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Hastings, Etheridge and Bliss, propose publishing Perry's Dictionary, on a new and elegant type, cast expressly for the purpose, in a neat pocket volume. THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY. FOR MARCH, 1809. REMARKS ON ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE ROMAN POETS. No. 3. IT was not until some time in the seventeenth century, that Virgil was disgraced by an entire English version. Ogilby was the offender. But, as his performance has never been commended, and is now almost unknown, I shall not waste time in animadverting on the work, nor attempt to disturb that repose, which it has enjoyed almost from birth. If Ogilby had been bred a scholar instead of a dancing master, and had become a student at Cambridge before he received the trust of deputy manager of the Irish revels, he would have grown wise enough to refrain from a task, which he has accomplished so infamously. No poet would then have had occasion to call on Dryden in defence of Homer, "To right his injur'd works, and set them free Nor would the admirers of Virgil have been excited to indignation by the efforts of this bungling interpreter. To adopt the language of one of Dryden's panegyrists, it was Virgil's fate, "To lye at every dull translator's will; Long, long his muse has groan'd beneath the weight From the gross injustice toward the Mantuan bard, which has been adverted to, we turn with pleasure and relief to the successful labours of Dryden. His reputation, not only as an original poet, but as a translator also, was well established before he promised his poetick version of Virgil. Publick expectation was highly raised. It was not suffered to fall, because Dryden made no needless delay; it was not ultimately disappointed with his version, because no one could have expected a better. Dryden early discovered a poetick taste; but his first attempts at versification exhibited more genius than poetry, odd conceits without attention to harmonious numbers, and uncommon originality without sufficient adherence to metrical rules. He improved by experience, but not by carefulness. He had an impetuosity which he seems never to have resisted, and an ardour which he never studied to abate. Impetuosity is commonly checked by age, and age is not often chargeable with unreasonable heat. Dryden began his T translation after he had entered his sixty fourth year. He suffered more than the usual infirmities attendant on that period of life; and had lost much of his relish for poetry, whether pastoral, georgick, or heroick. To these circumstances we are probably indebted for a greater fidelity to his author, than he would otherwise have exhibited. An imagination so transcendent, and a vehemence so uncommon would, in the vigour of youth, have betrayed him into a negligent departure from the rules of translation. He has not wholly escaped this censure; and, under the pretext of greater strictness to the meaning of Virgil, the world was afterward taxed with a dull performance of a servile interpreter.* It was Dryden's opinion of a just translation, that it" is not so loose as paraphrase, nor so close as metaphrase.” Of his too strict verbal adherence to the original, it would be difficult to find instances it is a fault of which he was never suspected. But that he is often paraphrastick, they who will compare him with his author, may readily perceive. I will give only one example, taken from the ninth eclogue. LYCIDAS. "Hic, ubi densas Agricolae stringunt frondes, hic, Moeri, canamus; LYCIDAS. Ecl. ix. I. 61. "Here, where the lab'rer's hands have form'd a bower Of wreathing trees." This may convey the meaning of Virgil; but it approaches very near to commentary, and is not happily expressed. Why Dryden represented Lycidas, entreating Moeris to "waste an hour in singing," it is difficult to conceive. Virgil's Lycidas was not guilty of this incivility. "Hic, Moeri, canamus" can never mean "in singing waste an hour;" and we should hardly have expected this censure upon musick from the author of "Alexander's feast." "Rest here thy weary limbs." This is doubtless to help out the line, for we find nothing answering to it in Virgil. "And that thou may'st not be too late abroad." Lycidas does not assign this reason for offering to take the burden of Moeris; and it would have been more poetical in Dryden, and * Trapp. more just to his author, to have represented musick as having the power of rendering the burden light. Instances of greater freedom, which Dryden has manifested in different parts of his version, might be selected; examples which criticks can censure more easily, than the translator could avoid. I shall not attempt to decide, in which part of his translation he is more deserving of praise, whether in the pastorals or georgicks. In the latter he has performed his task pretty uniformly well; and has rendered them as pleasing as the nature of the subjects admits. In the battle of the bees, near the commencement of the fourth book, if its excellence consists in the mock heroick, he has fairly won the laurel from