I know how my own books, especially the earlier ones, got cut about, rearranged, altered in scheme, and cobbled to hide alteration, so that I never fairly knew what my scheme was till the book was three-quarters done, and I credit young writers generally with a like tentativeness.
I have now, I believe, shown sufficient cause for thinking that Books ix.-xii., i.e., the voyage of Ulysses round Sicily, were the part of the Odyssey that was written first. I am further confirmed in this opinion by finding Ulysses fasten his box with a knot that Circe had taught him (viii. 448)—as though the writer knew all about Circe, though the audience, of course, could not yet do so. A knowledge of Book ix., moreover, is shown in Book ii. 19, a passage which does not appear in my abridgement. Here we learn how Antiphus had been eaten by Polyphemus; Book ix. is also presupposed in i. 68, which tells of the blinding of the Cyclops by Ulysses.
We may also confidently say that Books v.—viii. were written before i.-iv. and xiii.-xxiv. (roughly), but what the vicissitudes of Books v.-viii. were, and whether or no they drew upon earlier girlish sketches—as without one shred of evidence in support of my opinion I nevertheless incline to think—these are points which it would be a waste of time to even attempt to determine.
It is in Books v.-viii., and especially in the three last of these books, that the writer is most in her element. Few will differ from Col. Mure, who says of Scheria:—
There can be little doubt from the distinctive peculiarities with which the poet has invested its inhabitants, and the precision and force displayed in his portrait of their character, that the episode was intended as a satire on the habits of some real people with whom he was familiar.
(Language and Literature of Ancient Greece, Vol. I., p. 404).
Speaking on the same page of the obviously humorous spirit in which the Phæacian episode is conceived, Col. Mure says:—-
This episode is, perhaps, the most brilliant specimen of the poet's combined talent for the delineation of character and for satirical humour. While there is no portion of his works a right understanding of which is so indispensable to a full estimate of his genius, there is none, perhaps, which has been so little understood. Appeal may be made to the tenor of the most esteemed commentaries, still more, perhaps, to the text of the most popular translations, where the gay sarcastic tone of description and dialogue which seasons the whole adventure, is replaced by the tragic solemnity of the gravest scones of the Iliad.
People find what they bring. Is it possible that eminent Homeric scholars have found so much seriousness in the more humorous parts of the Odyssey because they brought it there? To the serious all things are serious. Coleridge, so I learn from the notes at the end of Mr. Gollancz's Temple Shakespeare, saw no burlesque in the speeches of the players which are introduced into Hamlet. He says:—
The fancy that a burlesque was intended sinks below criticism; the lines, as epic narrative, are superb.