him, and the oil about him had shed
   He did upon the raiment the gift of the maid unwed. 
   But Athene, Zeus-begotten, dealt with him in such wise
   That bigger yet was his seeming, and mightier to all eyes,
   With the hair on his head crisp curling as the bloom of the daffodil. 
   And as when the silver with gold is o’erlaid by a man of skill,
   Yea, a craftsman whom Hephaestus and Pallas Athene have taught
   To be master over masters, and lovely work he hath wrought;
   So she round his head and his shoulders shed grace abundantly.

It may be objected by some that the line

   With the hair on his head crisp curling as the bloom of the daffodil,

is a rather fanciful version of

   [Greek text]

and it certainly seems probable that the allusion is to the dark colour of the hero’s hair; still, the point is not one of much importance, though it may be worth noting that a similar expression occurs in Ogilby’s superbly illustrated translation of the Odyssey, published in 1665, where Charles II.’s Master of the Revels in Ireland gives the passage thus: 

   Minerva renders him more tall and fair,
   Curling in rings like daffodils his hair.

No anthology, however, can show the true merit of Mr. Morris’s translation, whose real merit does not depend on stray beauties, nor is revealed by chance selections, but lies in the absolute rightness and coherence of the whole, in its purity and justice of touch, its freedom from affectation and commonplace, its harmony of form and matter.  It is sufficient to say that this is a poet’s version of a poet, and for such surely we should be thankful.  In these latter days of coarse and vulgar literature, it is something to have made the great sea-epic of the South native and natural to our northern isle, something to have shown that our English speech may be a pipe through which Greek lips can blow, something to have taught Nausicaa to speak the same language as Perdita.

The Odyssey of Homer.  Done into English Verse by William Morris, author of The Earthly Paradise.  In two volumes.  Volume I. (Reeves and Turner.)

For review of Volume II. see Mr. Morris’s Completion of the Odyssey, page 215.

A BATCH OF NOVELS

(Pall Mall Gazette, May 2, 1887.)

Of the three great Russian novelists of our time Tourgenieff is by far the finest artist.  He has that spirit of exquisite selection, that delicate choice of detail, which is the essence of style; his work is entirely free from any personal intention; and by taking existence at its most fiery-coloured moments he can distil into a few pages of perfect prose the moods and passions of many lives.