diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-23 06:17:44 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-23 06:17:44 -0800 |
| commit | 82653f4e58b4e75024adb062d7c1c6808a8020ca (patch) | |
| tree | 29182fe21e7f7038f976917fd6d31dd34f787a06 | |
| parent | d24c4a62c601cf03c8ba6120ba046c5f0949bd41 (diff) | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-0.txt | 7809 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-0.zip | bin | 157044 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-h.zip | bin | 547257 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-h/64890-h.htm | 11630 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 213642 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-h/images/deco.jpg | bin | 12573 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-h/images/dent.jpg | bin | 9065 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64890-h/images/epi.jpg | bin | 138738 -> 0 bytes |
11 files changed, 17 insertions, 19439 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73b9fe3 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64890 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64890) diff --git a/old/64890-0.txt b/old/64890-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3ffbac1..0000000 --- a/old/64890-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7809 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Essay on the Principles of Translation, by -Alexander Fraser Tytler - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Essay on the Principles of Translation - -Author: Alexander Fraser Tytler - -Release Date: March 20, 2021 [eBook #64890] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/American - Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF -TRANSLATION *** - - - - - - EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY - EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS - - ESSAYS - - ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES - OF TRANSLATION - - - - -THE PUBLISHERS OF _EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY_ WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY -TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED VOLUMES TO BE -COMPRISED UNDER THE FOLLOWING TWELVE HEADINGS: - - TRAVEL ❦ SCIENCE ❦ FICTION - THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY - HISTORY ❦ CLASSICAL - FOR YOUNG PEOPLE - ESSAYS ❦ ORATORY - POETRY & DRAMA - BIOGRAPHY - ROMANCE - -[Illustration] - -IN TWO STYLES OF BINDING, CLOTH, FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP, AND LEATHER, -ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP. - - LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO. - NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. - - - - -[Illustration: MOST CURRENT FOR THAT THEY COME HOME TO MEN’S BUSINESS & -BOSOMS - -LORD BACON] - - - - -[Illustration: - - ESSAY on the - PRINCIPLES _of_ - TRANSLATION - _by_ ALEXANDER - FRASER·TYTLER - LORD WOODHOUSELEE - - LONDON: PUBLISHED - by J·M·DENT·&·CO - AND IN NEW YORK - BY E·P·DUTTON & CO] - - RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, - BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND - BUNGAY SUFFOLK. - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, author of the present essay -on Translation, and of various works on Universal and on Local History, -was one of that Edinburgh circle which was revolving when Sir Walter -Scott was a young probationer. Tytler was born at Edinburgh, October 15, -1747, went to the High School there, and after two years at Kensington, -under Elphinston—Dr. Johnson’s Elphinston—entered Edinburgh University -(where he afterwards became Professor of Universal History). He seems -to have been Elphinston’s favourite pupil, and to have particularly -gratified his master, “the celebrated Dr. Jortin” too, by his Latin verse. - -In 1770 he was called to the bar; in 1776 married a wife; in 1790 was -appointed Judge-Advocate of Scotland; in 1792 became the master of -Woodhouselee on the death of his father. Ten years later he was raised -to the bench of the court of session, with his father’s title—Lord -Woodhouselee. But the law was only the professional background to his -other avocation—of literature. Like his father, something of a personage -at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, it was before its members that he -read the papers which were afterwards cast into the present work. In -them we have all that is still valid of his very considerable literary -labours. Before it appeared, his effect on his younger contemporaries in -Edinburgh had already been very marked—if we may judge by Lockhart. His -encouragement undoubtedly helped to speed Scott on his way, especially -into that German romantic region out of which a new Gothic breath was -breathed on the Scottish thistle. - -It was in 1790 that Tytler read in the Royal Society his papers