entrance of the British Queen into the harbour of Havre is a real portrait of a ship, in which the greatest difficulties are attacked and overcome with the power of a master, and the hazy distance lends a charm to the whole picture. No one can better than M. Courant represent the varied play of atmosphere and water and the joint life of these two fluid elements which together fade into infinity. M. Courant has just gone to work in England, where he will find the delicate and changing aspects he is so partial to, and the English public is sure to appreciate the poetical qualities and the accuracy that so preeminently characterize him.

Other painters choose not so much the sea itself as the coast scenery for their subject, amongst whom M. Guillemet is the master, and next to him, for distinctive originality, Mme. E. la Villette and M. Lansyer. Amongst the landscape-painters we have seen nothing betokening new tendencies; but we hail with sympathy the fresh start M. Français' noble talent has taken, as also the distinguished works of MM. Pelouse, Desbrosses, Rapin, Pointelin, &c.

What is really new this year, and no doubt due to the influence of the realistic or impressionist school, is the effort some painters have made to combine an historical or religious subject with real scenery. M. Lerolle has tried it in his "Jacob chez Laban;" M. Duez, with even greater success, in his large triptych, representing scenes from the life of St. Cuthbert. The centre panel, in which St. Cuthbert, in company with a child, is receiving the fish brought him by an eagle, is an admirable piece of painting. The religious sentiment is wanting, but the two figures standing in a well-known spot on the Calvados coast, bathed in air and light, stand out in wonderful relief, and the harmony of the colouring is a feast for the eyes. M. O. Merson has soared higher in his St. Isidore, who kneels in the ecstasy of prayer, whilst an angel guides the oxen at the plough. The rustic and inspired face of St. Isidore is one of powerful beauty, and the angel, who hardly touches the furrows with his divine feet, goads on the animals with an airy grace. The soft bright light of a spring morning overspreads the picture, which reminds us of the naïf and affecting frescoes of Piero della Francesca.

The realistic element is wanting in M. Henner, who sets his brilliant nymphs in an absolutely black landscape, with a clear blue sky overhead. But why quarrel with him when he enchants and transports us with admiration by a poetical charm which belies all description? His "Eclogue" has an antique grace and a morbidezza worthy of Correggio. It reveals the hand of a master, whose mind has conceived an ideal of beauty, the secret of which he holds and realizes for us. M. J. Lefèvre's conception of beauty also consists in purity of line and grace of attitude. His "Diane au Bain" is the most important work he has produced; it contains exquisite things, but viewed as a whole it is cold and insignificant. M. Roll's bacchantes cannot be accused of coldness, but of vulgarity. They are masculine females in a very merry mood, these followers of

Silenus. We are glad, however, to see M. Roll quit his black tints for bright and sparkling colours.

With M. J. P. Laurens we leave mythological antiquity for the Middle Ages. His "Bernard Délicieux délivrant les prisonniers de l'Inquisition" is a cold, dreary picture, but the principal figure, with its enthusiastic, ascetic face, is a fine creation. More to be admired still are his drawings intended as illustrations to Augustin Thiérry's "Récits du Temps mérovingien," in which all the wildness of that barbarous age is depicted. M. Maignan, who it was believed would rank next to J. P. Laurens in historical painting, has taken a wrong direction this year in his "Christ des Affligés," by becoming an imitator of Henri Lévy. M. Mélingue, whose "Robespierre" made some sensation last year, continues to be a cold disciple of Paul Delaroche in his "Etienne Marcel." M. Flameng shows greater originality and vigour in the picture of the " Girondins." He obtained the prix du Salon, intended for the encouragement of beginners. Let us hope that this prize, which has not until now brought luck to those who obtained it, will enable him to improve his talent by travel and study. M. Le Blant continues to study the history and war of Vendée; his work is full of animation, and his sombre colouring is not without charm. Side by side with these French works, an admirable picture of Mr. Herkommer's-" Un Asile pour la Vieillesse" -may be noted, which, with greater harmony of colour, shows more striking proof even than his " Chelsea Pensioners" of the artist's talent as a physiognomist.

Sculpture has retained the superiority which has distinguished it of late years. In M. Saint-Marceaux's "Génie" there is something of Michael Angelo; Michelet's tomb, by M. Mercié, M. Falguière's "Saint Vincent de Paul," M. Schonewerk's "Matin," are masterly works, that witness to the serious study and elevated thought of our contemporary sculptors.

