Chapter XVIII: Appendix: No. I

_STANZAS from TICKELL’S Ballad of COLIN AND LUCY_

_Translated by LE MIERRE_

Cheres compagnes, je vous laisse;
Une voix semble m’apeller,
Une main que je vois sans cesse
Me fait signe de m’en aller.

L’ingrat que j’avois cru sincere
Me fait mourir, si jeune encor:
Une plus riche a sçu lui plaire:
Moi qui l’aimois, voila mon sort!

Ah Colin! ah! que vas tu faire?
Rends moi mon bien, rends-moi ta foi;
Et toi que son cœur me préfère
De ses baisers détourne toi.

Dès le matin en épousée
À l’église il te conduira;
Mais homme faux, fille abusée,
Songez que Lucy sera là.

Filles, portez-moi vers ma fosse;
Que l’ingrat me rencontre alors,
Lui, dans son bel habit de noce,
Et Lucy sous le drap des morts.

_I hear a voice you cannot hear,_
_Which says I must not stay;_
_I see a hand you cannot see,_
_Which beckons me away._

_By a false heart, and broken vows,_
_In early youth I die;_
_Am I to blame, because his bride_
_Is thrice as rich as I?_

_Ah Colin, give not her thy vows,_
_Vows due to me alone;_
_Nor thou, fond maid, receive his kiss,_
_Nor think him all thy own._

_To-morrow in the church to wed,_
_Impatient both prepare,_
_But know, fond maid, and know, false man,_
_That Lucy will be there._

_There bear my corse, ye comrades, bear,_
_The bridegroom blithe to meet;_
_He in his wedding-trim so gay,_
_I in my winding-sheet._

No. II

_ODE V. of the First Book of HORACE_

_Translated by MILTON_

_Quis multa gracilis, &c._

What slender youth, bedew’d with liquid odours,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave?
Pyrrha, for whom bind’st thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he
On faith and changed Gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted, shall admire.

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant, always amiable,
Hopes thee; of flattering gales
Unmindful? Hapless they

To whom thou untry’d seem’st fair. Me in my vow’d
Picture the sacred wall declares t’have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern God of sea.

No. III

_The beginning of the VIIIth Book of the ILIAD_

_Translated by T. HOBBES_

The morning now was quite display’d, and Jove
Upon Olympus’ highest top was set;
And all the Gods and Goddesses above,
By his command, were there together met.
And Jupiter unto them speaking, said,
You Gods all, and you Goddesses, d’ye hear!
Let none of you the Greeks or Trojans aid:
I cannot do my work for you: forbear!
For whomsoever I assisting see
The Argives or the Trojans, be it known,
He wounded shall return, and laught at be,
Or headlong into Tartarus be thrown;
Into the deepest pit of Tartarus,
Shut in with gates of brass, as much below
The common hell, as ’tis from hell to us.
But if you will my power by trial know,
Put now into my hand a chain of gold,
And let one end thereof lie on the plain,
And all you Gods and Goddesses take hold,
You shall not move me, howsoe’er you strain
At th’ other end, if I my strength put to ’t,
I’ll pull you Gods and Goddesses to me,
Do what you can, and earth and sea to boot,
And let you hang there till my power you see.
The Gods were out of countenance at this,
And to such mighty words durst not reply, &c.

No. IV

A very learned and ingenious friend,[72] to whom I am indebted for some very just remarks, of which I have availed myself in the preceding Essay, has furnished me with the following acute, and, as I think, satisfactory explanation of a passage in Tacitus, extremely obscure in itself, and concerning the meaning of which the commentators are not agreed. “Tacitus meaning to say, ‘That Domitian, wishing to be the great, and indeed the only object in the empire, and that no body should appear with any sort of lustre in it but himself, was exceedingly jealous of the great reputation which Agricola had acquired by his skill in war,’ expresses himself thus:

In Vit. Agr. cap. 39

“_Id sibi maxime formidolosum, privati hominis nomen suprà principis attolli. Frustra studia fori, et civilium artium decus in silentium acta, si militarem gloriam alius occuparet: et cætera utcunque facilius dissimulari, ducis boni imperatoriam virtutem esse._ Which Gordon translates thus: ‘Terrible above all things it was to him, that the name of a private man should be exalted above that of the Prince. In vain had he driven from the public tribunals all pursuits of popular eloquence and fame, in vain repressed the renown of every civil accomplishment, if any other than himself possessed the glory of excelling in war: Nay, however he might dissemble every other distaste, yet to the person of Emperor properly appertained the virtue and praise of being a great general.’

“This translation is very good, as far as the words ‘civil accomplishment,’ but what follows is not, in my opinion, the meaning of Tacitus’s words, which I would translate thus:

“‘If any other than himself should become a great object in the empire, as that man must necessarily be who possesses military glory. For however he might conceal a value for excellence of every other kind, and even affect a contempt of it, yet he could not but allow, that skill in war, and the talents of a great General, were an ornament to the Imperial dignity itself.’

“Domitian did not pretend to any skill in war; and therefore the word ‘_alius_’ could never be intended to express a competitor with him in it.”

FOOTNOTES

[1] Vertere Græca in Latinum, veteres nostri oratores optimum judicabant. Id se Lucius Crassus, in illis Ciceronis de oratore libris, dicit factitasse. Id Cicero suâ ipse personâ frequentissimè præcipit. Quin etiam libros Platonis atque Xenophontis edidit, hoc genere translatos. Id Messalæ placuit, multæque sunt ab eo scriptæ ad hunc modum orationes (_Quinctil. Inst. Orat._ l. 10, c. 5).

Utile imprimis, ut multi præcipiunt, vel ex Græco in Latinum, vel ex Latino vertere in Græcum: quo genere exercitationis, proprietas splendorque verborum, copia figurarum, vis explicandi, præterea imitatione optimorum, similia inveniendi facultas paratur: simul quæ legentem fefellissent, transferentem fugere non possunt (_Plin. Epist._ l. 7, ep. 7).

[2] There remain of Cicero’s translations some fragments of the _Œconomics_ of Xenophon, the _Timæus_ of Plato, and part of a poetical version of the _Phenomena_ of Aratus.

[3] When the first edition of this Essay was published, the Author had not seen Dr. Campbell’s new translation of the Gospels, a most elaborate and learned work, in one of the preliminary dissertations to which, that ingenious writer has treated professedly “Of the chief things to be attended to in translating.” The general laws of the art as briefly laid down in the first part of that dissertation are individually the same with those contained in this Essay; a circumstance which, independently of that satisfaction which always arises from finding our opinions warranted by the concurring judgement of persons of distinguished ingenuity and taste, affords a strong presumption that those opinions are founded in nature and in common sense. Another work on the same subject had likewise escaped the Author’s observation when he first published this Essay; an elegant poem on translation, by Mr. Francklin, the ingenious translator of Sophocles and Lucian. It is, however, rather an apology of the art, and a vindication of its just rank in the scale of literature, than a didactic work explanatory of its principles. But above all, the Author has to regret, that, in spite of his most diligent research, he has never yet been fortunate enough to meet with the work of a celebrated writer, professedly on the subject of translation, the treatise of M. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, _De optimo genere interpretandi_; of whose doctrines, however, he has some knowledge, from a pretty full extract of his work in the _Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de Grammaire et Litterature_, article _Traduction_.

[4] Founding upon this principle, which he has by no means proved, That the arrangement of the Greek and Latin languages is the order of nature, and that the modern tongues ought never to deviate from that order, but for the sake of sense, perspicuity, or harmony; he proceeds to lay down such rules as the following: That the periods of the translation should accord in all their parts with those of the original—that their order, and even their length, should be the same—that all conjunctions should be scrupulously preserved, as being the joints or articulations of the members—that all adverbs should be ranged next to the verb, &c. It may be confidently asserted, that the Translator who shall endeavour to conform himself to these rules, even with the licence allowed of sacrificing to sense, perspicuity, and harmony, will produce, on the whole, a very sorry composition, which will be far from reflecting a just picture of his original.

