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 1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 555 
 
 Abticle IX.— THE NEW TRANSLATIONS OF LAOCOON. 
 
 Laocoon. Translated from the Text of Lessing. With Preface 
 and Notes by the Et. Hon. Sir Robert Phillimore, D.C.L. 
 London : Macmillan & Co. 1874. 8vo, pp. 360. 
 
 Laocoon. An Essay upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry. 
 With Remarks Illustrative of Various Points in the History 
 of Ancient Art. By Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Trans- 
 lated by Ellen Frothingham. Boston : Roberts Brothers. 
 1874. 12mo, pp. 245. 
 
 For several reasons Lessing's Laocoon is and is destined to 
 be permanently a classic. The most important piece of the 
 noblest figure in German literature, it embodies his best quali- 
 ties of style and exhibits the nature and working of his mind 
 in transparent clearness. He who would (as it is commonly 
 put), if having the choice between truth and its pursuit, choose 
 the latter, discloses by his fine analysis in these pages how 
 admirably fitted he was to pursue truth, and justifies the 
 choice. To one who could thus trace to their source the 
 causes of human feeling, define the fields of the various arts, 
 and support his theory of limitations by a wealth of learning, 
 so finely controlled by insight as to make the suggestion of 
 pedantry impossible, the pursuit of truth might well promise 
 more delight than a vast body of axiomatic truth. The posses- 
 sion of the latter, given to man without effort or appreciation 
 on his part, might well seem to Lessing a dead and deadening 
 thing, but the pursuit of truth difficult of attainment, with the 
 prospect even of slight success, would involve the fulness and 
 activity of life. Often as Lessing has been reproached by 
 Vilmar, Goedeke, and others, with a relative indifference for the 
 truth itself, his famous saying^ does not bear that construction : 
 "If God held all truth shut in his right hand, and in his left 
 nothing but the ever restless instinct for truth, though with 
 the condition of forever and ever erring, and should say to me, 
 'choose,' I should bow humbly to his left hand and say, 
 
 Ad 
 
556 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July, 
 
 'Father, give; pure truth is for thee alone.' " It was not that 
 to him the truth was not precious, but that the struggle alone 
 could make the victory a victory, and that truth is not truth 
 save to him who has, by thinking and experience, attained it. 
 Does he not here admit that the attainment of truth by effort is 
 that to which by the elements of our life we are called ; that 
 the very conditions of our being, freedom, thought, and con- 
 science, pre-suppose a goal, to strive towards which is needful 
 for our best life? The purpose to attain the goal makes the 
 dignity : the possibility of attaining it, partly, at least, the joy 
 of life; for the condition of "forever and ever erring" does 
 not mean on all points, or even if it should have that breadth, 
 it is not meant that the truth is not worth the struggle. 
 Knowing that we shall not, indeed, get an overstock of truth, 
 and perhaps that God only intended that we shall attain 
 enough to quicken us in its pursuit, his meaning was that, when 
 man is putting forth every effort to attain it, he is by that act 
 most truly, most nobly, a man. To give his version of this 
 idea in the words just preceding the oft-quoted passage (and 
 they are the key to his meaning, and the more paradoxical 
 statement ought never to be quoted without the key) : "Nicht 
 die Wahrheit, in deren Besitz der Mensch ist, sondern die 
 aufrichtige Miihe, die er angewandt hat hinter die Wahrheit zu 
 kommen, macht den Werth des Mensch en." The absurd idea 
 that, if by energy and long-sustained perseverance in pursuit, a 
 man was about to grasp some fragment of truth, he should let 
 it fly as a bird, as Malebranche said he would, that he might 
 keep running after it, is a caricature of the meaning of the 
 great Lessing. Certainly in that case the " Miihe" would not 
 be " aufrichtig." 
 
 The Laocoon established some points for the criticism of art 
 adverse to the strong tendencies and beliefs of that age, and is 
 itself an answer to the foolish charge that, as Goedeke says, 
 "not the result of investigation, the truth was to him the 
 main thing." It' was to establish the truth of these principles 
 that Lessing wrote the treatise, but the worth of the work,«as 
 far as Lessing is concerned (he himself would say), is to be 
 measured by the difficulty with which he arrived at the truth. 
 That we cannot determine, but it certainly required a grandly 
 original mind and an ardent love of truth to write thus against 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 557 
 
 the authority of Winkelmann and the habits of his age. That 
 this writing marked between poetry and painting the limits, 
 which in their main features are still observed, though a cen- 
 tury of progress and criticism in art has found some minor 
 things to modify, gives proof enough of Lessing's devotion to 
 truth, and the permanent value of the principles supplies 
 another reason why the treatise still attracts thinking men. 
 
