Part 7

But upon the Article of adding to his Author, and altering his Sense, there is one Fault in Mr. _Dryden_ which is not to be pardoned. I mean when he does it directly contrary not only to the _Sense_, but to the _Temper_ and _Genius_ of his Author; and that too in those Instances which injure him not only as a _good Poet_, but as a _good Man_. As _Virgil_ is the most chaste, and modest of Poets, and has ever the strictest Regard to Decency; after the Prayer of _Iarbas_ to _Jupiter_ in the Fourth Book, he proceeds thus:

_Talibus orantem dictis, arasque tenentem Audiit omnipotens; oculosque ad mœnia torsit Regia, &_ oblitos famæ melioris amantes.

What could be more well-mannered, more delicate, and truly _Virgilian_, than the Sweetness, and Softness of that remote, insinuating Expression, _oblitos famæ melioris amantes_? For this Piece of a Verse Mr. _Dryden_ gives us Three entire ones; which I will not transcribe. The two first are totally his own; and to One who is not himself _insensible of Shame_, those fulsom Expressions must be very nauseous. Part of the last Verse indeed is _Virgil_'s; and it comes in strangely, after the odious Stuff that goes before it. If _Virgil_ can be said to be remarkable for any one good Quality more than for Modesty, it is for his awful Reverence to Religion. And yet, as Mr. _Dryden_ represents him describing _Apollo_'s Presence at one of his own Festivals, he speaks Thus; Book iv. V. 210.

_Himself, on Cynthus walking, sees below The merry Madness of the sacred Show._

_Virgil_ says, He walks on the Top of _Cynthus_; That's all: The rest is Mr. _Dryden_'s. And it is exactly of a Piece with a Passage in the Third Georgick; in which, without any sort of Provocation, or the least Hint from his Author, He calls the _Priest_ the _Holy Butcher_. If Mr. _Dryden_ took Delight in abusing Priests, and Religion; _Virgil_ did not. It is indeed wonderful that a Man of so fine, and elevated a Genius, and at the same time of so good a Judgment, as Mr. _Dryden_ certainly was, could so much as endure those clumsey Ideas, in which he perpetually rejoices; and that to such a degree, as to thrust them into _Translations_, contrary not only to the Design, and Meaning, but even to the Spirit, and Temper, and most distinguishing Character of his Author. Thus in his Translation of the last Lines of _Homer_'s First Iliad he describes the Gods, and Goddesses as being drunk; and that in no fewer than three Verses, and in some of the coarsest Expressions that our Language will admit of: Whereas the Original gives not the least Intimation of any such thing; but only says that they were _sleepy_, and went _to bed_. And therefore here again I cannot be of Mr. _Pope_'s Opinion, _that it is a great Loss to the Poetical World that Mr._ Dryden _did not live to translate the Iliad_. If we may judge of what the Whole would have been by the Specimen which he has left us; I think it was a Gain to the Poetical World that Mr. _Dryden_'s Version did not hinder us from Mr. _Pope_'s. Which may be said, without any great Compliment to the latter.

As to the Instances of Mr. _Dryden_'s sinking, where his Author most remarkably rises, and being flat where his Author is most remarkably elegant; they are many: But I am almost tired with Quotations; quite tired with such invidious ones, as these are; it being (as I said) much more agreeable to my Temper to remark upon Beauties, than upon Faults, and Imperfections; especially in the Works of great Men, who (tho' they may have written many things not capable of being defended, yet) have written many more, which I can only admire, but do not pretend to equal. And That is the present Case. I shall therefore mention but one Example of this Kind; And it is the unutterable Elegancy of these Lines in the Fourth Book, describing the Scrietch-Owl:

_Solaque culminibus, ferali carmine bubo Sæpe queri_, & longas in fletum ducere voces.

How is This translated in the following Verses? Or rather is it translated at all?

