And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc3 among the revenues of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive superstitions4, are working as actively5 in literature as in society. The credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as powerful a touchstone and as wholesome6 a chastisement7 in the healthy scepticism of a temperate8 class of antagonists9, as the dreams of conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures11 in the Church. History and tradition, whether of ancient or comparatively recent times, are subjected to very different handling from that which the indulgence or credulity of former ages could allow. Mere12 statements are jealously watched, and the motives13 of the writer form as important an ingredient in the analysis of his history, as the facts he records. Probability is a powerful and troublesome test; and it is by this troublesome standard that a large portion of historical evidence is sifted14. Consistency15 is no less pertinacious16 and exacting17 in its demands. In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction18 of extended experience, is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical characters can only be estimated by the standard which human experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished. To form correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a great whole—we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom they are surrounded, and, in contemplating19 the incidents in their[pg x] lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative20, than the respective probability of its details.
It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest men, we know least, and talk most. Homer, Socrates, and Shakespere1 have, perhaps, contributed more to the intellectual enlightenment of mankind than any other three writers who could be named, and yet the history of all three has given rise to a boundless21 ocean of discussion, which has left us little save the option of choosing which theory or theories we will follow. The personality of Shakespere is, perhaps, the only thing in which critics will allow us to believe without controversy22; but upon everything else, even down to the authorship of plays, there is more or less of doubt and uncertainty23. Of Socrates we know as little as the contradictions of Plato and Xenophon will allow us to know. He was one of the dramatis personae in two dramas as unlike in principles as in style. He appears as the enunciator24 of opinions as different in their tone as those of the writers who have handed them down. When we have read Plato or Xenophon, we think we know something of Socrates; when we have fairly read and examined both, we feel convinced that we are something worse than ignorant.
It has been an easy, and a popular expedient25, of late years, to deny the personal or real existence of men and things whose life and condition were too much for our belief. This system—which has often comforted the religious sceptic, and substituted the consolations26 of Strauss for those of the New Testament—has been of incalculable value to the historical theorists of the last and present centuries. To question the existence of Alexander the Great, would be a more excusable act, than to believe in that of Romulus. To deny a fact related in Herodotus, because it is inconsistent with a theory developed from an Assyrian inscription27 which no two scholars read in the same way, is more pardonable, than to believe in the good-natured old king whom the elegant pen of Florian has idealized—Numa Pompilius.
Scepticism has attained29 its culminating point with respect to Homer, and the state of our Homeric knowledge may be described as a free permission to believe any theory, provided we throw overboard[pg xi] all written tradition, concerning the author or authors of the Iliad and Odyssey30. What few authorities exist on the subject, are summarily dismissed, although the arguments appear to run in a circle. "This cannot be true, because it is not true; and, that is not true, because it cannot be true." Such seems to be the style, in which testimony31 upon testimony, statement upon statement, is consigned32 to denial and oblivion.
It is, however, unfortunate that the professed33 biographies of Homer are partly forgeries35, partly freaks of ingenuity36 and imagination, in which truth is the requisite37 most wanting. Before taking a brief review of the Homeric theory in its present conditions, some notice must be taken of the treatise38 on the Life of Homer which has been attributed to Herodotus.
According to this document, the city of Cumae in ?olia, was, at an early period, the seat of frequent immigrations from various parts of Greece. Among the immigrants was Menapolus, the son of Ithagenes. Although poor, he married, and the result of the union was a girl named Critheis. The girl was left an orphan39 at an early age, under the guardianship40 of Cleanax, of Argos. It is to the indiscretion of this maiden41 that we "are indebted for so much happiness." Homer was the first fruit of her juvenile42 frailty43, and received the name of Melesigenes, from having been born near the river Meles, in Boeotia, whither Critheis had been transported in order to save her reputation.
"At this time," continues our narrative, "there lived at Smyrna a man named Phemius, a teacher of literature and music, who, not being married, engaged Critheis to manage his household, and spin the flax he received as the price of his scholastic44 labours. So satisfactory was her performance of this task, and so modest her conduct, that he made proposals of marriage, declaring himself, as a further inducement, willing to adopt her son, who, he asserted, would become a clever man, if he were carefully brought up."
They were married; careful cultivation45 ripened46 the talents which nature had bestowed47, and Melesigenes soon surpassed his schoolfellows in every attainment48, and, when older, rivalled his preceptor in wisdom. Phemius died, leaving him sole heir to his property, and his mother soon followed. Melesigenes carried on his adopted father's school with great success, exciting the admiration49 not only of the inhabitants of Smyrna, but also of the strangers whom the trade carried on there, especially in the exportation of corn, attracted to that city. Among these visitors, one Mentes, from Leucadia, the modern Santa Maura, who evinced a knowledge and intelligence rarely found in those times, persuaded Melesigenes to close his school, and accompany him on his travels. He promised not only to pay his expenses, but to furnish him with a further stipend50, urging, that, "While he was yet young, it was fitting that he should see with his own eyes the countries and cities which might hereafter be the subjects of his discourses51." Melesigenes consented, and set out with his patron, "examining all the curiosities of the countries they visited, and informing himself of everything by interrogating53 those whom he met." We may also suppose, that he[pg xii] wrote memoirs54 of all that he deemed worthy55 of preservation2 Having set sail from Tyrrhenia and Iberia, they reached Ithaca. Here Melesigenes, who had already suffered in his eyes, became much worse, and Mentes, who was about to leave for Leucadia, left him to the medical superintendence of a friend of his, named Mentor57, the son of Alcinor. Under his hospitable58 and intelligent host, Melesigenes rapidly became acquainted with the legends respecting Ulysses, which afterwards formed the subject of the Odyssey. The inhabitants of Ithaca assert, that it was here that Melesigenes became blind, but the Colophomans make their city the seat of that misfortune. He then returned to Smyrna, where he applied61 himself to the study of poetry.3
But poverty soon drove him to Cumae. Having passed over the Hermaean plain, he arrived at Neon Teichos, the New Wall, a colony of Cumae. Here his misfortunes and poetical63 talent gained him the friendship of one Tychias, an armourer. "And up to my time," continued the author, "the inhabitants showed the place where he used to sit when giving a recitation of his verses, and they greatly honoured the spot. Here also a poplar grew, which they said had sprung up ever since Melesigenes arrived".4
But poverty still drove him on, and he went by way of Larissa, as being the most convenient road. Here, the Cumans say, he composed an epitaph on Gordius, king of Phrygia, which has however, and with greater probability, been attributed to Cleobulus of Lindus.5
Arrived at Cumae, he frequented the converzationes6 of the old men, and delighted all by the charms of his poetry. Encouraged by this favourable64 reception, he declared that, if they would allow him a public maintenance, he would render their city most gloriously renowned66.[pg xiii] They avowed67 their willingness to support him in the measure he proposed, and procured68 him an audience in the council. Having made the speech, with the purport69 of which our author has forgotten to acquaint us, he retired70, and left them to debate respecting the answer to be given to his proposal.