 But without reference to the principles, as a monument of 
 language it would hold its place as a classic. Lessing, as the 
 reformer of German literature, claims respect quite as much as 
 when we consider him the pioneer in sound art-criticism. The 
 German prose, that, now over a hundred years old, has never 
 been matched in any writing upon abstract subjects (though the 
 romance prose of Goethe has a charm quite as unique, but very 
 different), is concise and definite. Every word makes a point, 
 and unlike much German prose, the thought runs on. What Mr. 
 Lowell says of German prose in general, that "it has such a 
 fatal genius for going stern foremost, for ynwing and for not 
 minding the helm without ten minutes notice in advance," 
 however true of Kant, or Richter, or Gervinus, is hardly 
 applicable to Lessing. At all events, it is the clearest, though 
 the weightiest, the most finished, as well as the most 'solid Ger- 
 man prose that there is. "All archasology aside," says Cher- 
 buliez, " it will always be well to read him in order to learn 
 from him how thought enlarges its gains and makes its fortune 
 (fait sa pelote) ; it is an art of which he is master." Cherbuliez 
 thinks that Lessing learned the art of expression from Voltuire ; 
 Mr. Lowell says, of Diderot. Undoubtedly French prose was 
 of service to Lessing, in spite of his contempt of the French, 
 and especially of Voltaire as a man ; but Madame de Stael's 
 remark, that Lessing expressed himself as a European, is per- 
 haps juster. 
 
 It will give an idea of how this piece marks an epoch in 
 German literature, if we recall the fact that it is the first of the 
 master-pieces of the really great writers. "Die Briefe qlie 
 neueste £iteratur betreffend" published between 1759 and 
 1765, were not wholly Lessing's, and had hardly enough of 
 unity to be reckoned as a systematic whole. When Lessing 
 published the Laocoon in 1766, he was thirty-seven years old, 
 
558 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July* 
 
 Goethe only seventeen, and Schiller but seven. Thirteen 
 years later he published the Nathan, so that Goethe to a large 
 degree, and Schiller far more, had, or might have bad, the 
 intellectual calmness of Lessing's best writings to neutralize 
 the tendencies of the " Storm and Stress' - period, which, it is 
 true, Lessing's criticism helped to evoke. Lessing's Drama- 
 lurgie, it has been said, had a great influence on Goethe, but 
 Goiz von Berlichingen, published four years later than this 
 work of Lessing's, hardly reveals it. Schiller's earlier dramas 
 exhibit no trace that can be ascribed to Lessing's individual 
 influence. For Goethe and Schiller the " Storm and Stress" 
 period was powerful : they were unable at first, and there is 
 little evidence • that they tried, to oppose the current of the 
 time. The voice of Lessing must have been for them, in com- 
 parison with the roar around them, small, if not perfectly 
 stifled ; and it is for us, rather than for Lessing's contemporaries, 
 that the Laocoon marks the epoch. But all the more for this 
 reason, that Lessing was a somewhat unmoved figure, above or 
 behind all that fermentation, that he was sufficient to himself, 
 that no tempestuous clouds could hide his serene light, as it is 
 revealed in these pages, has the Laocoon interest for us. 
 
 Within the last year two translations of this treatise have 
 been published in English. One is the work of our country- 
 woman, Miss Frothingham, whose devotion to German litera- 
 ture does not find its first expression in the translation of this 
 work. The other is by an English judge, the judge of the 
 Admiralty, issued by Macmillan & Co., with that sumptuous 
 elegance for which their books are famous. There was some- 
 thing attractive in the promise which this book held out. We 
 have heard so much of the scholarship of English statesmen, 
 and the popular mind has so come to regard the distinguished 
 Englishman as having a large knowledge of what is elegant in 
 letters, that a translation of Laocoon, with notes bv Judge 
 Phillimore, and illustrated by photographs, seemed quite appro- 
 riate. Gladstone's Homeric studies did not, it is true, push 
 far back the limits of ignorance in respect to Greek life, but 
 they did evince considerable scholarship. Lord Derby's trans- 
 lation of Homer was not exactly a poem, but it was at least 
 creditable as amateur work. That the domain of art-criticism 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 559 
 
 in the immortal fragment of Lessing should be made 'to yield 
 new laurels for England, and show anew to the statesmen of our 
 own country the service that may be rendered to scholarship 
 by public men, and the advantage to public men of a resource 
 in letters, was in reality something pleasant to anticipate. But 
 a glance at Judge Phillimore's notes dispels at once the illu- 
 sion that any thorough discussion of principles is to be found 
 therein. The notes reveal a somewhat careful use of the ordi- 
 nary encyclopedias to ascertain the dates of the birth and death 
 of the various authors quoted by Lessing, and contain an occa- 
 sional extract from a popular English or French writer, either 
 controverting or confirming some minor position of Lessing — 
 Chapman's translations of the Homeric passages cited by 
 Lessing, and other such matter. For instance, DeQuincey is 
 compelled to contribute the one-sided passages in which he 
 opposed some of Lessing's rather broadly stated principles. It 
 might be interesting to some English readers to compare these 
 notes with the very words of Lessing in their connection, but 
 no one will be inclined to regard the collection of these, or the 
 facts from the encyclopedias, as any great service to letters. 
 
