note on the text of shelley's translation of the "symposium"

3
Note on the Text of Shelley's Translation of the "Symposium" Author(s): James A. Notopoulos Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Jul., 1939), pp. 421-422 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717703 . Accessed: 28/06/2014 10:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern Language Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 193.142.30.167 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:53:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Note on the Text of Shelley's Translation of the "Symposium"

Note on the Text of Shelley's Translation of the "Symposium"Author(s): James A. NotopoulosSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Jul., 1939), pp. 421-422Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717703 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 10:53

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend accessto The Modern Language Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.142.30.167 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:53:15 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Note on the Text of Shelley's Translation of the "Symposium"

Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

'Arms of the Passion', no doubt it would be especially popular during Holy Week; and if the rolls were shown only for a comparatively short time, this would account for their preservation; for if on permanent exhibition they might soon have perished. It is probable that on the occasions when prolonged viewing was advised, 'a twelf moneth ich day enter', the church possessed a wall painting of the Arma Christi.1

ROSSELL HOPE ROBBINS. NEW YORK.

NOTE ON THE TEXT OF SHELLEY S TRANSLATION OF THE ' SYMPOSIUM

Mr B. Farrington has pointed out in a valuable paper2 that what

appeared to be Shelley's blunders in translation were in some instances mistakes which Mary Shelley made in transcribing Shelley's manuscript for the printer. I should like to add to his list the following which I have noted in the translation of the Banquet which appeared complete for the first time in The Julian Edition of Shelley's works.3

Page 185, line 27: 'And the Naetenstriae belong to this division.' As the Greek for this word is Eraplarptat (191 e 5), Naetenstriae looks like an error of transcription for Hetairistriae. For a similar error cp. pselta for psetta which is a transliteration of the Greek 0frTrac (page 185, line 19.)

Page 213, line 6: 'As soon as I thought I perceived this I sent away the servant.' Here Shelley made two variants for 8tavo-qio0s without deleting one of them. Mary Shelley incorporated both variants in the transcript. In the text we must bracket one of the verbs, preferably the first.

The text which Shelley used in his translation turns out to be the Bipont edition of Plato.4 This is not only evident from a comparison of the Greek with Shelley's translation, but also from Shelley's 'Note on the Banquet of Plato' which is dated in 1817. In this brief note Shelley

1 See the discussion concerning the wall paintings in churches in Cornwall, first mistaken for Piers Plowman surrounded by peasant tools, later properly understood as Christ and the Arms: London, Times Literary Supplement. The 'Arma Christi' were also portrayed in stained-glass windows (especially roundels) in England from the fifteenth century. At Mayence, a heraldic shield displays the Instruments for the arms of Christ the Knight; see Gentleman's Magazine, ccix. It has been suggested that the paucity of the windows and wall paintings with the 'Arma Christi' may be explained by their destruction during the Reformation; see Hudson, loc. cit., p. 128, footnote 9.

2 B. Farrington, 'The text of Shelley's Translation of the Symposium of Plato', Mod. Lang. Rev., xiv, 325.

3 The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, newly edited by Roger Ingpen and Walter E. Peck (London and New York), vn, 165-220.

4 nXciavr / Platonis Philosophi / Quae Exstant / Graece Ad Editionem Henrici Stephani / Accurate Expressa / Cum Marsilii Ficini Interpretatione / Accedit Varietas Lectionis / Studiis Societatis Bipontinae / Volumen Decimum / Biponti / Ex Typographia Societatis / cioiocclxxxvii /.

'Arms of the Passion', no doubt it would be especially popular during Holy Week; and if the rolls were shown only for a comparatively short time, this would account for their preservation; for if on permanent exhibition they might soon have perished. It is probable that on the occasions when prolonged viewing was advised, 'a twelf moneth ich day enter', the church possessed a wall painting of the Arma Christi.1

ROSSELL HOPE ROBBINS. NEW YORK.

