Woodward's first foray into epigram, part the first

GREEK ANTHOLOGY

133

Love-Epigrams

in

English Verse

Woodward published his first translation from the Greek Anthology in 1934. John Barnes' biography (1996: 114-5) tells me he had by now been printing little books at West Hill for two years, beginning with carol lyrics that he illustrated with woodcuts. In one of those little carol-books were published for the first time the lyrics to 'Past Three A Clock' and 'Ding Dong! Merrily on High'.

Here as in later volumes, Woodward, a lover of old things, uses the archai 'long' form of the letter 's'. Peering closely one can distinguish it from an 'f' but for many readers the extra workload will really fuck. Furely hif friendf muft have fuggefted otherwife? I won't be reproducing thefe -- sorry, these -- in anything I quote in these blog poftf.

Love-Epigrams is to the usual dimensions (discussed in a previous post) but much fatter than anything that followed; the cover is glued onto the stitched spine. The title-page proudly announces its author as 'Formerly Scholar of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge', where he had read classics.

Barnes' focus is primarily on his subject's religious life but he passes on some curious information on this point: Woodward was admitted as a Sayer Scholar and graduated in 1872, after a three-year ride, with only a third-class degree. A casual search suggests the Sayer Scholarships were reserved for Harrow boys, but competition was surely fierce and Woodward's late-in-life translations show him to have remained a highly capable and widely read classical linguist. I suppose we are unlikely ever to know what went wrong, if 'wrong' should turn out even to be a relevant term to apply.

To be continued.