There would surely be more point in Ben Jonson's criticising these wretched lines than the stately verse of Chapman. Moreover, assuming that he was referring to Hall in the Conversations, he was in complete agreement with Chapman who in the preface to Achilles' Shield (1598) himself speaks contemptuously of Homer's having 'been born so lame and defective, as the French midwife had brought him forth.' Does not all this warrant the conclusion that in making the statement reported by Drummond the redoubtable Ben was concurring in the verdict already passed by Chapman and not indulging in harsh and unjust criticism of a friend ?

HERBERT WRIGHT. BANGOR.

21-2

323

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.14 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:12:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions