For when the herd, suffic'd, did late repair Proffering the Hind to wait her half the way; Which well she hop'd might be with ease redress'd, And more a gentlewoman than the rest. The lady of the spotted muff began. } The second and third parts he professes to have reduced to diction more familiar and more suitable to dispute and conversation; the difference is not, however, very casily perceived; the first has familiar, and the two others have sonorous lines. The original incongruity runs through the whole; the king is now Casar, and now the Lyon; and the name Pan is given to the Supreme Being. But when this constitutional absurdity is forgiven, the poem must be confessed to be written with great smoothness of metre, a wide extent of knowledge, and an abundant multiplicity of images; the controversy is embellished with pointed sentences, diversified by illustrations, and enlivened by sallies of invective. Some of the facts to which allusions are made are now become obscure, and perhaps there may be many satirical passages little understood. As it was by its nature a work of defiance, a composition which would naturally be examined with the utmost acrimony of criticism, it was probably laboured with uncommon attention; and there are, indeed, few negligences in the subordinate parts. The original impropriety, and the subsequent unpopularity of the subject, added to the ridiculousness of its first elements, has sunk it into neglect; but it may be usefully studied, as an example of poetical 1atiocination, in which the argument suffers little from the metre. In the poem on the Birth of the Prince of Wales, nothing is very remarkable but the exorbitant adulation, and that insensibility of the precipice on which the king was then standing, which the laureat apparently shared with the rest of the courtiers. A few moths cured him of controversy, dismissed him from court, and made him again a play-wright and translator. Of Of Juvenal there had been a translation by Stapylton, and another by Holiday; neither of them is very poetical. Stapylton is more smooth, and Holiday's is more esteemed for the learning of his notes. A new version was proposed to the poets of that time, and undertaken by them in conjunction. The main design was conducted by Dryden, whose reputation was such that no man was unwilling to serve the Muses under him. The general character of this translation will be given, when it is said to preserve the wit, but to want the dignity of the original. The peculiarity of Juvenal is a mixture of gaiety and stateliness, of pointed sentences and declamatory grandeur. His points have not been neglected; but his grandeur none of the band seemed to consider as necessary to be imitated, except Creech, who undertook the thirteenth satire. It is therefore perhaps possible to give a better representation of that great satirist, even in those parts which Dryden himself has translated, some paassges excepted, which will never be excelled. With Juvenal was published Persius, translated wholly by Dryden. This work, though like all other productions of Dryden it may have shining parts, seems to have been written merely for wages, in an uniform mediocrity without any eager endeavour after excellence, or laborious effort of the mind. There wanders an opinion among the readers of poetry, that one of these. satires is an exercise of the school. Dryden says, that he once translated it at school; but not that he preserved or published the juvenile performance. Not long afterwards he undertook perhaps the most arduous work of its kind, a translation of Virgil, for which he had shewn how well he was qualified by his version of the Pollio, and two episodes, one of Nisus and Euryalus, the other of Mezentius and Lausus. In the comparison of Homer and Virgil, the discriminative excellence of Homer is elevation and comprehension of thought, and that of Virgil is grace and splendor of diction. The beauties of Homer are therefore difficult to be lost, and those of Virgil difficult to be retained. The massy trunk of sentiment is safe by its solidity, but the blossoms of elocution easily drop away. The author, having the choice of his own images, selects those which he can best adorn; the translator must, at all hazards, follow his original, and express thoughts which perhaps he would not have chosen. When to this primary difficulty is added the inconvenience of a language so much inferior in harmony to the Latin, it cannot be expected that they who read the Georgick and the Eneid should be much delighted with any version. All these obstacles Dryden saw, and all these he determined to encounter. The expectation of his work was undoubtedly great; the nation considered its honour as interested in the event. One gave him the different editions of his author, another helped him in the subordinate parts. The arguments of the several books were given him by Addison. The 224 The hopes of the public were not disappointed. He produced, says Pope, "the most noble and spirited translation that I know in any language." It certainly excelled whatever had appeared in English, and appears to have satisfied his friends, and, for the most part, to have silenced his enemies. Milbourne, indeed, a clergyman, attacked it; but his outrages seem to be the ebullitions of a mind agitated by stronger resentment than bad poetry can excite, and previously resolved not to be pleased. His criticism extends only to the Preface, Pastorals, and Georgicks; and as he professes to give his antagonist an opportunity of reprisal, he has added his own version of the first and fourth Pastorals, and the first Georgick. The world has forgotten his book; but since his attempt has given him a place in literary history, I will preserve a specimen of his criticism, by inserting his remarks on the invocation before the first Georgick, and of his poetry, by annexing his own version. Ver. 1. "What makes a plenteous harvest, when to turn "It's unlucky, they say, to stumble at the threshold, but what has a plenteous harvest to do here? Virgil would not pretend to prescribe rules for that which depends not on the husbandman's care, but thedisposition of Heaven altogether. "Indeed, the plenteous crop depends somewhat on the good method of tillage, "and where the land's ill manured, the corn, without a miracle, can be but "indifferent; but the harvest may be good, which is its properest epithet, tho' "the husbandman's skill were never so indifferent. The next sentence is too lite"ral, and when to plough had been Virgil's meaning, and intelligible to every body; and when to sow the corn, is a needless addition.” ་་ Ver. 3 "The care of sheep, of oxen, and of kine, "And when to geld the lambs, and sheer the swine, "Would as well have fallen under the cura beum, qui cultus halendo sit pecori, "as Mr. D's deduction of particulars." Ver. 5. "The birth and genius of the frugal bee "I sing, Maecenas, and I sing to thee. "But where did experientia ever signify birth and genius? or what ground was "there for such a figure in this place? How much more manly is Mr. Cgylby's version! "What makes rich grounds, in what celestial signs "'Tis good to plough, and marry elms with vines; "And several arts improving frugal bees, "I sing, Maecenas. "Which four lines, tho' faulty enough, are yet much more to the pupose "than Mr. D's six." Ver. Ver. 22. "From fields and mountains to my song repair. For patrium linquens nemus, saltusque Lycai-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 ploughman's toil's im" pertinent." Ver. 25. -The shroud-like cypress―― "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, or for widows' vails, &c. if so, 'twas a deep good thought." Ver. 26. "The royal 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 is bor"row'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 of the year to "guide powerful of blessings, which thou strew'st around. 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.” 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, Dn, 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 heaven; 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 Ver. 56. way so fast." "Though Proserpine affects her silent seat. "What made her then so angry with Ascalaphus, for preventing her return? "She was now mus'd to Patience under the determinations of Fate, rather "than fond of her residence." Ver. 61, 62, 63. "Pity the poet's, and the ploughman's cares, "Which is such a wretched perversion of Virgil's noble thought as Vicars would "have blush'd at; but Mr. Ogylby makes us some amends, by his better lines: "O wheresoe'er thou art, from thence incline, "And gram assistance to my bold design! 66 Pity, with me, poor husbandmen's affairs, "This is sense, and to the purpose: the other, poor mistaken stuff." Such were the strictures of Milbourne, who found few abettors; and of whom it may be reasonably imagined, that many who favoured his design were ashamed of his insolence. When admiration had subsided, the translation was more 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 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, Since the English ear has been accustomed to the mellifluence of Pope's numbers, and the diction of poetry has become more splendid, new attempts have been madeto translate Virgil; and all his works have been attempted by men better qualified 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 |