Salel is a most delightful approach to the Iliads; he is still absorbed in the subject-matter, as Douglas and Golding were absorbed in their subject-matter. Note how exact he is in the rendering of the old men's mental attitude. Note also that he is right in his era. I mean simply that Homer _is_ a little _rustre_, a little, or perhaps a good deal, mediæval, he has not the dovetailing of Ovid. He has onomatopœia, as of poetry sung out; he has authenticity of conversation as would be demanded by an intelligent audience not yet laminated with æsthetics; capable of recognizing reality. He has the repetitions of the _chanson de geste_. Of all the French and English versions I think Salel alone gives any hint of some of these characteristics. Too obviously he is not onomatopœic, no. But he is charming, and readable, and "Briseis Fleur des Demoiselles" has her reality.
Nicolo Valla is, for him who runs, closer:
"Consili virtus, summis de rebus habebant Sermones, et multa inter se et magna loquentes, Arboribus quales gracili stridere cicadæ Sæpe solent cantu, postquam sub moenibus altis Tyndarida aspiciunt, procerum tum quisque fremebat, Mutuasque exorsi, Decuit tot funera Teucros Argolicasque pati, longique in tempore bellum Tantus in ore decor cui non mortalis in artus Est honor et vultu divina efflagrat imago. Diva licet facies, Danauum cum classe recedat Longius excido ne nos aut nostra fatiget Pignora sic illi tantis de rebus agebant."
This hexameter is rather heavily accented. It shows, perhaps, the source of various "ornaments" in later English and French translations. It has indubitable sonority even though monotonous.
It is the earliest Latin verse rendering I have yet come upon, and is bound in with Raphael of Volterra's first two Iliads, and some further renderings by Obsopeo.
"Dic mihi musa uirum captae post tempora Troiae Qui mores hominum multorum uidit et urbes Multa quoque et ponto passus dum naufragus errat Ut sibi tum sociis uitam seruaret in alto Non tamen hos cupens fato deprompsit acerbo Ob scelus admissum extinctos ausumque malignum Qui fame compulsu solis rapuere iuvencos Stulti ex quo reditum ad patrias deus abstulit oras. Horum itaque exitium memora mihi musa canenti."