fernal Powers. Ilis garb was a dun-coloured tunic, reaching down to the feet, girt with a crimson sash; on his head an Arcadian cap, with the twelve signs of the Zodiac interwoven; tragic buskins, a very long beard, and an ashen rod in his hand."

In this dress, or something like it, did the gorgon-featured monsters appear, with some variety of costume, no doubt, for we have not here the torches nor the serpent hair.

Athena's calmness is more than a match for their violence. She succeeds in establishing her new college of the Areopagus; not, however, without a fair compromise with the Furies. Care is taken that places shall be found for them, in connection with the New College or Colleges, and that their worship shall be permanently provided for. She is afraid of their tongues, and she has considerable respect for their antiquity

"Cast not the seed of reckless speech To crop the land with woe. Soothing the waves Of bitter anger darkling in thy breast. Dwell in this land this dreadful deity, Sistered with me. Where thronging worshippers, Henceforth shall cull choice firstlings for thine altars, Praying thy grace to bless the wedded rite, And the child-bearing womb. Then honoured so, How wise my present counsel thou shalt know."

Athena comforts them, as we understand her, by a promise of their being provided for by offerings at weddings and christenings, there not being, properly speaking, any State establishment for religion at Athens. A compact is at last entered into; and the Eumenides, now become somewhat civil, are exacting enough. They have considerable hopes of the actual conversion of Athens to theirs, the old worship. This would be somewhat better than keeping their own at Argos; and Athena even suggests something of the kind. A distinct promise is made to the representative of the old ways of thinking, that "without her no house shall rise to glory." And Athena adds

"Him that reveres thee, shall my power protect. I will build up his house that honours thee."

The Fury who leads and represents the chorus at last relents, and utters a rather tame form of benediction, interterrupted occasionally by the voice of Athena, continuing to soothe these goddesses, who have now become gracious, but who continue to be very ugly, and who, though but of yesterday in comparison of the celestial deities, have had from their birth the appearance of

ing dramas of Eschylus. That we think very highly of his book is plain from what we have said; and we have little doubt that, after reading the extracts we have given, our readers will agree with us. If we have anything to complain of, or to wish otherwise, it would be this: we think the advantage of English blank verse is, that it admits a much looser arrangement of words than any other metrical form, and we think it would be well if Mr. Blackie had availed himself more freely and frequently of this important element of power. We should wish, on the other hand, that in the lyrical parts of his work he had allowed himself to be fettered in some form of stanza, and not followed wherever an extravagant and erring rhyme chanced to lead. In the original the fixed recurrence of the same metrical forms at anticipated intervals is one of the charms of the versification; and we think had Mr. Blackie constructed some of the choral odes on the model of Gray's "Bard," or "The Progress of Poesy," it would have been better than the looser measures he has adopted. In the original the reasoning very often is detected in the most complex passages, by an examination of the metrical structure. When we have read over and over, with increasing doubt, some of the more difficult choruses, all doubt has been removed by a comparison of what, for convenience, we shall call a stanza, with that in correspondence with which it was framed. been to us almost as a key of the same kind that is furnished to a student of the Scriptures in Jebb's "Sacred Literature." This may seem fanciful, but we have little doubt of the importance of the suggestion to those who are anxious to learn the train of thought which has moulded the forms of expression, or been itself modified by the reaction of language. We are far from agreeing with Klausen in many things; but his editions of the Agamemnon and the Choephora are the best with which we are acquainted.

It has

With the translations of Æschylus we are not well acquainted. Dr. Kennedy Bailie's Agamemnon is often very beautiful; so is Harford's; and Pot ter's, which the accident of our present task has led us to examine, is, considering it is three quarters of a century old, and was written before the late assiduous study of the Greek dramatists, a work of great merit. It is often

exceedingly graceful-now and then more so than any of its successors. In scholarship, too, Potter was unapproached by any fellow-labourer of his in the field of verse translation, except perhaps Dr. Bailie. But we must conclude, thanking Mr. Blackie for his very valuable work.

Mr. Blackie's prefaces and notes to the different dramas are very instructive, and, what we think much better, are very amusing. He is exceedingly good-humoured and good-natured, too, in all that he says of his predecessors in the business of editing and translating. It is pleasant to see the pet names by which, in his notes, he is fond of designating the old heroes and heroines. Still AG. and HAG. are strange abbreviations for Agamemnon and Co. CLY. and THY. is no proper way of writing Clytemnestra and Thyestes. HELL. is rather a disrespectful form of Helena, though, in this case, there may be something more than meets the eye, as in Symmons's translation of a passage which Mr. Blackie has dealt with not unskilfully, and in which there is a play of words on her name, which, in Greek, means "the taker," we have her called

"Hell of nations! heroes' Hell! Hell of cities! From the tissued Harem chamber-veils she issued."

