The Oration of Demosthenes Upon the Crown Book

THE ORATION OF DEMOSTHENES UPON THE CROWN TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, -- INTRODUCTION. -- THE attempt to translate the Greatest Oration of the Greatest of Orators into a language so different in its frame and idiom from that noble tongue in which it was pronounced, had long appeared so hopeless, that, after intentions repeatedly formed, the plan was for some years abandoned. During the period of my retirement from Parliament after the general election in 1812, I had frequent communications upon this subject with one of the best scholars and most acute, though severe, critics of his time, my lamented friend Lord Dudley and it was principally an argument of his that then turned me aside from the project. When prgssed with the considerations which naturally suggested themselves in favour of it-among others the example of Cicero, who had made the same experiment on the Latin language,-his answer was calculated to make me pause, from its appearance of sense and force. Either, said he, the translation is addressed to those who know the original, or to those who do not. The former cannot want it the latter cannot materially profit by it for no translation can give an adequate idea of the original. Subsequent reflection has served to remove the deep impression which Lord Dudleys argument had made. It must be considered, in the first place, that even to scholars the experiment is not without interest of trying how far the two languages can be used so as to render in the one the thoughts couched originally in the other and even to scholars the comparative trial of the structures of the two, their resemblances, their differences, and their contrasts, is very interesting. Then, if indeed this be not included in the preceding observation, there can no more accurate method be fallen upon for well apprehending the force and genius of both tongues than such a comparative trial. Many things are sure to be thus observed which had previously escaped our attention nor is it to be doubted that the sense, as well as the diction, of the original, is much more thoroughly perceived and felt after such an attempt. I can truly say in the present case, that although the exquisite original had been, for many long years, familiar to me in all its parts, most of which I knew by heapt, yet I never felt its incomparable , beauties, both in the substance and in the diction, until I made the attempt at transferring them into our Saxon tongue and although there is far less , benefit in this respect to be derived from reading the work, yet whoever shall, in perusing, compare it carefully with the original, can hardly fail to profit considerably, and to discover merits and peculiarities which had before escaped him. There is something in this process resembling the advantage we gain in relishing the beauties of the ancient dramatists, from seeing their pieces performed instead of reading them. Many a scholar has felt how greatly his notions of Terence were improved by seeing a Westminster play-however well acquainted he may have been with the original by previous study. The examination of the Greek Orabrs passages, with a view to their being delivered to an English audience, the consideration of the effects which they are calculated to produce upon such an assembly, and the feeling of their effects as given in our mother tongue, is calculated to produce somewhat of the same effect. The example of Cicero must here again be adverted to. No one could more thoroughly know the Greek than he did, hardly even the Athenians themselves...Read More