The greater part of the assembly seemed favourable to the poet's demand, but one man observed that "if they were to feed Homers, they would be encumbered71 with a multitude of useless people." "From this circumstance," says the writer, "Melesigenes acquired the name of Homer, for the Cumans call blind men Homers."7 With a love of economy, which shows how similar the world has always been in its treatment of literary men, the pension was denied, and the poet vented72 his disappointment in a wish that Cumoea might never produce a poet capable of giving it renown65 and glory.
At Phocoea, Homer was destined73 to experience another literary distress74. One Thestorides, who aimed at the reputation of poetical genius, kept Homer in his own house, and allowed him a pittance75, on condition of the verses of the poet passing in his name. Having collected sufficient poetry to be profitable, Thestorides, like some would-be-literary publishers, neglected the man whose brains he had sucked, and left him. At his departure, Homer is said to have observed: "O Thestorides, of the many things hidden from the knowledge of man, nothing is more unintelligible76 than the human heart."8
Homer continued his career of difficulty and distress, until some Chian merchants, struck by the similarity of the verses they heard him recite, acquainted him with the fact that Thestorides was pursuing a profitable livelihood77 by the recital78 of the very same poems. This at once determined79 him to set out for Chios. No vessel80 happened then to be setting sail thither81, but he found one ready to Start for Erythrae, a town of Ionia, which faces that island, and he prevailed upon the seamen82 to allow him to accompany them. Having embarked83, he invoked84 a favourable wind, and prayed that he might be able to expose the imposture10 of Thestorides, who, by his breach85 of hospitality, had drawn86 down the wrath87 of Jove the Hospitable.
At Erythrae, Homer fortunately met with a person who had known him in Phocoea, by whose assistance he at length, after some difficulty, reached the little hamlet of Pithys. Here he met with an adventure, which we will continue in the words of our author. "Having set out from Pithys, Homer went on, attracted by the cries of some goats that were pasturing. The dogs barked on his approach, and he cried out. Glaucus (for that was the name of the goat-herd) heard his voice, ran up quickly, called off his dogs, and drove them away from Homer. For or some time he stood wondering how a blind man should have[pg xiv] reached such a place alone, and what could be his design in coming. He then went up to him, and inquired who he was, and how he had come to desolate88 places and untrodden spots, and of what he stood in need. Homer, by recounting to him the whole history of his misfortunes, moved him with compassion89; and he took him, and led him to his cot, and having lit a fire, bade him sup.9
"The dogs, instead of eating, kept barking at the stranger, according to their usual habit. Whereupon Homer addressed Glaucus thus: O Glaucus, my friend, prythee attend to my behest. First give the dogs their supper at the doors of the hut: for so it is better, since, whilst they watch, nor thief nor wild beast will approach the fold.
Glaucus was pleased with the advice, and marvelled90 at its author. Having finished supper, they banqueted10 afresh on conversation, Homer narrating91 his wanderings, and telling of the cities he had visited.
At length they retired to rest; but on the following morning, Glaucus resolved to go to his master, and acquaint him with his meeting with Homer. Having left the goats in charge of a fellow-servant, he left Homer at home, promising92 to return quickly. Having arrived at Bolissus, a place near the farm, and finding his mate, he told him the whole story respecting Homer and his journey. He paid little attention to what he said, and blamed Glaucus for his stupidity in taking in and feeding maimed and enfeebled persons. However, he bade him bring the stranger to him.
Glaucus told Homer what had taken place, and bade him follow him, assuring him that good fortune would be the result. Conversation soon showed that the stranger was a man of much cleverness and general knowledge, and the Chian persuaded him to remain, and to undertake the charge of his children.11
Besides the satisfaction of driving the impostor Thestorides from the island, Homer enjoyed considerable success as a teacher. In the town of Chios he established a school where he taught the precepts93 of poetry. "To this day," says Chandler,12 "the most curious remain is that which has been named, without reason, the School of Homer. It is on the coast, at some distance from the city, northward94, and appears to have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is the image of the goddess, the[pg xv] head and an arm wanting. She is represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim95, or seat, and about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude, indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity96."
So successful was this school, that Homer realised a considerable fortune. He married, and had two daughters, one of whom died single, the other married a Chian.
The following passage betrays the same tendency to connect the personages of the poems with the history of the poet, which has already been mentioned:—
"In his poetical compositions Homer displays great gratitude97 towards Mentor of Ithaca, in the Odyssey, whose name he has inserted in his poem as the companion of Ulysses,13 in return for the care taken of him when afflicted98 with blindness. He also testifies his gratitude to Phemius, who had given him both sustenance99 and instruction."
His celebrity100 continued to increase, and many persons advised him to visit Greece, whither his reputation had now extended. Having, it is said, made some additions to his poems calculated to please the vanity of the Athenians, of whose city he had hitherto made no mention,14 he sent out for Samos. Here being recognized by a Samian, who had met with him in Chios, he was handsomely received, and invited to join in celebrating the Apaturian festival. He recited some verses, which gave great satisfaction, and by singing the Eiresione at the New Moon festivals, he earned a subsistence, visiting the houses of the rich, with whose children he was very popular.
In the spring he sailed for Athens, and arrived at the island of Ios, now Ino, where he fell extremely ill, and died. It is said that his death arose from vexation, at not having been able to unravel101 an enigma102 proposed by some fishermen's children.15
Such is, in brief, the substance of the earliest life of Homer we possess, and so broad are the evidences of its historical worthlessness, that it is scarcely necessary to point them out in detail. Let us now consider some of the opinions to which a persevering103, patient, and learned—but by no means consistent—series of investigations105 has led. In doing so, I profess34 to bring forward statements, not to vouch106 for their reasonableness or probability.
"Homer appeared. The history of this poet and his works is lost in doubtful obscurity, as is the history of many of the first minds who have done honour to humanity, because they rose amidst darkness. The majestic107 stream of his song, blessing108 and fertilizing109, flows like the Nile, through many lands and nations; and, like the sources of the Nile, its fountains will ever remain concealed110."
[pg xvi]
Such are the words in which one of the most judicious111 German critics has eloquently112 described the uncertainty in which the whole of the Homeric question is involved. With no less truth and feeling he proceeds:—
"It seems here of chief importance to expect no more than the nature of things makes possible. If the period of tradition in history is the region of twilight113, we should not expect in it perfect light. The creations of genius always seem like miracles, because they are, for the most part, created far out of the reach of observation. If we were in possession of all the historical testimonies114, we never could wholly explain the origin of the Iliad and the Odyssey; for their origin, in all essential points, must have remained the secret of the poet." 16
From this criticism, which shows as much insight into the depths of human nature as into the minute wire-drawings of scholastic investigation104, let us pass on to the main question at issue. Was Homer an individual?17 or were the Iliad and Odyssey the result of an ingenious arrangement of fragments by earlier poets?
