"The fairest maid she was, that ever yet Prison'd her locks within a golden net, Or let them waving hang, with roses round them set.” Purple Island, Canto 10, St. 29. In this, however, we in vain look for that exquisite delicacy that marks the Chastity of Collins. Shakspeare has some vivid sketches-a beautiful example is in Lear, where he supposes the elements in league with his daughters. A&t. 3, Scene 2. Again, where Richard the Second personifies, and vents his indignation against his horse. "O how it yearn'd my heart," &c. &c. Rich. 2, A&t. 5, Scene z The office of Time, too, is well delineated, where he officiates as Chorus in Winter's Tale.-A&t. 3. Scene last. MORTIMER. "PROPHECIES. THERE is something remarkable in the following predictions.→→ They are said to have been uttered by the Reverend Christopher Love, who was beheaded in the year 1651, for corresponding with Charles II. and conspiring against the Republican Government. How they apply to the events which have hitherto occurred, we leave to the calculation of others. It is certain that they appeared (whoeever may have been the prophet) long antecedent to the earliest dates in question. "A short work of the Lord's in the latter age of the world. Great earthquakes and commotions by sea and land, shall happen in the year 1779. "Great wars in Germany and America, 1780. "The destruction of Popery, or Babylon's fall, in 1790. "God will be known by many in 1795. This will produce a great man. "The stars will wander, and the moon turn in Blood in 1800. Africa, Asia, and America, will tremble in 1863. "A great earthquake over the whole world in 1805. "God will be universally known by all. Then general refor◄ mation and peace for ever. The people shall learn war no more. Happy is the man that liveth to see this day." Omnia penes Deum. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. FLECTERE NON ODIUM COGIT, NON GRATIA SUADET. MISCELLANEOUS. The Satires of Juvenal translated into English Verse. By William Gifford, Esq. With Notes and Illustrations. 4to. 1802. To avoid an irksome repetition of the sentiments we entertain of Juvenal, and of his comparative merit with respect to the Venusian poet, as well as of the facilities that attend a translation of this justly celebrated satirist, at the present period of time, we deem it prudent to refer our friends to a review offered to their notice at the latter end of last year, in which these circumstances are considered at all the length the nature of our work and its limits will allow.We allude to a version of our author by Mr. Rhodes, than which, as a whole, perhaps nothing of the kind ever came before the public inferior in taste, judgment, and execution. The converse of this picture is now presented to our view, and we congratulate the very extensive line of readers, to whom our bard is in the original unknown, on so noble an acquisition to their amusement and instruction. This elaborate work is prefaced by an Introduction; a Life of Juvenal; and an Essay on the Roman Satirists. In the first we find a very interesting narrative of the life and education of Mr. Gifford, whose good fortune, happily for letters, triumphed over the res angusta domi, and whose apprenticeship to a shoe-maker, (see p. 9) whenever it occasions the witling to repeat the trite proverb of ne sutor ultra crepidam, cannot fail to urge the man of sense and feeling, with justice and exultation, to add the feliciter ausus. This little piece of biography, which contains a minute account of the origin and progress of the translation, will be perused with much sa tisfaction. Of the poet's life, we cannot give our opinion more fully than by using Mr. G.'s words at the conclusion. "This is all that can be collected of the life of Juvenal; and how much of this is built upon uncertainty! I hope, however, it bears the stamp of probability; which is all I contend for; and which, indeed, if I do not deceive myself, is somewhat more than can be affirmed of what has been hitherto delivered on the subject." p. xxxiv. We now come to the Essay on the Roman Satirists, and here, as in the poetry, we are irresistibly reminded of Dryden, the graces of * M. M. for November, p. 312. H H-VOL. XIV. whose composition in prose, and the ardent genius of whose Muse, the memory must dwell on with delight, although our cooler judgment should make us confess that we experience, in the Essay, no small compensation for the absence of his inimitable style, and ingenious observations, in the deeper research and more judicious remarks of Mr. Gifford; as in the translation we are well remunerated for the loss of many beauties, often interpolated, of the former translator, by the great advantage that accrues to us from the industry and correctness of the present. This essay, which is highly creditable to the talents and learning of Mr. G. we shall not dismiss without citing two paragraphs, necessarily prefatory to the work, as requisite to a right understanding of the intention and hope of the author, with regard to his version and its accompaniments. At p. lxiv. he modestly begins, and we subscribe to the truth of all he asserts, by observing: "I could have been sagacious and obscure on many