_----With a boding Note The solitary Scrietch-Owl strains her Throat; And on a Chimney's Top, or Turret's height, With Songs obscene disturbs the Silence of the Night._

To produce more Instances would be needless; because One general Remark supersedes them all. It is acknowledged by every body that the First Six Books in the Original are the best, and the most perfect; but the Last Six are so in Mr. _Dryden_'s Translation. Not that even in These _Virgil_ properly sinks, or flags in his Genius; but only he did not live to correct them, as he did the former. However, they abound with Beauties in the Original; and so indeed they do in the Translation, more, as I said, than the First Six: Which is visible to any one that reads the Whole with Application.

I observed in the last place, that where Mr. _Dryden_ shines most, we often see least of _Virgil_. To omit many other Instances, the Description of the _Cyclops_ forging Thunder for _Jupiter_, and Armour for _Æneas_, is elegant, and noble to the last degree in the _Latin_; and it is so to a very great degree in the _English_. But then is the _English_ a Translation of the _Latin_?

_Hither the Father of the Fire by Night Thro' the brown Air precipitates his Flight: On their eternal Anvils here be found The Brethren beating, and the Blows go round._

Our Language, I think, will admit of few things more truly Poetical, than those four Lines. But the two first are set to render

_Huc tunc Ignipotens cœlo descendit ab alto._

There is nothing of _coelo ab alto_ in the Version; nor of _by Night, brown Air_, or _precipitates his Flight_ in the Original. The two last are put in the room of

_Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro, Brontesque, Steropesque, & nudus membra Pyracmon._

_Vasto in antro_ in the first of these Lines, and the last Line entirely are left out in the Translation. Nor is there any thing of _eternal Anvils_ (I wish there were) or _here be found_, in the Original: And _the Brethren beating, and the Blows go round_, is but a loose Version of _Ferrum exercebant_. Much the same may be said of the whole Passage throughout; which will appear to Those who compare the _Latin_ with the _English_. In the whole Passage Mr. _Dryden_ has the true Spirit of _Virgil_; but he would have had never the less of it, if he had more closely adhered to his Words, and Expressions.

Sometimes he is _near enough_ to the Original; And tho' he _might have been nearer_, he is altogether admirable, not only as a _Poet_, but as a _Translator_. Thus in the Second Book;

_Pars ingentem formidine turpi Scandunt rursus equum, & nota conduntur in alvo._

_And some, oppress'd with more ignoble Fear, Remount the hollow Horse_, and pant in secret there.

And in the Twelfth, after the last Speech of _Juturna_;

_Tantum effata, caput glauco contexit amictu, Multa gemens, & se fluvio Dea condidit alto._

_She drew a length of Sighs; no more she said, But with her azure Mantle wrap'd her Head; Then plung'd into her Stream with deep Despair_, And her last Sobs came bubbling up in Air.

Tho' the last Line is not expressed in the Original, yet it is in some measure imply'd; and it is in it self so exceedingly beautiful, that the whole Passage can never be too much admired. These are Excellencies indeed; This is truly Mr. _Dryden_. _Si sic omnia dixisset_, tho' he had approached no nearer to the Original than This; my other Criticisms upon his Translation had been spared. And after all, I desire that Mine, being in a different sort of Verse, may be considered as an Undertaking of _another kind_, rather than as an Attempt to _excel His_. For tho' I think even That may very well _be done_; yet I am too sensible of my own Imperfection, to presume to say it can be done by _Me_. I have nothing to plead, besides what I have already alledged, in Excuse of my many, and great Faults, in the Execution of This bold Design; but that I was drawn into it, not by any Opinion of my Abilities to perform it, but by the inexpressible Passion which I have always had for this incomparable Poet. With a View to whom, I will here insert a noble Stroke out of my Lord _Roscommon_'s excellent _Essay on Translated Verse_: Which, I think, is proper to stand in This Place, both as a Conclusion of my Preface, and as a Kind of Poetical Invocation to my Work:

_Hail mighty_ MARO! _May That sacred Name Kindle my Breast with Thy celestial Flame; Sublime Ideas, and apt Words infuse: The Muse instruct my Voice, and THOU inspire the Muse._

FOOTNOTES TO THE PREFACE:

[1] _Prælectiones Poeticæ._

[2] _Merchant of Venice._

[3] _De tous les Ouvrages dont l'Esprit de l'Homme est capable, le Poem Epique est sans doute le plus accompli._

[4] _For so it should certainly be read; tho' both in the Folio and Octavo Editions, 'tis_ Aristotle.

