Which four lines, tho' faulty enough, are yet much more to the purpose than Mr. D.'s six. "Ver. 22. "From fields and mountains to my song repair." For patrium linquens nemus, saltusque Lycæi1-Very well explained!' 'Ver. 23, 24. "Inventor Pallas, of the fattening oil, Thou founder of the plough, and ploughman's toil!" Written as if these had been Pallas's invention. The plough man's toil's impertinent. 'Ver. 25. 2 Why "shroud-like?" Is a cypress pulled up by the roots, which the sculpture in the last Eclogue fills Silvanus's hand with, so very like a shroud? Or did not Mr. D. think of that kind of cypress us'd often for scarves and hatbands at funerals formerly 3, or for widow's vails, &c.? if so, 'twas a deep good thought. 'Ver. 26. "... that wear The royal [rural] honours, and increase the year.” What's meant by increasing the year? Did the gods or goddesses add more months, or days, or hours to it? Or how can arva tueri" signify to "wear rural honours"? Is this to translate, or abuse an author? The next couplet are [sic] borrow'd from Ogylby I suppose, because less to the purpose than ordinary +." Ver. 33. "The patron of the world, and Rome's peculiar guard." Idle, and none of Virgil's, no more than the sense of the precedent couplet; so again, he interpolates Virgil with that "And the round circle [circuit] of the year to guide; A ridiculous Latinism, and an impertinent addition; indeed the whole period is but one piece of absurdity and nonsense, as those who lay it with the original must find. 'Ipse nemus linquens patrium,' &c. Geor. i. 16. = The first edition, as the title-page proclaims, is 'Adorn'd with a Hundred Sculptures.' Works, xiii. 274. 3 Johnson, in his Dictionary, spells it cyprus:- Cyprus (I suppose from the place where it was made; or corruptly from cypress as being used in mourning). A thin transparent black stuff. 4 'You who supply the ground with seeds of grain And you who swell those seeds with kindly rain.' DRYDEN, Georgics, i. 28. 'And all you Pow'rs protectors of the field, Whose kindly influence chears the sprouting grain, Or send from heav'n on corn large show'rs of rain.' OGILBY, ed. 1654. "Ver. 42, 43. "And Neptune shall resign the fasces of the sea." Was he consul or dictator there? "And watry virgins for thy bed shall strive." Both absurd interpolations. "Ver. 47, 48. "Where in the void of heaven a place is free. Ah, happy D-n, were that place for thee!" But where is that void? Or what does our translator mean by it? He knows what Ovid says God did, to prevent such a void in heaven2; perhaps, this was then forgotten: but Virgil talks more sensibly. "Ver. 49. "The scorpion ready to receive thy laws." No, he would not then have gotten out of his way so fast. 'Ver. 56. "The [Though] Proserpine affects her silent seat.' What made her then so angry with Ascalaphus, for preventing her return 3? She was now mus'd to Patience under the determinations of Fate, rather than fond of her residence. " Ver. 61, 2, 3. "Pity the poet's and the ploughman's cares, Interest thy greatness in our mean affairs, And use thyself betimes to hear [and grant] our prayers." Which is such a wretched perversion of Virgil's noble thought* as Vicars would have blush'd at 5; but Mr. Ogylby makes us some amends, by his better lines: "O wheresoe'er thou art, from thence incline, And now, as if translated, hear our prayers." This is sense, and to the purpose: the other, poor mistaken stuff. Such were the strictures of Milbourne, who found few abettors; 308 and of whom it may be reasonably imagined that many who favoured his design were ashamed of his insolence. more 309 When admiration had subsided the translation was coolly examined, and found like all others to be sometimes erroneous and sometimes licentious. Those who could find faults thought they could avoid them; and Dr. Brady attempted in blank verse a translation of the Eneid', which, when dragged into the world, did not live long enough to cry. I have never seen it; but that such a version there is, or has been, perhaps some old catalogue informed me. With not much better success Trapp, when his Tragedy and 310 his Prelections had given him reputation, attempted another blank version of the Eneid; to which, notwithstanding the slight regard with which it was treated, he had afterwards perseverance enough to add the Eclogues and Georgicks. His book may continue its existence as long as it is the clandestine refuge of schoolboys 2. Since the English ear has been accustomed to the mellifluence 311 of Pope's numbers 3, and the diction of poetry has become more splendid, new attempts have been made to translate Virgil; and all his works have been attempted by men better qualified ''Dr. Nicholas Brady's Aeneids were published by subscription in 4 vols. 8vo, the last of which appeared in 1726.' Biog. Brit. p. 961. The first vol. appeared in 1716. 2 Ante, DRYDEN, 179, 202. Joseph Trapp, a most ingenious, honest gentleman,' in 1708 was chosen the first Professor of Poetry in Oxford. Hearne's Remains, i. 141. His Prelections - Praelectiones Poeticaewere his lectures, delivered in Latin in accordance with the statutes. Lowth's 'incomparable Praelectiones on the poetry of the Hebrews' (Gibbon's Memoirs, p. 55) were delivered on the same foundation. Trapp's tragedy Abramule, or Love and Empire, was acted in 1704. Cibber's Lives, v. 158. Swift describes him as 'a sort of pretender to wit, a second-rate pamphleteer.' Swift's Works, ii. 140. I will own he has taught me, and, I believe, some other gentlemen who had lost their Latin, the true gram- The following epigram was made 'Keep to thy preaching, Trapp; Is it not written, "Thou shalt do no Biog. Brit., Suppl., p. 174. For another version of this epi- 'To him who nodding steals a We give Tate's Ovid, and thy Pope's Works (E. & C.), iv. 287. For the famous epigram' attributed to him see John. Misc. i. 171. 