As a souvenir of lovely Sicily, we would require, of course, the pastorals of Theocritus, of which the best translation is that in prose by Andrew Lang, London, 1880. In this rendering two passages of about two lines each are left untranslated, but the omission is too slight to be serious. The same volume also contains the poems of Bion and Moschus. A good verse translation is that by C. S. Calverley, Cambridge (England), 1869. With Theocritus we must read Sappho, "the poetess," the ancients called her, as they called Homer "the poet."

Meleager, in the poem of his "Garland" of verse, says that he includes "of Sappho's only a few but all roses." And so, indeed, are the few precious fragments which have come down to us. All the known fragments of this poetess, even mere references or quotations of a word or a phrase from ancient writers, which have survived, have been gathered by H. T. Wharton, who gives in his little volume called Sappho, the Greek text and a literal translation of each fragment, together with various verse translations of interest. The first edition of this book appeared in 1885, the third and definite edition in 1895. Both were published in London; the former by David Stott, the latter by John Lane.

Of Anacreon's lyrics, only a few fragments remain. The Anacreontea were tranlsated by Thomas Stanley, London, 1651; reprinted by Lawrence and Bullen, London, 1893. The reprint may be had on Japan vellum and on vellum.

Of the Greek Anthology, the famous collection of Greek epigrams composed between about B. C. 450 and A. D. 550, there are many volumes of translated "selections." The best and most poetic, although the rendering is in prose, is that by V. Mackail, London, 1890, revised 1906 and 1911. The greater part of the Anthology, which contains over three thousand five hundred epigrams, was translated into readable verse by Major Robert McGregor, London, 1864, but the spirit of this rendering is indifferent. A complete translation into prose of the entire Anthology, omitting only the ultra-erotic and paederastic epigrams, is now in process of publication in five volumes by Heinemann, London. This would be, when complete, the most desirable all-around translation were it not for the bald and unpoetic literalness of the rendering; of which, as an instance, one could note the passage in the two hundred and twenty-fifth Amatory epigram, which might be translated, "I have a wound of love which never heals * * *"; but which is rendered, "My love is a running sore * * *"

With the poets, Catullus must be included; the best and only complete translation is that by Richard F. Burton and Leonard Smithers, London, privately printed, 1894.

This volume gives the Latin text, a complete prose rendering by Smithers, and a characteristic verse rendering by Burton. In the latter, some erotic passages are missing, due, according to Lady Burton's statement, to an incomplete manuscript.

Among the dramatists there are Aeschylus, whose tragedies were translated in verse by R. Potter, London, 1777, and Sophocles, whose tragedies were translated by the same hand, London, 1788. Edward FitzGerald's rendering of the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, London, 1876, which does not, however, pretend to be a close translation, may well be included for the unusual beauty of its verse. The comedies of Terence have had several translators. The best close rendering is that in prose, privately printed by the "Roman Society," in two volumes, 1900-1901. Copies of this translation are scarce, as the edition was limited to two hundred and sixty copies.

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