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NOV 24 1017
LIBRARY

The Weekly

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The Entire Language at Four Glances

The eight parts of speech, outlined in full with forms, rules
and examples, are arranged on four charts for study and use
in the class-room. Chart I., THE Noun; Chart II., THE
ADJECTIVE AND THE ADVERB; Chart III., THE VERB; Chart
IV., THE PRONOUN, THE PREPOSITION, THE CONJUNCTION,
and THE INTERJECTION.

At a glance the student can see the

essential parts of Latin Grammar"

-Frank T. McClure, Teacher, Allegheny High School, Pittsburg, Pa.

Adopted

for general class-room use by teachers in over sixty regular High Schools
and twenty Private Schools the first year.

Handy in Form

The four charts, each 14x18 inches, appear on the four double pages of a 10-page
pamphlet, 9x14 inches, of heavy, white, durable, ledger paper. The pamphlet is
folded once and glued in an extra heavy, tough, manila cover, 7x9 inches, which
protects the charts perfectly and reduces them to handy form when not in use. The
outfit is practical and extremely simple to operate.

Price per copy, 40c

10% discount on orders of I dozen or over.
Transportation charges prepaid.
Address the author,

JOHN C. GREEN, Jr.

Latin Instructor, BLAIR ACADEMY

BLAIRSTOWN, N. J.

Classic Myths

In English Literature and in Art
By CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY

The most comprehensive, satisfactory, and attractive textbook in mythology now available. It successfully accomplishes these aims:

It acquaints the student with the Greek, Roman, Norse, and German myths which have influenced English imaginative thought, with the use of these in English and American poetry, with the principal masterpieces of sculpture and painting dealing with myth, and with the history of myth. $1.50.

GINN AND COMPANY: PUBLISHERS 70 Fifth Avenue

New York, N. Y.

SMYTH'S GREEK GRAMMAR

By HERBERT WEIR SMYTH, Ph.D., Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, Harvard University

This book is suited both for beginners and for undergraduates during the early period of their study of Greek literature. Simplicity of statement has been attained by a greater uniformity in terminology and method of presentation, between the syntax of Greek and that of Modern Languages.

The present book differs from its predecessors of the same class especially in attaching greater importance to exact explanations of phonetic and morphological changes, where such explanations are based on the assured results of recent scientific investigation of the language, and are, at the same time, readily intelligible to younger students.

BENNER AND SMYTH'S BEGINNER'S GREEK BOOK

By ALLEN R. BENNER, Professor of Greek, Phillips Academy, Andover, and HERBERT WEIR SMYTH.

This beginner's book aims to interest students immediately in the Anabasis and to prepare them for the reading of that work before the end of the first year. The grammar is limited to the forms and the constructions needed by beginners. Only the more significant paradigms and rules of syntax are emphasized.

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THE CLASSICALWEEKLY

Entered as second-class matter November 18, 1907, at the Post Office, New York, N. Y., under the Act of Congress of March 1, 1879 NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 19, 1917

VOL. XI

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS

The title of this paper is the title of a course I have for more than a decade given at Cornell University, with what the reader will pardon me for deeming excellent results. Acting in part on a hint from the Managing Editor of THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY, I desire to set forth the principles underlying the course, and to sketch the actual work done by a typical class in some thirty-two weekly assignments.

It must forthwith be noted that the work, while intended to serve the special ends of students of English (in select groups of ten or twelve), is not designed to supplant any part of the intensive study of Greek and Latin literature in the original tongues. In point of fact, those who have hitherto done best in the course have been students of Greek and Latin to begin with, or, coming to the University with no knowledge of Greek, have been convinced by translations that an educated man cannot afford to be ignorant of that language, and accordingly have later entered upon the study of it.

Yet the course is based upon the assumption that the teacher of the Classics has not always known how to play all the cards in his hand. The mainspring of the work is the application of classical theories of literary art to masterpieces of classical literature, so far as this is possible through the best English translations. And through this medium it is possible to enforce lessons, of the utmost value, which, so far as I can learn, have been sadly neglected in almost every quarter of America. Through this medium, with principles supplied by the ancients themselves, one may teach a Sophomore to regard the Odyssey as an organic work of art, with a beginning, middle, and end-as a unified whole, in the light of which every detail is to be interpreted; and then to regard the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles in similar fashion; and to go on to other masterpieces, learning the universal laws of artistic structure as they are not learned in classes where fifty lines a day are read in the original, where the emphasis is laid first upon diction and syntax, and secondly upon Realien, and where the pupil possibly makes a few inferences concerning the portrayal of character, the structure of a speech, and the treatment of an incident in and for itself. The course is, then, I trust, formal, in the better sense of that word: fundamental laws are illustrated