on -Translation, and they were soon after published, without his name. Hardly -had the work seen the light, than it led to a critical correspondence -with Dr. Campbell, then Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Dr. -Campbell had at some time previous to this published his Translations -of the Gospels, to which he had prefixed some observations upon the -principles of translation. When Tytler’s anonymous work appeared he was -led to express some suspicion that the author might have borrowed from -his Dissertation, without acknowledging the obligation. Thereupon Tytler -instantly wrote to Dr. Campbell, acknowledging himself to be the author, -and assuring him that the coincidence, such as it was, “was purely -accidental, and that the name of Dr. Campbell’s work had never reached -him until his own had been composed.... There seems to me no wonder,” -he continued, “that two persons, moderately conversant in critical -occupations, sitting down professedly to investigate the principles of -this art, should hit upon the same principles, when in fact there are -none other to hit upon, and the truth of these is acknowledged at their -first enunciation. But in truth, the merit of this little essay (if it -has any) does not, in my opinion, lie in these particulars. It lies in -the establishment of those various subordinate rules and precepts which -apply to the nicer parts and difficulties of the art of translation; in -deducing those rules and precepts which carry not their own authority _in -gremio_, from the general principles which are of acknowledged truth, and -in proving and illustrating them by examples.” - -Tytler has here put his finger on one of the critical good services -rendered by his book. But it has a further value now, and one that he -could not quite foresee it was going to have. The essay is an admirably -typical dissertation on the classic art of poetic translation, and of -literary style, as the eighteenth century understood it; and even where -it accepts Pope’s Homer or Melmoth’s Cicero in a way that is impossible -to us now, the test that is applied, and the difference between that test -and our own, will be found, if not convincing, extremely suggestive. In -fact, Tytler, while not a great critic, was a charming dilettante, and -a man of exceeding taste; and something of that grace which he is said -to have had personally is to be found lingering in these pages. Reading -them, one learns as much by dissenting from some of his judgments as -by subscribing to others. Woodhouselee, Lord Cockburn said, was not a -Tusculum, but it was a country-house with a fine tradition of culture, -and its quondam master was a delightful host, with whom it was a -memorable experience to spend an evening discussing the _Don Quixote_ -of Motteux and of Smollett, or how to capture the aroma of Virgil in an -English medium, in the era before the Scottish prose Homer had changed -the literary perspective north of the Tweed. It is sometimes said that -the real art of poetic translation is still to seek; yet one of its most -effective demonstrators was certainly Alexander Fraser Tytler, who died -in 1814. - - The following is his list of works: - - Piscatory Eclogues, with other Poetical Miscellanies of - Phinehas Fletcher, illustrated with notes, critical and - explanatory, 1771; The Decisions of the Court of Sessions, from - its first Institution to the present Time, etc. (supplementary - volume to Lord Kames’s “Dictionary of Decisions”), 1778; Plan - and Outline of a Course of Lectures on Universal History, - Ancient and Modern (delivered at Edinburgh), 1782; Elements of - General History, Ancient and Modern (with table of Chronology - and a comparative view of Ancient and Modern Geography), 2 - vols., 1801. A third volume was added by E. Nares, being a - continuation to death of George III., 1822; further editions - continued to be issued with continuations, and the work was - finally brought down to the present time, and edited by G. - Bell, 1875; separate editions have appeared of the ancient - and modern parts, and an abridged edition in 1809 by T. D. - Hincks. To Vols. I. and II. (1788, 1790) of the Transactions - of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Tytler contributed History - of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Life of Lord-President - Dundas, and An Account of some Extraordinary Structures on the - Tops of Hills in the Highlands, etc.; to Vol. V., Remarks on a - Mixed Species of Evidence in Matters of History, 1805; A Life - of Sir John Gregory, prefixed to an edition of the latter’s - works, 1788; Essay on the Principles of Translations, 1791, - 1797; Third Edition, with additions and alterations, 1813; - Translation of Schiller’s “The Robbers,” 1792; A Critical - Examination of Mr. Whitaker’s Course of Hannibal over the - Alps, 1798; A Dissertation on Final Causes, with