 We are then thrown back for the raison d'itre of this book 
 upon the translation itself. We cannot doubt that it was a 
 pleasure to the distinguished judge to translate the treatise 
 (and we should be glad if our own public men had oftener 
 pleasures of this sort) ; but does the translation, not to say in 
 the elegant form in which the buyer must pay for it, but in any 
 form, justify its publication ? We fear it does not. Not 
 merely does Judge Phillimore show that he is not versed in 
 the German language, but in many passages, where a scanty 
 familiarity with German might be atoned for by the sharpness 
 of a critical faculty, he reveals but a confused sense of what the 
 author, is saying. It augurs little for the value of the transla- 
 tion, that on the very first page, in the fifth sentence of Les- 
 sing's preface (Judge Phillimore's sixth sentence) painting and 
 poetry are made to change places, and each performs the 
 office which, Lessing says, the critic assigned to the other. 
 The translator says : " With * respect to the latter rules" (the 
 rules that have more authority in poetry) "poetry could be 
 aided by the illustrations and examples supplied by painting." 
 
560 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July, 
 
 The original says : " "With respect to the latter rules, poetry 
 accordingly could supply painting with illustrations and exam- 
 ples." That a translator could suppose that poetry would 
 need to be famished with illustrations and examples by paint- 
 ing, when by the very condition of the sentence poetry has 
 almost a monopoly of such illustrations and examples, would 
 have been without this illustration inconceivable. Neither Lea- 
 sing, nor the critic whom he quotes, say such a thing, but just 
 the opposite, that poetry out of its abundance of one class of 
 examples shall supply the want of painting, and painting from 
 its abundance of another class supply the want of poetry. 
 Judge Phillimore makes each take of its poverty and contrib- 
 ute to its sister's abundance. 
 
 A fair test passage for the ability of the translator to get 
 hold of the idea is found in the preface. The German is: 
 " Aber wir Neueren haben in mehreren Stiicken geglaubt uns 
 weit iiber sie wegzusetzen, wenn wir ihre kleinen Lustwege in 
 Landstrassen verwandelten : sollten auch die kiirzern und 
 sicherern Landstrassen dariiber zu Pfaden eingehen, wie sie 
 durch Wildnisse fiihren." 
 
 We give of this passage three translations : the first by 
 Tutor Beasley of Leamington College. This translation was 
 published twenty or more years ago in London by the Long- 
 mans, and the fact that it has been some time out of print, and 
 no other good one had taken its place, was adduced by Miss 
 Frothingham as justifying the publication of a new translation. 
 The second translation is by Judge Phillimore, and the third 
 by Miss Frothingham. 
 
 " But in many points we moderns imagine that we have advanced far beyond 
 them, merely because we have changed their paths into highways : although by 
 this very change the highways, in spite of being shorter and safer, are again 
 contracted into paths as little trodden as though they led through deserts." 
 — Beasley. 
 
 " But we moderns have often believed that in many of our works we have sur- 
 passed them, because we have changed their little byways of pleasure into high- 
 ways, even at the risk of being led by these shorter and safer highways into 
 paths which end in a wilderness." — Phillimore. 
 
 " But we moderns have in many cases thought to surpass the ancients by trans- 
 forming their pleasure paths into highways, though at the risk of reducing the 
 shorter and safer highways into such paths as lead through deserts." — Miss 
 Peothinoham. 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 561 
 
 The first translation is not definite, for the insertion of " again" 
 in "are again contracted" has a suspicious look, as though the 
 translator had an idea that the highways in the two parts of 
 the sentence were the same. Possibly that was not the trans- 
 lator's thought, and the " again" means for him that what were 
 the highways of the ancients are reduced again to what one may 
 suppose them to have been at the dawn of civilization. The 
 uncertainty left as to his meaning is, however, very reprehen- 
 sible. The second translation (we wish the reader to note how 
 plumply it gives the inaccuracy fairly deducible from Beasley's 
 rendering) is nonsense. Lessing is distinguishing here between 
 what was held important by the ancients in art and literature 
 and what we regard as important in the same fields. Those 
 pleasure paths, which were only now and then resorted to by 
 them, we moderns have made our highways. Their highways, 
 shorter as being straight lines between fixed points, going 
 directly to the end sought, and safer as being for them in the 
 centres of activity, become (because we abandon them and the 
 activities which they involve) paths for us, which lead through 
 wildernesses, where we are liable to blunders and disasters. 
 In Judge Phillimore's translation we have changed " the little 
 byways into highways," and are likely to be led by these shorter 
 and safer highways into paths which end in a wilderness. 
 One may ask, if the highways first-mentioned are the same as 
 the highways last-mentioned, as the " these" certainly implies, 
 than what are the latter shorter? Certainly not than the 
 "byways," for, from the "byways" the first-mentioned high- 
 ways are all made, and must be of equal length. Equally cer- 
 tain is it that they are not shorter than the last-mentioned 
 highways, that is, than themselves. Can it be that he means 
 that the highways are shorter and safer than the paths which 
 they themselves become, and which end in a wilderness ? We 
 give up the problem. It is, perhaps, not the first time that 
 a little pleasure path has ended in a wilderness. The meaning 
 of the German is not transparent at first, but perfectly clear if 
 one thinks out the connection. It is pleasant to note that 
 Miss Frothingham has given the correct rendering, though she 
 would have done well to translate the "dariiber." 
 