No. 7

by specific examples, the union of the two being effected by the student himself, with the minimum of obvious help from the teacher. However, much substantial information in the usual sense is absorbed

by the student; for throughout the academic year he thrice returns to tasks involving a survey of ancient mythology; a rough chronological sequence is generally observed; and at the close of the second semester he applies what he has previously learned to the study of several topics in English literature. It will be seen that an attempt has been made to convert the whole into a kind of drama, the successive efforts demanded of the class being, as it were, so many incidents following one another in a natural, if not always an inevitable sequence. Ideally, no doubt, the sequence of any course of study should be inevitable; but in practice slight concessions must now and then be made to the actual needs of the student. This course in translations may therefore be described as sufficiently theoretical, but with a slight leaning to the practical because most of those who take it wish ultimately to specialize in English.

At the first meeting of the class, I am in the habit of making a few remarks, in substance as follows:

There are persons who decry translations. Yet men of sound learning and good judgment make and publish them. Why? According to Lord Morley1, "Scholars of great eminence like Jowett, Lang, Myers, Leaf, and others, bring all their scholarship to bear, in order to provide for those who are not able, or do not care, to read old classics in the originals, brilliant and faithful renderings of them in our own tongue". "Nothing but good, I am persuaded, can come of all these attempts to connect learning with the living forces of society". There is our answer in a nutshell. If it demands corroboration, we need only recall that the most valuable and influential book ever printed in the English language is a translation-the Authorized Version of the Bible.

And he adds "N

The object of this course, stated in one way, is to connect learning with the forces of your lives. Much of the classical study that is done in our Schools is regarded, and perhaps justly, as a study of 'dead' languages. What is a 'dead' language? The language of Carlyle, says a noted authority on English, is dead, and so is that of Shakespeare, that of Milton, and that of Tennyson. Your words of half an hour ago are dead. But they can easily be revived. So can the words of Carlyle-less easily those of Shakespeare. We need not ask whether the Greek and Latin tongues can be revived in most of us to-day. Let us say that they ought to be when they can be. But we all Studies in Literature, 5.

know that very few students ever reach the point of proficiency where either of those languages becomes in every respect a living medium of communication between the author and the reader. How many of you have ever been able to appreciate an entire work of literary art like the Aeneid or the Odyssey in the original? Even for the thorough scholar the attention is likely to be divided; he must now and then puzzle out the words, and cannot always give his whole mind to the matter. Yet every time the mind is forced to halt over the meaning of a sentence, some part of the meaning of a piece of literature as a whole is almost certain to be lost.

(6) The formal work of the course will consist of weekly papers or reports, to be read and discussed in class. These papers each student is to preserve, in proper sequence, in a note-book kept solely for this purpose. The note-books may be called for at any time; they will be submitted to the instructor at the last meeting of the class before the term examinations. (7) Appointments for personal conference will be arranged.

Careful reading should precede all writing. The object of each paper or report should be thoroughness and truth. Literary finish and individuality of expression are desirable.

The aim of the course is a lasting acquaintance with classic story and ideals, as an indispensable basis for the appreciation of English literature.

Among works of reference the following are recom

mended:

Histories of Greece

This is a course in literature. You will treat individual masterpieces as works of art, taking up important things one by one, a whole one at a time. In your work in Greek and Latin you have been accustomed to pay more attention to small details than to large ones. Here you will give more attention to the larger details of structure. No detail is unimportant in a work of art, but we have authority in the words of the greatest critic produced by antiquity for believing that some details are of more consequence than others, and that the plot or main idea of a poem is by far the most important thing of all-just as the plan of a building is more important than the particular History of Rome sort of stone employed. For us such matters are more easily discerned in an English translation than in the Greek or Latin original.

The wealth of material at our command necessitates selection, and where all is good selection is difficult. Yet we cannot avoid omitting works that every one should read. You must therefore regard the books we study here as but a center for your own individual reading later on.

Human culture is continuous. There are no breaks in its history. Until you have read and meditated for years you cannot afford to dwell very heavily upon the differences between ancient and modern times. So far as possible discard the distinction between 'ancient' and 'modern', and substitute the distinction between 'permanent' and 'transient'.