NOTE ON THE TEXT OF SHELLEY S TRANSLATION OF THE ' SYMPOSIUM

Mr B. Farrington has pointed out in a valuable paper2 that what

appeared to be Shelley's blunders in translation were in some instances mistakes which Mary Shelley made in transcribing Shelley's manuscript for the printer. I should like to add to his list the following which I have noted in the translation of the Banquet which appeared complete for the first time in The Julian Edition of Shelley's works.3

Page 185, line 27: 'And the Naetenstriae belong to this division.' As the Greek for this word is Eraplarptat (191 e 5), Naetenstriae looks like an error of transcription for Hetairistriae. For a similar error cp. pselta for psetta which is a transliteration of the Greek 0frTrac (page 185, line 19.)

Page 213, line 6: 'As soon as I thought I perceived this I sent away the servant.' Here Shelley made two variants for 8tavo-qio0s without deleting one of them. Mary Shelley incorporated both variants in the transcript. In the text we must bracket one of the verbs, preferably the first.

The text which Shelley used in his translation turns out to be the Bipont edition of Plato.4 This is not only evident from a comparison of the Greek with Shelley's translation, but also from Shelley's 'Note on the Banquet of Plato' which is dated in 1817. In this brief note Shelley

1 See the discussion concerning the wall paintings in churches in Cornwall, first mistaken for Piers Plowman surrounded by peasant tools, later properly understood as Christ and the Arms: London, Times Literary Supplement. The 'Arma Christi' were also portrayed in stained-glass windows (especially roundels) in England from the fifteenth century. At Mayence, a heraldic shield displays the Instruments for the arms of Christ the Knight; see Gentleman's Magazine, ccix. It has been suggested that the paucity of the windows and wall paintings with the 'Arma Christi' may be explained by their destruction during the Reformation; see Hudson, loc. cit., p. 128, footnote 9.

2 B. Farrington, 'The text of Shelley's Translation of the Symposium of Plato', Mod. Lang. Rev., xiv, 325.

3 The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, newly edited by Roger Ingpen and Walter E. Peck (London and New York), vn, 165-220.

4 nXciavr / Platonis Philosophi / Quae Exstant / Graece Ad Editionem Henrici Stephani / Accurate Expressa / Cum Marsilii Ficini Interpretatione / Accedit Varietas Lectionis / Studiis Societatis Bipontinae / Volumen Decimum / Biponti / Ex Typographia Societatis / cioiocclxxxvii /.

421 421

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Page 3: Note on the Text of Shelley's Translation of the "Symposium"

Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

writes, 'The wonderful description of Love in Plato, Symp. p. 214-

particularly 214, 1. 8-1. ultima, et passim 218.' The page references are to the Bipont text of the Symposium and all refer to the speech of Agathon: p. 214= 195 c 7 (Stephanus pagination in J. Burnet's edition of Plato, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis), p. 214, 1. 8=195 e 1, '"EpwoTa o't aGraAos. ..', p. 218=197 b 7-197 e 2 'EtetLr$ 8' o Oed.... avL2vwTav r e 0eWyv Kal...'. The juxtaposition of Ficino's Latin translation to the Greek text aided Shelley considerably in his translation and partly accounts for the speed with which he translated the Symposium (he started the translation on 9 July and finished it 17 July 1818).

Hogg also makes mention of the Bipont Plato as the text which

Shelley used at Marlow. 'He had', he says,' a very legible edition of the works of Plato in several volumes; a charming edition, the Bipont, I think, and I have read passages out of it with him.' Shelley took the

Bipont edition of Plato with him to Italy and we have an inkling of his attachment to it from a letter to Hogg from Bagni di Pisa, 22 October 1821, 'I receive with delight your milkwort. It reposes between the leaves of a folio Plato,2 whose incredible contractions and abominable

inaccuracy torment me to death, as I have only 3 vols. of my own edition as yet here.'3

JAMES A. NOTOPOULOS.

