The Hisperica Famina II Related Poems ed. by Michael W. Herren (review)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 407 In addition to discussion s of the influence of others on Seneca, the influ ence of Sen eca him self is di scu ssed (o n Voltair e, Ben Johnson , Shakesp eare, Boethius, A.E . Housman , Chapman, Racin e, and Eliot, to nam e onl y a random few). On his general Nachleben sec "Florileg ia and excerpt collec tions" (59-6 1) in the Intr oduct ion . There are discu ssions of rhetori c , metr e, gra mmar, co lometry (in Appendix 3 [467-468]). .. In sum few stones are left unturned , but at this point I invite Fitc h's potent ial readers them sel ves to turn not only to the Co mme ntary but to Fitch's edition of Seneca's IIF in its entirety in orde r to sample its vas t lear ning and wea lth of detail and inform ati on . Thi s is no doub t goi ng to be the definiti ve study of the play for some time to co me. I append some minor points: 8 (Co ntents), change page reference for Addenda from 47 8 to 479; 486 (v. infr a "Horace "), change 34° f. to 340f.; 489 (v. infra "Ve rgil"), change 299-300 to 299-301, and (v. infra Zwi erlein ) change 467 to 467,478-79 to 479-80. On 170 of the Co mme ntary (w ith reference to line 146), to the para llels for pendo mean ing "to be perched" I suggest add ing Verg., Ec. 1.75-76 . .. vos / capelias] . . . dumosa pendere pro cul de rupc videbo. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, UNIVE RSITY OF MANITOBA JOHN J. GA HA N MICHAEL W. HERREN (ed .). The llisperica Fam ina: II Related Poems. A cri tica l edition with English tran slation and phi lolog ical co mme ntary. Studies and Texts 85. Toronto: Pontifical Institu te of Mediaeval Studies, 1987. pp. xvi + 226 . Hard cov er, SUS 24, 0-88844-085-5. Thi s fascinating volume is esp ecially recommended to readers who have a se nse of adventure, who are not afraid of text s in wh ich virt ually every other word is a new experience, who can believe not on ly in thrones and archangels but in tmesis whi ch ex tends over three lines, and who are not pu t off by suc h thing s as obe li or Old Engli sh glossaries or the Za greb exorc ism. Others, like the reviewer , will enjoy it too. Th ose who look ed into llisperica Famina I, which app ear ed in 1974, will know ju st how we ird and wond erful this kind of writing can be. Two of the four poem s edited here are loricae (the epic breastplate has become the name of a genre). The first of them, which Herren thinks was the work of the Irishm an Laid cenn and not, as once thou ght , the British Gild as, imp lore s prot ection for both bod y and so ul (but principally the former) with a thoroughness that Test cricketers or Amer ican Iootballers wou ld do well to copy. Th e sec ond, which mayor may not be Irish , see ms to invok e similar pro tection for a loved one; the third , entitled R ubi sca , is not unlik e them in its riot of anatomical detail and app ear s to be a parody of the lorica of Laid ccnn . Th e last poem , Ade lphus Ad elpha Meter, link ed in vari ous formal wa ys to Rubisca-i- 408 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS among other things it is also abccederial and full of words based on the Greekis a hymn, but a remarkably opaque one. Lines such as Kalextratu s mansiae and Notalgicus est gibra have never been easy Latin for anyone, and glosses of variable validity were provided at an early stage. Herren lists these after the critical apparatus. Facing the text of the poem s there is a translation which copes manfully with the exotic vocabul ary and some very strained syntax. The comm entary is long in relation to the...