[5]

Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate,
That few, but such as cannot write, translate.

_Denham to Sir R. Fanshaw._

hands impure dispense
The sacred streams of ancient eloquence;
Pedants assume the task for scholars fit,
And blockheads rise interpreters of wit.

_Translation by Francklin._

[6] _Batteux de la Construction Oratoire_, par. 2, ch. 4. Such likewise appears to be the opinion of M. Huet: “_Optimum ergo illum esse dico interpretandi modum, quum auctoris sententiæ primum, deinde ipsis etiam, si ita fert utriusque linguæ facultas, verbis arctissimè adhæret interpres, et nativum postremo auctoris characterem, quoad ejus fieri potest, adumbrat; idque unum studet, ut nulla cum detractione imminutum, nullo additamento auctum, sed integrum, suique omni ex parte simillimum, perquam fideliter exhibeat.—Universè ergo verbum, de verbo exprimendum, et vocum etiam collocationem retinendam esse pronuncio, id modo per linguæ qua utitur interpres facultatem liceat_” (Huet de Interpretatione, lib. 1).

[7] Dom Vincent Thuillier.

[8] _Mémoires militaires de M. Guischardt._

[9] Dr. George Campbell, _Preliminary Dissertations to a new Translation of the Gospels_.

[10] _Cic. de Fin._ l. 2.

[11] _Cic. Tusc. Quæst._ l. 4.

[12] _Trans. of Royal Soc. of Edin._ vol. 3.

[13] The excellent translation of Tacitus by Mr. Murphy had not appeared when the first edition of this Essay was published.

[14] Mr. Gordon has translated the words _ad tempus_, “in pressing emergencies;” and Mr. Murphy, “in sudden emergencies only.” This sense is, therefore, probably warranted by good authorities. But it is evidently not the sense of the author in this passage, as the context sufficiently indicates.

[15] There is a French translation of this ballad by Le Mierre, which, though not in all respects equal to that of Bourne, has yet a great deal of the tender simplicity of the original. See a few stanzas in the Appendix, No. I.

[16] From the modern allusion, _barrieres du Louvre_, this passage, strictly speaking, falls under the description of imitation, rather than of translation. See _postea_, ch. xi.

[17] In the poetical works of Milton, we find many noble imitations of detached passages of the ancient classics; but there is nothing that can be termed a translation, unless an English version of Horace’s _Ode to Pyrrha_; which it is probable the author meant as a whimsical experiment of the effect of a strict conformity in English both to the expression and measure of the Latin. See this singular composition in the Appendix, No. 2.

[18]

That servile path thou nobly dost decline,
Of tracing word by word, and line by line.
A new and nobler way thou dost pursue,
To make translations and translators too:
They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame;
True to his sense, but truer to his fame.

DENHAM to Sir R. FANSHAW.

[19] One of the best passages of Fanshaw’s translation of the _Pastor Fido_, is the celebrated apostrophe to the spring—

Spring, the year’s youth, fair mother of new flowers,
New leaves, new loves, _drawn by the winged hours_,
Thou art return’d; but the felicity
Thou brought’st me last is not return’d with thee.
Thou art return’d; but nought returns with thee,
Save my lost joy’s regretful memory.
Thou art the self-same thing thou wert before,
As fair and jocund: but I am no more
The thing I was, so gracious in her sight,
_Who is heaven’s masterpiece and earth’s delight_.
O bitter sweets of love! far worse it is
To lose than never to have tasted bliss.

O Primavera gioventu del anno,
Bella madre di fiori,
D’herbe novelle, e di novelli amori:
Tu torni ben, ma teco,
Non tornano i sereni,
E fortunati dì de le mie gioie!
Tu torni ben, tu torni,
Ma teco altro non torna
Che del perduto mio caro tesoro
La rimembranza misera e dolente.
Tu quella se’ tu quella,
Ch’eri pur dianzi vezzosa e bella.
Ma non son io già quel ch’un tempo fui,
Sì caro a gli occhi altrui.
O dolcezze amarissime d’amore!
Quanto è più duro perdervi, che mai
Non v’haver ò provate, ò possedute!

_Pastor Fido_, act 3, sc. 1.

In those parts of the English version which are marked in Italics, there is some attempt towards a freedom of translation; but it is a freedom of which Sandys and May had long before given many happier specimens.

[20] I am happy to find this opinion, for which I have been blamed by some critics, supported by so respectable an authority as that of M. Delille; whose translation of the _Georgics_ of Virgil, though censurable, (as I shall remark) in a few particulars, is, on the whole, a very fine performance: “Il faut etre quelquefois superieur à son original, précisément parce qu’on lui est très-inférieur.” _Delille Disc. Prelim. à la Trad. des Georgiques._ Of the same opinion is the elegant author of the poem on Translation.

Unless an author like a mistress warms,
How shall we _hide his faults_, or taste his charms?
How all his modest, latent beauties find;
How trace each lovelier feature of the mind;
_Soften each blemish_, and _each grace improve_,
And treat him with the dignity of love?

FRANCKLIN.

[21] Witness the attempt of a translator of no ordinary ability.

Pulchra mari, crocea surgens in veste, per omnes
Fundebat sese terras Aurora: deorum
Summo concilium cœlo regnator habebat.
Cuncta silent: Solio ex alto sic Jupiter orsus.

Huc aures cuncti, mentesque advertite vestras,
Dîque Deæque, loquar dum quæ fert corde voluntas,
Dicta probate omnes; neve hinc præcidere quisquam
Speret posse aliquid, seu mas seu fœmina. Siquis
Auxilio veniens, dura inter prælia, Troas
Juverit, aut Danaos, fœde remeabit Olympum
Saucius: arreptumve obscura in Tartara longè
Demittam ipse manu jaciens; immane barathrum
Altè ubi sub terram vasto descendit hiatu,
Orcum infra, quantum jacet infra sidera tellus:
Ære solum, æterno ferri stant robore portæ.
Quam cunctis melior sim Dîs, tum denique discet.
Quin agite, atque meas jam nunc cognoscite vires,
Ingentem heic auro e solido religate catenam,
Deinde manus cuncti validas adhibete, trahentes
Ad terram: non ulla fuat vis tanta, laborque,
Cœlesti qui sede Jovem deducere possit.
Ast ego vos, terramque et magni cœrula ponti
Stagna traham, dextra attollens, et vertice Olympi
Suspendam: vacuo pendebunt aëre cuncta.
Tantum supra homines mea vis, et numina supra est.

_Ilias Lat. vers. express. a Raym. Cunighio_, _Rom._ 1776.

[22] See a translation of this passage by Hobbes, in the true spirit of the _Bathos_. Appendix, No. III.

[23] A similar instance of good taste occurs in the following translation of an epigram of Martial, where the indelicacy of the original is admirably corrected, and the sense at the same time is perfectly preserved:

_Vis fieri liber? mentiris, Maxime, non vis:_
_Sed fieri si vis, hac ratione potes._
_Liber eris, cœnare foris, si, Maxime, nolis:_
_Veientana tuam si domat uva sitim:_
_Si ridere potes miseri Chrysendeta Cinnæ:_
_Contentus nostrâ si potes esse togâ._
_Si plebeia Venus gemino tibi vincitur asse:_
_Si tua non rectus tecta subire potes:_
_Hæc tibi si vis est, si mentis tanta potestas,_
_Liberior Partho vivere rege potes._

MART. lib. 2, ep. 53.

Non, d’etre libre, cher Paulin,
Vous n’avez jamais eu l’envie;
Entre nous, votre train de vie
N’en est point du tout le chemin.

Il vous faut grand’chere, bon vin,
Grand jeu, nombreuse compagnie,
Maitresse fringante et jolie,
Et robe du drap le plus fin.