562 The New Translations of Laocoon. [Juty; 
 
 We need not go outside the preface to find another example 
 of a very imperfect statement of Lessing's meaning, though we 
 have difficulty in believing that the translator in this case bad 
 not acumen enough to discern and give the correct presenta- 
 tion. Speaking of "Pseudo-criticism," " Afterkritik," Lessing 
 says : " Ja diese Afterkritik bat zum Theil die Virtuosen 
 selbst verftthrt. Sie hat in der Poesie die Schilderungsucht 
 und in der Mulerei die Allegoristerei erzeugt, indem man jene 
 zu einem redenden Gemalde machen wollen, ohne eigentlich zu 
 wissen, was sie malen kdnne und solle, und diese zu einem 
 stummen Gedichte, ohne iiberlegt zu haben, in welcbem Masse 
 sie allgemeine Begriffe ausdriicken kdnne, ohne sich von ihrer 
 Bestimmung zu entfernen und zu einer willkiihrlichen Scbrift- 
 art zu werden." Judge Phillimore translates this as follows : 
 •' This spurious criticism has partially corrupted the virtuosos 
 themselves. It has generated a mania for pictorial description 
 in poetry and for allegorical style in painting, while it was 
 sought to render the former a speaking picture, without really 
 knowing what could and ought to be painted, and the latter 
 a mute poem, not having considered how far such ideas are 
 susceptible of expression, without departing from their proper 
 end and without falling into a purely arbitrary style of phras- 
 eology." (p. 3.) On the last and very confused sentence we 
 remark first, that "was sie malen kdnne und solle," (the "sie" 
 referring definitely to Poesie) is not rendered by the English 
 words " what can and ought to be painted." It should be 
 '• what it (poetry) can and ought to paint." Second, the transla- 
 tion of the last three lines is equally, that is utterly, wrong; 
 the thing which has not been "considered" is how far " it (that 
 is, painting) can express general ideas without departing from 
 its" not their " proper sphere, and without becoming," not " fall- 
 ing into," "an arbitrary method of writing," by no means "a 
 purely arbitrary style of phraseology." The three already given 
 are the most glaring misrepresentations, if not misunderstand- 
 ings, of the author, which the four-paged preface contains, but 
 certain minor deviations are quite worthy of notice. In one 
 sentence what is represented as a condition by Lessing through 
 the word "Falls" is assumed as a fact and "Palls" altogether 
 omitted. On the same page " einleuchtend " is translated "bril- 
 
1875. J The New Translations of Laocoon. 563 
 
 liant," which is at least questionable. On page 4, " herzuleiten" 
 is translated "arrange," where it must have its common mean- 
 ing of " deduce." The sentence is too comical not to be given 
 entire. " We know as well as any nation in the world how 
 out of some granted definition to arrange all that we want to 
 arrange in the very best manner." Lessing says "to deduce 
 all that we wish to from a few assumed definitions." The use 
 of the pronoun "him," when speaking of the Laocoon as a work 
 of art, is not English, and the words, " as I set out from the 
 Laocoon and often return to him, I have thought it right to 
 give him a share in the title of the work," smack so strongly 
 of German pronominal agreement in gender as to suggest 
 the query, whether Judge Phillimore would translate "Ich 
 habe einen Brief erhal ten, aber ich habe ihn noch nicht gelesen," 
 I have received a letter, but I have not yet read him. We 
 pass by one or two minor points, in Tegard to which there 
 may possibly be room for difference of opinion, but before 
 leaving the preface remark that if one may judge from the 
 simple brief note upon the preface, Judge Phillimore's Greek 
 is better than his Grerman. To the quotation from Plutarch, 
 which is Lessing's motto, "VXrj koli rpoitoii /j.ifiyff£a>? 6ia<pe- 
 povai, our translator observes correctly that Lessing gives a 
 broader meaning than in their original connection the words can 
 have. But then Lessing took them away from their connection, 
 and without any connection they will bear the translation, " ob- 
 jects and methods of imitation," as well as the other, "material 
 (means) and methods of imitation." Is it then quite certain 
 that Lessing "mistook " the meaning oCWXri in its connection? 
 After the want of perspicacity which Judge Phillimore's trans- 
 lation of the preface showed, this acuteness in regard to the 
 Greek seemed a little surprising, but a note on a sentence in 
 the twenty-second section of the treatise warrants the inference 
 that Judge Phillimore and other properly educated Englishmen 
 are as familiar with Greek as the ancient Greeks themselves 
 were. Lessing's sentence is, " Homer ward vor Alters unstreitig 
 fleissiger gelesen als jetzt." Judge Phillimore's translation, to 
 which for this sentence (the one next it has a blunder suffi- 
 ciently egregious to atone for several correct pages) we cannot 
 seriously object, is " Homer was certainly more diligently read 
 