a Life of - Dr. Derham, in edition of the latter’s works, 1798; Ireland - Profiting by Example, or the Question Considered whether - Scotland has Gained or Lost by the Union, 1799; Essay on - Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial, 1800; Remarks - on the Writings and Genius of Ramsay (preface to edition of - works), 1800, 1851, 1866; Memoirs of the Life and Writings of - the Hon. Henry Horne, Lord Kames, 1807, 1814; Essay on the - Life and Character of Petrarch, with Translation of Seven - Sonnets, 1784; An Historical and Critical Essay on the Life - and Character of Petrarch, with a Translation of a few of his - Sonnets (including the above pamphlet and the dissertation - mentioned above in Vol. V. of Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.), 1812; - Consideration of the Present Political State of India, etc., - 1815, 1816. Tytler contributed to the “Mirror,” 1779-80, and to - the “Lounger,” 1785-6. - - Life of Tytler, by Rev. Archibald Alison, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - Introduction 1 - - CHAPTER I - - Description of a good Translation—General Rules flowing from - that description 7 - - CHAPTER II - - First General Rule: A Translation should give a complete - transcript of the ideas of the original work—Knowledge of - the language of the original, and acquaintance with the - subject—Examples of imperfect transfusion of the sense of the - original—What ought to be the conduct of a Translator where the - sense is ambiguous 10 - - CHAPTER III - - Whether it is allowable for a Translator to add to or retrench - the ideas of the original—Examples of the use and abuse of this - liberty 22 - - CHAPTER IV - - Of the freedom allowed in poetical Translation—Progress of - poetical Translation in England—B. Jonson, Holiday, May, - Sandys, Fanshaw, Dryden—Roscommon’s Essay on Translated - Verse—Pope’s Homer 35 - - CHAPTER V - - Second general Rule: The style and manner of writing in a - Translation should be of the same character with that of the - Original—Translations of the Scriptures—Of Homer, &c.—A just - Taste requisite for the discernment of the Characters of Style - and Manner—Examples of failure in this particular; The grave - exchanged for the formal; the elevated for the bombast; the - lively for the petulant; the simple for the childish—Hobbes, - L’Estrange, Echard, &c. 63 - - CHAPTER VI - - Examples of a good Taste in poetical Translation—Bourne’s - Translations from Mallet and from Prior—The Duke de Nivernois, - from Horace—Dr. Jortin, from Simonides—Imitation of the same by - the Archbishop of York—Mr. Webb, from the Anthologia—Hughes, - from Claudian—Fragments of the Greek Dramatists by Mr. - Cumberland 80 - - CHAPTER VII - - Limitation of the rule regarding the Imitation of Style—This - Imitation must be regulated by the Genius of Languages—The - Latin admits of a greater brevity of Expression than the - English; as does the French—The Latin and Greek allow of - greater Inversions than the English, and admit more freely of - Ellipsis 96 - - CHAPTER VIII - - Whether a Poem can be well Translated into Prose? 107 - - CHAPTER IX - - Third general Rule: A Translation should have all the ease of - original composition—Extreme difficulty in the observance of - this rule—Contrasted instances of success and failure—Of the - necessity of sacrificing one rule to another 112 - - CHAPTER X - - It is less difficult to attain the ease of original composition - in poetical, than in Prose Translation—Lyric Poetry admits of - the greatest liberty of Translation—Examples distinguishing - Paraphrase from Translation, from Dryden, Lowth, Fontenelle, - Prior, Anguillara, Hughes 123 - - CHAPTER XI - - Of the Translation of Idiomatic Phrases—Examples from Cotton, - Echard, Sterne—Injudicious use of Idioms in the Translation, - which do not correspond with the age or country of the - Original—Idiomatic Phrases sometimes incapable of Translation 135 - - CHAPTER XII - - Difficulty of translating _Don Quixote_, from its Idiomatic - Phraseology—Of the best Translations of that Romance—Comparison - of the Translation by Motteux with that by Smollett 150 - - CHAPTER XIII - - Other Characteristics of Composition which render - Translation difficult—Antiquated Terms—New Terms—_Verba - Ardentia_—Simplicity of Thought and Expression—In Prose—In - Poetry—_Naiveté_ in the latter—Chaulieu—Parnelle—La - Fontaine—Series of Minute Distinctions marked by characteristic - Terms—Strada—Florid Style, and vague expression—Pliny’s Natural - History 176 - - CHAPTER XIV - - Of Burlesque Translation—Travesty and Parody—Scarron’s _Virgile - Travesti_—Another species of Ludicrous Translation 197 - - CHAPTER XV - - The genius of the Translator should be akin to that of the - original author—The best Translators have shone in original - composition of the same species with that which they have - translated—Of