Well has Landor remarked: "Some tell us there were twenty Homers; some deny that there was ever one. It were idle and foolish to shake the contents of a vase, in order to let them settle at last. We are perpetually labouring to destroy our delights, our composure, our devotion to superior power. Of all the animals on earth we least know what is good for us. My opinion is, that what is best for us is our admiration of good. No man living venerates115 Homer more than I do." 18
But, greatly as we admire the generous enthusiasm which rests contented116 with the poetry on which its best impulses had been nurtured117 and fostered, without seeking to destroy the vividness of first impressions by minute analysis—our editorial office compels us to give some attention to the doubts and difficulties with which the Homeric question is beset118, and to entreat119 our reader, for a brief period, to prefer his judgment120 to his imagination, and to condescend121 to dry details.
Before, however, entering into particulars respecting the question of this unity122 of the Homeric poems, (at least of the Iliad,) I must express my sympathy with the sentiments expressed in the following remarks:—
"We cannot but think the universal admiration of its unity by the better, the poetic62 age of Greece, almost conclusive123 testimony to its original composition. It was not till the age of the grammarians that its primitive124 integrity was called in question; nor is it injustice125 to assert, that the minute and analytical126 spirit of a grammarian is not the best qualification for the profound feeling, the comprehensive conception of an harmonious127 whole. The most exquisite128 anatomist may be no judge of the symmetry of the human frame: and we would take the opinion of Chantrey or Westmacott on the proportions and general beauty of a form, rather than that of Mr. Brodie or Sir Astley Cooper.
[pg xvii]
"There is some truth, though some malicious129 exaggeration, in the lines of Pope.—
"'The critic eye—that microscope of wit
Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit,
How parts relate to parts, or they to whole
The body's harmony, the beaming soul,
Are things which Kuster, Burmann, Wasse, shall see,
When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea130.'"19
Long was the time which elapsed before any one dreamt of questioning the unity of the authorship of the Homeric poems. The grave and cautious Thucydides quoted without hesitation131 the Hymn132 to Apollo,20 the authenticity133 of which has been already disclaimed134 by modern critics. Longinus, in an oft quoted passage, merely expressed an opinion touching135 the comparative inferiority of the Odyssey to the Iliad,21 and, among a mass of ancient authors, whose very names22 it would be tedious to detail, no suspicion of the personal non-existence of Homer ever arose. So far, the voice of antiquity seems to be in favour of our early ideas on the subject; let us now see what are the discoveries to which more modern investigations lay claim.
At the end of the seventeenth century, doubts had begun to awaken136 on the subject, and we find Bentley remarking that "Homer wrote a sequel of songs and rhapsodies, to be sung by himself, for small comings and good cheer, at festivals and other days of merriment. These loose songs were not collected together, in the form of an epic137 poem, till about Peisistratus' time, about five hundred years after."23
Two French writers—Hedelin and Perrault—avowed a similar scepticism on the subject; but it is in the "Scienza Nuova" of Battista Vico, that we first meet with the germ of the theory, subsequently defended by Wolf with so much learning and acuteness. Indeed, it is with the Wolfian theory that we have chiefly to deal, and with the following bold hypothesis, which we will detail in the words of Grote24—
"Half a century ago, the acute and valuable Prolegomena of F. A. Wolf, turning to account the Venetian Scholia, which had then been[pg xviii] recently published, first opened philosophical138 discussion as to the history of the Homeric text. A considerable part of that dissertation139 (though by no means the whole) is employed in vindicating140 the position, previously announced by Bentley, amongst others, that the separate constituent141 portions of the Iliad and Odyssey had not been cemented together into any compact body and unchangeable order, until the days of Peisistratus, in the sixth century before Christ. As a step towards that conclusion, Wolf maintained that no written copies of either poem could be shown to have existed during the earlier times, to which their composition is referred; and that without writing, neither the perfect symmetry of so complicated a work could have been originally conceived by any poet, nor, if realized by him, transmitted with assurance to posterity142. The absence of easy and convenient writing, such as must be indispensably supposed for long manuscripts, among the early Greeks, was thus one of the points in Wolf's case against the primitive integrity of the Iliad and Odyssey. By Nitzsch, and other leading opponents of Wolf, the connection of the one with the other seems to have been accepted as he originally put it; and it has been considered incumbent143 on those who defended the ancient aggregate144 character of the Iliad and Odyssey, to maintain that they were written poems from the beginning.
"To me it appears, that the architectonic functions ascribed by Wolf to Peisistratus and his associates, in reference to the Homeric poems, are nowise admissible. But much would undoubtedly145 be gained towards that view of the question, if it could be shown, that, in order to controvert146 it, we were driven to the necessity of admitting long written poems, in the ninth century before the Christian147 aera. Few things, in my opinion, can be more improbable; and Mr. Payne Knight148, opposed as he is to the Wolfian hypothesis, admits this no less than Wolf himself. The traces of writing in Greece, even in the seventh century before the Christian aera, are exceedingly trifling149. We have no remaining inscription earlier than the fortieth Olympiad, and the early inscriptions150 are rude and unskilfully executed; nor can we even assure ourselves whether Archilochus, Simonides of Amorgus, Kallinus, Tyrtaeus, Xanthus, and the other early elegiac and lyric151 poets, committed their compositions to writing, or at what time the practice of doing so became familiar. The first positive ground which authorizes152 us to presume the existence of a manuscript of Homer, is in the famous ordinance153 of Solon, with regard to the rhapsodies at the Panathenaea: but for what length of time previously manuscripts had existed, we are unable to say.
"Those who maintain the Homeric poems to have been written from the beginning, rest their case, not upon positive proofs, nor yet upon the existing habits of society with regard to poetry—for they admit generally that the Iliad and Odyssey were not read, but recited and heard,—but upon the supposed necessity that there must have been manuscripts to ensure the preservation56 of the poems—the unassisted memory of reciters being neither sufficient nor trustworthy. But here we only escape a smaller difficulty by running into a greater; for the existence of trained bards155, gifted with extraordinary memory,[pg xix] 25 is far less astonishing than that of long manuscripts, in an age essentially156 non-reading and non-writing, and when even suitable instruments and materials for the process are not obvious. Moreover, there is a strong positive reason for believing that the bard154 was under no necessity of refreshing157 his memory by consulting a manuscript; for if such had been the fact, blindness would have been a disqualification for the profession, which we know that it was not, as well from the example of Demodokus, in the Odyssey, as from that of the blind bard of Chios, in the Hymn to the Delian Apollo, whom Thucydides, as well as the general tenor158 of Grecian legend, identifies with Homer himself. The author of that hymn, be he who he may, could never have described a blind man as attaining159 the utmost perfection in his art, if he had been conscious that the memory of the bard was only maintained by constant reference to the manuscript in his chest."
The loss of the digamma, that crux160 of critics, that quicksand upon which even the acumen161 of Bentley was shipwrecked, seems to prove beyond a doubt, that the pronunciation of the Greek language had undergone a considerable change. Now it is certainly difficult to suppose that the Homeric poems could have suffered by this change, had written copies been preserved. If Chaucer's poetry, for instance, had not been written, it could only have come down to us in a softened162 form, more like the effeminate version of Dryden, than the rough, quaint59, noble original.