564 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July, 
 
 in ancient times than he now is." Lessing proceeds then to 
 speak of Greek painters and shows that by ancient times he 
 means the best days of Greek art in Greece. Judge Phillimore's 
 note on Lessing's assertion is, " This remark is happily inap- 
 plicable to England. Homer has always been taught in her 
 public schools, especially at Westminster. Witness also the 
 Grenville Homer, the translations of Chapman, Pope, Cowper, 
 Sotheby, Lord Derby, and Mr. Gladstone's more recent and 
 well known works. In France Homer has never been much 
 read or much understood, and I am afraid the same remark 
 applies to Italy and Spain. R. P." Therefore the celebrated 
 men of England are as familiar with Homer and hence with 
 Greek as were the celebrated men of Greece. Q. E. D. But 
 poor Spain and poorer France ! But France too has had transla- 
 tions of the classics, as Judge Phillimore himself, in one of 
 his encyclopedical notes admits, this time apropos of Madame 
 Dacier, " born 1654, died 1720, a French lady acquainted 
 with, but not deeply read in the classical authors of Greece 
 and Rome, and employed as an assistant by the editors of the 
 classics in usum Delphini. She translated several classical 
 works not perfectly understood by her. Her translation of 
 Homer was the work which pleased her countrymen most ; 
 but it was never esteemed by real scholars and had many of 
 the defects of the French school. R. P."* It was certainly 
 very naughty of Madame Dacier to translate " authors not 
 perfectly understood by her." We suppose that Judge Philli- 
 more has no idea that any Englishman, least of all one clothed 
 with the spotless ermine of judicial functions, could do so 
 wicked a thing. But to turn from all allusion to the per- 
 formance now under notice, the proverb of '* glass houses " and 
 " stones " is not without application, if England is to accuse 
 France of inaccurate translations. Not to speak of certain 
 English classical translations, whose mistakes the American 
 teacher sometimes corrects, we refer the reader "for the transla- 
 tion of an author not perfectly understood " to an English 
 rendering of " /Schleicher's Compendium " by H. Bendall, pub- 
 lished by Triibner & Co., London, 1874. 
 
 * The initials of the judge, R. P., have a funny effect at the end of these notes. 
 They are quite unnecessary. The notes would not be taken for Lessing's, if the 
 R. P. were omitted. 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 565 
 
 After having paid a compliment to Judge Phillimore's Greek 
 scholarship, and finding so good a reason for it, it is not pleas- 
 ant to be obliged to deduct anything from the recorded credit, 
 but we find in one note evidence that his Greek knowledge 
 after all is not as exhaustive as was probably that of Zeuxis, 
 or any fine Athenian gentleman of the age of Pericles. Near 
 the close of the fourth section Lessing uses the word Skavopoeie. 
 Upon this word we have a note of which the following is part : 
 " The word used by Lessing is generally mistranslated as " act- 
 ing" or " la mimique,"* but the paraphrase of De Quincey, " sub- 
 sidiary aids in mechanic apparatus," conveys the true meaning of 
 the word, which I think has in every edition of Lessing a misprint. 
 It stands Skavopoeie : it should be Skanopoeie, from the Greek 
 25xrjvo7toiia, "tabernaculorum constructio ;" see Stephens' 
 Thesaurus on the word citing Polyb. 6:28, 3, page 51. If 
 Judge Phillimore had consulted a little more carefully his 
 Liddell & Scott or (perhaps as a German scholar he uses it) 
 Passow, he would have found Lessing's word ^nsvonoiia 
 which has no such meaning as " constructio tabernaculorum," 
 but from the primitive 2xev?j, attire or dress, signifies " the 
 preparing of masks or other stage equipments." The adjective 
 2xev onoios is by no means a rare word. True, the word 
 2xr}vr/, a tent, and then the stage, or scenes, was sometimes used 
 in the sense of 2nevri, but accuracy is here with Lessing, not 
 with Judge Phillimore, the upsilon of the Greek being given 
 as the semi-vowel v. 
 
 To return to the translation, the first section of the treatise 
 presents fewer grave mistakes than the preface. But we note 
 that "Wuth" limited by "in dem Gesichte" is translated on 
 one page "torture," and on the next page, in precisely the same 
 collocation, "furious vehemence." The word torture is not 
 used in English prose to denote the result of pain in expression. 
 The word " Wuth " denotes rage or violence. In reading the 
 translation "furious vehemence," one cannot help wondering 
 how Judge Phillimore would translate "grimmige Wuth," or 
 " die grimmigste Wuth," expressions not uncommon now and 
 more frequent in the writers of the " Storm and Stress" period. 
 
 * Doubtless from a French translator " acquainted with, but not deeply read" in 
 the works of Lessing. 
 
 VOL. XXXIV. 37 
 
566 The New Translations of Laocoon. [J^Ji 
 
 " Die Oeffnung des Mundes gestattet es nicht," in a quotation 
 from Winkelmann, is translated on page 6, " The opening of 
 the mouth does not show this," instead of " does not admit it" 
 (such a cry). On page 8, " einer zusammenhangenden Rede" 
 is translated " a continuous reading," instead of, a connected 
 discourse. " Vielmehr um der leidenden Natur ihr Eecht zu 
 geben," apropos of Venus' cry on being wounded, is rendered 
 "rather to give her a right to a suffering nature," instead of to 
 give a suffering nature its due. Judge Phillimore's reference 
 of possessives in general is apparently mere guess-work. On 
 page 10, the clause <; that by the former, the poet intended to 
 represent the barbarians, by the latter, the people of civilization," 
 should be, that the poet intended in this way to represent the 
 former as barbarians, and the latter as people of civilization. 
 On the same page, line 11, the translation of the words " auf 
 beiden Theilen" is omitted before "without many." In the 
 last sentence, on page 11, " notwithstanding it" does not refer, 
 as it seems to, to the outward expression of such a soul ; but 
 to the condition in the first part of the sentence, and the con- 
 clusion should be rendered " then the reason why the artist, 
 notwithstanding this truth, did not wish to imitate this cry in 
 his marble, is not to be found in the fact that he was giving 
 expression to such a soul, but," etc. 
 