Il faudrait aimer, au contraire,
Vin commun, petit ordinaire,
Habit simple, un ou deux amis;
Jamais de jeu, point d’Amarante:
Voyez si le parti vous tente,
La liberté n’est qu’à ce prix.

[24] Fitzosborne’s _Letters_, l. 19.

[25] Thus likewise translated with great beauty of poetry, and sufficient fidelity to the original:

Ut lunam circa fulgent cum lucida pulchro
Astra choro, nusquam cœlo dum nubila, nusquam
Aerios turbant ventorum flamina campos;
Apparent speculæ, nemoroso et vertice montes
Frondiferi et saltus; late se fulgidus æther
Pandit in immensum, penitusque abstrusa remoto
Signa polo produnt longe sese omnia; gaudet
Visa tuens, hæretque immoto lumine pastor.

_Ilias Lat. vers. a Raym. Cunighio_, _Rom._ 1776.

[26] Dr. Beattie, _Dissertation on Poetry and Music_, p. 357. 4to. ed.

[27] Fitzosborne’s _Letters_, 43.

[28] It is amusing to observe the conceit of this author, and the compliment he imagines he pays to the taste of his patron, in applauding this miserable composition: “Adeo tibi placuit, ut quædam etiam in melius mutasse tibi visus fuerim.” With similar arrogance and absurdity, he gives Milton credit for the materials only of the poem, assuming to himself the whole merit of its structure: “Miltonus Paradisum Amissum invenerat; ergo Miltoni hìc lana est, at mea tela tamen.”

[29] _Third Preliminary Diss. to New Translation of the Four Gospels._

[30] “His affectation of the manner of some of the poets and orators has metamorphosed the authors he interpreted, and stript them of the venerable signatures of antiquity, which so admirably befit them; and which, serving as intrinsic evidence of their authenticity, recommend their writings to the serious and judicious. Whereas, when accoutred in this new fashion, nobody would imagine them to have been Hebrews; and yet, (as some critics have justly remarked), it has not been within the compass of Castalio’s art, to make them look like Romans.” Dr. Campbell’s 10th _Prelim. Diss._

[31] Dr. Campbell, 10th _Prel. Diss._ part 2.

[32] The language of that ludicrous work, _Epistolæ obscurorum virorum_, is an imitation, and by no means an exaggerated picture, of the style of _Arias Montanus’s_ version of the Scriptures. _Vos bene audivistis qualiter Papa habuit unum magnum animal quod vocatum fuit Elephas; et habuit ipsum in magno honore, et valde amavit illud. Nunc igitur debetis scire, quod tale animal est mortuum. Et quando fuit infirmum, tunc Papa fuit in magna tristitia, et vocavit medicos plures, et dixit eis: Si est possibile, sanate mihi Elephas. Tunc fecerunt magnam diligentiam, et viderunt ei urinam, et dederunt ei unam purgationem quæ constat quinque centum aureos, sed tamen non potuerunt Elephas facere merdare, et sic est mortuum; et Papa dolet multum super Elephas; quia fuit mirabile animal, habens longum rostrum in magna quantitate.—Ast ego non curabo ista mundana negotia, quæ afferunt perditionem animæ. Valete._

[33] _Lond._ 1691.

[34]

_Sectantem levia nervi_
_Deficiunt animique: professus grandia turget:_
_Serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellæ._
_In vitium ducit culpæ fuga_, si caret arte.

HOR. _Ep. ad. Pis._

[35] The _Orations of M. T. Cicero_ translated into English, with notes historical and critical. Dublin, 1766.

[36] Echard has here mistaken the author’s sense. He ought to have said, “o’ my conscience, this night is twice as long as that was.”

[37]

_Hor._ Donec gratus eram tibi,
Nec quisquam potior brachia candidæ
Cervici juvenis dabat;
Persarum vigui rege beatior.

_Lyd._ Donec non aliam magis
Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloen;
Multi Lydia nominis
Romanâ vigui clarior Iliâ.

_Hor._ Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit,
Dulceis docta modos, et citharæ sciens;
Pro qua non metuam mori,
Si parcent animæ fata superstiti.

_Lyd._ Me torret face mutuâ
Thurini Calaïs filius Ornithi;
Pro quo bis patiar mori,
Si parcent puero fata superstiti.

_Hor._ Quid, si prisca redit Venus,
Diductosque jugo cogit aheneo?
Si flava excutitur Chloe,
Rejectæque patet janua Lydiæ?

_Lyd._ Quamquam sidere pulchrior
Ille est, tu levior cortice, et improbo
Iracundior Hadriâ;
Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.

HOR. l. 3, Od. 9.

[38] Dr. Warton.

[39] _Hujus (viz. Aristidis) pictura est, oppido capto, ad matris morientis e vulnere mammam adrepens infans; intelligiturque sentire mater et timere, ne emortuo lacte sanguinem infans lambat._ Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 35, c. 10.—If the epigram was made on the subject of this picture, Pliny’s idea of the expression of the painting is somewhat more refined than that of the epigrammatist, though certainly not so natural. As a complicated feeling can never be clearly expressed in painting, it is not improbable that the same picture should have suggested ideas somewhat different to different observers.

[40] J. H. Beattie, son of the learned and ingenious Dr. Beattie of Aberdeen, a young man who disappointed the promise of great talents by an early death. In him, the author of _The Ministrel_ saw his _Edwin_ realised.

[41] _Observer_, vol. 4, p. 115, and vol. 5, p. 145.

[42] The original of the fragment of Timocles:

Ω ταν, ἂκουσον ην τι σοι μέλλω λέγειν.
Ανθρωπός ἐστι ζῶον ἐπίπονον φύσει,
Καὶ πολλὰ λυπῆρ’ ὁ βίος ἐν ἑαυτω φέρει.
Παραψυχὰς ουν φροντίδων ανευρατον
Ταυτας· ὁ γὰρ νοῦς των ἰδίων λήθην λαβὼν
Πρὸς ἀλλοτριῳ τε ψυχαγωγηθεὶς πάθει,
Μεθ’ ἡδονῆς ἀπῆλθε παιδευθεὶς ἃμα.
Τοὺς γὰρ τραγῳδοὺς πρῶτον εἰ βούλει σκόπει,
Ὡς ὠφελοῦσί παντας· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ὤν πένης
Πτωχότερον αὑτου καταμαθὼν τὸν Τήλεφον
Γενόμενον, ἤδη την πενίαν ῥᾶον φέρει.
Ο νοσῶν δὲ μανικῶς, Αλκμαίων’ εσκεψατο.
Οφθαλμιᾶ τις; εἰσὶ Φινεῖδαι τυφλοί.
Τέθνηκε τω παῖς; η Νιόβη κεκούφικε.
Χωλός τις ἐστι, τὸν Φιλοκτήτην ὁρᾷ.
Γέρων τὶς ἀτυχεῖ; κατέμαθε τὸν ΟΙνέα.
Απαντα γὰρ τὰ μείζον’ ἤ πέπονθέ τις
Ατυχήματ’ ἄλλοις γεγονότ’ ἐννοούμενος,
Τὰς αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ συμφορὰς ῥᾷον φέρει.

