"The translation given here is the most "faithful that can be, and the only faithful

66

one in our language, of any author ancient

or modern. I have but a word to add, "which is, that blank verse costs nothing "but the trouble of dictating: it is not more difficult to write, than a letter. If

people fhould take it into their heads to "write tragedies in blank verfe, and to act "them on our theatre, Tragedy is ruined: "take away the difficulty, and you take away the merit.".

66

An English reader will hardly forbear fmiling at this bold affertion concerning the facility of writing blank verfe. It is indeed no hard matter to write bad verfe of any kind; but, as fo few of our Poets have attained to that perfection in it, which Shakespear and Milton have, we have rea fon to fuppofe the art to be difficult. What ever is well done, in Poetry or Eloquence, appears easy to be done. In the theatrical dialogue, which is an imitation of difcourse, our Critics require the language of nature,

nature, and a just resemblance of the thing imitated, without the appearance of effort and labour. Poffibly there is as much of difficulty in blank verfe to the Poet, as there appears of eafe in it to the Reader. Like the ceftus of Venus, formed by the happy skill of the Graces, it beft exerts its charms, while the artifice of the texture is partly concealed. Dryden, who brought the art of rhyme to great excellence, endeavoured to introduce it on our ftage; but nature and taste revolted against an imitation of dialogue, fo entirely different from that, in which men difcourfe. The verfe, Mr. de Voltaire thus condemns, is perhaps not lefs happily adapted, than the iambic, to the dramatic offices. It rifes gracefully into the Sublime; it can flide happily into the Familiar; haften its career if impelled by vehemence of paffion; pause in the hesitation of doubt; appear lingering and languid, in dejection and forrow; is capable of varying its accent, and adapting its harmony, to the fentiment, it should convey, and the paffion it would excite,

with all the power of mufical expreffion. Even a person, who did not understand our language, would find himself very differently affected, by the following speeches in

that metre:

LEAR

Vengeance! plague! death! confufion!-
Fiery? what fiery quality? why, Glo'iter,

I'd fpeak with the Duke of Cornwall, and his wife a
The king would speak'with Cornwall. The dear father
Would with his daughter speak, commands her fer-
vice :

Are they inform'd of this? my breath and blood!
Fiery the fiery duke? tell the hot duke that-
MACBETH.

I have lived long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the fear, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead,
Curfes not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dares not,

The charm arifing from the tones of English blank verfe cannot be felt by a O 2

Foreigner,

Foreigner, who is fo far from being acquainted with the pronunciation of our language, that he often mistakes the fignification of the most common words; of which there are many remarkable instances in this boasted tranflation of Julius Cæfar; for Mr. de Voltaire does not know, for example, that the word courfe fignifies method of proceeding, but imagines it means a courfe of dishes, or a race. Brutus replies to Caffius's proposal to kill Cæfar:

BRUTUS.

Our courfe will feem too bloody, Caius Caffius,
To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs.
Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards:
For Antony is but a limb of Cæfar.

Thus it is tranflated by Mr. de Voltaire:

BRUTUS.

Cette courfe aux Romains paraitrait trop fanglante;
On nous reprocherait la colêre & l'envie,

Si nous coupons la tête, & puis hachons les membres,
Car Antoine n'eft rien qu'un membre de Cæfar.

The following ingenious note is added by the tranflator. The word courfe, fays he,

perhaps

perhaps has an illufion to the Lupercal course. It also fignifies a service of dishes at table. It is very extraordinary, that a man should fet up for a Tranflator, with fo little acquaintance in the language, as not to be able to distinguish whether a word, in a certain period, fignifies a race, a service of dishes, or a mode of conduct. In a piece entitled Guillaume de Vadè, and attributed to Mr. de Voltaire, there is a blunder of the fame kind. Polonius orders his daughter not to confide in the promises of Hamlet, who, being heir to the crown, cannot have liberty of choice in marriage, like a private perfon. He muft not, fays the old statefman, carve for himself, as vulgar perfons do. The French author tranflates it, he must not cut his own victuals; and runs on about morfels, as if Hamlet's dinner, not his marriage, had been the fubject of debate. The translator knew not that the word carve is often used metaphorically in our language, for a person's framing or fashioning his lot or portion. We fay, the lover feeds on hope; the warrior thirsts for glory: would it be