soul of ancient music, and the Bellaria of modern witch-mythology) on the dried filament of the tortoise, which suggested to Hermes the makingan instrument wherewith he made the music of the spheres and guided the course of the planets. As for Mrs. Browning, she leaves out Syrinxaltogether, that is to say, the voice of the nymph still lingering in thepipe which had been her body. Now to my mind the old prose narrative of these myths is much more deeply poetical and moving, and far more inspiredwith beauty and romance, than are the well-rhymed and measured, but veryimperfect versions given by our poets. And in fact, such want of intelligence or perception may be found in all the 'classic' poems, not only of KEATS, but of almost every poet of the age who has dealt in Greeksubjects. Great license is allowed to painters and poets, but when they take a subjective, especially a deep tradition, and fail to perceive its real meaning or catch its point, and simply give us something very pretty,but not so inspired with meaning as the original, it can hardly be claimedthat they have done their work as it might, or, in fact, should have been done. I find that this fault does not occur in the Italian or Tuscan witchversions of the ancient fables; on the contrary, they keenly appreciate, and even expand, the antique spirit. Hence I have often had occasion to remark that it was not impossible that in some cases popular tradition, even as it now exists, has been preserved more fully and accurately than wefind it in any Latin writer. Now apropos of missing the point, I would remind certain very literal readers that if they find many faults of grammar, misspelling, and worse inthe Italian texts in this book, they will not, as a distinguished reviewerhas done, attribute them all to the ignorance of the author, but to theimperfect education of the person who collected and recorded them. I am reminded of this by having seen in a circulat...