Thus, in the literal version of Dalechampius:

_Hem amice, nunc ausculta quod dicturus sum tibi._
_Animal naturâ laboriosum homo est._
_Tristia vita secum affert plurima:_
_Itaque curarum hæc adinvenit solatia:_
_Mentem enim suorum malorum oblitam,_
_Alienorum casuum reputatio consolatur,_
_Indéque fit ea læta, et erudita ad sapientiam._
_Tragicos enim primùm, si libet, considera,_
_Quàm prosint omnibus. Qui eget,_
_Pauperiorem se fuisse Telephum_
_Cùm intelligit, leniùs fert inopiam._
_Insaniâ qui ægrotat, de Alcmeone is cogitet._
_Lippus est aliquis, Phinea cœcum is contempletur._
_Obiit tibi filius, dolorem levabit exemplum Niobes._
_Claudicat quispiam, Philocteten is respicito._
_Miser est senex aliquis, in Oeneum is intuetor._
_Omnia namque graviora quàm patiatur_
_Infortunia quivis animadvertens in aliis cùm deprehenderit,_
_Suas calamitates luget minùs._

[43] The original of the fragment of Diphilus:

Τοιοῦτο νόμιμόν ἐστὶ βέλτιστ’ ενθαδε
Κορίνθίοις, ἵν’ ἐαν τιν’ ὀψωνοῦντ’ ἀεὶ
Λαμπρῶς ὁρωμεν, τοῦτον ἀνακρινείν πόθεν
Ζῇ, καὶ τί ποιῶν. κᾂν μεν οὐσίαν εχῃ
Ης αἱ προσοδοι λυουσι τ’ ἀναλώματὰ,
Εᾶν ἀπολαύειν. ἤδε τοῦτον τὸν βίον.
Εαν δ’ ὑπέρ την οὐσίαν δαπανῶν τύχῃ,
Απεῖπον αὐτῶ τοῦτο μὴ ποιεῖν ἔτι.
Ος ἂν δὲ μή πείθητ’, ἐπέβαλον ζημίαν.
Εάν δὲ μηδε ὁτιοῦν ἔχων ζῇ πολυτελῶς,
Τῷ δημιῳ παρέδωκαν αὐτον. Ηράκλεις.
ΟΥκ ἐνδέχεται γὰρ ζῇν ἂνευ κακοῦ τινὸς
Τοῦτον. συνίης; ἀλλ’ ἀναγκαίως ἔχει
Ηλοποδυτεῖν τὰς νύκτας, ἢ τοιχωρυχεῖν,
Η τῶν ποιουντων ταῦτα κοινωνεῖν τισιν.
Η συκοφαντεῖν κατ’ ἀγορὰν, ἢ μαρτυρεῖν
Ψευδῆ, τοιοῦτων ἐκκαθαίρομεν γενος.
Ορθῶς γε νὴ Δί’, ἀλλὰ δὴ τί τοῦτ’ ἐμοί;
Ορῶμεν ὀψωνοῦνθ’ ἑκάστης ἡμέρας,
ΟΥχι μετριως βέλτιστέ σ’, ἀλλ’ ὑπερηφάνως.
ΟΥκ ἔστιν ἰχθυηρὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ μεταλαβεῖν.
Συνηκας ἡμῶν εἰς τὰ λάχανα την πόλιν,
Περὶ τῶν σελινων μαχόμεθ’ ὥσπερ Ισθμίοις.
Λαγώς τις εἰσελήλυθ’. ευθὺς ἥρπακας.
Πέρδικα δ’ ἢ κιχλην; καὶ νὴ Δί’ οὐκ ἔτι
Εστιν δἰ ὑμᾶς οὐδὲ πετομενην ἰδεῖν,
Τὸν ξενικὸν οἶνον ἐπιτετίμηκας πολύ.

Thus in the version of Dalechampius:

A. _Talis istic lex est, ô vir optime,_
_Corinthiis: si quem obsonantem semper_
_Splendidiùs aspexerint, illum ut interrogent_
_Unde vivat, quidnam agat: quòd si facultates illi sunt_
_Quarum ad eum sumptum reditus sufficiat,_
_Eo vitæ luxu permittunt frui:_
_Sin amplius impendat quàm pro re sua,_
_Ne id porrò faciat interdicitur._
_Si non pareat, mulctâ quidem plectitur._
_Si sumptuosè vivit qui nihil prorsus habet,_
_Traditur puniendus carnifici._

B. _Proh Hercules._

A. _Quod enim scias, fieri minimè potest_
_Ut qui eo est ingenio, non vivat improbè: itaque necessum_
_Vel noctu grassantem obvios spoliare, vel effractarium, parietem
suffodere,_
_Vel his se furibus adjungere socium,_
_Aut delatorem et quadruplatorem esse in foro: aut falsum_
_Testari: à talium hominum genere purgatur civitas._

B. _Rectè, per Jovem: sed ad me quid hoc attinet?_

A. _Nos te videmus obsonantem quotidie_
_Haud mediocriter, vir optime, sed fastuosè, et magnificè,_
_Ne pisciculum quidem habere licet caussâ tuâ:_
_Cives nostros commisisti, pugnaturos de oleribus:_
_De apio dimicamus tanquam in Isthmiis._
_Si lepus accessit, eum extemplo rapis._
_Perdicem, ac turdum ne volantem quidem_
_Propter vos, ita me Juppiter amet, nobis jam videre licet,_
_Peregrini multùm auxistis vini pretium._

[44] It is to be regretted that Mr. Cumberland had not either published the original fragments along with his translations, or given special references to the authors from whom he took them, and the particular part of their works where they were to be found. The reader who wishes to compare the translations with the originals, will have some trouble in searching for them at random in the works of Athenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Stobæus, and others.

[45] C’est en quoi consiste le grand art de la Poësie, de dire figurément presque tout ce qu’elle dit. _Rapin. Reflex. sur la Poëtique en général._ § 29.

[46] “Quand il s’agit de représenter dans une autre langue les choses, les pensées, les expressions, les tours, les tons d’un ouvrage; les choses telles qu’elles sont sans rien ajouter, ni retrancher, ni déplacer; les pensées dans leurs couleurs, leurs degrés, leurs nuances; les tours, qui donnent le feu, l’esprit, et la vie au discours; les expressions naturelles, figurées, fortes, riches, gracieuses, délicates, &c. le tout d’après un modele qui commande durement, et qui veut qu’on lui obéisse d’un air aisé; il faut, sinon autant de génie, du moins autant de gout pour bien traduire, que pour composer. Peut-être même en faut il davantage. L’auteur qui compose, conduit seulement par une sorte d’instinct toujours libre, et par sa matiere qui lui présente des idées, qu’il peut accepter ou rejetter à son gré, est maitre absolu de ses pensées et de ses expressions: si la pensée ne lui convient pas, ou si l’expression ne convient pas à la pensée, il peut rejetter l’une et l’autre; _quæ desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit_. Le traducteur n’est maitre de rien; il est obligé de suivre partout son auteur, et de se plier à toutes ses variations avec une souplesse infinie. Qu’on en juge par la variété des tons qui se trouvent nécessairement dans un même sujet, et à plus forte raison dans un même genre.——Quelle idée donc ne doit-on pas avoir d’une traduction faite avec succès?”—_Batteux de la construction Oratoire_, par. 2.

[47] ΓΝ. Τι τοῦτο; παιεις ω Τιμων; μαρτυρομαι· ω Ηρακλεις· ιου, ιου. Προκαλοῦμαι σε τραυματος εις Αρειον παγον· Τιμ. Και μεν αν γε μακρον επιβραδυνης, φονον ταχα προκεκληση με. _Lucian_, _Timon_.

[48] Και ὅλως πανσοφον τι χρημα, και πανταχοθεν ακριβες, και ποικιλως εντελες· οιμωξεται τοιγαρουν ουκ εις μακραν χρηστος ων. _Lucian_, _Timon_.

[49] Αντι του τεως Πυρριου, η Δρομωνος, η Τιβιου, Μεγακλης, Μεγαβυζος, η Πρωταρχος μετονομασθεις, τους ματην κεχηνοτας εκεινους εις αλληλους αποβλεποντας καταλιπων, &c. _Lucian_, _Timon_.

[50] The following apology made by D’Ablancourt of his own version of Tacitus, contains, however, many just observations; from which, with a proper abatement of that extreme liberty for which he contends, every translator may derive much advantage.

