'Nor famyne faint of pynyng paunche,
'with burnyng thurste of hell,
'Amid the blackest stream of Styckes
where poysnyng breathes do well;
'Where vapors vyle parbraking * out
from dampysh myry mud,

'Encrease the paynes of Tantalus,

deserved by gyltles blood?

"Could not thyne owne offence suffyce,

Thyestes, in thy lyfe,

To fyle thy brothers spousall bed,

' and to abuse his wyfe;

'But after breath from body fled,

' and lyfe thy limbes hath left, 'Can not remembraunce of revenge ' out of thy brest be reft?'

The subsequent stanza, from the chorus to the fourth act of Medea, may prove that the preceding quotation was not in Studley's natural vein, although he thought that a scene of the kind was required to complete the Agamemnon.

6

'Now, Phœbus, lodge thy charyot in the west,

'Let neyther raynes nor brydle stay thy race: Let groveling light with dulceat nyght opprest, 'In cloking cloudes wrap up his muffled face; Let Hesperus, the loadesman of the nyght,

In western floode drench deepe the day so bryght.' Alexander Nevyle was also very young when he published his translation of Edipus in 1563. It is to be observed, that Warton, who thought Nevyle's 'the most spirited and elegant version in the collection,' only saw the tragedy as it stands in the edition of 1581, which materially varies from the older copy.

* Parbraking out is vomiting out.

When Nevyle wrote in 1563, the author was evidently a most unskilful versifier: if, as often happened, he had a few words necessary to the full meaning of his author, but which he could not contrive to bring into his metre, he did not scruple to add them in a parenthesis, thus:

Whereat my tongue amazed stayes:
'God graunt that at the last

" It fall not out as Creon tolde:

Not yet the worst is past (I feare).'

So that to read the translation right on makes the measure appear most rugged and uncouth, and to omit the parenthesis renders the sense unintelligible. In 1581 many of these defects were removed (whether by Newton, the editor of the collection, or by Nevyle, is not stated), and the translation assumed a much more regular and polished form: still the versification is often harsh and unsatisfactory to the ear, and the defect already mentioned seems to have been found in not a few instances incorrigible. The following quotations will show the degree of improvement introduced, and that Nevyle does not merit, at least to its full extent, the eulogium of Warton, even supposing that he superintended the reprint of his Edipus 1581. The two passages are from Act ii. Scene 2, between Edipus and Jocasta, and the first is as it stands in the copy of 1563. dipus speaks :

'The gaping yearth devyde us both, thone from thother

quight:

'Styll let our feete repugnant bee, so shall I shun the

lyght,

' (That most me greves.)

เ

Jocasta. The Destenies are in faut. Blame them, alas,

alas, not wee.

Edipus. Spare now. Leave of to speak in vain.
Spare now, O mother, mee.

'By these relyques of my dismembred body I thee praye, By myne unhappy chyldren pledges left. What shall I

say?

'By all the Gods, I thee beseche, by all that in my name (Is either good or bad),

'Let me alone. To trouble me, alas, you are to blame.'

It will be allowed that this is hardly readable; yet I have not selected the passage because it was peculiarly inharmonious: it was rendered a little more smooth and flowing in the copy of 1581, which I now quote

The gaping earth devide us both, th' one from th'other quight.

'Still let our feete repugnant bee. So shall I shun the

light,

'That most of all me grieves: so shall I space obtaine to

wayle

• These bleeding woes on every side that doe my thoughtes

assayle..

'Jocasta. The Destenies are in fault.

alas, alas, not wee.

Blaime them,

Edipus. Spare now. Leave of to speake in vayne, spare now, O mother, mee.

By these relyques of my dismembred body I thee pray,

By myne unhappy children pledges left. What shall I

say?

'By all the Gods I thee beseech.

By all that in my name 'Is good or bad, let me alone. Alas, you are to blame To trouble me-You see what hell my haplesse heart doth

paine

'You see that in my conscience ten thousand horrors

raine.'

I recollect no other instance in which a similar expedient to get over one of the main difficulties of translation (that of compressing the meaning of the author into the measure of the verse) has been resorted to. Independently of this deformity, Nevyle is generally very negligent in the observance of the cæsura after the fourth foot, without which the verse of fourteen syllables can seldom run easily and agreeably.

Nuce and Newton I shall dismiss, after making a single quotation from the Octavia of the one and from the Thebais of the other, because they claim no merit but that of being faithful translators. A few lines will serve to establish that fidelity is the chief, if not only merit of Nuce. They are from Octavia, Act ii.

'But now this age, much worse then all the rest,

'Hath lept into her mothers broken breast,

And rusty lumpish yron and massie gold 'Hath digged out, that was quite hid with mold. 'And fighting fistes have armd without delay, 'And drawing forth their bondes for rule to stay 'Have certayne several joly kingdomes made,

And cities new have raysde now rulde with blade, 'And fenceth either with their proper force 'Straunge stoundes, or them assaults, the which is worse. The starry specked Virgin, flowre of skies,

'Which Justice hight, that guiltie folk descries, 'Now lightly esteemd of mortall people here

'Each earthly stound is fled, and comes not neere

'The savage mannerd route, and beastly rude,

'With dabbed wristes in goary bloud embrude.'

Newton was perhaps the most finished verse-maker of

the five poets engaged upon this work, though the Thebais was not the piece best calculated to show off his talents to advantage. If the play were written by Seneca, he left it imperfect, wanting the whole of the fifth act, besides choruses, which Newton would not venture to supply. Warton terms him prosaic, but he had an ungrateful subject, and probably only undertook it to complete the 'ten tragedies.' There are two passages at the close, which, for the time, seem to me extremely well rendered. Polynices replies to Jocasta, who had been warning him of consequences—

For that I neyther recke ne care what shall to me befall:

That Prince that feares disdaynful hate unwilling seemes to raigne.

The God that swaies the golden globe together hath

these twayne

'Conjoynd and coupled-Hate and Rule; and him do I suppose

'To be a noble king indeede, that can supplant his foes, ' And subjects' cancred hate suppresse.'

Afterwards he adds

To be a king I would engage to force of flaming fire Both countrey, house, land, wyfe, and chyld to compasse my desyre.

No fee to purchase princely seate, ne labour compt I

lost:

'A kingly crowne is never deare, whatever price it cost.'

Although a classical taste began thus to be evident soon after Elizabeth ascended the throne, yet plays upon classical, historical, and general subjects did not become common until after she had been some years