HARTFORD, CONN.

BISHOP BLOUGRAM

Bishop Blougram's Apology (1855) is almost Browning's first poem on a

subject drawn from contemporary English life. Though published in Men and Women, a world of old pictures, idealized people, and dead artists, it stands apart from them all on account of its crabbed style, its lack of detachment, and its obvious reference to the immediate situation in England. The occasion of its writing was the so-called 'papal aggres- sion' of 1850, a cyclonic storm having for its centre the new Cardinal Archbishop, Nicholas Wiseman. When, shortly afterwards, Bishop Blougram's Apology appeared it was at once taken for a squib at the Cardinal, and on being challenged Browning said: 'Yes,... Bishop

1 T. J. Hogg, The life of Shelley (London, 1933, ed. H. Wolfe), I, 121-2. 2 This edition of Plato is probably Forster's Plato (Platonis Dialogi v: [Amatores, Apologia,

Phaedo, Euthyphro, Crito] / Recensuit, Notisque illustravit / Nath. Forster A.M. C.C.C. Socius / Editio Secunda / Oxonii / E Typographeo Clarendiano / Impensis Jac. Fletcher Bibliopolae / MDCCLII /). 3 Julian edition of Shelley's Complete Works, vu, 312.

writes, 'The wonderful description of Love in Plato, Symp. p. 214-

particularly 214, 1. 8-1. ultima, et passim 218.' The page references are to the Bipont text of the Symposium and all refer to the speech of Agathon: p. 214= 195 c 7 (Stephanus pagination in J. Burnet's edition of Plato, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis), p. 214, 1. 8=195 e 1, '"EpwoTa o't aGraAos. ..', p. 218=197 b 7-197 e 2 'EtetLr$ 8' o Oed.... avL2vwTav r e 0eWyv Kal...'. The juxtaposition of Ficino's Latin translation to the Greek text aided Shelley considerably in his translation and partly accounts for the speed with which he translated the Symposium (he started the translation on 9 July and finished it 17 July 1818).

Hogg also makes mention of the Bipont Plato as the text which

Shelley used at Marlow. 'He had', he says,' a very legible edition of the works of Plato in several volumes; a charming edition, the Bipont, I think, and I have read passages out of it with him.' Shelley took the

Bipont edition of Plato with him to Italy and we have an inkling of his attachment to it from a letter to Hogg from Bagni di Pisa, 22 October 1821, 'I receive with delight your milkwort. It reposes between the leaves of a folio Plato,2 whose incredible contractions and abominable

inaccuracy torment me to death, as I have only 3 vols. of my own edition as yet here.'3

JAMES A. NOTOPOULOS.

HARTFORD, CONN.

BISHOP BLOUGRAM

Bishop Blougram's Apology (1855) is almost Browning's first poem on a

subject drawn from contemporary English life. Though published in Men and Women, a world of old pictures, idealized people, and dead artists, it stands apart from them all on account of its crabbed style, its lack of detachment, and its obvious reference to the immediate situation in England. The occasion of its writing was the so-called 'papal aggres- sion' of 1850, a cyclonic storm having for its centre the new Cardinal Archbishop, Nicholas Wiseman. When, shortly afterwards, Bishop Blougram's Apology appeared it was at once taken for a squib at the Cardinal, and on being challenged Browning said: 'Yes,... Bishop

1 T. J. Hogg, The life of Shelley (London, 1933, ed. H. Wolfe), I, 121-2. 2 This edition of Plato is probably Forster's Plato (Platonis Dialogi v: [Amatores, Apologia,

Phaedo, Euthyphro, Crito] / Recensuit, Notisque illustravit / Nath. Forster A.M. C.C.C. Socius / Editio Secunda / Oxonii / E Typographeo Clarendiano / Impensis Jac. Fletcher Bibliopolae / MDCCLII /). 3 Julian edition of Shelley's Complete Works, vu, 312.

422 422

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