Of Tacitus he thus remarks: “Comme il considere souvent les choses par quelque biais étranger, il laisse quelquefois ses narrations imparfaites, ce qui engendre de l’obscurité dans ses ouvrages, outre la multitude des fautes qui s’y rencontrent, et le peu de lumière qui nous reste de la plupart des choses qui y sont traitées. Il ne faut donc pas s’étonner s’il est si difficile à traduire, puisqu’il est même difficile à entendre. D’ailleurs il a accoutumé de méler dans une même période, et quelquefois dans une même expression diverses pensées qui ne tiennent point l’une à l’autre, et dont il faut perdre une partie, comme dans les ouvrages qu’on polit, pour pouvoir exprimer le reste sans choquer les délicatesses de notre langue, et la justesse du raisonnement. Car on n’a pas le même respect pour mon François que pour son Latin; et l’on ne me pardonneroit pas des choses, qu’on admire souvent chez lui, et s’il faut ainsi dire, qu’on revere. Par tout ailleurs je l’ai suivi pas à pas, et plutôt en esclave qu’en compagnon; quoique peut-être je me pusse donner plus de liberté, puisque je ne traduis pas un passage, mais un livre, de qui toutes les parties doivent être unies ensemble, et comme fondues en un même corps. D’ailleurs, la diversité qui se trouve dans les langues est si grande, tant pour la construction et la forme des périodes, que pour les figures et les autres ornemens, qu’il faut à touts coups changer d’air et de visage, si l’on ne veut faire un corps monstrueux, tel que celui des traductions ordinaires, qui sont ou mortes et languissantes, ou confuses et embrouillées, sans aucun ordre ni agrément. Il faut donc prendre garde qu’on ne fasse perdre la grace à son auteur par trop de scrupule, et que de peur de lui manquer de foi en quelque chose, on ne lui soit infidèle en tout: principalement, quand on fait un ouvrage qui doit tenir lieu de l’original, et qu’on ne travaille pas pour faire entendre aux jeunes gens le Grec ou le Latin. Car on fait que les expressions hardies ne sont point exactes, parce que la justesse est ennemie de la grandeur, comme il se voit dans la peinture et dans l’ecriture; mais la hardiesse du trait en supplée le défaut, et elles sont trouvées plus belles de la sorte, que si elles étoient plus régulières. D’ailleurs il est difficile d’etre bien exact dans la traduction d’un auteur qui ne l’est point. Souvent on est contraint d’ajouter quelque chose à sa pensée pour l’eclaircir; quelquefois il faut en retrancher une partie pour donner jour à tout le reste. Cependant, cela fait que les meilleures traductions paroissent les moins fideles; et un critique de notre tems a remarqué deux mille fautes dans le Plutarque d’Amyot, et un autre presqu’autant dans les traductions d’Erasme; peut-être pour ne pas savoir que la diversité des langues et des styles oblige à des traits tout differens, _parce que l’Eloquence est une chose si delicate, qu’il ne faut quelquefois qu’une syllabe pour la corrompre_. Car du reste, il n’y a point d’apparence que deux si grands hommes se soient abusés en tant de lieux, quoiqu’il ne soit pas étrange qu’on se puisse abuser en quelque endroit. Mais tout le monde n’est pas capable de juger d’une traduction, quoique tout le monde s’en attribuë la connoissance; et ici comme ailleurs, la maxime d’Aristote devroit servir de regle, qu’il faut croire chacun en son art.”

[51] A striking resemblance to this beautiful apostrophe “Ahi padri irragionevoli,” is found in the beginning of Moncrif’s _Romance d’Alexis et Alis_, a ballad which the French justly consider as a model of tenderness and elegant simplicity.

Pourquoi rompre leur mariage,
Mechans parens?
Ils auroient fait si bon menage
A tous momens!
Que sert d’avoir bagues et dentelle
Pour se parer?
Ah! la richesse la plus belle
Est de s’aimer.

Quand on a commencé la vie
Disant ainsi:
Oui, vous serez toujours ma mie,
Vous mon ami:
Quand l’age augmente encor l’envie
De s’entreunir,
Qu’avec un autre on nous marie
Vaut mieux mourir.

[52]

Otium divos rogat in patenti
Prensus Ægeo, simul atra nubes
Condidit Lunam, neque certa fulgent
Sidera nautis.

Otium bello furiosa Thrace,
Otium Medi pharetrâ decori,
Grosphe, non gemmis, neque purpurâ ve-
nale, nec auro.

Non enim gazæ, neque Consularis
Summovet lictor miseros tumultus
Mentis, et curas laqueata circum
Tecta volantes.

Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum
Splendet in mensâ tenui salinum:
Nec leves somnos Timor aut Cupido
Sordidus aufert.

Quid brevi fortes jaculamur ævo
Multa? quid terras alio calentes
Sole mutamus? Patriæ quis exul,
Se quoque fugit?

Scandit æratas vitiosa naves
Cura, nec turmas equitum relinquit,
Ocyor cervis, et agente nimbos
Ocyor Euro.

Lætus in præsens animus, quod ultra est
Oderit curare; et amara lento
Temperat risu. Nihil est ab omni
Parte beatum.

Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem:
Longa Tithonum minuit senectus:
Et mihi forsan, tibi quod negârit,
Porriget hora.

Te greges centum, Siculæque circum
Mugiunt vaccæ: tibi tollit hinnitum
Apta quadrigis equa: te bis Afro
Murice tinctæ.

Vestiunt lanæ: mihi parva rura, et
Spiritum Graiæ tenuem Camœnæ
Parca non mendax dedit, et malignum
Spernere vulgus.

HOR. _Od. 2, 16._

[53] There is, however, a very common mistake of translators from the French into English, proceeding either from ignorance, or inattention to the general construction of the two languages. In narrative, or the description of past actions, the French often use the present tense for the preterite: _Deux jeunes nobles Mexicains jettent leurs armes, et viennent à lui comme déserteurs. Ils mettent un genouil à terre dans la posture des supplians; ils le saisissent, et s’élancent de la platforme.—Cortez s’en débarasse, et se retient à la balustrade. Les deux jeunes nobles périssent sans avoir exécuté leur généreuse entreprise._ Let us observe the aukward effect of a similar use of the present tense in English. “Two young Mexicans of noble birth throw away their arms and come to him as deserters. They kneel in the posture of suppliants; they seise him, and throw themselves from the platform.—Cortez disengages himself from their grasp, and keeps hold of the ballustrade. The noble Mexicans perish without accomplishing their generous design.” In like manner, the use of the present for the past tense is very common in Greek, and we frequently remark the same impropriety in English translations from that language. “After the death of Darius, and the accession of Artaxerxes, Tissaphernes accuses Cyrus to his brother of treason: Artaxerxes gives credit to the accusation, and orders Cyrus to be apprehended, with a design to put him to death; but his mother having saved him by her intercession, sends him back to his government.” Spelman’s _Xenophon_. In the original, these verbs are put in the present tense, διαβαλλει, πειθεται, συλλαμβανει, αποπεμπει. But this use of the present tense in narrative is contrary to the genius of the English language. The poets have assumed it; and in them it is allowable, because it is their object to paint scenes as present to the eye; _ut pictura poesis_; but all that a prose narrative can pretend to, is an animated description of things past: if it goes any farther, it encroaches on the department of poetry. In one way, however, this use of the present tense is found in the best English historians, namely, in the summary heads, or contents of chapters. “Lambert Simnel invades England.—Perkin Warbeck is avowed by the Duchess of Burgundy—he returns to Scotland—he is taken prisoner—and executed.” Hume. But it is by an ellipsis that the present tense comes to be thus used. The sentence at large would stand thus. “_This chapter relates how_ Lambert Simnel invades England, _how_ Perkin Warbeck is avowed by the Duchess of Burgundy,” &c.