Voltaire’s Translations from Shakespeare—Of the - peculiar character of the wit of Voltaire—His Translation - from _Hudibras_—Excellent anonymous French Translation of - _Hudibras_—Translation of Rabelais by Urquhart and Motteux 204 - - Appendix 225 - - Index 231 - - - - -ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -There is perhaps no department of literature which has been less the -object of cultivation, than the _Art of Translating_. Even among the -ancients, who seem to have had a very just idea of its importance, -and who have accordingly ranked it among the most useful branches of -literary education, we meet with no attempt to unfold the principles -of this art, or to reduce it to rules. In the works of Quinctilian, of -Cicero, and of the Younger Pliny, we find many passages which prove that -these authors had made translation their peculiar study; and, conscious -themselves of its utility, they have strongly recommended the practice -of it, as essential towards the formation both of a good writer and -an accomplished orator.[1] But it is much to be regretted, that they -who were so eminently well qualified to furnish instruction in the art -itself, have contributed little more to its advancement than by some -general recommendations of its importance. If indeed time had spared to -us any complete or finished specimens of translation from the hand of -those great masters, it had been some compensation for the want of actual -precepts, to have been able to have deduced them ourselves from those -exquisite models. But of ancient translations the fragments that remain -are so inconsiderable, and so much mutilated, that we can scarcely derive -from them any advantage.[2] - -To the moderns the art of translation is of greater importance than -it was to the ancients, in the same proportion that the great mass of -ancient and of modern literature, accumulated up to the present times, -bears to the general stock of learning in the most enlightened periods -of antiquity. But it is a singular consideration, that under the daily -experience of the advantages of good translations, in opening to us -all the stores of ancient knowledge, and creating a free intercourse -of science and of literature between all modern nations, there should -have been so little done towards the improvement of the art itself, by -investigating its laws, or unfolding its principles. Unless a very short -essay, published by M. D’Alembert, in his _Mélanges de Litterature, -d’Histoire, &c._ as introductory to his translations of some pieces -of Tacitus, and some remarks on translation by the Abbé Batteux, in -his _Principes de la Litterature_, I have met with nothing that has -been written professedly upon the subject.[3] The observations of M. -D’Alembert, though extremely judicious, are too general to be considered -as rules, or even principles of the art; and the remarks of the Abbé -Batteux are employed chiefly on what may be termed the Philosophy of -Grammar, and seem to have for their principal object the ascertainment of -the analogy that one language bears to another, or the pointing out of -those circumstances of construction and arrangement in which languages -either agree with, or differ from each other.[4] - -While such has been our ignorance of the principles of this art, it is -not at all wonderful, that amidst the numberless translations which every -day appear, both of the works of the ancients and moderns, there should -be so few that are possessed of real merit. The utility of translations -is universally felt, and therefore there is a continual demand for them. -But this very circumstance has thrown the practice of translation into -mean and mercenary hands. It is a profession which, it is generally -believed, may be exercised with a very small portion of genius or -abilities.[5] “It seems to me,” says Dryden, “that the true reason why -we have so few versions that are tolerable, is, because there are so few -who have all the talents requisite for translation, and that there is -so little praise and small encouragement for so considerable a part of -learning” (_Pref. to Ovid’s Epistles_). - -It must be owned, at the same time, that there _have been_, and that -there _are_ men of genius among the moderns who have vindicated the -dignity of this art so ill-appreciated, and who have furnished us -with excellent translations, both of the ancient classics, and of the -productions of foreign writers of our own and of former ages. These -works lay open a great field of useful criticism; and from them it is -certainly possible to draw the principles of that art which has never yet -been methodised, and to establish its rules and precepts. Towards this -purpose, even the worst translations would have their utility, as in such -a critical exercise, it would be equally necessary to illustrate defects -as to exemplify perfections. - -An