"At what period," continues Grote, "these poems, or indeed any other Greek poems, first began to be written, must be matter of conjecture163, though there is ground for assurance that it was before the time of Solon. If, in the absence of evidence, we may venture upon[pg xx] naming any more determinate period, the question a once suggests itself, What were the purposes which, in that state of society, a manuscript at its first commencement must have been intended to answer? For whom was a written Iliad necessary? Not for the rhapsodes; for with them it was not only planted in the memory, but also interwoven with the feelings, and conceived in conjunction with all those flexions and intonations164 of voice, pauses, and other oral artifices166 which were required for emphatic167 delivery, and which the naked manuscript could never reproduce. Not for the general public—they were accustomed to receive it with its rhapsodic delivery, and with its accompaniments of a solemn and crowded festival. The only persons for whom the written Iliad would be suitable would be a select few; studious and curious men; a class of readers capable of analyzing168 the complicated emotions which they had experienced as hearers in the crowd, and who would, on perusing169 the written words, realize in their imaginations a sensible portion of the impression communicated by the reciter. Incredible as the statement may seem in an age like the present, there is in all early societies, and there was in early Greece, a time when no such reading class existed. If we could discover at what time such a class first began to be formed, we should be able to make a guess at the time when the old epic poems were first committed to writing. Now the period which may with the greatest probability be fixed170 upon as having first witnessed the formation even of the narrowest reading class in Greece, is the middle of the seventh century before the Christian aera (B.C. 660 to B.C. 630), the age of Terpander, Kallinus, Archilochus, Simonides of Amorgus, &c. I ground this supposition on the change then operated in the character and tendencies of Grecian poetry and music—the elegiac and the iambic measures having been introduced as rivals to the primitive hexameter, and poetical compositions having been transferred from the epical171 past to the affairs of present and real life. Such a change was important at a time when poetry was the only known mode of publication (to use a modern phrase not altogether suitable, yet the nearest approaching to the sense). It argued a new way of looking at the old epical treasures of the people as well as a thirst for new poetical effect; and the men who stood forward in it, may well be considered as desirous to study, and competent to criticize, from their own individual point of view, the written words of the Homeric rhapsodies, just as we are told that Kallinus both noticed and eulogized the Thebais as the production of Homer. There seems, therefore, ground for conjecturing172 that (for the use of this newly-formed and important, but very narrow class), manuscripts of the Homeric poems and other old epics173,—the Thebais and the Cypria, as well as the Iliad and the Odyssey,—began to be compiled towards the middle of the seventh century (B.C. 1); and the opening of Egypt to Grecian commerce, which took place about the same period, would furnish increased facilities for obtaining the requisite papyrus174 to write upon. A reading class, when once formed, would doubtless slowly increase, and the number of manuscripts along with it; so that before the time of Solon, fifty years afterwards, both readers and manuscripts, though still comparatively few, might have attained a[pg xxi] certain recognized authority, and formed a tribunal of reference against the carelessness of individual rhapsodes."26
But even Peisistratus has not been suffered to remain in possession of the credit, and we cannot help feeling the force of the following observations—
"There are several incidental circumstances which, in our opinion, throw some suspicion over the whole history of the Peisistratid compilation175, at least over the theory, that the Iliad was cast into its present stately and harmonious form by the directions of the Athenian ruler. If the great poets, who flourished at the bright period of Grecian song, of which, alas176! we have inherited little more than the fame, and the faint echo, if Stesichorus, Anacreon, and Simonides were employed in the noble task of compiling the Iliad and Odyssey, so much must have been done to arrange, to connect, to harmonize, that it is almost incredible, that stronger marks of Athenian manufacture should not remain. Whatever occasional anomalies may be detected, anomalies which no doubt arise out of our own ignorance of the language of the Homeric age, however the irregular use of the digamma may have perplexed177 our Bentleys, to whom the name of Helen is said to have caused as much disquiet178 and distress as the fair one herself among the heroes of her age, however Mr. Knight may have failed in reducing the Homeric language to its primitive form; however, finally, the Attic179 dialect may not have assumed all its more marked and distinguishing characteristics—still it is difficult to suppose that the language, particularly in the joinings and transitions, and connecting parts, should not more clearly betray the incongruity180 between the more ancient and modern forms of expression. It is not quite in character with such a period to imitate an antique style, in order to piece out an imperfect poem in the character of the original, as Sir Walter Scott has done in his continuation of Sir Tristram.
"If, however, not even such faint and indistinct traces of Athenian compilation are discoverable in the language of the poems, the total absence of Athenian national feeling is perhaps no less worthy of observation. In later, and it may fairly be suspected in earlier times, the Athenians were more than ordinarily jealous of the fame of their ancestors. But, amid all the traditions of the glories of early Greece embodied181 in the Iliad, the Athenians play a most subordinate and insignificant182 part. Even the few passages which relate to their ancestors, Mr. Knight suspects to be interpolations. It is possible, indeed, that in its leading outline, the Iliad may be true to historic fact, that in the great maritime184 expedition of western Greece against the rival and half-kindred empire of the Laomedontiadae, the chieftain of Thessaly, from his valour and the number of his forces, may have been the most important ally of the Peloponnesian sovereign; the preeminent185 value of the ancient poetry on the Trojan war may thus have forced the national feeling of the Athenians to yield to their taste. The songs which spoke186 of their own great ancestor were, no doubt, of far inferior sublimity187 and popularity, or, at first sight, a Theseid would have been much more likely to have emanated188 from an Athenian synod of compilers of[pg xxii] ancient song, than an Achilleid or an Olysseid. Could France have given birth to a Tasso, Tancred would have been the hero of the Jerusalem. If, however, the Homeric ballads190, as they are sometimes called, which related the wrath of Achilles, with all its direful consequences, were so far superior to the rest of the poetic cycle, as to admit no rivalry,—it is still surprising, that throughout the whole poem the callida junctura should never betray the workmanship of an Athenian hand, and that the national spirit of a race, who have at a later period not inaptly been compared to our self admiring neighbours, the French, should submit with lofty self denial to the almost total exclusion191 of their own ancestors—or, at least, to the questionable192 dignity of only having produced a leader tolerably skilled in the military tactics of his age."27
To return to the Wolfian theory. While it is to be confessed, that Wolf's objections to the primitive integrity of the Iliad and Odyssey have never been wholly got over, we cannot help discovering that they have failed to enlighten us as to any substantial point, and that the difficulties with which the whole subject is beset, are rather augmented193 than otherwise, if we admit his hypothesis. Nor is Lachmann's28 modification194 of his theory any better. He divides the first twenty-two books of the Iliad into sixteen different songs, and treats as ridiculous the belief that their amalgamation195 into one regular poem belongs to a period earlier than the age of Peisistratus. This, as Grote observes, "explains the gaps and contradictions in the narrative, but it explains nothing else." Moreover, we find no contradictions warranting this belief, and the so-called sixteen poets concur196 in getting rid of the following leading men in the first battle after the secession of Achilles: Elphenor, chief of the Euboeans; Tlepolemus, of the Rhodians; Pandarus, of the Lycians; Odius, of the Halizonians; Pirous and Acamas, of the Thracians. None of these heroes again make their appearance, and we can but agree with Colonel Mure, that "it seems strange that any number of independent poets should have so harmoniously197 dispensed198 with the services of all six in the sequel." The discrepancy199, by which Pylaemenes, who is represented as dead in the fifth book, weeps at his son's funeral in the thirteenth, can only be regarded as the result of an interpolation.