[54] It is surprising that this fault should meet even with approbation from so judicious a critic as Denham. In the preface to his translation of the second book of the _Æneid_ he says: “As speech is the apparel of our thoughts, so there are certain garbs and modes of speaking which vary with the times; the fashion of our clothes being not more subject to alteration, than that of our speech: and this I think Tacitus means by that which he calls _Sermonem temporis istius auribus accommodatum_, the delight of change being as due to the curiosity of the ear as of the eye: and therefore, if Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he should speak, not only _as a man of this nation, but as a man of this age_.” The translator’s opinion is exemplified in his practice.

_Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem._

“_Madam_, when you command us to review
Our fate, you make our old wounds bleed anew.”

Of such translation it may with truth be said, in the words of Francklin,

Thus Greece and Rome, in modern dress array’d,
Is but antiquity in masquerade.

[55] The modern air of the following sentence is, however, not displeasing: Antipho asks Cherea, where he has bespoke supper; he answers, _Apud libertum Discum_, “At Discus the freedman’s.” Echard, with a happy familiarity, says, “At old Harry Platter’s.” _Ter. Eun._ act 3, sc. 5.

[56] Alluding to the French Admiral’s ship _Le Soleil Royal_, beaten and disabled by Russell.

[57] The translation published by Motteux declares in the title-page, that it is the work of several hands; but as of these Mr. Motteux was the principal, and revised and corrected the parts that were translated by others, which indeed we have no means of discriminating from his own, I shall, in the following comparison, speak of him as the author of the whole work.

[58] The only French translation of _Don Quixote_ I have ever seen, is that to which is subjoined a continuation of the Knight’s adventures, in two supplemental volumes, by Le Sage. This translation has undergone numberless editions, and is therefore, I presume, the best; perhaps indeed the only one, except a very old version, which is mentioned in the preface, as being quite literal, and very antiquated in its style. It is therefore to be presumed, that when Jarvis accuses Motteux of having taken his version entirely from the French, he refers to that translation above mentioned to which Le Sage has given a supplement. If this be the case, we may confidently affirm, that Jarvis has done Motteux the greatest injustice. On comparing his translation with the French, there is a discrepancy so absolute and universal, that there does not arise the smallest suspicion that he had ever seen that version. Let any passage be compared _ad aperturam libri_; as, for example, the following:

“De simples huttes tenoient lieu de maisons, et de palais aux habitants de la terre; les arbes se defaisant d’eux-memes de leurs écorces, leur fournissoient de quoi couvrir leurs cabanes, et se garantir de l’intempérie des saisons.”

“The tough and strenuous cork-trees did of themselves, and without other art than their native liberality, dismiss and impart their broad, light bark, which served to cover those lowly huts, propped up with rough-hewn stakes, that were first built as a shelter against the inclemencies of the air.”—MOTTEUX.

“La beaute n’étoit point un avantage dangereux aux jeunes filles; elles alloient librement partout, etalant sans artifice et sans dessein tous les présents que leur avoit fait la Nature, sans se cacher davantage, qu’autant que l’honnêteté commune à tous les siecles l’a toujours demandé.”

“Then was the time, when innocent beautiful young shepherdesses went tripping over the hills and vales, their lovely hair sometimes plaited, sometimes loose and flowing, clad in no other vestment but what was necessary to cover decently what modesty would always have concealed.”—MOTTEUX.

It will not, I believe, be asserted, that this version of Motteux bears any traces of being copied from the French, which is quite licentious and paraphrastical. But when we subjoin the original, we shall perceive, that he has given a very just and easy translation of the Spanish.

_Los valientes alcornoques despedian de sí sin otro artificio que el de su cortesia, sus anchas y livianas cortezas, sin que se commençaron á cubrir las casas, sobre rusticas, estacas sustentadas, no mas que para defensa de las inclemencias del cielo._

_Entonces sí, que andaban las simples y hermosas zagalejas de valle en valle, y de otero en otero, en trenza y en cabello, sin mas vestidos de aquellos que eran menester para cubrir honestamente lo que la honestidad quiere._

[59] Perhaps a parody was here intended of the famous epitaph of Simonides, on the brave Spartans who fell at Thermopylæ:

Ω ξειν, αγγειλον Λακεδαιμονιοις, οτι τηδε
Κειμεθα, τοις κεινων ρημασι πειθομενοι.

“O stranger, carry back the news to Lacedemon, that we died here to prove our obedience to her laws.” This, it will be observed, may be translated, or at least closely imitated, in the very words of Cervantes; _diras—que su caballero murio por acometer cosas, que le hiciesen digno de poder llamarse suyo_.

[60] One expression is omitted which is a little too gross.

[61] Thus it stands in all the editions by the Royal Academy of Madrid; though in Lord Carteret’s edition the latter part of the proverb is given thus, apparently with more propriety: _del mal que le viene no se enoje_.

[62] _Mas ligera que un alcotan_ is more literally translated by Smollet than by Motteux; but if Smollet piqued himself on fidelity, why was _Cordobes o Mexicano_ omitted?

[63] Smollet has here mistaken the sense of the original, _como si ellos tuvieran la culpa del maleficio_: She did not blame the hair for being guilty of the transgression or offence, but for being the cause of the Moor’s transgression, or, as Motteux has properly translated it, “this affront.” In another part of the same chapter, Smollet has likewise mistaken the sense of the original. When the boy remarks, that the Moors don’t observe much form or ceremony in their judicial trials, Don Quixote contradicts him, and tells him there must always be a regular process and examination of evidence to prove matters of fact, “_para sacar una verdad en limpio menester son muchas pruebas y repruebas_.” Smollet applies this observation of the Knight to the boy’s long-winded story, and translates the passage, “There is not so much proof and counter proof required to bring truth to light.” In both these passages Smollet has departed from his prototype, Jarvis.

[64] I add this qualification not without reason, as I intend afterwards to give an example of a species of florid writing which is difficult to be translated, because its meaning cannot be apprehended with precision.

[65] The following translation of these verses by Parnell, is at once a proof that this excellent poet felt the characteristic merit of the original, and that he was unable completely to attain it.

My change arrives; the change I meet
Before I thought it nigh;
My spring, my years of pleasure fleet,
And all their beauties die.
In age I search, and only find
A poor unfruitful gain,
Grave wisdom stalking slow behind,
Oppress’d with loads of pain.

My ignorance could once beguile,
And fancied joys inspire;
My errors cherish’d hope to smile
On newly born desire.
But now experience shews the bliss
For which I fondly sought,
Not worth the long impatient wish
And ardour of the thought.

My youth met fortune fair array’d,
In all her pomp she shone,
And might perhaps have well essay’d
To make her gifts my own.
But when I saw the blessings show’r
On some unworthy mind,
I left the chace, and own’d the power
Was justly painted blind.

I pass’d the glories which adorn
The splendid courts of kings,
And while the persons mov’d my scorn,
I rose to scorn the things.

In this translation, which has the merit of faithfully transfusing the sense of the original, with a great portion of its simplicity of expression, the following couplet is a very faulty deviation from that character of the style.

My errors cherish’d hope to smile
On newly born desire.

[66] The attempt, however, has been made. In a little volume, intitled _Prolusiones Poeticæ_, by the Reverend T. Bancroft, printed at Chester 1788, is a version of the _Fidicinis et Philomelæ certamen_, which will please every reader of taste who forbears to compare it with the original; and in the Poems of Pattison, the ingenious author of the _Epistle of Abelard to Eloisa_, is a fable, intitled, the _Nightingale and Shepherd_, imitated from Strada. But both these performances serve only to convince us, that a just translation of that composition is a thing almost impossible.

[67] The occasional blemishes, however, of a good writer, are a fair subject of castigation; and a travesty or burlesque parody of them will please, from the justness of the satire: As the following ludicrous version of a passage in the 5th _Æneid_, which is among the few examples of false taste in the chastest of the Latin Poets:

——_Oculos telumque tetendit._

——He cock’d his eye and gun.

