HYMNS OF HOMER; THE BATRACHOMYOMACHIA; AND TWO ORIGINAL POETICAL HYMNS. BY GEORGE CHAPMAN. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. BY S. W. SINGER. Chiswick: FROM THE PRESS OF C. WHITTINGHAM. MDCCCXVIII. HOC SIGNO VINCES ΤΟ GEORGE WATSON TAYLOR, ESQ. M. P. THIS LITTLE TRIBUTE TO THE GENIUS AND LEARNING OF GEORGE CHAPMAN IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS OBLIGED AND MOST FAITHFUL HUMBLE SERVANT, S. W. SINGER. THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. WITHOUT entering into the discussion whether these interesting remains of antiquity are all of them genuine productions of the divine Homer, or belong to a later age, it must be confessed that they have the highest claims on attention, as containing much poetic beauty, and as having preserved to us some portions of the Mythology of the Ancients, which we might elsewhere seek in vain with equal certitude*. There is no complete modern translation of them; and perhaps it is little to be regretted, while we can boast the valuable, spirited, and original version, which is here submitted to those readers who have imbibed proper notions of the value of such venerable remains of the best period of our literature. * J'ose avancer que par rapport à la religion populaire des anciens, il n'y a point de monument qui soit préférable pour la certitude aux Hymnes d' Homère, &c.-L'Abbé Souchay. Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions. T. 24, p. 496, 12mo. a |
