Murray
about a year after date:-
`A sweet life and an idle
He lives from year to year,
Unknowing bit or bridle,
There are no Proctors here.'
In Greek, despite his enthusiastic admiration of the professor, Mr.
Campbell, he did not much enjoy himself:-
`Thrice happy are those
Who ne'er heard of Greek Prose -
Or Greek Poetry either, as far as that goes;
For Liddell and Scott
Shall cumber them not,
Nor Sargent nor Sidgwick shall break their repose.
But I, late at night,
By the very bad light
Of very bad gas, must painfully write
Some stuff that a Greek
With his delicate cheek
Would smile at as `barbarous'--faith, he well might.
* * * * *
So away with Greek Prose,
The source of my woes!
(This metre's too tough, I must draw to a close.)
May Sargent be drowned
In the ocean profound,
And Sidgwick be food for the carrion crows!'
Greek prose is a stubborn thing, and the biographer remembers being
told that his was `the best, with the worst mistakes'; also
frequently by Mr. Sellar, that it was `bald.' But Greek prose is
splendid practice, and no less good practice is Greek and Latin
verse.
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