occasions, with very little difficulty but I strenuously combated every inclination to find out more than my author meant. The general character of this translation, if I do not deceive myself, will be found to be plainness; and indeed, the highest praise to which I aspire, is that of having left the original more intelligible than I found it." "Of the borrowed learning of notes, which Dryden says he avoided as much as possible, I have amply availed myself. During the long period in which I have had my thoughts fixed on Juvenal, it has been usual with me, whenever I found a passage that related to him, to fix it on my memory, or to note it down. These, on the revision of the work for the press, I added to such reflections as arose in my own mind, and arranged in the manner they now appear. I confess that this was not an unpleasant task to me, and I will venture to hope, that if my own suggestions fail to please, yet the frequent recurrence of some of the most striking and beautiful passages of ancient and modern poetry, history, &c. will render it neither unamusing nor uninstructive to the general reader. The information insinuated into the mind by miscellaneous collections of this nature, is much greater than is usually imagined; and I have been frequently encouraged to proceed, by recollecting the benefit I formerly derived from casual notices scattered over the margin, or dropped at the bottom of a page." Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam In terris visamque diu; cùm frigida parvas Sed potanda ferens infantibus ubera magnis, Sat. 6, v. 1-10. In Saturn's reign, at Nature's early birth The sheep, the shepherds, and their gods were laid: Rough as their savage lords who rang'd the wood, Yes, I believe that CHASTITY was known, When sheep and shepherds throng'd one common cave, And when the mountain-wife her couch bestrew'd With skins of beasts, joint-tenants of the wood, And reeds, and leaves pluck'd from the neighb'ring tree; A woman, Cynthia, far unlike to thee, Or thee, weak child of fondness and of fears, But strong, and reaching to her burly brood And frequent belching from his coarse repast. Mr. GIFFORD. This brief extract, which we have selected without study, may serve as a careless specimen of two of the poet's translators, and * Delp. Ed. marino for marito. Such errors are frequent; and it must give sensible pleasure to the learned reader, to obtain the intelligence conveyed by Mr. G. in the subsequent note to his life of Juvenal. "I received, by the kindness of Mr. Evans of Pall-Mall, who had heard of my undertaking, the first copy of a new edition of Juvenal which reached this country. It is by Geo. Alex. Rupert, already honourably known to the literary world by his excellent edition of Silius Italicus. It equals my warmest expectations: it is accurate and ingenious, possessing all the advantages of the best editions which I have seen, and adding others which none of them possess." `P. xxvii.... will, we are pleased to see, afford us an opportunity of exhibiting Mr. G. in the light of a commentator, by transcribing a note from the copious body that embellishes and illustrates his version. "This (the above) passage is charmingly imitated by Beaumont and Fletcher in their tragedy of Philaster. Phil. O that I had but digg'd myself a cave, Where I my fire, iny cattle, and my bed, Our neighbours; and have borne at her big breasts A&. IV. "Thus did the reading of the old dramatists enable them to enrich their works with passages that charmed alike in the closet and on the stage. The reading of the present race of Bartholomew-fair farce-mongers, seldom, I bclieve, extends beyond the nursery, and their productions are, in consequence of it, the disgrace of the one, and the contempt and aversion of the other." Every one must admit the aptness of this quotation from Beaumont and Fletcher; but we apprehend that, tho' in a measure just, the severity of the satire on later writers for the stage, will meet with some dissenters. Two or three more of the annotations, although unconnected, may not be unacceptable. On the subject of the Roman husband's villainously conniving at his own shame, he says, "I will relate a little [anecdote of Mæcenas.-He was invited to supper by one Galba, who had a handsome wife. The minister was at this time all-powerful, and his protection therefore, of consequence to his host, who remarked with joy his advances to his wife; and, after supper, fell fast asleep. Mecenas made the best use of his time; and a friend, whom he had brought with him, was proceeding to the same familiarities, when Galba, who had nothing to hope from this new competitor, gravely raised his head, and exclaimed, Non omnibus dormio, I don't sleep for every body! This was thought a good joke at Rome, where the expression soon passed into a proverb." P. 16. At p. 188, he quotes this saying of D. Cato. "Nil temerè uxori de servis crede querenti, which," he assures us, "C every husband should get translated, and hung over his parlour-chimney." On Expende Annibalem, he observes, p. 338, *Here, as it is elsewhere remarked of Ben Jonson, B & F, are not so much the imitators as the translators of the ancient writings. Rev. |