Virgil; and the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, towards the close of the book, has lost little of its spirit, as told by the translator. Dryden, no doubt, deserved that encomium, which Pope bestowed on him, of producing "the most noble and spirited translation hẹ knew in any language." It was however a hurried performance; and, like every thing of Dryden's, it indicates a writer impatient of labour. Had he proceeded in the work with greater deliberation, his version might have been more equal, but probably not more brilliant; less deficient in harmony, but not more uniformly interesting. Though versification since the time of Dryden has become more correct, than at the period when he wrote, yet he has scarcely been surpassed as a poet. For all his faults he affords a recompense: when he does not please the ear, he delights the imagination, and captivates the mind. It was scarcely to be expected, that, as a translator of Virgil, Dryden would very soon have a rival; and it may be said with truth, that he had no rival. Trapp has told us, that he should not have translated Virgil, had he not been" honoured by the University of Oxford with the publick office of professor of poetry." It is to be regretted, that from this circumstance he felt under any new obligations to the publick as a poetical writer. That Trapp knew well what a poem should be, understood the structure of its parts, and was in a certain sense "master of every species of poetry," his "praelectiones poeticae" abundantly evince. But many are ingenious in theory, who are unskilful in practice; and the best criticks are not always the best writers. Trapp was unquestionably a man of erudition, and well versed in ancient literature; and, had he been content to be a teacher without aspiring to excel as a poet, he would have gained more praise, and have escaped much severe criticism. He seems to have thought too contemptuously of rhyme; perhaps because Dryden chose this species of poetry; for he bore no good will to Dryden. His defence of blank verse, because it gives greater latitude of expression than rhyme, is just; and the justice of it a translator must often feel. If however it be the refuge of indolence, it deserves little regard. It is intended to reflect neither upon Trapp nor his opinions. Blank verse may even be best adapted to the Eneid: yet with regard to the pastorals I cannot but think, that Trapp was sadly ensnared by his prejudices against rhyme. He makes them a strange sort of composition; rude and simple enough, but dull, insipid, and prosaick. It must be acknowledged, that he deserves more credit as a critick, than as a poet; and more applause for his admiration of Virgil, than for his taste in rendering him into English. "Intent to teach, too careless how to please," Is a line contained in a poetick tribute of a friend to our translator. Perhaps it was not meant to be the language of apology; nor can it ever be received as such. An author will not gain a single admirer by indifference of pleasing, nor conciliate one critick by braving censure. And that writer deserves and excites most tenderness, who, after aiming to please, throws himself on the mercy of his judges. We wish not to animadvert with severity on a performance of so good a man as Trapp. He was respectable as a divine and a scholar, and estimable as a christian. But he was not great enough to distance adulation, and was fairly flattered into an undertaking, which was never to gain him applause. After Dryden and Trapp, Pitt produced his translation of the Eneid. He professed not to enter the lists with Dryden, though some think that he has fairly gained the prize. Pitt was no less amiable as a man, than modest as an author. His competent fortune, with the leisure of an English Rector, gave him many opportunities above Dryden, who wrote for bread as well as fame. These opportunities he improved by retirement and the cultivation of a delicate taste. His poetical productions were numerous; many of which were written in early life, and never published. As a translator he has many beauties mixed with some defects. He is too fond of alliteration; a figure which he sometimes repeats in such quick succession, that a severe critick would be prone to charge him with affectation. The following lines afford an example : Meanwhile loud thunders rattle round the sky, This versification is generally very correct and very equal. He has none of Dryden's great faults, and perhaps seldom reaches his greatest beauties. Taken as a whole he has exhibited more of Virgil than his predecessor. What Dryden wanted in leisure he had to supply by ready genius and uncommon exertion. If Pitt fell below him in powers of mind, he had an equivalent in time and opportunity. Dryden has been accused by Spence in his Polymetis of ignorance of the allegories of Virgil; and Pitt has been commended by Warton for escaping all but three or four instances of such ignorance, where Dryden has been guilty of fifty. A further comparison of these two translators, and a selection of a few passages from each, I shall attempt in the next number. |