s woes,
And hangs upon his lips, who tells the tale.
Then, when the guests are gone and in her turn
The wan moon pales her light, and waning stars
Persuade to sleep, she in her empty halls
Mourns all alone, and throws herself along
The couch where he had lain: though he be gone
Far from her side, she hears and sees him still.'

Of the merits of the present translation the reader will judge for
himself; but it may perhaps be said of the usual objections urged
against the Spenserian stanza--that it is cumbrous and monotonous,
and presents difficulties of construction--that the two former
criticisms will be just or the reverse, according to the skill of
the writer, while it is quite possible that the last is really an
advantage, for the intricate machinery imposes a restraint on
careless or hasty composition. And finally we must turn a deaf ear,
even to so high an authority as Matthew Arnold, when he says that
it is not suited to the grand manner. When he said this he cannot
have remembered either the lament of Florimell in the _Faerie Queene_
or the conclusion of _Childe Harold_.

J. P. MAINE.

Edward Fairfax Taylor, whose translation of the _Aeneid_ is now
published, was descended from the Taylors of Norwich, a family well
known for their culture and intellectual gifts. He was the only son
of John Edward Taylor, himself an accomplished German and Italian
scholar, and the first translator of the _Pentamerone_ into English,
who lived at Weybridge near his aunt, Mrs. Sarah Austin. Brought up
among books, young Taylor early showed an intense love for classical
literature, and soon after going to Marlborough he began the present
translation as a boy of sixteen. His admiration for Spenser led him
to adopt the Spenserian stanza, and in the preface to his translation
of the first two books he gives detailed reasons for considering it
peculiarly well adapted for the _Aeneid_. He was a favourite pupil
of the late Dr. Bradley, Dean of Westminster, at that time headmaster
of Marlborough, and who much wished that he should follow in the
footsteps of 'that brilliant band of Marlborough men,' as they have
been called, who at that time, year after year, gained the Balliol
scholarship. But circumstances made him decide otherwise, and in
1865 he passed the necessary examination for a clerkship in the House
of Lords. The long vacations gave him time to con