vicious and corrupt in him. And for want of all thefe requifites, or the greatest part of them, most of our ingenious young Men take up fome cry'd-up English Poet for their Medol, adore him, and imitate him, as they think, without knowing wherein he is defective, where he is Boyish and trifling, wherein either, his Thoughts are improper to his Subject, or his Expreffions unworthy of his Thoughts, or the turn of both is unharmonious. Thus it appears neceffary that a Man Shou'd be a nice Critick in his Mother Tongue, before be attempts to Tranflate a foreign Language. Neither is it fufficient that he be able to Judge of Words and Stile; but he must be a Master of them too: He must perfectly understand his Author's Tongue, and abfolutely command his own: So that to be a thorow Tranflator, he must be a thorow Poet. Neither is it enough to give his Author's Senfe, in good English, in Poetical expreffions, and in Mufical numbers: For, though all these are exceeding difficult to perform, there yet remains an harder task; and 'tis a fecret of which few Tranflators have fufficiently thought. I have already hinted a word or two concerning it; that is, the maintaining the Character of an Author, which diftinguishes him from all others, and makes him appear that individual Poet whom you wou'd interpret. For example, not only the Thoughts, but the Stile and Verfification of Virgil and Ovid, are very different: Yet I fee, even in our beft Poets, who have Tranflated fome parts of them, that they have confounded their feveral Talents; and by endeavouring only at the fweetness and harmony of Numbers, have made them both fo much alike, that if I did not not know the Originals, I fhou'd never be able to Judge by the Copies, which was Virgil, and which was Ovid. It was objected against a late noble Painter, that he drew many graceful Pictures, but few of them were like. And this happen'd to him, because he always ftudied himself more than those who fate to him. In fuch Tranflators I can easily diftinguish the Hand which perform'd the Work, but I cannot diftinguish their Poet from another. Suppose two Authors are equally fweet, yet there is a great diftinEtion to be made in fweetness, as in that of Sugar, and that of Honey. I can make the difference more plain, by giving you, (if it be worth knowing) my own method of proceeding, in my Tranflations out of four feveral Poets in this Volume; Virgil, Theocritus, Lucretius and Horace. In each of these, before I undertook them, I confider'd the Genius and diftinguishing Character of my Author. I look'd on Virgil, as a fuccinct and grave Majeftick Writer; one who weigh'd not only every Thought, but every Word and Syllable. Who was fill aiming to crowd his Senfe into as narrow a compass as poffibly he cou'd; for which reafon he is fo very Figurative, that he requires (I may almost say) a Grammar apart to conftrue him. His Verfe is every where founding the very Thing in your Ears, whofe Senfe it bears: Tet the Numbers are perpetually varied, to increase the delight of the Reader; fo that the fame Sounds are never repeated twice together. On the contrary, Ovid and Claudian, though they write in Stiles differing from each other, yet have each of them but one fort of Mufick in their Verfes. All the verfification A 4 and and little variety of Claudian, is included within the compass of four or five Lines, and then he begins again in the fame tenour; perpetually closing his Senfe at the end of a Verfe, and that Verfe commonly which they call Golden, or two Subftantives and two Adjectives with a Verb betwixt them to keep the peace. Ovid, with all his fweetness, has as little variety of Numbers and Sound as he: He is always as it were upon the hand-gallop, and his Verfe runs upon Carpet ground. He avoids like the other all Synalapha's, or cutting off one Vowel when it comes before another, in the following word: So that minding only smoothness, he wants both Variety and Majesty. But to return to Virgil, though he is smooth where Smoothness is requir'd, yet he is fo far from affecting it, that he feems rather to difdain it. Frequently makes ufe of Synalæpha's, and concludes bis Senfe in the middle of his Verfe. He is every where above conceits of Epigrammatick Wit, and grofs Hyperboles: He maintains Majefty in the midst of Plainness hefbines, but glares not; and is ftately without ambition, which is the vice of Lucan. Idrew my definition of Poetical Wit from my particular confideration of him: For propriety of thoughts and words are only to be found in him; and where they are proper, they will be delightful. Pleafure follows of neceffity, as the effect does the cause; and therefore is not to be put into the definition. This exact propriety of Virgil I particularly regarded, as a great part of his Character; but must confefs to my shame, that I have not been able to Tranflate any part of him fo well, as to make him appear wholly like himself. For where the Original Original is clofe, no Verfion can reach it in the fame compafs. Hannibal Caro's in the Italian, is the neareft, the most Poetical, and the most Sonorous of any Tranflation of the Eneids; yet, though he takes the advantage of blank Verfe, he commonly allows two Lines for one of Virgil, and does not always hit his Senfe. Taffo tells us in his Letters, that Sperone Speroni, a great Italian Wit, who was his Contemporary, obferv'd of Virgil and Tully; that the Latin Orator endeavour'd to imitate the Copioufness of Homer, the Greek Poet; and that the Latin Poet made it his Bufinefs to reach the Concifeness of Demofthenes, the Greek Orator. Virgil therefore being fo very fparing of his Words, and leaving fo much to be imagin'd by the Reader, can never be tranflated as he ought, in any modern Tongue: To make him Copi ous is to alter his Character; and to Tranflate him Line for Line is impoffible, because the Latin is naturally a more fuccinct Language, than either the Italian, Spanish, French, or even than the English, (which by reafon of its Monofyllables is far the most compendious of them.) Virgil is much the clofeft of any Roman Poet, and the Latin Hexameter has more Feet than the English Heroick. Befides all this,an Author has the choice of his own Thoughts and Words, which a Tranflator has not; he is confin'd by the Senfe of the Inventor to thofe Expreffions, which are the nearest to it: So that Virgil ftudying Brevity, and having the command of his own Language, could bring thefe Words into a narrow compass, which a Tranflator cannot render without Circomlocutions. In short, they who have call'd him the Torture Torture of Grammarians,might also have call'd him the Plague of Tranflators; for he seems to have studied not to be Tranflated. I own that endeavouring to turn his Nifis and Euryalus as close as I was able, I have perform'd that Episode too literally; that giving more fcope to Mezentius and Laufus, that Verfion which has more of the Majesty of Virgil, has lefs of his Concifenefs; and all that I can promife for my felf, is only that I have done both, better than Ogleby, and perhaps as well as Caro. So, that methinks I come like a Malefactor, to make a Speech upon the Gallows, and to warn all other Poets, by my fad Example, from the Sacrilege of Tranflating Virgil. Yet, by confidering him fo carefully as I did before my attempt, I have made fome faint resemblance of him; and bad I taken more time, might poffibly have fucceeded better; but never fo well, as to have fatisfy'd my self. He who excels all other Poets in his own Language, were it poffible to do him right, must appear above them in our Tongue, which, as my Lord Rofcomon justly obferves, approaches nearest to the Roman in its Majefty: Nearest indeed, but with a vaft Interval betwixt them. There is an inimitable grace in Virgil's words, and in them principally confifts that beauty, which gives fo unexpressible a pleasure to him who beft understands their force; this Diction of his, I must once again fay, is never to be Copied, and fince it cannot, he will appear but lame in the beft Tranflation. The turns of his Verfe, his breakings, his propriety, his numbers, and his gravity, I have as far imitated, as the poverty of our Lan guage, |