 "Freilich ist der Hang zu dieser iippigen Prahlerei mit 
 leidigen Grescbicklichkeiten, die durch den Werth der Gegen- 
 stande nicht geadelt werden," is on page 15 thus rendered, 
 " In truth the connection between this extravagant boasting 
 and a fatal dexterity, which is not ennobled by the worth of 
 the object." Beasley's translation is similar, " It is true the pro- 
 pensity to this wanton boasting united to abilities tolerable in 
 themselves, but unennobled by an exalted subject" It should 
 be : Indeed, the tendency to this luxuriant display of paltry 
 dexterities, which are not ennobled by the worth of the subjects. 
 On page 16, " der mittelmassigen Portraits" is rendered " por- 
 traits of the moderately successful," instead of indifferent 
 portraits ! The translation of the second section abounds in 
 inaccuracies, but we note only two or three more. " Weil der 
 Anblick des Schmerzes TJnlust erregt" is rendered "because 
 the aspect of it excites what is unpleasant in pain." How our 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 567 
 
 translator got at that rendering, and what he means by it, are 
 equally inconceivable. It should be "because the sight of 
 pain excites unpleasant feelings." " Fur einen Orakel ertheilen- 
 den Jupiter" is translated " for a Jupiter instructing an oracle" 
 instead of communicating oracles. In section iv, page 35, "who 
 does not know" is given for the English of " wem dabei einfallt?" 
 The third and foftrth sections are perhaps the most accurate 
 parts of the translation, but we should call the fifth very 
 slovenly, did we not think that its blunders with those that 
 have preceded, substantiate the charge of ignorance of German 
 combined with a want of perception. Let the reader take the 
 following sentence from page 57 and study it as English : 
 " Whatever parts of the body, above, below, or between the 
 coils could be seen, would appear amid the pressure and the 
 distension not to have been caused by pain within, but by 
 weight without !" One might struggle some time with the idea 
 " that what parts of the body could be seen would appear to 
 have been caused by the weight without," and perhaps at last 
 believe that it must express some mysterious dogma of a 
 recondite philosophy. But the clear Lessing said, "What one 
 would have seen of the body above, or below, or between the 
 coils would have appeared in the midst of compressions and 
 tumefactions, which were caused not by inward pain, but by 
 outward pressure." How did Judge Phillimore arrive at his 
 translation of this passage ? Before giving an opinion on that 
 point we will quote Tutor Beasley's translation of the same 
 sentence: "Those parts of the body which would have been 
 still exposed above, below, or between the folds would have 
 been seen amongst compressions and distentions, the effect not 
 of inward pain, but of external pressure." Will the reader 
 compare the renderings by the two English gentlemen, and see 
 if there is anything in the first one published to suggest the 
 second. We think there is, and cannot see where Judge 
 Phillimore obtained his idea, "that the parts exposed were 
 caused by the weight without," except by taking the words, 
 "the effect not of inward pain, but of external pressure" in 
 Tutor Beasley's translation away from their belonging as 
 appositive to " compressions and distentions," and construing 
 them as a predicate after "would have been seen," whose sub- 
 
568 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July, 
 
 ject is "whatever parts." Tutor Beasley's sentence is some- 
 what ambiguous, and that a translator with the German before 
 him (where the concluding clause is adjective and relative, 
 whose subject pronoun must refer to the words, " Pressungen 
 und Aufschwellungen,") could understand the "die nicht von 
 dem inneren Schmerze, sondern von der aussern Last gewirkt 
 worden," to refer to the parts exposed, would be impossible 
 except for a Phillimore led by a Beasley. Do we then mean 
 to imply that Judge Phillimore used Mr. Beasley's translation 
 as a guide ? That indeed is our implication, and we ask the 
 reader to compare the translations of the passage from the pre- 
 face concerning " die Lustwege," and " die Landstrassen," which 
 were quoted from the two gentlemen, as well as their renderings 
 of the passage concerning " Prahlerei mit den leidigen Geschick- 
 lichkeiten," which were given a few pages back, and judge for 
 himself. Where Mr. Beasley is ambiguous, and one of the two 
 possible interpretations of his rendering is unintelligible, Judge 
 Phillimore generally presents us with unintelligibility. In 
 some cases, where Mr. Beasley really had a glimmering of Les- 
 sing's meaning, Judge Phillimore buries it so deep that there is 
 no chance of resurrection. In regard to single words, Judge 
 Phillimore sometimes corrects Mr. Beasley. But in regard to 
 obscure sentences the judge, with a sort of consciousness that 
 the tutor was fresher or more at home in the German, puts 
 himself into his hand, and by this mediumistic utterance, we get 
 sentences that are neither English, nor German, nor Leasing, nor 
 Beasley, nor Phillimore, but confused amalgamations in various 
 proportions of these five elements. We shall give one more 
 illustration of this, and then dismiss this painful part of the 
 matter. First, the German from section xvii, page 99, of the 
 Stuttgart edition, 1873. " Er will uns die Kennzeichen eines 
 schonen Eullens, einer tiichtigen Kuh zuzahlen, um uns in den 
 Stand zu setzen, nachdem wir deren mehrere oder wenigere 
 antreffen, von der Gtite der einen oder des anderen urtheilen 
 zu konnen." Tutor Beasley renders as follows : " His (Virgil's) 
 object is to enumerate the good points of a beautiful colt or 
 useful cow in such a manner, that on meeting one or more of 
 'them we would be enabled to form a fair judgment of their 
 respective value." Judge Phillimore gives the passage as 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 569 
 