Observe for yourself, and never relinquish the process. After these remarks I distribute copies of a leaflet containing a description of the course, together with a number of requirements and recommendations and a brief list of books for reference, as follows.

A knowledge of Greek and Latin, though desirable, is not required, the work of this course being independent of any language but English. Rapid reading will be done in the best translations; with emphasis upon Greek masterpieces-for example, the Iliad and the Odyssey, select plays of Sophocles, and select dialogues of Plato. Translations from the Latin will be chosen for the bearing of the originals on modern literature. There will be papers and discussions.

(1) Students are urged to own as many of the books employed in the course as circumstances permit, and to form the habit of marginal annotation.

(2) A general knowledge of the life of each author studied may be obtained from works of reference recommended in the accompanying list.

(3) Students must become familiar with classical geography; see the atlases noted in the list.

(4) Punctuality in work and attendance is imperative. Under ordinary circumstances work that is behindhand will not be accepted. By an unexcused absence the student indicates his willingness to fail in the course.

(5) The work of the first semester is so related to that of the second that it is desirable to take the course either throughout the year, or not at all.

Grote
Curtius
Bury

Mommsen

Atlases

Sieglin
Kiepert

General Encyclopaedia

Encyclopaedia Brit-
annica

Encyclopaedia of History

Ploetz

Histories of Greek Litera

ture

Jebb
Mueller
Croiset

(The best work under this head, Croiset, should be consulted by those who read French, in the unabridged edition) Histories of Latin Litera

ture

Duff

Sellar

Teuffel

Dictionaries of Classical
Antiquities

Smith

Harper

Scyffert

There are bad books as well as good: for the purpose of this course make use of no work without consulting the instructor.

The leaflet, it will be observed, aims at simplicity. It would be a mistake, for example, to discourage the student by mentioning too many unfamiliar books at the outset. He is expected to buy my version of the Poetics of Aristotle, Jebb's translation (in one volume) of Sophocles, and possibly the Iliad of Lang, Leaf, and Myers, and the Odyssey of Butcher and Lang. In general he may either own the books employed, or use the duplicate copies in the University Library. Here follow the assignments.

(1) Read any three or more of the following, abstract what you deem of special importance, and upon this basis write a paper of about 500 words: Croiset, Histoire de la Littérature Grecque, 1.1-19 (copies of a typewritten translation on reserve in the Library); Jebb, The Age of Pericles (in Essays and Addresses); Butcher, What We Owe to Greece (in Some Aspects of the Greek Genius); Murray, introductory chapter in The Rise of the Greek Epic; Livingstone, The Greek Genius and its Meaning to Us, Chapter 3 (possibly Chapter 1); Chesterton, Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson; Gildersleeve, Hellas and Hesperia, Third Lecture; Zielinski, Our

Debt to Antiquity, First Lecture; Wolff, The Greek Gift to Civilization (in The Nation, New York, April 7, 1910)2.

(2) Report upon what you think important or doubtful in the first fifteen chapters of the Poetics of Aristotle. The use of the introductory matter in my rendering of the Poetics is optional.

(3) The remainder of the Poetics.

(4) Apply the principles of Aristotle to the Biblical story of Joseph (Genesis 37.39-45).

(5) Butcher, Aristotle's Theory of Poetry, etc., Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 in the Commentary following the Poetics.

(6) The plot of the Odyssey (tr. Butcher and Lang). (7) Longinus On the Sublime (Havell's translation, in Cooper, Theories of Style); compare Rhys Roberts's edition, especially 23-37.

(8) Characters: Aristotle, Rhetoric (tr. Jebb, or Welldon), Book 2, Chapters 12-17; Nicomachean Ethics (tr. Welldon), Book 4, Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9; Theophrastus (tr. Jebb, or Bennett and Hammond) read a number of the sketches. Optional: G. S. Gordon, Theophrastus and his Imitators (in English Literature and the Classics).

(9) Apply the Poetics, Ethics, and Rhetoric to the chief agents in the Iliad.

(10) Hesiod, Works and Days, and Theogony (tr. Mair, or Evelyn-White).

(11) Grote, History of Greece, Volume I, Chapters I (asfar as "Hymn to Dionysus"), 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13; note four centers of early Grecian story, in particular the Calydonian Hunt and the tale of the Argonauts.

(12) Grote, Volume I, Chapters 14, 15 (as far as "Historicizing Innovations"), 16 (as far as "Gradual Development of the Scientific Point of View"); note in particular the legendary history of Thebes and the Trojan Cycle. Compare Jebb's account of the Trojan Cycle in his Greek Literature (Literature Primers).

