Lucan: Civil War VIII ed. by R. Mayer (review)

374 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS commentary is a sense of visual performance. Given the recent work of Taplin, which has put the theatrical dimension of Greek tragedy on a much firmer foundation, such a neglect is surprising; in this one respect at least, students will still have to look to the older edition of Jebb, who was always careful to point out and discuss questions of stage presentation. Taken as a whole, however, th is commentary may well rival Jebb's in its influence and authority, and certainly it will leave a profound and lasting impression on the criticism of this great and still controversial play. BISHOP'S UNIVERSITY DAVID SEALE R. MAYER (ed.). Lucan: Civil War VIII. Warminster, Aris and Phillips, 1981. Pp. x + 197. ISBN 0-85668-155-5 (Cloth), 0-85668-176-8 (Paper). The eighth book of Lucan's de Bello Civili is not likely to be a teacher's first or even second choice for course study. While it presents a moving and believable portrait of Pompey in downfall, it is lacking in events or descriptive interest and reduced, even more than other books, to a series of one-sided scenes dominated by the harangues of leading figures. The reunion of Pompey with Cornelia (41-108) and Pompey's assassination (560-662) are poignant enough, but outweighed by the long confrontation with Lentulus Crus from 261 to 445, in which the reactionary consular becomes an unlikely champion of libertas and Western values (although Pompey's preference for Parthia is attested by Plutarch, Lucan's treatment diminishes his hero's integrity), and by the windy editorial ising of 793-872. Lucan can compose great Rhetoric, but the schizophrenic harangue about Pompey's future reburial betrays his lack of conviction or real analysis of the issue. The last separate treatment of this book in Engl ish was Postgate's fine edition of 1917; most students, I suppose, now buy the still affordable Loeb of J. D. Duff (1928) based on Housman's BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 375 text (1926). Mayer, whose commentary originated as his Cambridge Ph.D. thesis (1976) provides the text of Housman (changed only rarely; ~., at 294 he adopts pugnandi favoured by Housman's Ap. Crit.; at 757, Burman's conjecture premit for premunt; at 761, nudo for ~) and an improved version of Duff's translation, improved, that is, in accuracy or reinterpretation, not in its fustian diction. He gives us an admirable introduction, offering his interpretation of Lucan's epic as conceived in orthodox loyalty but soured by Nero's ban on public performance, and completed " with animus against the Julio-Claudian house". There are sections on Sources, The Fate of the Poem and The Text (minimal comment) and fifteen rich and stimulating pages on ~, analysed for Metre, Diction, Rhetoric, Sentence-structure, Compression and Pathos and Magniloquence. recommend this discussion to readers concerned with any aspect or part of the epic. Mayer's commentary is more uneven. Rich and informative on syntax and on techniques of versification (~., notes on vocative culture, 338; perfect infinitive with present force, 381; artificial ablative absolute, 394; or four-word lines, 407), he also gives wide-ranging critical interpretations in introductions to each " episode" and writes with style and erudition. But the erudition can be unhelpful, displayed for its own sake; references to rare books only available in older libraries should be made self-sufficient. Although brevity excuses from full quotation, Mayer's allusions are often as wordy as a clear explanation would have been. We gain from references to adaptation of Lucan by Dante, Corneille, Sir Thomas Brown or T. E. Lawrence (432, 381). but why allude to Bishop Huet's criticism of Corneille,s literary judgment (introduction to lines 472-576)? Much of Mayer's commentary seems written for the pleasure of expressing his own views rather than to inform (lithe pathos of the content which Duff has well expressed II , 483; lithe true state of affairs is set out in RE 1.2808",479; "despite imprecise commentators", 489.) There is too much appraisal of secondary scholarship, witness the lengthy but obscure account of Postgate's defence of Pelusiaci ... Canopi (543) or the gratuitous citation of...