[68]

To be, or not to be, that is the question:—
Whether ’tis better in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die;—to sleep;
No more?—And by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to;—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die;—to sleep;—
To sleep! perchance to dream;—ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: There’s the respect,
That makes calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To groan and sweat under a weary life;
But that the dread of something after death—
That undiscover’d country, from whose bourne
No traveller returns—puzzles the will;
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, &c.

_Hamlet_, act 3, sc. 1.

[69] Other ideas superadded by the translator, are,

Que suis-je——Qui m’arrête?——
On nous menace, on dit que cette courte vie, &c.
——Affreuse éternité!
Tout cœur à ton seul nom se glace épouvanté——
A des amis ingrats qui detournent la vue——

In the _Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare_, which is one of the best pieces of criticism in the English language, the reader will find many examples of similar misrepresentation and wilful debasement of our great dramatic poet, in the pretended translations of Voltaire.

[70] Pour faire connoitre l’esprit de ce poëme, unique en son genre, il faut retrancher les trois quarts de tout passage qu’on veut traduire; car ce _Butler_ ne finit jamais. J’ai donc réduit à environ quatre-vingt vers les quatre cent premiers vers d’Hudibras, pour éviter la prolixité. _Mel. Philos. par Voltaire, Oeuv. tom. 15. Ed. de Genève._ 4to.

[71] I have lately learnt, that the author of this translation was Colonel Townley, an English gentleman who had been educated in France, and long in the French service, and who thus had acquired a most intimate knowledge of both languages.

[72] James Edgar, Esq., Commissioner of the Customs, Edinburgh.

INDEX

A

Ablancourt, his translations excellent, 120

——, his just observations on translation, 120

Adrian, his _Address to his Soul_, 126

Alembert, D’, quoted, 13

——, his translations from Tacitus, 15 _et seq._ 34

_Alis et Alexis_, romance, 129

Aldrich, Dr., his translation of a humorous song, 202

Ambiguous expressions, how to be translated, 17

Ancient translation, few specimens of, existing at present, 4

Anguillara, beautiful passage from his translation of Ovid’s
_Metamorphoses_, 128

_Anthologia_, translation of an epigram from, by Webb, 88

Aratus, _Phenomena_ of, translated by Cicero, 2

Arias Montanus, his version of the Scriptures, 67

Atterbury, his translation of Horace’s dialogue with Lydia, 85

B

Barnaby, _Ebrii Barnabæ Itinerarium_, 202

Batteux, Abbé, remarks on the art of translation, 3, 4, 112

Beattie, Dr., his remark on a passage of Dryden, 58; his remark
on Castalio, 66

Beattie, J. H., his translation of Pope’s _Messiah_ quoted, 90

Bible, translations of, 64 _et seq._ _See_ Castalio, Arias
Montanus

Bourne, Vincent, his translation of _Colin and Lucy_, 23; of
_William and Margaret_, 80; of _Chloe hunting_, 82

Brown, Thomas, his translations from Lucian, 118

Buchanan, his version of the Psalms, 145

Burlesque translation, 197 _et seq._

Butler. _See_ _Hudibras_

C

Campbell, Dr., preliminary dissertation to a new translation of
the Gospels, 3, cited 64 _et seq._

Casaubon, his translation of Adrian’s _Address to his Soul_, 126

Castalio, his version of the Scriptures, 65

Cervantes. _See_ _Don Quixote_

Chaulieu, his beautiful _Ode on Fontenai_ quoted, 181

Chevy-chace, whimsical translation of, 203

Cicero had cultivated the art of translation, 1; translated
Plato’s _Timæus_, Xenophon’s _Œconomics_, and the _Phenomena_
of Aratus, 2

——, epistles of, translated by Melmoth, 17, 28, 32

Claudian, translation from, by Hughes, 89

_Colin and Lucy_, translated by Bourne, 23; by Le Mierre, _see_
Appendix, No. 1

Colloquial phrases, 135 _et seq._

Congreve, translation from Horace cited, 57

Cotton, his translation of Montaigne cited, 138; his Virgil
travesty, 201

Cowley, translation from Horace cited, 56

Cumberland, Mr., his excellent translations of fragments of the
ancient Greek dramatists, 90 _et seq._

Cunighius, his translation of the _Iliad_ cited, 49, 55

D

Definition or description of a good translation, 8

Delille, or De Lille, his opinion as to the liberty allowed in
poetical translation, 46; his translation of the _Georgics_
cited, 61, 73

Denham, his opinion of the liberty allowed in translating
poetry, 35; his compliment to Fanshaw, 43

Descriptions, containing a series of minute distinctions,
extremely difficult to be translated, 188

Diphilus, fragment of, translated by Mr. Cumberland, 91

_Don Quixote_, difficulty of translating that romance, 150;
comparison of the translations of, by Motteux and Smollet, 151
_et seq._

Dryden improved poetical translation, 44; his translation of
Lucian’s dialogues, 29, 118; his translation of Virgil cited,
30, 57, 58, 72; his translation of Du Fresnoy on painting, 59,
110; his translations from Horace, 59, 125; his translation of
Tacitus, 70; translation from Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, 76

Duclos, a just observation of, 14

Du Fresnoy’s _Art of Painting_ admirably translated by Mr.
Mason, 27; translation of, by Dryden, 59, 110

E

Echard, his translation of Plautus cited, 77, 143 _et seq._

——, his translation of Terence cited, 138, 140, 143 _et seq._

Ellipsis more freely admitted in Latin than in English, 105

Epigrams sometimes incapable of translation, 147

Epigram from Martial well translated, 53

_Epistolæ obscurorum virorum_, 68

Epithets used by Homer, sometimes mere expletives, 31

F

Fanshaw praised as a translator by Denham, 43; his translation
of _Pastor Fido_ cited, 44

Fenelon’s _Telemachus_, 108

Festus _de verborum significatione_, 13

Florid writing, 179, 192

Folard, his commentary on Polybius erroneous from his ignorance
of the Greek language, 11

Fontaine, La, his character as a fabulist drawn by Marmontel,
185

——, his fables cited, 184, 188

Fontaines, Abbé des, his translation of Virgil, 69

Fontenelle, his translation of Adrian’s _Address to his Soul_,
127

Fresnoy. _See_ Du Fresnoy.

G

Girard, _Synonymes François_, 14

Gordon’s Tacitus cited, 19, 104; his injudicious imitation of
the Latin construction, 19, 104

Greek language admits of inversions which are inconsistent with
the genius of the English, 104

Guischardt has demonstrated the errors in Folard’s commentary
on Polybius, 11

H

Hobbes, his translation of Homer cited, 50, 71, 146

Hogæus, _Paradisus Amissus Miltoni_ cited, 61

Holland’s translation of Pliny cited, 191

Homer, his epithets frequently mere expletives, 32

Homer, characteristics of his style, 69

——, Pope’s translation of the _Iliad_ cited, 25, 31, 46 _et
seq._, 60, 71, 73 (_see_ Cunighius, Hobbes); Mr. Pope departs
sometimes from the character of Homer’s style, 69; translation
of the _Odyssey_ cited, 146; Macpherson’s Homer cited, 105, 108

Horace, translations from, cited. _Vide_ Jonson, Roscommon,
Dryden, Congreve, Nivernois, Hughes

_Hudibras_, remarkable combination of wit and humour in that
poem, 213; Voltaire has attempted to translate some passages of
that poem, 214 _et seq._; excellent French translation of that
poem cited, 215

Hughes’s translation from Claudian cited, 89; ditto from
Horace, 130

I

Ideas superadded to the original by the translator—examples of,
from Bourne, 23; from Pope’s _Homer_, 25; from his imitations
of Horace, 27; from Johnston’s version of the Psalms, 25; from
Mason’s _Du Fresnoy on Painting_, 27; from Malherbe, 28; from
Melmoth’s _Cicero’s Epistles_, 27; from Dryden’s _Lucian_, 29

Ideas retrenched from the original by the translator—examples
of, from Dryden’s _Virgil_, 30; from Pope’s _Iliad_, 31; from
Melmoth’s _Cicero’s Epistles_, 32, 33