"No one," says Symmons, "who understands the deep philosophy of Eschylus, and his oriental turn of thought, will suspect the play upon the name of Helena to be a frigid exercise of wit." This is as it is, and we shall be dumb as to our opinion of the matter; but the case is one, as far as the translator is concerned, for indulgence. Our poor friend Mangan, had he been dealing with the passage, would have thought there was no great difference between the Irish name Eileena-roon and some of the forms of "args" and "," and would have dashed us off a translation worth a dozen of Symmons's, in five minutes-something to this cadence

Priam, thy pride is fallen;

This is the Nell or knell-
Eileen-a-roon.

The knell of hell!-a belle; oh, yes! A bell

Eileen-a-roon.

Dread belle-dead knell-foretold

Of old-how well!

Eileen-a-roon.

Alas! poor Nell!

HELL and NELL, then, is an excepted case, but we could not bear to hear Achilles himself-much less a gentleman with, no doubt, a northern accent-calling Patroelus PAT. And as to Cassandra, to call her either great Cass. or little Cass. is to call her out of her name, and reduce her very serious prophecies to a mere trick on the cards; besides that, the game is quite out of fashion.

"The printer chaps

In paper caps"

should correct this, or be stript and whipt, like George Withers's Abuses.

"Thebes and Pelops, mighty line,

And the house of Troy divine,"

even in these utilitarian days, might be printed, and at no great expense, at full length. We don't feel quite so much out of humour when the case is of moderns. It is very entertaining to see on what intimate terms he seems to be with the familiars who have been working for him. CON. DON. TIM. SYM. KLAU. PAU. PEN. KEN. WATT. POT. are the kind of fairy names which

*

we everywhere meet in his notes. These are the dead of old time, who have been working at Eschylus

"Behold a ghastly band,

Each a torch in his hand, These are Grecian ghosts that in battle were slain, And unburied remain,

Inglorious on the plain."

But who in the world are they?— Has any one ever heard of them before? "Presbyter" is, we are told, "Priest" writ large-and these are the names of great men writ small-translators and commentators who are most of them dead, and whom their works have followed or preceded. Still they have been of great use to our author; in short we do not know how the "Goat Song" could have been accomplished without them; they are the Heinzelmen that do the translator's work while he is asleep.

Pleasant fellows these Heinzelmen are! and we wish we could get them to drudge for us, as we are told they did at Cologne, long ago, for butcher, and baker, and sausage-maker-for poet, and preacher, and professor, too, we have little doubt; but certainly for all those directly engaged, as the old tragedians and their company were, in the service of Bacchus, as well as the vintner and winecooper in Koppish's pleasant ballad:

Ar the time when our tale opens, towards the close of the year 186, the palace occupied by the kings of Jerusalem wore a dreary and mournful appearance. Its walls, hung with black, testified to all beholders the presence of its dreaded inmate-Death. The nominal sovereignty of the infant Baldwin V, had been of short duration, and he had now followed his uncle and predecessor, the fourth Baldwin, to an untimely grave.

In a small antechamber in this dismal fortress-palace were seated two ladies engaged in earnest conversation. The elder was still in the prime of life, and had she not been placed in such immediate contrast with the freshly ripening loveliness of her companion, might well have been deemed beautiful in the extreme. Her massive black hair overshadowed a brow white as marble, finely developed, and intellectual in expression. Her figure, shrouded in its mournful drapery, far exceeded the average height of her sex, and her bearing, though perfectly feminine, was dignified and commanding. companion, who reclined timidly at her feet in an attitude expressive of deep dejection, was a young and singularly lovely girl. Her golden tresses waved luxuriantly, as they fell in clustering curls over her fair shoulders, softening the outline of her slender form.

Her

Her

white dress, though simple in effect, was composed of rich and costly material, and was clasped by brilliant and dazzling jewels.

Marguerite de Vienne-for so the younger was named-having remained for some moments buried in thought, raised at last her fair head, and shaking back the curtain of rippling gold which concealed her delicate features, fixed on the elder lady her humid eyes, with an expression of loving entreaty well nigh irresistible.

"You at least will plead for me, dear lady," she said. "I shall not allow myself to despair; I shall hope everything from your powerful intercession. Haughty as the Grand Master is, he must relent when you speak in behalf

of my dear Ibelin. Who can better vouch for his chivalrous daring and knightly prowess than Queen Sybilla; for in your service, lady, and in defence of the Holy Sepulchre, has he not already received many honourable wounds, and constantly put his life in peril?-who so well as you can recount his exploits on that memorable day when he rescued Count Guy de Lusignan from the scimitars of the Moslem, and restored your own loved lord unharmed to your arms."

my obliga

"I am not unmindful of tions to the Sieur de Balean," said the elder lady; “neither would this be a time to forget them, even if I were so ungrateful; for I fear me, Marguerite, I shall need now more than ever the good swords and lances of all my ser vants, unless I shall consent to be in name only, and not in deed, Queen of Jerusalem. But we must act cautiously in this matter. For the present any interference with your guardian would be ill-timed, useless to you, and certainly fatal to my cause. The power and influence of the Grand Master of the Templars are too great to render it prudent in me to exasperate him at this critical juncture by advocating a love marriage for his ward, or thwarting, by any exercise of my queenly authority, his ambitious projects for you, my sweet Marguerite."