Grote, although not very distinct in stating his own opinions on the subject, has done much to clearly show the incongruity of the Wolfian theory, and of Lachmann's modifications200 with the character of Peisistratus. But he has also shown, and we think with equal success, that the two questions relative to the primitive unity of these poems, or, supposing that impossible, the unison201 of these parts by Peisistratus, and not before his time, are essentially distinct. In short, "a man may believe the Iliad to have been put together out of pre-existing songs, without recognising the age of Peisistratus as the period of its first compilation." The friends or literary employes of Peisistratus must have found an Iliad that was already ancient, and the silence of the Alexandrine critics respecting the Peisistratic "recension," goes far[pg xxiii] to prove, that, among the numerous manuscripts they examined, this was either wanting, or thought unworthy of attention.
"Moreover," he continues, "the whole tenor of the poems themselves confirms what is here remarked. There is nothing, either in the Iliad or Odyssey, which savours of modernism, applying that term to the age of Peisistratus—nothing which brings to our view the alterations202 brought about by two centuries, in the Greek language, the coined money, the habits of writing and reading, the despotisms and republican governments, the close military array, the improved construction of ships, the Amphiktyonic convocations, the mutual203 frequentation of religious festivals, the Oriental and Egyptian veins204 of religion, &c., familiar to the latter epoch205. These alterations Onomakritus, and the other literary friends of Peisistratus, could hardly have failed to notice, even without design, had they then, for the first time, undertaken the task of piecing together many self existent epics into one large aggregate. Everything in the two great Homeric poems, both in substance and in language, belongs to an age two or three centuries earlier than Peisistratus. Indeed, even the interpolations (or those passages which, on the best grounds, are pronounced to be such) betray no trace of the sixth century before Christ, and may well have been heard by Archilochus and Kallinus—in some cases even by Arktinus and Hesiod—as genuine Homeric matter29 As far as the evidences on the case, as well internal as external, enable us to judge, we seem warranted in believing that the Iliad and Odyssey were recited substantially as they now stand (always allowing for paitial divergences206 of text and interpolations) in 776 B.C., our first trustworthy mark of Grecian time; and this ancient date, let it be added, as it is the best-authenticated fact, so it is also the most important attribute of the Homeric poems, considered in reference to Grecian history; for they thus afford us an insight into the anti-historical character of the Greeks, enabling us to trace the subsequent forward march of the nation, and to seize instructive contrasts between their former and their later condition."30
On the whole, I am inclined to believe, that the labours of Peisistratus were wholly of an editorial character, although, I must confess, that I can lay down nothing respecting the extent of his labours. At the same time, so far from believing that the composition or primary arrangement of these poems, in their present form, was the work of Peisistratus, I am rather persuaded that the fine taste and elegant mind of that Athenian31 would lead him to preserve an ancient and traditional order of the poems, rather than to patch and re-construct them according to a fanciful hypothesis. I will not repeat the many discussions respecting whether the poems were written or not, or whether the art of writing was known in the time of their reputed author. Suffice it to say, that the more we read, the less satisfied we are upon either subject.
[pg xxiv]
I cannot, however, help thinking, that the story which attributes the preservation of these poems to Lycurgus, is little else than a version of the same story as that of Peisistratus, while its historical probability must be measured by that of many others relating to the Spartan207 Confucius.
I will conclude this sketch208 of the Homeric theories, with an attempt, made by an ingenious friend, to unite them into something like consistency. It is as follows:—
"No doubt the common soldiers of that age had, like the common sailors of some fifty years ago, some one qualified209 to 'discourse52 in excellent music' among them. Many of these, like those of the negroes in the United States, were extemporaneous210, and allusive211 to events passing around them. But what was passing around them? The grand events of a spirit-stirring war; occurrences likely to impress themselves, as the mystical legends of former times had done, upon their memory; besides which, a retentive212 memory was deemed a virtue213 of the first water, and was cultivated accordingly in those ancient times. Ballads at first, and down to the beginning of the war with Troy, were merely recitations, with an intonation165. Then followed a species of recitative, probably with an intoned burden. Tune60 next followed, as it aided the memory considerably214.
"It was at this period, about four hundred years after the war, that a poet flourished of the name of Melesigenes, or Moeonides, but most probably the former. He saw that these ballads might be made of great utility to his purpose of writing a poem on the social position of Hellas, and, as a collection, he published these lays, connecting them by a tale of his own. This poem now exists, under the title of the 'Odyssea.' The author, however, did not affix215 his own name to the poem, which, in fact, was, great part of it, remodelled216 from the archaic217 dialect of Crete, in which tongue the ballads were found by him. He therefore called it the poem of Homeros, or the Collector; but this is rather a proof of his modesty218 and talent, than of his mere drudging arrangement of other people's ideas; for, as Grote has finely observed, arguing for the unity of authorship, 'a great poet might have re-cast pre-existing separate songs into one comprehensive whole; but no mere arrangers or compilers would be competent to do so.'
"While employed on the wild legend of Odysseus, he met with a ballad189, recording219 the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon. His noble mind seized the hint that there presented itself, and the Achilleis32 grew under his hand. Unity of design, however, caused him to publish the poem under the same pseudonyme as his former work: and the disjointed lays of the ancient bards were joined together, like those relating to the Cid, into a chronicle history, named the Iliad. Melesigenes knew that the poem was destined to be a lasting220 one, and so it has proved; but, first, the poems were destined to undergo many vicissitudes221 and corruptions223, by the people who took to singing them in the streets, assemblies, and agoras. However, Solon first, and then[pg xxv] Peisistratus, and afterwards Aristoteles and others, revised the poems, and restored the works of Melesigenes Homeros to their original integrity in a great measure."33
Having thus given some general notion of the strange theories which have developed themselves respecting this most interesting subject, I must still express my conviction as to the unity of the authorship of the Homeric poems. To deny that many corruptions and interpolations disfigure them, and that the intrusive224 hand of the poetasters may here and there have inflicted225 a wound more serious than the negligence226 of the copyist, would be an absurd and captious227 assumption, but it is to a higher criticism that we must appeal, if we would either understand or enjoy these poems. In maintaining the authenticity and personality of their one author, be he Homer or Melesigenes, quocunque nomine vocari eum jus fasque sit, I feel conscious that, while the whole weight of historical evidence is against the hypothesis which would assign these great works to a plurality of authors, the most powerful internal evidence, and that which springs from the deepest and most immediate228 impulse of the soul, also speaks eloquently to the contrary.
