nature, and á 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 fkill 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 flage; but nature and tafte 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 slide 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 fhould convey, and the paffion it would excite,

with all the power of mufical expreffion. Even a perfon, 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 speak with the Duke of Cornwall, and his wife:
The king would speak with Cornwall. The dear father
Would with his daughter fpeak, 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 muft not look to have; but in their ftead,
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 O2 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 course of dishes, or a race. Brutus replies to Caffius's propofal 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, in 1
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 course, says he,

perhaps

perhaps has an illufion to the Lupercal courfe. It also fignifies a fervice of dishes at table. It is very extraordinary, that a man fhould 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 must not, fays the old statefman, carve for himself, as vulgar persons do. The French author tranflates it, he muft not cut his own victuals; and runs on about morfels, as if Hamlet's dinner, not his marriage, had been the subject of debate. The tranflator knew not that the word carve is often used metaphorically in our language, for a perfon's framing or fashioning his lot or portion. We fay, the lover feeds on hope; the warrior thirfts for glory: would it be

fair to tranflate, that the lover eats a morfel of hope, and the warrior defires to drink a draught of glory? If fuch tranflations are allowed, the works of the most correct author may be rendered ridiculous. It is apparent, that Mr. de Voltaire depended en tirely on the affistance of a dictionary, to enable him to give the most faithful translation that can be, and the only faithful one, in the French language, of any author, ancient or modern.

It is neceffary to prefent to those readers, who do not understand French, the miserable miftakes and galimathias of this dictionary work. Brutus, in his foliloquy, meditating on what Caffius had been urging concerning Cæfar, thus expreffes his apprehenfion, that imperial power may change the conduct of

the man.

BRUTUS.

'Tis a common proof,

That lowlinefs is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,

He