Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/17

lived.' But before the days of Macaulay, Dante gave a place to Lucan along with Homer, Horace, and Ovid, 'four mighty spirits.' Virgil appears as the fifth, and Dante adds:

Probably the criticisms of Dean Merivale are founded on a more intimate knowledge of the 'Pharsalia' than are those of any other writer. The historian returned again and again to his favourite author, and constantly quoted him in illustration of his own subject. He points, however, to the want of imagination which, in his opinion, was one of Lucan's characteristics, and says, with some justice, that he had not really pictured to himself the scene of the great battle which was the centrepiece of his poem; he criticises truly the vague and uncertain philosophy of the poet, strongly stoical and yet undefined, and the frequent errors in his encyclopædic knowledge. One sentence may be quoted in which he says: 'His wit and cleverness, considering his years, are preternatural: the trumpet tones of his scorn or admiration, after more than thirty years' familiarity, still thunder in my ears with startling intensity.' For the rest I must content myself with referring to the close of the fifty-sixth and the opening of the sixty-fourth chapters of his 'History of the Romans during the Empire.'

A few words are necessary with regard to the translation of this great poem which I have been bold enough to offer to the public. And, first, the great difficulty of the task makes me hope for an indulgent criticism. Mr. Heitland, indeed, says in his introduction to the Cambridge edition that a Dryden is required to give us in English an idea of the strength and vigour of the original poem. I am fully conscious of the truth of this, although I may be allowed to think that Ben