attempt of this kind forms the subject of the following Essay, in -which the Author solicits indulgence, both for the imperfections of his -treatise, and perhaps for some errors of opinion. His apology for the -first, is, that he does not pretend to exhaust the subject, or to treat -it in all its amplitude, but only to point out the general principles of -the art; and for the last, that in matters where the ultimate appeal is -to Taste, it is almost impossible to be secure of the solidity of our -opinions, when the criterion of their truth is so very uncertain. - - - - -CHAPTER I - - DESCRIPTION OF A GOOD TRANSLATION—GENERAL RULES FLOWING FROM - THAT DESCRIPTION - - -If it were possible accurately to define, or, perhaps more properly, to -describe what is meant by a _good Translation_, it is evident that a -considerable progress would be made towards establishing the Rules of -the _Art_; for these Rules would flow naturally from that definition -or description. But there is no subject of criticism where there has -been so much difference of opinion. If the genius and character of all -languages were the same, it would be an easy task to translate from one -into another; nor would anything more be requisite on the part of the -translator, than fidelity and attention. But as the genius and character -of languages is confessedly very different, it has hence become a -common opinion, that it is the duty of a translator to attend only to -the sense and spirit of his original, to make himself perfectly master -of his author’s ideas, and to communicate them in those expressions -which he judges to be best suited to convey them. It has, on the -other hand, been maintained, that, in order to constitute a perfect -translation, it is not only requisite that the ideas and sentiments -of the original author should be conveyed, but likewise his style and -manner of writing, which, it is supposed, cannot be done without a strict -attention to the arrangement of his sentences, and even to their order -and construction.[6] According to the former idea of translation, it is -allowable to improve and to embellish; according to the latter, it is -necessary to preserve even blemishes and defects; and to these must, -likewise be superadded the harshness that must attend every copy in which -the artist scrupulously studies to imitate the minutest lines or traces -of his original. - -As these two opinions form opposite extremes, it is not improbable -that the point of perfection should be found between the two. I would -therefore describe a good translation to be, _That, in which the merit of -the original work is so completely transfused into another language, as -to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strongly felt, by a native of -the country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speak -the language of the original work_. - -Now, supposing this description to be a just one, which I think it is, -let us examine what are the laws of translation which may be deduced from -it. - -It will follow, - -I. That the Translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of -the original work. - -II. That the style and manner of writing should be of the same character -with that of the original. - -III. That the Translation should have all the ease of original -composition. - -Under each of these general laws of translation, are comprehended a -variety of subordinate precepts, which I shall notice in their order, and -which, as well as the general laws, I shall endeavour to prove, and to -illustrate by examples. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - FIRST GENERAL RULE—A TRANSLATION SHOULD GIVE A COMPLETE - TRANSCRIPT OF THE IDEAS OF THE ORIGINAL WORK—KNOWLEDGE OF - THE LANGUAGE OF THE ORIGINAL, AND ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE - SUBJECT—EXAMPLES OF IMPERFECT TRANSFUSION OF THE SENSE OF THE - ORIGINAL—WHAT OUGHT TO BE THE CONDUCT OF A TRANSLATOR WHERE THE - SENSE IS AMBIGUOUS - - -In order that a translator may be enabled to give a complete transcript -of the ideas of the original work, it is indispensably necessary, that -he should have a perfect knowledge of the language of the original, and -a competent acquaintance with the subject of which it treats. If he is -deficient in either of these requisites, he can never be certain of -thoroughly comprehending the sense of his author. M. Folard is allowed -to have been a great master of the art of war. He undertook to translate -Polybius, and to give a commentary illustrating the ancient Tactic, -and the practice of the Greeks and Romans in the attack and defence of -fortified places. In this commentary, he endeavours to shew, from the -words of his author, and of other ancient writers, that the Greek and -Roman engineers knew and practised almost every operation known to the -moderns; and that, in particular, the mode of