The most important event of the last few months in the musical world was the appointment of M. Vaucorbeil as director of the Opera in place of M. Halanzier. M. Halanzier was an excellent manufacturer, who enriched himself whilst allowing the opera to fall into complete decay. M. Vaucorbeil is an artist, intent on raising our great musical stage, and producing new works. "Etienne Marcel," by M. Saint-Saens, which met with great success at Lyons, where the composer was reduced to having it represented, will no doubt now be given in Paris. Wagner's "Lohengrin," the first act of which was played at the Concerts du Cirque, under M. Pasdeloup's direction, will, it is said, also be given. The enthusiasm which, in spite of the inefficiency of the soloists, it excited, proves that the musical and patriotic prejudices which rendered the execution of Wagner's works impossible in Paris, have vanished. The young musical school are all disciples of Wagner, and the works of Berlioz, now so popular in Paris, have educated the public taste.

Nothing remarkable has been produced at the theatre this spring, save a charming bluette by M. Pailleron, entitled, "L'Etincelle," which drew crowds to the French theatre. The piece drawn from M. Zola's "Assommoir" is nothing but a vulgar melodrama, which has, however, seen more than a hundred nights, the hundredth being celebrated by a ball, where all the guests appeared dressed as workmen and washerwomen. People were surprised to see that, thus disguised, the men and women of fashion looked more vulgar than the common people. In the way of spectacles the fête given at the Opera for the sufferers at Szegedin was the one which excited most curiosity. It consisted of a fine concert and a bazaar, at which all the celebrated Parisian actresses figured, and sold the merest trifles at fabulous prices. The proceeds amounted to 150,000 francs. It is sad that the love of amusement should inspire a generosity which charity alone is incapable of awakening.

G. MONOD.

CONTEMPORARY BOOKS.

THE

I.-CLASSICAL LITERATURE.

(Under the Direction of the Rev. Prebendary J. DAVIES, M.A.)

HE past few months cannot be said to have been barren or unfruitful in either solid or ornamental fruits of classical learning, fruits of a nature to extend themselves, and to be enjoyed, as time passes, by an ever-increasing range. Already there are some signs of a reaction against enlarging the school curriculum to such wideness that nothing can be acquired thoroughly; and, unless we are mistaken, the good old belief in classics, as the basis and drill, with, of course, a certain amount of mathematics, is being re-adopted in preference to the lately popular "everything-by-turns-and-nothing-long" curriculum. To make the latter even tolerably feasible there needed much co-operation from scholars; and, perhaps, good has come from the loyal desire of some of these to make easier that classical pathway to the overtaxed minds of the modern British school-boys. At any rate, amongst our best recent books in classical literature may be counted not a few valuable helps to pioneering for English readers, or those, whose acquaintance with Latin and Greek is slender and superficial, the way to a knowledge of Homer, Eschylus, Virgil, and the better known of our Greek and Latin authors. And here we cannot speak too highly of the great boon conferred alike on scholars and nonscholars, by the publication of Messrs. Butcher and Lang's English Prose Odyssey (The Odyssey of Homer done into English Prose, by S. H. Butcher, M.A., Fellow and Prelector of University College, Oxford, and A. Lang, M.A., late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. London: Macmillan & Co., 1879), a work replete with matter for scholars, and yet calculated to simplify for English readers the perennial charm and fascination of the most delightful of maritime epics. The very preface consists of a thoughtful and shrewd résumé of the relative characters of our English translations of Homer, and the reasons why none can achieve much more than the favour of their own age and style. For which reason the translators attempt to tell once more, in simple prose, the story of Odysseus, and to transfer not all the truth about the poem, but its historical truth, into English. They have caught and utilized the singular resemblance between the Homeric epics and the Icelandic, Norwegian, and Danish sagas, and turned this likeness to good account in notes and illustrations, besides aiming at reviving, by a compensatory loan from these sagas, a meet equivalent for Homer's double epithets and recurring epithets. Nothing can be happier than the manifesto which they have issued, and acted upon, that "Homer has no ideas which cannot be expressed in words that are 'old and plain;' and to words that are old and plain, and, as a rule, to such terms as, being used by the translators of the Bible, are still not unfamiliar, we have tried to restrict ourselves" (p. xi.). A glance at the brief appendix of notes (pp. 407-416) will show how serviceably Scandinavian and Homeric phraseology and folklore have been compared-e.g., on the phrase occurring in Od. I. 64, epкos ódóvтwv, the

