if the spirit of Shelley had somehow, fitfully, superintended his cousin's ambitious proceedings. Shelley's own Notes on the Agamemnon, of which two pages were given in fac-simile in the Society's Year Book for 1910, occupy the eight pages II * 38 r. to 41 v. These notes also have a more than casual connexion with the restored excursus just mentioned; for they supply continual evidence of the closeness and care of Shelley's reperusal of that sublime and awful work when he was teeming with his own great tragedy, The Cenci. Classical authorities may not improbably, if this book should come into their hands, regard it as a presumption that I have not called in an expert where I need one so badly. Shelley's own moderate scholarship, I am allowing to speak for itself by printing the Greek as nearly as possible in the form in which it appears in the Note Book, and only marking accents and breathings where he did so. My selection of published assistance may also be a topic of censure. I have kept before me, for the needs of these few pages of editing, Captain Medwin's Translation of Agamemnon (8vo. 1832), a cheap modern reprint of Potter's version of that and other plays, that delightful book of John Conington's The Agamemnon of Eschylus; the Greek Text, with a Translation into English Verse, and Notes Critical and Explanatory (London, 1848), The Agamemnon of Eschylus transcribed by Robert Browning (London, 1877), Professor A. Sidgwick's Agamemnon [text and notes] contributed to the Clarendon Press series (Sixth Edition, 1905), and the late Dr. J. Churton Collins's reprint of Conington's translation, "with an Introduction and Notes” (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1907). I will now proceed to set out the notes in extenso as intelligibly as the circumstances will permit, merely premising, to save at all events one interruption, that the first passage quoted by Shelley from the Greek original stands thus in Medwin's version: Like vultures, when they oar on wings of might, [NOTES ON THE] AGAM [EMNON OF ÆSCHYLUS.] The first speech very grand Comparison of Menelaus & Agamemnon seeking Helen with the arms of Greeks Τρόπον αιγυπιων, οίτεκπατιοις Πτερυγων ερετμοισιν ερεσσομενοι, Πονον ορταλιχων ολέσαντες An old mans strength is called ισχυν ισοπαιδα - παιδος δ' ουδεν αρείων Οναρ ημεροφαντον αλαινει 1 1 See ante, page 125, for Medwin's translation. When Clytem[nestra] tells the Chorus that Troy is taken they ask Ποτερα δ' ονειρων φασματευπειθη σεβεις ; 1 [What, is it some fair vision that thou heed'st? No she says-then -Conington.] Αλλ' ησεπιανεν τις απτερος φατις ; [But art thou sure no wingless tale has cheered thee? -Conington.] The unities cannot be observed in Agam [emnon because Clytem[nestra] comes & tells the Chorus of the fire which communicated the news of the taking of Troy, which took less than a single night to travel from the Troad to Mycenae, & because Agam[emnon] appears in the course of the play & he could not have arrived with the same speed. The description is wonderfully magnificent of this beaconing and in the next speech Οιμίαι βοην αμικτον εν πολει πρεπειν [A diverse shout, I ween, rings loud thereinPour in one vessel vinegar and oil, And foes will be thy name for them-not friends. -Conington.] 1 Perhaps you put your confidence in dreams, A vision of the night... (Medwin.) 2 A flying vague report, perhaps . . . (Medwin.) The Herald is κατασκιον Κλαδος ελαιας [His temples olive-leaved-Medwin. o'ershaded With boughs of olive:-Conington.] The Herald exclaims Ιὼ πατρώον ουδας Αργειας χθονος [Io! my country! ho! my natal soil! Strange image Medwin.] Τροιαν κα[τα]σκαψαντα του δικηφορου Διος μακελλη. [Who with Jove's vengeful share, has made of Troy A dusty nothing-Medwin.] Tenderness & simplicity of the Greeks ΧΟ. Κήρυξ Αχαιων χαιρε των απο στρατ[ου] [CHORUS. Hail, herald of the Greeks, those of the host! HERALD. I take it: now come death when heaven shall will! CHORUS. Thou hast then been trained by love for this thy land? HERALD. Aye, so that tears flow from my eyes for joy.-Conington.] Poetry in the Heralds account of the sufferings of the army before Troy Εξ ουρανου δε καπο γης λειμωνιας Χειμωνα δ' ει λεγοι τις οιωνοκτονον Η θαλπος ευτε ποντος εν με[σ]ημβριναις [And out of heaven and from the earth the dews Then, should one tell the winter, death to birds, Subtlety of mind Clytem[nestra] says to the Herald και τις μ'ενιπτων ειπε Φρυκτωρων δια [One chid me then and said-Could beacon lights Persuade thee to believe that Troy is fallen?Conington.] |