 follows : " He desires to show us the signs of a beautiful foal 
 or of a cow, that is a good breeder, in order that we may be in 
 a condition, in the event of our meeting with few or more of 
 these animals, to form a judgment as to the goodness of the one 
 or the other." Miss Frothingham's is better. " His object is 
 to tell us the characteristics of a handsome colt or a good cow, 
 so that we may judge of their excellence according to the 
 number of these characteristics, which they possess." No one 
 familiar with German needs to be told that " deren" refers to 
 "Kennzeichen," and that Miss Frothingham alone gives clearly 
 the sense of the passage. First, then, we have Lessing's clear 
 and admirable German. Then Beasley's smooth, but ambigu- 
 ous English, hiding as often by its smoothness its incorrectness. 
 For it must be admitted on examination that his "them" refers 
 more naturally and incorrectly to " the animals." Then comes 
 Judge Phillimore with his genius for getting the worst possible 
 construction from his guide, correcting, indeed, one word, "tiich- 
 tig," but boldly translating " deren," "animals," where Beasley 
 only looked towards this meaning, and giving us a sentence that 
 "yaws," as Mr. Lowell would say, far worse than the German 
 and has no sense. How,' one may ask, if we have Virgil's 
 "characteristics" to judge by, do we depend on the number of 
 animals we meet for ability to determine their excellence ? We 
 determine the excellence solely according to the number of the 
 good characteristics, which we find, and not at all by the num- 
 ber of animals. 
 
 If any scholar say, after having carefully compared these 
 quoted passages, that there is no valid evidence that Judge Phil- 
 limore has followed Mr. Beasley, we, though holding that there 
 is such evidence, shall not begrudge Judge Phillimore the ben- 
 efit of the doubt. It certainly is pity enough that a book 
 published under such auspices, dedicated to the scholarly 
 Gladstone, should be so sorry a performance as it is, even were 
 its author under obligations to no one for suggestions. 
 
 We are tempted, in spite of our resolution, to give one more 
 blunder from the large number found in comparing one-half of 
 the translation with the original, because this one shows how 
 hopeless a confusion sometimes results when the translator 
 depends wholly on his own mother-wit. Lessing's text says, in 
 
570 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July, 
 
 section xviii, when comparing the shield of Virgil with that 
 of Homer: "Aber anstatt dass wir bei dem Homer nicht bloss 
 die Anstalten zur Arbeit, sondern auch die Arbeit selbst zu 
 sehen bekommen, lasst Virgil, nachdem er una nur den geschaf- 
 tigen Gott mit seinen Cyklopen iiberhaupt gezeigt" (then fol- 
 lows the quotation from Virgil), "den Vorhang auf einmal 
 niederfallen." There is an omission in this text without doubt, 
 although Lachmann's edition, and all the editions that the 
 writer has seen, give the words as above printed. Between 
 " wir" and " bei dem Homer," in the first line, should stand 
 " wie." It is instead of our obtaining not " in Homer," but 
 "as in Homer." Both the sense and Homer's description 
 imperatively require it, and Judge Phillimore has steered to so 
 much of truth in his rendering, only to founder afterwards in 
 fifty fathoms of error. He translates: "But instead of our 
 seeing as in Homer the preparation for the work, we see the 
 work itself." Just the point that Lessing makes and makes 
 over and over again in his reasoning for Homer, we have here 
 denied to Homer and made for Virgil, to whom Lessing refuses 
 it. The point is that Homer shows us the process of the 
 shield's construction, Virgil the shield after it is made. One is 
 tempted here to ask, to what purpose should a man be more 
 familiar with Homer than the Greeks were, if his remembrance 
 of Homer's shield is no more vivid than this ? In the words 
 of Judge Phillimore's own translation, but one page back, 
 " Homer does not paint the shield as perfect and already made, 
 but as being made" (werdendes). Again, " He (Homer) availed 
 himself of the much praised artifice of changing that which is 
 co-existent in his design into that which is successive, and 
 thereby presenting us with the living picture of an action, 
 instead of the wearisome description of a body." Again, " We 
 do not see the shield, but the divine master as he works." In 
 spite of all this argument in his own translation, in spite of the 
 familiar Greek, and of the unmistakable German, "but instead 
 of our getting a sight not merely of the preparations for the 
 work, but also of the process itself as in Homer, Virgil, after 
 he has given us only a single glimpse of the busy god with his 
 Titans, lets the curtain fall," Judge Phillimore makes Virgil 
 do what Lessing assigns to Homer, and expressly says Virgil 
 did not do. Not satisfied with this, he takes away again from 
 