approach by parallels -and trenches, was perfectly familiar to them, and in continual use. -Unfortunately M. Folard had but a very slender knowledge of the Greek -language, and was obliged to study his author through the medium of a -translation, executed by a Benedictine monk,[7] who was entirely ignorant -of the art of war. M. Guischardt, a great military genius, and a thorough -master of the Greek language, has shewn, that the work of Folard contains -many capital misrepresentations of the sense of his author, in his -account of the most important battles and sieges, and has demonstrated, -that the complicated system formed by this writer of the ancient art of -war, has no support from any of the ancient authors fairly interpreted.[8] - -The extreme difficulty of translating from the works of the ancients, -is most discernible to those who are best acquainted with the ancient -languages. It is but a small part of the genius and powers of a language -which is to be learnt from dictionaries and grammars. There are -innumerable niceties, not only of construction and of idiom, but even in -the signification of words, which are discovered only by much reading, -and critical attention. - -A very learned author, and acute critic,[9] has, in treating “of the -causes of the differences in languages,” remarked, that a principal -difficulty in the art of translating arises from this circumstance, -“that there are certain words in every language which but imperfectly -correspond to any of the words of other languages.” Of this kind, he -observes, are most of the terms relating to morals, to the passions, -to matters of sentiment, or to the objects of the reflex and internal -senses. Thus the Greek words αρετη, σωφροσυνη, ελεος, have not their -sense precisely and perfectly conveyed by the Latin words _virtus_, -_temperantia_, _misericordia_, and still less by the English words, -_virtue_, _temperance_, _mercy_. The Latin word _virtus_ is frequently -synonymous to _valour_, a sense which it never bears in English. -_Temperantia_, in Latin, implies moderation in every desire, and is -defined by Cicero, _Moderatio cupiditatum rationi obediens_.[10] The -English word _temperance_, in its ordinary use, is limited to moderation -in eating and drinking. - - Observe - The rule of not too much, by _Temperance_ taught, - In what thou eat’st and drink’st. - - _Par. Lost_, b. 11. - -It is true, that Spenser has used the term in its more extensive -signification. - - He calm’d his wrath with goodly _temperance_. - -But no modern prose-writer authorises such extension of its meaning. - -The following passage is quoted by the ingenious writer above mentioned, -to shew, in the strongest manner, the extreme difficulty of apprehending -the precise import of words of this order in dead languages: “_Ægritudo -est opinio recens mali præsentis, in quo demitti contrahique animo rectum -esse videatur. Ægritudini subjiciuntur angor, mœror, dolor, luctus, -ærumna, afflictatio: angor est ægritudo premens, mœror ægritudo flebilis, -ærumna ægritudo laboriosa, dolor ægritudo crucians, afflictatio ægritudo -cum vexatione corporis, luctus ægritudo ex ejus qui carus fuerat, -interitu acerbo._”[11]—“Let any one,” says D’Alembert, “examine this -passage with attention, and say honestly, whether, if he had not known -of it, he would have had any idea of those nice shades of signification -here marked, and whether he would not have been much embarrassed, had -he been writing a dictionary, to distinguish, with accuracy, the words -_ægritudo_, _mœror_, _dolor_, _angor_, _luctus_, _ærumna_, _afflictatio_.” - -The fragments of Varro, _de Lingua Latina_, the treatises of Festus and -of Nonius, the _Origines_ of Isidorus Hispalensis, the work of Ausonius -Popma, _de Differentiis Verborum_, the _Synonymes_ of the Abbé Girard, -and a short essay by Dr. Hill[12] on “the utility of defining synonymous -terms,” will furnish numberless instances of those very delicate shades -of distinction in the signification of words, which nothing but the -most intimate acquaintance with a language can teach; but without the -knowledge of which distinctions in the original, and an equal power -of discrimination of the corresponding terms of his own language, no -translator can be said to possess the primary requisites for the task he -undertakes. - -But a translator, thoroughly master of the language, and competently -acquainted with the subject, may yet fail to give a complete transcript -of the ideas of his original author. - -M. D’Alembert has favoured the public with some admirable translations -from Tacitus; and it must be acknowledged, that he possessed every -qualification requisite for the task he undertook. If, in the course of -the following observations, I may have occasion to criticise any part -of his writings, or those of other authors of equal celebrity, I avail -myself of