[5] _Preface to his Fables._

[6] Elogia Virgilii Cap. IV Major _Homero_.

[7] _The Word was originally applied to Dramatic Poetry, and from thence transferred to Epic._ Aristotle _uses it in more Senses than one; which seem not to be rightly distinguished by his Interpreters. However we are for that Reason more at Liberty to apply it, as we think most proper._

[8] _For he mentions several Episodes, which he allows to be truly such; which yet are only convenient, not necessary. And besides, he says, p. 100, and in other Places_, Une Episode est une partie necessaire de l'Action: _And yet, p. 102_, Le premier plan de l'Action contient _seulement ce qui est propre & necessaire_ à la Fable; _& n'a aucune Episode. By which he_ seems at least _to allow that an Episode may not be necessary._

[9] Τὸ μεν οὖν ἰδιον τοὖτο, τὰ δ' ἄλλα ἐπεισόδια. Poetic. Cap XVII.

[10] _The one is ἴδιον, the other is οἰκεῖον. The former is of a more_ close, restrained, _and_ peculiar _Signification, than the latter: The former relating_ most properly _to a Man_'s Person; _the latter to his_ Possessions.

[11] _Preface to_ Homer.

[12] _Dedication of the Æneis._

[13] _See_ Bossu, _Chap. IX._

[14] _Upon the Article of_ Virgil's _Invention, see M._ Segrais _at large in his admirable Preface to his Translation of the_ Æneis; _and from him Mr_. Dryden _in his Dedication of the_ Æneis, _p. 226_, &c. _of the Folio Edition._

[15] _Preface_ to Juvenal.

[16] Paradise lost, _Book VII._

[17] _Preface to Mr._ Pope's Homer.

[18] P. 142. _Second Edition._

[19] _P. 158._

[20] _Præl. Poet._ Vol. I. Præl. 2.

[21] _Verses before L._ Roscommon's _Essay. And Preface to his_ Virgil.

[22] _Preface to it._

[23] _Dr._ Swift _in his Letter to the Earl of_ Oxford.

[24] _Preface to his_ Virgil.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

Spelling: English spelling in the 18th century had many differences from present-day spelling, and most of the spelling has therefore been retained without alteration.

The following may also be correct, and have been retained: "Excrescencies" (Preface p. xiii), "it self" (Preface p. xvii), "w'on't" (Preface p. xxvii), "encountring" (Preface p. xliv, a quotation from Milton PL Book 6), "forreign" (Preface p. xlviii), "litteral" (Preface p. xv), "Scotish" (Preface p. xlviii), "grosly" (Preface p. xlix).

The spelling "Aeneid" is standard in the Introduction, and the spelling "Æneid" is standard in the Preface.

The following more obvious typos have been amended: "parishoners" to "parishioners" (Introduction p. iv) "mnch" to "much" (Preface p. xlv line 14) "Transprosers" to "Transposers" (Preface p. xlviii line 23)

Missing period has been inserted on the following pages in the Preface: p. xv (after "rest are Episodes"), p. xlii (after "Vertue to break it"), and p. l (after "Erroneous").

Footnotes 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15 in the Preface have been particularly difficult to decipher.

Missing period has been added at the end of footnotes 5, 11, 15 and 19.

Incorrectly placed breathings and diacritics on diphthongs in the Greek text have been correctly placed.

Inconsistent positioning of footnote numbers has been retained.