The liberty of adding to or retrenching from the ideas of
the original, is more allowable in poetical than in prose
translation, 35; and in lyric poetry more than any other, 123

Idiomatic phrases, how to be translated, 135; the translation
is perfect, when corresponding idioms are employed, 137;
examples from Cotton’s translation of Montaigne, from Echard,
Sterne, 138 _et seq._; licentiousness in the translation of
idioms, 140; examples, 141; translator’s resource when no
corresponding idioms are to be found, 147

_Iliad._ _See_ Homer

Isidorus Hispalensis, _Origines_, 13

J

Jonson, Ben, translation from Horace, 36 _et seq._

Johnston, Arthur, his translation of the Psalms, 25, 144

Jortin, Dr., translation from Simonides, 85

Juvenal, translation of, by Holiday cited, 38

L

Latin language admits of a brevity of expression which
cannot be successfully imitated in English, 96; it admits of
inversions, which are inconsistent with the genius of the
English, 104; admits of ellipsis more freely than the English,
105

L’Estrange, his translations from Seneca cited, 78

Lowth, Dr., his imitation of an ode of Horace, 124

Lucan. _See_ May, Rowe.

_Lucian_, Francklin’s translation of, cited, 118 _et seq._;
Dryden’s, Brown’s, &c., 117 _et seq._

M

Macpherson’s translation of the _Iliad_, 105, 108

Malherbe cited, 28

Markham, Dr., his imitation of Simonides, 87

Mason’s translation of Du Fresnoy’s _Art of Painting_, 27

May, his translation of Lucan, 39 _et seq._; compared with
Rowe’s, 41

Melmoth, one of the best of the English translators, 32, 114
_et seq._; his translation of Cicero’s _Epistles_ cited, 17,
28, 32, 96, 98, 114, 147; his translation of Pliny’s _Epistles_
cited, 33, 97, 116, 117, 147; his unjust censure of a passage
in Mr. Pope’s version of the _Iliad_, 31

Milton, his translation of Horace’s _Ode to Pyrrha_, 43, App.
No. 2

——, a passage from his tractate on education difficult to be
translated with corresponding simplicity, 179; his _Paradise
Lost_ cited, 177 (_see_ Hogæus); his _Comus_ cited, 178

Moncrif, his ballad of _Alexis et Alis_, 129

Montaigne, Cotton’s translation of, cited, 138

Motteux, his translation of _Don Quixote_ compared with that of
Smollet, 151 _et seq._; his translation of Rabelais, 222

Murphy, his translation of Tacitus cited, 17, 19, 99 _et seq._

N

_Naïveté_, in what it consists, 183, 185; the fables of Phædrus
are remarkable for this character, 183; as are those of La
Fontaine, 184, 185; _naïveté_ of particular phrases very
difficult to be imitated in a translation, 149

Nivernois, Duc de, his translation of Horace’s dialogue with
Lydia, 83

Nonius, _de Proprietate Sermonum_, 13

O

Ovid. _See_ Sandys, Dryden, Anguillara

Ozell, his edition of Urquhart and Motteux translation of
Rabelais, 223

P

Paraphrase, examples of, as distinguished from translation,
124, 127, 128 _et seq._

Parnell, his translation of Chaulieu’s verses on Fontenai, 181

Phædrus, his fables cited, 183

Pitcairne, Dr., his Latin poetry characterised, 143

Pitt, eminent as a translator, 206

Plautus. _See_ Echard

Pliny the Elder, his description of the Nightingale, 190;
analysis of a chapter of his _Natural History_, 190

Pliny the Younger, his _Epistles_. _See_ Melmoth

Poem, whether it can be well translated into prose, ch. 8

Poetical translation, liberty allowed to it, 35 _et seq._

——, progress of poetical translation in England, 36 _et seq._

Poetry, characteristics essential to it, 108; didactic poetry
is the most capable of a prose translation, 109; lyric poetry
incapable of a prose translation, 111; lyric poetry admits of
the greatest liberty in translation, 123

Polybius erroneously understood by Folard, 10

Pope. _See_ Homer. His translation of Sappho’s _Epistle to
Phaon_ cited, 61; his _Dying Christian to his Soul_, 127

Popma, Ausonius, _de Differentiis Verborum_, 13

Prior, his _Chloe Hunting_ translated by Bourne, 82

Q

Quinctilian recommends the practice of translation, 1

_Quixote, Don_, comparison of Motteux’s translation of, with
Smollet’s, 151 _et seq._

R

Rabelais admirably translated by Urquhart and Motteux, ch. 15

Roscommon’s Essay on translated verse, 45; a precept of
his, with regard to poetical translation, controverted, 45;
translation from Horace cited, 55

Rousseau, _Devin de Village_ cited, 79; his translations from
Tacitus cited, 103

Rowe’s Lucan cited, 41

S

Sandys, his character as a translator of poetry, 42; his
translation of Ovid cited, 42

Scarron’s burlesque translation of Virgil cited, 200

Seneca. _See_ L’Estrange

Shakespeare, translations from, by Voltaire, 209 _et seq._;
his phraseology difficult to be imitated in a translation, 177,
178

Simonides, fragment of, translated by Jortin, 85; imitated by
Dr. Markham, 87

Simplicity of thought and expression difficult to be imitated
in a translation, 179

Smart’s prose translation of Horace, 111

Spelman’s _Xenophon_ cited, 136

Sterne’s _Slawkenbergius’s Tale_ cited, 139

Strada’s _Contest of the Musician and Nightingale_, extreme
difficulty of translating it, 187

Style and manner of the original to be imitated in the
translation, 63 _et seq._; a just taste requisite for the
discernment of those characters, 74; limitations of the rule
regarding the imitation of style, 96 _et seq._

T

Tacitus. _See_ D’Ablancourt, D’Alembert, Gordon, Murphy,
Dryden, Rousseau. Difficulty of translating that author, 120

_Telemachus_, a poem in prose, 108

Terence. _See_ Echard

Tickell’s ballad of _Lucy and Colin_, translated by Bourne, 23;
translated by Le Mierre, Appendix, No. 1

Timocles, fragment of, translated by Cumberland, 90

Townley, Colonel, his translation of _Hudibras_, 218

Translation, art of, very little cultivated, 1; ancient
translations, few specimens of, existing, 2 _et seq._; reasons
why the art is at a low ebb among the moderns, 5; description
or definition of a good translation, 7, 8; laws of translation,
9; first general law, “That the translation should give a
complete transcript of the ideas of the original work,” 10 _et
seq._; second general law, “The style and manner of writing
in a translation should be of the same character with that
of the original,” 63 _et seq._; specimens of good poetical
translations, 80 _et seq._; third general rule, “A translation
should have all the ease of original composition,” 112 _et
seq._; a translator ought always to figure to himself in what
manner the original author would have expressed himself, if he
had written in the language of the translation, 107; licentious
translation, 117; the best translators have shone in original
composition of the same species, 206

Travesty or burlesque translation, 197 _et seq._; Scarron’s and
Cotton’s Virgil Travesty, 200, 202

U

Urquhart, Sir Thomas, his excellent translation of Rabelais, 222

V

Varro, _de Lingua Latina_, 13

Virgil. _See_ Dryden, Delille, Fontaines. Example of false
taste in a passage of Virgil, 199

Voltaire, his remark on the Abbé des Fontaines’s translation of
Virgil, 69; his translations from Shakespeare very faulty, 207;
character of the wit of Voltaire, 212; he had no talent for
humorous composition, 213 _et seq._; character of his novels,
213

W

Warton, eminent as a poetical translator, 206

Wollaston’s _Religion of Nature_, passage from, difficult to be
translated, 180

X

Xenophon’s _Œconomics_ translated by Cicero, 1, 2; Spelman’s
Xenophon cited, 136

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BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
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