The minutiae229 of verbal criticism I am far from seeking to despise. Indeed, considering the character of some of my own books, such an attempt would be gross inconsistency. But, while I appreciate its importance in a philological230 view, I am inclined to set little store on its aesthetic231 value, especially in poetry. Three parts of the emendations made upon poets are mere alterations, some of which, had they been suggested to the author by his Maecenas or Africanus, he would probably have adopted. Moreover, those who are most exact in laying down rules of verbal criticism and interpretation232, are often least competent to carry out their own precepts. Grammarians are not poets by profession, but may be so per accidens. I do not at this moment remember two emendations on Homer, calculated to substantially improve the poetry of a passage, although a mass of remarks, from Herodotus down to Loewe, have given us the history of a thousand minute points, without which our Greek knowledge would be gloomy and jejune233.
But it is not on words only that grammarians, mere grammarians, will exercise their elaborate and often tiresome234 ingenuity. Binding235 down an heroic or dramatic poet to the block upon which they have previously dissected236 his words and sentences, they proceed to use the axe237 and the pruning238 knife by wholesale239, and inconsistent in everything but their wish to make out a case of unlawful affiliation240, they cut out book after book, passage after passage, till the author is reduced to a collection of fragments, or till those, who fancied they possessed241 the works of some great man, find that they have been put off with a vile242 counterfeit243 got up at second hand. If we compare the theories of Knight, Wolf, Lachmann, and others, we shall feel better satisfied of the utter uncertainty of criticism than of the apocryphal244 position of Homer. One rejects what another considers the turning-point of his[pg xxvi] theory. One cuts a supposed knot by expunging245 what another would explain by omitting something else.
Nor is this morbid246 species of sagacity by any means to be looked upon as a literary novelty. Justus Lipsius, a scholar of no ordinary skill, seems to revel247 in the imaginary discovery, that the tragedies attributed to Seneca are by four different authors.34 Now, I will venture to assert, that these tragedies are so uniform, not only in their borrowed phraseology—a phraseology with which writers like Boethius and Saxo Grammaticus were more charmed than ourselves—in their freedom from real poetry, and last, but not least, in an ultra-refined and consistent abandonment of good taste, that few writers of the present day would question the capabilities248 of the same gentleman, be he Seneca or not, to produce not only these, but a great many more equally bad. With equal sagacity, Father Hardouin astonished the world with the startling announcement that the ?neid of Virgil, and the satires249 of Horace, were literary deceptions250. Now, without wishing to say one word of disrespect against the industry and learning—nay, the refined acuteness—which scholars, like Wolf, have bestowed upon this subject, I must express my fears, that many of our modern Homeric theories will become matter for the surprise and entertainment, rather than the instruction, of posterity. Nor can I help thinking, that the literary history of more recent times will account for many points of difficulty in the transmission of the Iliad and Odyssey to a period so remote from that of their first creation.
I have already expressed my belief that the labours of Peisistratus were of a purely251 editorial character; and there seems no more reason why corrupt222 and imperfect editions of Homer may not have been abroad in his day, than that the poems of Valerius Flaccus and Tibullus should have given so much trouble to Poggio, Scaliger, and others. But, after all, the main fault in all the Homeric theories is, that they demand too great a sacrifice of those feelings to which poetry most powerfully appeals, and which are its most fitting judges. The ingenuity which has sought to rob us of the name and existence of Homer, does too much violence to that inward emotion, which makes our whole soul yearn252 with love and admiration for the blind bard of Chios. To believe the author of the Iliad a mere compiler, is to degrade the powers of human invention; to elevate analytical judgment at the expense of the most ennobling impulses of the soul; and to forget the ocean in the contemplation of a polypus. There is a catholicity, so to speak, in the very name of Homer. Our faith in the author of the Iliad may be a mistaken one, but as yet nobody has taught us a better.
While, however, I look upon the belief in Homer as one that has nature herself for its mainspring; while I can join with old Ennius in believing in Homer as the ghost, who, like some patron saint, hovers253 round the bed of the poet, and even bestows254 rare gifts from that wealth of imagination which a host of imitators could not exhaust,—still I am far from wishing to deny that the author of these great poems found a rich fund of tradition, a well-stocked mythical255 storehouse from whence[pg xxvii] he might derive256 both subject and embellishment. But it is one thing to use existing romances in the embellishment of a poem, another to patch up the poem itself from such materials. What consistency of style and execution can be hoped for from such an attempt? or, rather, what bad taste and tedium257 will not be the infallible result?
A blending of popular legends, and a free use of the songs of other bards, are features perfectly258 consistent with poetical originality259. In fact, the most original writer is still drawing upon outward impressions—nay, even his own thoughts are a kind of secondary agents which support and feed the impulses of imagination. But unless there be some grand pervading260 principle—some invisible, yet most distinctly stamped archetypus of the great whole, a poem like the Iliad can never come to the birth. Traditions the most picturesque261, episodes the most pathetic, local associations teeming262 with the thoughts of gods and great men, may crowd in one mighty263 vision, or reveal themselves in more substantial forms to the mind of the poet; but, except the power to create a grand whole, to which these shall be but as details and embellishments, be present, we shall have nought264 but a scrap-book, a parterre filled with flowers and weeds strangling each other in their wild redundancy: we shall have a cento of rags and tatters, which will require little acuteness to detect.
Sensible as I am of the difficulty of disproving a negative, and aware as I must be of the weighty grounds there are for opposing my belief, it still seems to me that the Homeric question is one that is reserved for a higher criticism than it has often obtained. We are not by nature intended to know all things; still less, to compass the powers by which the greatest blessings265 of life have been placed at our disposal. Were faith no virtue, then we might indeed wonder why God willed our ignorance on any matter. But we are too well taught the contrary lesson; and it seems as though our faith should be especially tried touching the men and the events which have wrought266 most influence upon the condition of humanity. And there is a kind of sacredness attached to the memory of the great and the good, which seems to bid us repulse267 the scepticism which would allegorize their existence into a pleasing apologue, and measure the giants of intellect by an homeopathic dynameter.
Long and habitual268 reading of Homer appears to familiarize our thoughts even to his incongruities269; or rather, if we read in a right spirit and with a heartfelt appreciation270, we are too much dazzled, too deeply wrapped in admiration of the whole, to dwell upon the minute spots which mere analysis can discover. In reading an heroic poem we must transform ourselves into heroes of the time being, we in imagination must fight over the same battles, woo the same loves, burn with the same sense of injury, as an Achilles or a Hector. And if we can but attain28 this degree of enthusiasm (and less enthusiasm will scarcely suffice for the reading of Homer), we shall feel that the poems of Homer are not only the work of one writer, but of the greatest writer that ever touched the hearts of men by the power of song.