3 Post, POPE, 348. 312 313 314 to contend with Dryden'. I will not engage myself in an invidious comparison by opposing one passage to another: a work of which there would be no end, and which might be often offensive without use. It is not by comparing line with line that the merit of great works is to be estimated, but by their general effects and ultimate result. It is easy to note a weak line, and write one more vigorous in its place; to find a happiness of expression in the original, and transplant it by force into the version: but what is given to the parts may be subducted from the whole, and the reader may be weary though the critick may commend. Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain which the reader throws away. He only is the master who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day. By his proportion of this predomination I will consent that Dryden should be tried: of this, which, in opposition to reason, makes Ariosto the darling and the pride of Italy; of this, which, in defiance of criticism, continues Shakespeare the sovereign of the drama. His last work was his Fables 3, in which he gave us the first example of a mode of writing which the Italians call refacimento, a renovation of ancient writers, by modernizing their language. Thus the old poem of Boiardo has been new-dressed by Of these Pitt's Aeneid is included in Eng. Poets. Post, PITT, 8. Joseph Warton translated the Eclogues and Georgics. The Aeneid was translated in blank verse by Alexander Strahan, 1739-67, and by William Hawkins in 1764. Lowndes's Bibl. Man. p. 2784. For a criticism of these translations see Conington's Misc. Writings, 1872, i. 159. 2 Swift wrote in A Tale of a Tub, in the Epistle dedicatory to Posterity, dated Dec. 1697:-'I do therefore affirm, upon the word of a sincere man, that there is now actually in being a certain poet, called John Dryden, whose translation of Virgil was lately printed in a large folio, well bound, and, if diligent search were made, for aught I know, is yet to be seen.' Swift's Works, x. 47. 'Compare Dryden with other translators, and it will be seen that while none of them have anything of Virgil's individuality, he alone has an individuality of his own of sufficient mark to interest and impress the reader. ... It is a splendid English epic, in which most of the thoughts are Virgil's and most of the language Dryden's.' CONINGTON, Misc. Writings, i. 169, 181. 4 Ante, DRYDEN, 149. Dryden, writing of 'the file of heroic poets,' says that 'Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto would cry out, I Domenichi and Berni 2. The works of Chaucer, upon which this kind of rejuvenescence has been bestowed by Dryden, require little criticism. The tale of The Cock seems hardly worth revival3; and the story of Palamon and Arcite, containing an action unsuitable to the times in which it is placed, can hardly be suffered to pass without censure of the hyperbolical commendation which Dryden has given it in the general Preface *, and in a poetical Dedication, a piece where his original fondness of remote conceits seems to have revived 5. 6 Of the three pieces borrowed from Boccace Sigismunda' may 315 be defended by the celebrity of the story. Theodore and Honoria 3, though it contains not much moral, yet afforded opportunities of striking description. And Cymon was formerly a tale of such reputation that, at the revival of letters, it was translated into Latin by one of the Beroalds 1o. Whatever subjects employed his pen he was still improving 316 our measures and embellishing our language ". Macaulay, in 1834, thought of writing an article on the romantic poetry of Italy, for which there is an excellent opportunity, Panizzi's reprint of Boiardo.' Macvey Napier Corres. p. 155. On Nov. 4, 1838, he wrote from Florence :-'I have not been able to read one-half of Boiardo's poem; and, in order to do what I propose, I must read Berni's rifacimento too.' Ib. p. 282. Orlando Innamorato nuovamente riformato per L. D. [Lodovico Domenichi]. 1545. Brit. Mus. Cata. 2 Orlando Innamorato nuovamente composto da F. B. [Francesco Berni]. 1541. Ib. 'If Berni's Rifacimento was not stained with many immoralities it would be the most pleasing poetical thing in our language.' BARETTI, 3 The Cock and the Fox, Works, xi. 337. Horace Walpole (Letters, viii. 524) describes Dryden's poem as 'the standard of good sense, poetry, nature and ease.' The story is more pleasing than either the Ilias or the Aeneis, the manners as perfect, the diction as poetical, the learning as deep and various, and the disposition full as artful, only it includes a greater length of time.' Works, xi. 239; ante, DRYDEN, 202. 5 Ib. xi. 248. For his 'conceits' see ante, DRYDEN, 5, 236. "I think Dryden's translations from Boccace are the best, at least the most poetical, of his poems.' WORDSWORTH, Lockhart's Scott, ii. 289. 1 Sigismonda and Guiscardo, Works, xi. 425. Wordsworth, after pointing out its defects, continues: With all these defects, and they are very gross ones, it is a noble poem.' Lockhart's Scott, ii. 289. 8 Works, xi. 459. 9 Cymon and Iphigenia, Ib. xi. 483. To About the year 1495, by Philip Beroald the elder. Brit. Mus. Cata. "'Absalom and Achitophel and |