TH E P RO METH EU S BO UND O F A E SC H YLU S TH E P R O M E T H E US B O U N D A E S C HY L U S Rendered into E ng/M: by EDWYN RO BE RT BEVAN ’ ‘ LONDON : PUBLISHED BY DAVID NUT I AT THE SIG N OF TH E PHOENIX LONG AC RE 1 9 0 2 To ou this word is ou whose ives are lit y , y l B n othin air to wh om each da break brin s y gf , y g One ove ess abour o the hands where c in s l l l f , l g To soul an d bod smoke and rim e and rit y g g . A so to th em this word an sit l , if y ’ Ease d secure t ll d with all ood thin s fi , , fi lfi g g , And sa o ar-o a i en travailirs s y ff fi l g , ’ Where a re the ? and o hun er What is it ? y f g , B ehold how in an ancien t hea rt rose up ’ This vision o the wise hind od who view d f , g , Naked and oor in bonda e o b ind a in p , g f l p , ’ M an s trem u ous brood nor on er wou d retain l , l g l H is bliss dseat but drank a bitter cu fi , p, H in com assion on the m u titude av g p l . E . R . B . P R E F A C E To put forth a translatio n o f something which has already un dergone translation at man y han ds is to i provoke censure . For the u n dertaking ( f not an i n eptitude) is itself a cen sure of previous perform f o . an n n anc s It implies Opi io that they all short , an d an ambition to better them . M any perhaps will concur with the present tran slator in his opin ion that English literature does n o t hitherto i n clude an y worthy ren deri n g o f the P rometh eus o f — " Aeschylus the most sublime poem in the world , M - n — in r . Watts Du ton has called it will concur n an d n this opinio , at the same time add his tra s n to t f . latio the lis of ailures There are , however, n n If co sideratio s which encourage a new attempt . n n f the former tra slatio s were unsatis actory, it is (in appearance) largely due to the tran slators n o o f ff having clear view the e ect to be produced . n They would seem to have thought it e ough , if ” n c c o aed Br n n c art. o e r . E y l p ia ita i a , P t y vii PREFACE t n as n they ra slated the Greek , it came , i to any form which gave the logical sen se with a certai n n eupho y o f syllables . It is as if o n e should attempt to scale a mountai n by maki n g a rush at n fo r n it , without looki g the path . By observi g f the path , a less power ul climber may perhaps arrive higher . The effect o f a foreign origin al c an only be given by a style which suggests that which most n i r nearly correspo ds to it n o u o wn literature . in n as in Now we have E glish literature , well as o f o f Greek , a great age poetic drama , the time an d O f Elizabeth and the early Stuarts , the best this drama is by theory part o f the furn iture o f ’ n n every educated E glishma s mind . Its vocab n o f n ulary , characteristic phrases , tur s expressio , come to him charged with the associations o f n poetic drama . Here , the , we have a model to n in n n guide us , a la guage to draw upon , tra slati g f the plays o the Greeks . But we must also take o f f n account the act that , with all their a alogies , Greek an d Elizabethan tragedy do n o t absolutely n an d correspond in spirit . The Greek tragedia s , in especially Aeschylus , stood to their people some VI11 PREFACE ways as the Hebrew prophets stood to theirs . an d n in n We Again agai , readi g Aeschylus , do seem to hear the voice o f Jo b o r Isaiah ; again an d again does the gn omic wisdom o f the Bible suggest the gn omic wisdom of the Greek poets ; an d n an But there is a style la guage which , to n n fo r n E glishma , is ever bou d up with these — association s the style an d lan guage o f the En glish in n n o t Bible , its origi indeed largely Hebraic , n n n n n E glish , but e teri g the la guage , whe it was l a o f stil fluid , till it has become as much a p rt n n l n n E glish as its most origi al e eme ts . Here, the , n us . we have a seco d model to guide But thirdly, n an d n h ad the bla k verse the style of dictio , which n n was bee developed by the Elizabetha drama , taken up by Milton an d subjected to modification s an d refin emen ts u n der the very i n fluence o f classical : types , and the Bible it became something less n in adapted for dramatic uses , but it gai ed rich i n and in n . ness , elaborate pomp , orga ic structure o ur Here , then , is third model , the more obvious in the case o f this particular play in th at the i n fluen ce o f the Aeschylean Prometheus is very n n o f pro ounced in the Sata Milton . 1X PREFACE n v It is to be observed that , take by themsel es , o f n none these models c a be altogether followed . In the Elizabethan drama there is much that is ‘ n in n rufiled deficie t u iversality , that calls up n - n e h e collars and poi ted beards verbal co ceits , p n n n o f meral ma erisms . The Hebraic la guage the n n Of Bible is too primitive, to say othi g its dearth Of n an d adjectives , to re der the more complex a n o f v rious la guage Greek poetry . The classical construction s o f Milton have n ever become part o f an d n n English , would be i tolerable at seco d han d : they would give exactly that cast o f cold and conventional unreality, which vitiates what o n e C o f may call the Eighteenth entury ~ view an d n Greek antiquity , which it is one of the mai - f pro occupation s o a translator to avoid . It follows that the style which best reproduces ff n the e ect of the Greek drama in E glish , would be o n e whose basis was that o f the Elizabethan h o f dramatists , but whic was purged Elizabethan o f an d eccentricities , with more elemental breadth simplicity by approximation to the language of the l n Bible , and in the special y so orous and elaborate f f passages soundi n g o Milton . Sometimes one o PREFACE n n these eleme ts would predomi ate , sometimes an other ; the Hebraic an d Milton ic would be m n n ore pronou ced in Aeschylus tha in Euripides , an d in the same poet they would assert themselves n nl n in varyi g degrees . It is o y by fusi g these differen t elemen ts that the effect O f the Greek c an n n drama be give . The fusio is made possible f n by the act that the dramatists , the E glish Bible , and Milton have a great deal to start with in n n f commo . A si gle li etime would cover the o n e o f period , which saw at extreme the activity Shakespeare and at the other the productio n o f o n l o f Paradise L st . The E g ish that period is the r common source f om which all three draw . n n n These pri ciples will , I thi k , comma d the assen t of an y o n e who takes the trouble to thi n k if n n . o about them And , they are asse ted to , exception c an be taken to words and phrases in n o n o f any tra slation simply the score archaism . A style which might justly be blamed as a po se in n o wn a modern poet , speaki g in his person , may be th e very style required to represe n t the voice f f o another age .