And it was this supposed unity of authorship which gave these poems their powerful influence over the minds of the men of old.[pg xxviii] Heeren, who is evidently little disposed in favour of modern theories, finely observes:—
"It was Homer who formed the character of the Greek nation. No poet has ever, as a poet, exercised a similar influence over his countrymen. Prophets, lawgivers, and sages183 have formed the character of other nations; it was reserved to a poet to form that of the Greeks. This is a feature in their character which was not wholly erased271 even in the period of their degeneracy. When lawgivers and sages appeared in Greece, the work of the poet had already been accomplished272; and they paid homage273 to his superior genius. He held up before his nation the mirror, in which they were to behold274 the world of gods and heroes no less than of feeble mortals, and to behold them reflected with purity and truth. His poems are founded on the first feeling of human nature; on the love of children, wife, and country; on that passion which outweighs275 all others, the love of glory. His songs were poured forth276 from a breast which sympathized with all the feelings of man; and therefore they enter, and will continue to enter, every breast which cherishes the same sympathies. If it is granted to his immortal277 spirit, from another heaven than any of which he dreamed on earth, to look down on his race, to see the nations from the fields of Asia to the forests of Hercynia, performing pilgrimages to the fountain which his magic wand caused to flow; if it is permitted to him to view the vast assemblage of grand, of elevated, of glorious productions, which had been called into being by means of his songs; wherever his immortal spirit may reside, this alone would suffice to complete his happiness."35
Can we contemplate278 that ancient monument, on which the "Apotheosis279 of Homer"36 is depictured, and not feel how much of pleasing association, how much that appeals most forcibly and most distinctly to our minds, is lost by the admittance of any theory but our old tradition? The more we read, and the more we think—think as becomes the readers of Homer,—the more rooted becomes the conviction that the Father of Poetry gave us this rich inheritance, whole and entire. Whatever were the means of its preservation, let us rather be thankful for the treasury280 of taste and eloquence281 thus laid open to our use, than seek to make it a mere centre around which to drive a series of theories, whose wildness is only equalled by their inconsistency with each other.
As the hymns282, and some other poems usually ascribed to Homer, are not included in Pope's translation, I will content myself with a brief account of the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, from the pen of a writer who has done it full justice37:—
"This poem," says Coleridge, "is a short mock-heroic of ancient date. The text varies in different editions, and is obviously disturbed and corrupt to a great degree; it is commonly said to have been a juvenile essay of Homer's genius; others have attributed it to the same Pigrees,[pg xxix]mentioned above, and whose reputation for humour seems to have invited the appropriation283 of any piece of ancient wit, the author of which was uncertain; so little did the Greeks, before the age of the Ptolemies, know or care about that department of criticism employed in determining the genuineness of ancient writings. As to this little poem being a youthful prolusion of Homer, it seems sufficient to say that from the beginning to the end it is a plain and palpable parody284, not only of the general spirit, but of the numerous passages of the Iliad itself; and even, if no such intention to parody were discernible in it, the objection would still remain, that to suppose a work of mere burlesque285 to be the primary effort of poetry in a simple age, seems to reverse that order in the development of national taste, which the history of every other people in Europe, and of many in Asia, has almost ascertained286 to be a law of the human mind; it is in a state of society much more refined and permanent than that described in the Iliad, that any popularity would attend such a ridicule287 of war and the gods as is contained in this poem; and the fact of there having existed three other poems of the same kind attributed, for aught we can see, with as much reason to Homer, is a strong inducement to believe that none of them were of the Homeric age. Knight infers from the usage of the word deltos, "writing tablet," instead of diphthera, "skin," which, according to Herod. 5, 58, was the material employed by the Asiatic Greeks for that purpose, that this poem was another offspring of Attic ingenuity; and generally that the familiar mention of the cock (v. 191) is a strong argument against so ancient a date for its composition."
Having thus given a brief account of the poems comprised in Pope's design, I will now proceed to make a few remarks on his translation, and on my own purpose in the present edition.
Pope was not a Grecian. His whole education had been irregular, and his earliest acquaintance with the poet was through the version of Ogilby. It is not too much to say that his whole work bears the impress of a disposition288 to be satisfied with the general sense, rather than to dive deeply into the minute and delicate features of language. Hence his whole work is to be looked upon rather as an elegant paraphrase289 than a translation. There are, to be sure, certain conventional anecdotes290, which prove that Pope consulted various friends, whose classical attainments291 were sounder than his own, during the undertaking292; but it is probable that these examinations were the result rather of the contradictory293 versions already existing, than of a desire to make a perfect transcript294 of the original. And in those days, what is called literal translation was less cultivated than at present. If something like the general sense could be decorated with the easy gracefulness295 of a practised poet; if the charms of metrical cadence296 and a pleasing fluency297 could be made consistent with a fair interpretation of the poet's meaning, his words were less jealously sought for, and those who could read so good a poem as Pope's Iliad had fair reason to be satisfied.
It would be absurd, therefore, to test Pope's translation by our own advancing knowledge of the original text. We must be content to[pg xxx] look at it as a most delightful298 work in itself,—a work which is as much a part of English literature as Homer himself is of Greek. We must not be torn from our kindly299 associations with the old Iliad, that once was our most cherished companion, or our most looked-for prize, merely because Buttmann, Loewe, and Liddell have made us so much more accurate as to amphikupellon being an adjective, and not a substantive300. Far be it from us to defend the faults of Pope, especially when we think of Chapman's fine, bold, rough old English;—far be it from, us to hold up his translation as what a translation of Homer might be. But we can still dismiss Pope's Iliad to the hands of our readers, with the consciousness that they must have read a very great number of books before they have read its fellow.
As to the Notes accompanying the present volume, they are drawn up without pretension301, and mainly with the view of helping302 the general reader. Having some little time since translated all the works of Homer for another publisher, I might have brought a large amount of accumulated matter, sometimes of a critical character, to bear upon the text. But Pope's version was no field for such a display; and my purpose was to touch briefly303 on antiquarian or mythological304 allusions305, to notice occasionally some departures from the original, and to give a few parallel passages from our English Homer, Milton. In the latter task I cannot pretend to novelty, but I trust that my other annotations306, while utterly307 disclaiming308 high scholastic views, will be found to convey as much as is wanted; at least, as far as the necessary limits of these volumes could be expected to admit. To write a commentary on Homer is not my present aim; but if I have made Pope's translation a little more entertaining and instructive to a mass of miscellaneous readers, I shall consider my wishes satisfactorily accomplished.
THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY.
Christ Church.