"You are not wont, in your own case, to sacrifice love to ambition," replied Marguerite, almost reproachfully; "even your maternal affection yields to a stronger conjugal attachment. Only think, dear lady, what would be your feelings if separated, and for ever, from the Count de Lusignan. Then I may appeal to your own heart, and successfully entreat you to prevent the total shipwreck of our hopes. Your slightest request is law, and you must triumph if you will only plead, as you alone can plead, for me and my dear Ibelin."

Before Sybilla could reply to the entreaties of her young companion, the door of the apartment opened, and an attendant announced that the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Grand Master of

the Knights of the Temple awaited her majesty in the council chamber.

"I must leave you, dearest Marguerite, but not until I see that tearful face dimpled with smiles. Believe me, I shall prove your zealous advocate and true friend."

So saying, Queen Sybilla kissed the suffused eyelids of the gentle girl, and hastened to receive her exalted guests in the presence-chamber.

As the dignified Queen entered the apartment, the two noble personages who had solicited an audience rose from their seats, and greeted her with the homage due to so gracious a lady, who, by the demise of the crown, had just become their sovereign. Sybilla declined the seat to which they would have led her, and kneeling devoutly at the feet of the venerable Heraclius, asked the Patriarch for his benediction.

"God Almighty bless thee, my daughter, and preserve to thee the throne which thy gallant predecessors wrested from the infidel, and guarded to God's glory with their trusty swords."

"Aided by the lances of Christendom and the knightly prowess of the military orders," added the Grand Master.

"Most assuredly," interposed Sybilla; "the Counts of Flanders were powerless else. Their representative now entreats, in defence of her hereditary rights, that efficacious aid from the Knights of the Temple to which her ancestors have been indebted for their sovereignty."

"The devotion to your cause, lady, of one member of the fraternity, is evinced by his presence here at this critical moment,' replied the Grand Master, in a tone which proved that the flattering words of majesty had produced their intended effect.

"It is, in truth, a critical moment,' added the Patriarch, "for a council assembles to-morrow, to fill the vacant throne of Jerusalem, by nominating a successor to the deceased Baldwin.'

"Who dares to call the throne of Jerusalem vacant, while the mother, and sister, and daughter of her kings survives?" said the lady, haughtily. "I am the legitimate sovereign-the inheritrix of my son, my brother, and my father; and now, by my child's death, Queen in my own right."

"Your claim is undoubted," said the Grand Master, "had time consolidated this kingdom, and secured its descent in the lineage of the Counts of Flanders; but a century has not yet elapsed since the Holy Land was conquered from the unbelievers, and your ancestor elected to be its sovereign. Even so, your claim to this inheritance would not be disputed, were the Count de Lusignan less unpopular with our warlike nobles. It is the Count Guy who stands between you and the sceptre. The convening of this council in his absence is an evidence of the hostility with which he is regarded. Your stormy regency as Queen-mother will have prepared you for the conflict which awaits you. Raymond of Tripoli and Renaud de Chatillon have sworn that the count's wife shall never be their monarch. They call himpardon me the expression-faineant; and declare that the Holy City, purchased from the infidel with their blood, will again fall an easy prey to the arms of Saladin, should Count Guy wield the sceptre of Jerusalem in your name, and armed with your authority."

"They are false traitors who dare so to stigmatise my noble husband," replied Sybilla, with warmth. "The ranks of the Crusaders have never numbered a more gallant knight than Guy de Lusignan."

"You speak but the truth, noble lady," said the Grand Master, interrupting her. "He is personally brave, though not so well fitted to command as many of those nobles who must call him 'master,' should you be acknowledged to-morrow Queen of Jerusalem. Were it otherwise, I should not now be here. But he is a brave and adventurous soldier, and with my aid in the field, and the wise suggestions of the Patriarch in the council, may hope to rule the state in safety and honour."

"We may reckon, therefore, on your strenuous support, when the subject is debated to-morrow?" asked Sybilla, anxiously.

"You will permit me, lady, to annex two trifling conditions as the price of my adherence," replied the Grand Master. "A voice in your councils for the venerable Heraclius; and for me, full permission to cement my power, by negotiating a matrimonial alliance for the Demoiselle de Vienne." Sybilla started with painful emo