(12) Apply Longinus to Pindar (tr. Myers, or Sandys), Olym. 1, 2, 3, 7, Pyth. 1, 3, 4, 10; Nem. 5, 10; Isth. 2, 7. Consult Gildersleeve's edition of Pindar, Introduction vii-xlvi. Those who read French are referred to Croiset, La Poésie de Pindare. [The assignment on Pindar is given or omitted according to the capacity and maturity of the class].

(13) Haigh, The Attic Theatre (third edition), 1-17, 23-24, 30,34-35,39,44,49,51,53, 60-61, 65-66, 68-69, 72, 79, 179-180, 186, 195, 202-205, 209-210, 213, 215, 227, 238, 242-243, 245, 252-253, 268, 285-286, 289, 291, 311-312, 317, 319, 323, 325, 338, 342-348.

(14) Aeschylus, Agamemnon (tr. Headlam, or Plumptre, or Swanwick, or Way). Refer, possibly with caution, to the edition by Verrall.

I hope within the year to publish a collection of essays and extracts embodying most of this material, together with Boeckh's general characterization of antiquity, and other important utterances on the same topic; this volume, if published, will be put into the hands of the class at the beginning of the course.

(15) Aeschylus, Choephori (tr. Tucker) and Eumenides (tr. Verrall); or use the translators of Aeschylus previously mentioned.

(16) Sophocles, Electra (tr. Jebb).
(17) Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (tr. Jebb).

(18) Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris (tr. Murray, or Way, or Coleridge).

(19) Read Croiset, Abridged History of Greek Literature, 229-264; paper on the Birds of Aristophanes (tr. Rogers, or Frere).

(20) Aristophanes, the Frogs (tr. Rogers, or Murray). Refer to Starkie's edition of the Acharnians, Introduction, xxxviii-lxxiv, Optional: Meredith, An Essay on Comedy.

(21) Read Duff, A Literary History of Rome, 156-201; refer to the passages on character in Aristotle and Theophrastus (see No. 8); paper on Plautus, Trinummus (tr. Sibley, or Riley, or Warr). Optional for those who read French: consult Legrand, Daos.

(22) Read Duff, 203-219; paper on Terence, Heauton Timorumenos (tr. Sargeaunt, or Stock). Optional: consult Bond, Early Plays from the Italian, xv-xxvii.

(23) Plato, Phaedrus (tr. Jowett).

(24) Plato, Apology (tr. Jowett); test it by Aristotelian principles as a work of imagination designed to produce an effect upon the emotions.

(25) Plato, Ion (tr. Jowett); Republic (tr. Davies and Vaughan, or Jowett), opening of Book I, end of Book 2, and beginning of Book 3, and Book 10.

(26) Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory (tr. J. S. Watson): Bk. 1, Ch. 1, Ch. 10.9-26; Bk. 2, Ch. 1, Ch. 5.58, Ch. 19, Ch. 20; Bk. 7, Introd. 1-22, Ch. I, Ch. 2.22-24, Ch. 3.1-11, Ch. 5.26-34, Ch. 6.1-23; Bk. 9, Ch. 4.114, 16, 19, 33-37, 45-78, 116-119; Bk. 10, Ch. I (except 52-60, 62-64, 74-75, 87-92, 97-98, 101-104, 118-131), the rest of the Bk. (except Ch. 6); Bk. 11, Ch. 1.1-9, Ch. 2.1-5; Bk. 12, Chapters 1-4. Optional: compare Ben Jonson, Timber (ed. Castelain, 81-116), and Milton, Of Education.

(27) Horace, Ars Poetica (tr. Howes, in Cook, The Art of Poetry, or Conington).

(28) Seneca, The Daughters of Troy (tr. Harris). Consult Osgood in American Journal of Philology 26.343, and Cambridge History of English Literature, Volume 5 (Index, s. v. Seneca). Optional: consult Cunliffe, Early English Classical Tragedies.

(29) Ovid, Metamorphoses (tr. Golding, in Shakespeare's Ovid, ed. Rouse, or Riley), Books 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and in Bk. 4 the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Optional: compare Hawthorne, The Snow Image and Feathertop.

(30) Root, Classical Mythology in Shakespeare; consult Anders, Shakespeare's Books. Optional: consult Tucker, The Foreign Debt of English Literature.

(31) Osgood, The Classical Mythology of Milton's English Poems.

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