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emancipate
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previously
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havoc
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superstitions
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actively
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wholesome
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chastisement
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antagonists
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imposture
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motives
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consistency
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exacting
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induction
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contemplating
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boundless
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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23
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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24
enunciator
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| n.声明者，宣言者，发音清晰者 | |
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25
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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consolations
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| n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物） | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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28
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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29
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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30
odyssey
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| n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险 | |
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31
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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32
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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33
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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35
forgeries
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| 伪造( forgery的名词复数 )； 伪造的文件、签名等 | |
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36
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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37
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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38
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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39
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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40
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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41
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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42
juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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43
frailty
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| n.脆弱；意志薄弱 | |
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44
scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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45
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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46
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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49
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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50
stipend
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| n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金 | |
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51
discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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52
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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53
interrogating
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|
| n.询问技术v.询问( interrogate的现在分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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54
memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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55
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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56
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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57
mentor
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| n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导 | |
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58
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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59
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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60
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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61
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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62
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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63
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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64
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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65
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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66
renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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67
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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68
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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69
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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70
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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71
encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
vented
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| 表达，发泄（感情，尤指愤怒）( vent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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74
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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75
pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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76
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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77
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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78
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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79
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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80
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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81
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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82
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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83
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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84
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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85
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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86
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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87
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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88
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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89
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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90
marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
narrating
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| v.故事( narrate的现在分词 ) | |
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92
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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93
precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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94
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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95
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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96
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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97
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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98
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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100
celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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101
unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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102
enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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103
persevering
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| a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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104
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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105
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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106
vouch
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| v.担保；断定；n.被担保者 | |
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107
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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108
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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109
fertilizing
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| v.施肥( fertilize的现在分词 ) | |
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110
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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111
judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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112
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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113
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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114
testimonies
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| （法庭上证人的）证词( testimony的名词复数 )； 证明，证据 | |
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115
venerates
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| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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116
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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117
nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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118
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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119
entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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120
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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121
condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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122
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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123
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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124
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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125
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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126
analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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127
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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128
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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129
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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130
flea
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| n.跳蚤 | |
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131
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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132
hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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133
authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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134
disclaimed
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| v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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136
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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137
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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138
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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139
dissertation
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| n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文 | |
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140
vindicating
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的现在分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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141
constituent
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| n.选民；成分，组分；adj.组成的，构成的 | |
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142
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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143
incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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144
aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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145
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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146
controvert
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| v.否定；否认 | |
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147
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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148
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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149
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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150
inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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151
lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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152
authorizes
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| 授权，批准，委托( authorize的名词复数 ) | |
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153
ordinance
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| n.法令；条令；条例 | |
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154
bard
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| n.吟游诗人 | |
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155
bards
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| n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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156
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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157
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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158
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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159
attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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160
crux
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| adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点 | |
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161
acumen
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| n.敏锐，聪明 | |
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162
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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163
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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164
intonations
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| n.语调，说话的抑扬顿挫( intonation的名词复数 )；（演奏或唱歌中的）音准 | |
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165
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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166
artifices
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| n.灵巧( artifice的名词复数 )；诡计；巧妙办法；虚伪行为 | |
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167
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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168
analyzing
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| v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析 | |
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169
perusing
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| v.读（某篇文字）( peruse的现在分词 )；（尤指）细阅；审阅；匆匆读或心不在焉地浏览（某篇文字） | |
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170
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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171
epical
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| adj.叙事诗的，英勇的 | |
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172
conjecturing
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| v. & n. 推测，臆测 | |
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173
epics
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| n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 )；壮举；惊人之举；史诗般的电影（或书籍） | |
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174
papyrus
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| n.古以纸草制成之纸 | |
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175
compilation
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| n.编译，编辑 | |
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176
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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177
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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178
disquiet
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| n.担心，焦虑 | |
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179
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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180
incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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181
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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182
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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183
sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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184
maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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185
preeminent
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的 | |
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186
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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187
sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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188
emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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189
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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190
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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191
exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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192
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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193
Augmented
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| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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194
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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195
amalgamation
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| n.合并，重组；；汞齐化 | |
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196
concur
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| v.同意，意见一致，互助，同时发生 | |
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197
harmoniously
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| 和谐地，调和地 | |
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198
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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199
discrepancy
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| n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾 | |
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200
modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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201
unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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202
alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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203
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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204
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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205
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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206
divergences
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| n.分叉( divergence的名词复数 )；分歧；背离；离题 | |
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207
spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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208
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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209
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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210
extemporaneous
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| adj.即席的，一时的 | |
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211
allusive
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| adj.暗示的；引用典故的 | |
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212
retentive
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| v.保留的，有记忆的；adv.有记性地，记性强地；n.保持力 | |
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213
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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214
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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215
affix
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| n.附件，附录 vt.附贴，盖(章)，签署 | |
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216
remodelled
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| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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217
archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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218
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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219
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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220
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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221
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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222
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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223
corruptions
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| n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 )；腐化；腐败；贿赂 | |
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224
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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225
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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226
negligence
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| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
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227
captious
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| adj.难讨好的，吹毛求疵的 | |
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228
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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229
minutiae
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| n.微小的细节，细枝末节；（常复数）细节，小事( minutia的名词复数 ) | |
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230
philological
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| adj.语言学的，文献学的 | |
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231
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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232
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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233
jejune
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| adj.枯燥无味的，贫瘠的 | |
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234
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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235
binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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236
dissected
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|
| adj.切开的，分割的，（叶子）多裂的v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的过去式和过去分词 )；仔细分析或研究 | |
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237
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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238
pruning
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| n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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239
wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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240
affiliation
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| n.联系，联合 | |
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241
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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242
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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243
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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244
apocryphal
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| adj.假冒的，虚假的 | |
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245
expunging
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| v.擦掉( expunge的现在分词 )；除去；删去；消除 | |
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246
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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247
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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248
capabilities
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| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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249
satires
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| 讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品 | |
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250
deceptions
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| 欺骗( deception的名词复数 )； 骗术，诡计 | |
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251
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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252
yearn
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| v.想念；怀念；渴望 | |
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253
hovers
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| 鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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254
bestows
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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255
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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256
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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257
tedium
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| n.单调；烦闷 | |
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258
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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259
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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260
pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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261
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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262
teeming
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|
| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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263
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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264
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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265
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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266
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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267
repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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268
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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269
incongruities
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| n.不协调( incongruity的名词复数 )；不一致；不适合；不协调的东西 | |
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270
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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271
erased
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| v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除 | |
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272
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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273
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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274
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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275
outweighs
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| v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 )；在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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276
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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277
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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279
apotheosis
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| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
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280
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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281
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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282
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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283
appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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284
parody
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| n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文 | |
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285
burlesque
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| v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿 | |
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286
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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287
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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288
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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289
paraphrase
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| vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义 | |
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290
anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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291
attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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292
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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293
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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294
transcript
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| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
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295
gracefulness
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296
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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297
fluency
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| n.流畅，雄辩，善辩 | |
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298
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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299
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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300
substantive
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| adj.表示实在的；本质的、实质性的；独立的；n.实词，实名词；独立存在的实体 | |
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301
pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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302
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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304
mythological
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| adj.神话的 | |
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305
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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306
annotations
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| n.注释( annotation的名词复数 )；附注 | |
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307
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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308
disclaiming
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| v.否认( disclaim的现在分词 ) | |
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