Icelandic "tam-garor," or "teeth-garth, teeth-enclosure," as Mr. E. Magnusson has pointed out in a contributed note, one of a long list of parallel metaphorical expressions which, though independent in origin, point to similar customs and conditions of life. The translators do well to translate, "My child, what word hath escaped the door of thy lips ?" the teeth being taken for the hedge or fence which guards the castle or mouth. So, again, there is a comparison of Northern with Greek heroic manners, anent "Revenge and Atonement," and the Town paid for any offence up to manslaughter, illustrative of the frequent Homeric word výnowos. As is pertinently explained, "Neptune does not slay Ulysses for blinding his son, the Cyclops, but drives him wandering," and this, "because heroic customs did not justify slaying a man to avenge an injury less than manslaughter, inflicted on a kinsman.' Another kindred parallel is that of the edva, so often mentioned in the Odyssey, in the technical sense of the Bride-price, or gifts by the wooers to the father of the bride, the "kalym" of the dwellers on the Volga, where edva has a sense distinet from the Sopa of the wooer to the bride, or the peixia given to her by her sire. This distinction is here put very clearly. In reference to double epithets and the like, it is only by reading some fifty or hundred lines at a stretch that we can gain an impression of the two translators' practice. But taking a few which we have marked in Book II., it may be noted that with them evрúожа Zeus is "Zevs of the far-borne voice;" 'Idaкг εὐδε ίεον is “ well-seen Ithaca ;” μεγάρων εᾖ ναιεταόντων, “ fair-lying halls;” μεγακήτεα TÓνTOV, is "the sea with the depths thereof," whereas Merry translates it "gulphy," and Hayman regards it as the whole sea gathered into one vast gulph.' Other epithets will arise for examination in the passages to be submitted for a sample of the general effect of this translation, nor need more here be said than that in cases of a dubious interpretation-e.g.,I. 155, ἦτοι ὁ φορμίζων ἀνεβάλλετο καλὸν ἀείδειν ; or, II. 244, 245, αργαλέον δε ἀνδράσι καὶ πλεόνεσσι μαχήσασθαι περὶ δαιτὶ, the translators rule is to give their readers the option, but, at the same time, candid and loyal guidance to their choice. The first instance concerns the song of Phemius before the suitors in Penelope's Hall; and it is rendered in the text, "Yea, and as he touched the lyre, he lifted up his voice in sweet song." But they give in a footnote what they designate the more ordinary interpretation of aveßáλλero," He touched the chords in prelude to his sweet singing;" and this is, probably, the safer and surer interpretation, as it is approved by the not always consentient judgments of Dr. Hayman and Mr. Merry. In the other passage, Leocritus, one of the suitors, retorts on Mentor, the ally of Telemachus at the Ithacan council, who had called on the men of Ithaca to remember their absent liege, and put down the suitors, and says, "Nay, it is a hard thing to fight about a feast, and that with men who are even more in number than you;" but there is another way to which the translators seem to incline, as adding point and simplicity to the passage-viz., to take mλcóveσσi with ȧpyáλcov, "it would be hard for you, even if you were more in number than you are, to fight with us about a feast.' Against this, however, comes the objection that if, in 251, ei tλéoveσσi μáxoro be right, in this passage, too, #λeóveσσi must go with paxnoarea; and the scholiast's suggestion that deóveσo in each case stands for our Tλeoveσot is surely inadmissible. As an average passage from the Third Book of the Odyssey, we quote Nestor's account of Agamemnon's murder, differing much as it does from the legend adopted by Eschylus. It is addressed to certain queries of Telemachus, and may be found in Od. III., 256, &c. (eï (wovy' "Ayiobor κ.τ.λ.).

66

"If Menelaus of the golden hair, the son of Atreus, when he came back from Troy, had found Ægisthus still alive in the halls, then even in his death would they not have heaped the piled earth over him, but dogs and fowls of the air would have devoured him as he lay on the plain far from the town. Nor would any of the Achæan women have bewailed him : so dread was the deed he contrived. Now we sat in leaguer there, achieving many adventures, but he, while living in peace in the heart of Argos, the pasture land of horses (iπwoBórolo), spake ofttimes to the wife of Agamemnon and tempted her. Verily at the first she would have none of the foul deed, the fair Clytemnestra, for she had a good understanding. Moreover, there was with her a minstrel, whom the son of Atreus straitly charged when he went to Troy to have a care of his wife. But when at last the doom of the gods bound her to her ruin, then did Ægisthus carry the minstrel to a lonely isle, and left him to be a prey and spoil of birds; while as for her he led her to his house, a willing lover with a willing lady. And he burnt many thigh slices upon the holy altars of the gods, and hung up many offerings, woven work and gold, seeing that he had accomplished a great deed, beyond all hope."

Messrs. Butcher and Lang agree with most editors in ignoring in v. 260 the reading "Apyeos, than which äoreos is obviously more probable.