the just sentiment of M. Duclos, “On peut toujours relever les -défauts des grands hommes, et peut-être sont ils les seuls qui en soient -dignes, et dont la critique soit utile” (Duclos, _Pref. de l’Hist. de -Louis XI._). - -Tacitus, in describing the conduct of _Piso_ upon the death of -Germanicus, says: _Pisonem interim apud Coum insulam nuncius adsequitur, -excessisse Germanicum_ (Tacit. An. lib. 2, c. 75). This passage is thus -translated by M. D’Alembert, “Pison apprend, dans l’isle de Cos, la -mort de Germanicus.” In translating this passage, it is evident that M. -D’Alembert has not given the complete sense of the original. The sense -of Tacitus is, that Piso was overtaken on his voyage homeward, at the -Isle of Cos, by a messenger, who informed him that Germanicus was dead. -According to the French translator, we understand simply, that when Piso -arrived at the Isle of Cos, he was informed that Germanicus was dead. -We do not learn from this, that a messenger had followed him on his -voyage to bring him this intelligence. The fact was, that Piso purposely -lingered on his voyage homeward, expecting this very messenger who here -overtook him. But, by M. D’Alembert’s version it might be understood, -that Germanicus had died in the island of Cos, and that Piso was informed -of his death by the islanders immediately on his arrival. The passage -is thus translated, with perfect precision, by D’Ablancourt: “Cependant -Pison apprend la nouvelle de cette mort par un courier exprès, qui -l’atteignit en l’isle de Cos.” - -After Piso had received intelligence of the death of Germanicus, he -deliberated whether to proceed on his voyage to Rome, or to return -immediately to Syria, and there put himself at the head of the legions. -His son advised the former measure; but his friend Domitius Celer argued -warmly for his return to the province, and urged, that all difficulties -would give way to him, if he had once the command of the army, and had -increased his force by new levies. _At si teneat exercitum, augeat vires, -multa quæ provideri non possunt in melius casura_ (An. l. 2, c. 77). This -M. D’Alembert has translated, “Mais que s’il savoit se rendre redoutable -à la tête des troupes, le hazard ameneroit des circonstances heureuses et -imprévues.” In the original passage, Domitius advises Piso to adopt two -distinct measures; the first, to obtain the command of the army, and the -second, to increase his force by new levies. These two distinct measures -are confounded together by the translator, nor is the sense of either of -them accurately given; for from the expression, “se rendre redoutable -à la tête des troupes,” we may understand, that Piso already had the -command of the troops, and that all that was requisite, was to render -himself formidable in that station, which he might do in various other -ways than by increasing the levies. - -Tacitus, speaking of the means by which Augustus obtained an absolute -ascendency over all ranks in the state, says, _Cùm cæteri nobilium, -quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus extollerentur_ -(An. l. 1, c. 2). This D’Alembert has translated, “Le reste des nobles -trouvoit dans les richesses et dans les honneurs la récompense de -l’esclavage.” Here the translator has but half expressed the meaning -of his author, which is, that “the rest of the nobility were exalted to -riches and honours, in proportion as Augustus found in them an aptitude -and disposition to servitude:” or, as it is well translated by Mr. -Murphy, “The leading men were raised to wealth and honours, in proportion -to the alacrity with which they courted the yoke.”[13] - -Cicero, in a letter to the Proconsul Philippus says, _Quod si Romæ te -vidissem, coramque gratias egissem, quod tibi L. Egnatius familiarissimus -meus absens, L. Oppius præsens curæ fuisset_. This passage is thus -translated by Mr. Melmoth: “If I were in Rome, I should have waited -upon you for this purpose in person, and in order likewise to make my -acknowledgements to you for your favours to my friends Egnatius and -Oppius.” Here the sense is not completely rendered, as there is an -omission of the meaning of the words _absens_ and _præsens_. - -Where the sense of an author is doubtful, and where more than one -meaning can be given to the same passage or expression, (which, by the -way, is always a defect in composition), the translator is called upon -to exercise his judgement, and to select that meaning which is most -consonant to the train of thought in the whole passage, or to the -author’s usual mode of thinking, and of expressing himself. To imitate -the obscurity or ambiguity of the original, is a fault; and it is still -a greater, to give more than one meaning, as D’Alembert has done in the -beginning of the Preface of Tacitus. The original runs thus: _Urbem -Romam a principio Reges habuere. Libertatem et consulatum