ABSTRACT
A b o o k which purports to be a collection o f critical essays on ancient literature has to face the misgivings o f the sceptical reader, who is well aware that the study o f Greek and Latin literature as literature presents peculiar difficulties in a way linguistic scholar ship and textual criticism do not. Moreover, classical studies in England, whose three greatest ornaments are conventionally reckoned as Bentley, Porson, and Housman, have placed most emphasis on the philological side o f classics and given that the place o f highest honour in teaching. Vulgarization has been accepted merely as a way o f spreading a litde sweetness and light or o f supplementing admittedly meagre academic salaries. Popu lar works and translations have always been regarded as the by products o f scholarship, not as 'serious’ work. And rightly. Yet it is only in such publications that modern scholars have felt called upon to discuss the literary merits o f the ancient authors in whom they are professionally interested. There is a feeling indeed that literary criticism has no place in a classical education, despite its importance in other humane disciplines, and this is not entirely due to the traditions o f classical learning in this country or even to a distrust o f those scholars who are, in Housman’s phrase, 'tainted with literature’ . There is a genuine pessimism about the very possibility o f such activity in classical studies.