1875.] The New Translations of Laocoon. 571 
 
 Virgil in the next sentence what he has just assigned him, and 
 does not know that his rendering makes confusion of the whole 
 passage. Seduced, perhaps, by the complacency resulting from 
 his conjecture of the omitted " wie," he dared to trust his own 
 powers to guide him through the passage. He thus gave 
 another evidence of his fatal genius for going wrong. He 
 should have followed Beasley here, for here Beasley was right. 
 
 The Laocoon can be bought in Germany for ten cents. The 
 retail price of this pretentious mistranslation is four dollars. 
 Miss Frothingham's little book is then something to be thankful 
 for, provided it is accurate. To say that her German is better 
 than Judge Phillimore's would be to say little. To say that 
 her English is always as good, and often better than Tutor 
 Beasley's, is to say something. But to say that as a readable 
 English book and a presentation of Lessing's meaning this is a 
 superior performance, is really her due. Her edition contains 
 translations of nearly all the Latin and Greek quotations, which 
 the fine classical education of the English, in Judge Philli- 
 more's estimation, ought to make it unnecessary to translate, 
 but which he with odd caprice sometimes renders and some- 
 times passes by. Miss Frothingham's knowledge of German is 
 thorough. Not that there are no defects in her renderings, and 
 it seems especially unfortunate that many of the little words, 
 which seem unimportant in the German, but really add much 
 to the thought, have been omitted. Such for instance is the 
 "dariiber," by this very process, whose absence was regretted 
 in her translation of the sentence from the preface concerning 
 the pleasure paths and highways. Such is the omission of the 
 "sie waren es," when Lessing, speaking of Philocletes' cries, 
 says, they resounded not less terribly through the island than 
 in the camp, and " they were the thing" that had caused his 
 banishment to the island. " Ich will bei dem Ausdrucke stehen 
 bleiben" can hardly be rendered, ''I will confine myself wholly 
 to expression," as on- page 11, though it has been so rendered 
 often. The connection requires, I will stand by the expression 
 or statement. 
 
 But most, though not all of Miss Frothingham's inaccuracies, 
 come from the desire to make a readable English book, and 
 from a conviction that the translation of every phrase and word 
 will seriously interfere with the facility with which the reader 
 
672 The New Translations of Laocoon. [July, 
 
 4 
 
 should comprehend the thought. We believe in the other 
 theory of translation : that the more literal the more worthful. 
 is the rendering, especially with respect to so noble a prose 
 piece as this. We believe the highest respect for the organic 
 life and perfection of the original requires literalness, not to 
 the point of constructing faulty English, but to the point of 
 sacrificing euphoDy, and even elegance, for clear and exact 
 statement. Who would imagine that Miss Frothingham's 
 " even though in mortal terror of his enemy's sword," on page 
 14, is the English of " wenn sie unter dem Schwerte des Siegers 
 Schrecken und Todesangst ergreift" — when fear and deadly 
 anguish takes hold of them beneath the conqueror's sword? 
 Or who familiar with German would conjecture that behind, 
 " Eather must we acknowledge that he was right in introducing 
 the cry, as the sculptor was in omitting it," page 21, are the 
 words, " Wer muss nicht vielmehr bekennen : wenn der Kiinstler 
 wohl that, dass er den Laocoon nicht schreien liess, so that der 
 Dichter eben so wohl, dass er ihn schreien liess?" How far 
 below the original in force of antithesis is the translation ! 
 Pages might be filled with passages where Miss Frothingham, 
 intending only to trim off the excrescences from her English, 
 has pared the original to the quick. This may be considered 
 by some a question of taste. Others will agree with us that in 
 the treatment of Lessing at least it is a question of loyalty, of 
 truth. 
 
 But when the worst has been said, it must be conceded that 
 one knowing no German can here find an easy, smooth state- 
 ment of all that Lessing virtually said. There is a strong, 
 clear sense, and a profound respect for the author in every sen- 
 tence. No translation can give the indefinable charm of the 
 author's words, and for this reason all translation, using the 
 word in its full sense, is an impossibility. We regret, as 
 already stated, that Miss Frothingham has not been more 
 literal, but from her stand-point her work - is well done. Amer- 
 icans may justly take a little pride that the disappearance of 
 Beasley's translation has called forth from a countrywoman 
 one altogether better. If the next distinguished Englishman, 
 who essays the Laocoon, will take Miss Frothingham as a guide, 
 we are sure he will have better success than has overtaken 
 Judge Phillimore. 
 
J ■;. . MMfe 
 
 *.~. ■ „« 5S" 18 " University Library 
 N64.L63 C32 1875 
 
 The new translations of Laocoon 
 
 olin 
 
 1924 030 652 568