L. Brutus -instituit. Dictaturæ ad tempus sumebantur: neque Decemviralis potestas -ultra biennium, neque Tribunorum militum consulare jus diu valuit._ -The ambiguous sentence is, _Dictaturæ ad tempus sumebantur_; which may -signify either “Dictators were chosen for a limited time,” or “Dictators -were chosen on particular occasions or emergencies.” D’Alembert saw -this ambiguity; but how did he remove the difficulty? Not by exercising -his judgement in determining between the two different meanings, but by -giving them both in his translation. “On créoit au besoin des dictateurs -passagers.” Now, this double sense it was impossible that Tacitus should -ever have intended to convey by the words _ad tempus_: and between the -two meanings of which the words are susceptible, a very little critical -judgement was requisite to decide. I know not that _ad tempus_ is ever -used in the sense of “for the occasion, or emergency.” If this had been -the author’s meaning, he would probably have used either the words -_ad occasionem_, or _pro re nata_. But even allowing the phrase to be -susceptible of this meaning,[14] it is not the meaning which Tacitus -chose to give it in this passage. That the author meant that the Dictator -was created for a limited time, is, I think, evident from the sentence -immediately following, which is connected by the copulative _neque_ -with the preceding: _Dictaturæ ad tempus sumebantur: neque Decemviralis -potestas ultra biennium valuit_: “The office of Dictator was instituted -for a limited time: nor did the power of the Decemvirs subsist beyond two -years.” - -M. D’Alembert’s translation of the concluding sentence of this chapter is -censurable on the same account. Tacitus says, _Sed veteris populi Romani -prospera vel adversa, claris scriptoribus memorata sunt; temporibusque -Augusti dicendis non defuere decora ingenia, donec gliscente adulatione -deterrerentur. Tiberii, Caiique, et Claudii, ac Neronis res, florentibus -ipsis, ob metum falsæ: postquam occiderant, recentibus odiis compositæ -sunt. Inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto, et extrema tradere: mox -Tiberii principatum, et cetera, sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul -habeo._ Thus translated by D’Alembert: “Des auteurs illustres ont fait -connoitre la gloire et les malheurs de l’ancienne république; l’histoire -même d’Auguste a été écrite par de grands génies, jusqu’aux tems ou la -necessité de flatter les condamna au silence. La crainte ménagea tant -qu’ils vécurent, Tibere, Caius, Claude, et Néron; des qu’ils ne furent -plus, la haine toute récente les déchira. J’écrirai donc en peu de mots -la fin du regne d’Auguste, puis celui de Tibere, et les suivans; sans -fiel et sans bassesse: mon caractere m’en éloigne, et les tems m’en -dispensent.” In the last part of this passage, the translator has given -_two_ different meanings to the same clause, _sine ira et studio, quorum -causas procul habeo_, to which the author certainly meant to annex -only one meaning; and that, as I think, a different _one_ from either -of those expressed by the translator. To be clearly understood, I must -give my own version of the whole passage. “The history of the ancient -republic of Rome, both in its prosperous and in its adverse days, has -been recorded by eminent authors: Even the reign of Augustus has been -happily delineated, down to those times when the prevailing spirit of -adulation put to silence every ingenuous writer. The annals of Tiberius, -of Caligula, of Claudius, and of Nero, written while they were alive, -were falsified from terror; as were those histories composed after their -death, from hatred to their recent memories. For this reason, I have -resolved to attempt a short delineation of the latter part of the reign -of Augustus; and afterwards that of Tiberius, and of the succeeding -princes; conscious of perfect impartiality, as, from the remoteness -of the events, I have no motive, either of odium or adulation.” In the -last clause of this sentence, I believe I have given the true version of -_sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo_: But if this be the true -meaning of the author, M. D’Alembert has given two different meanings -to the same sentence, and neither of them the true one: “sans fiel et -sans bassesse: mon caractere m’en éloigne, et les tems m’en dispensent.” -According to the French translator, the historian pays a compliment first -to his own character, and secondly, to the character of the times; both -of which he makes the pledges of his impartiality: but it is perfectly -clear that Tacitus neither meant the one compliment nor the other; -but intended simply to say, that the remoteness of the events which -he proposed to record, precluded every motive either of unfavourable -prejudice or of adulation. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - WHETHER IT IS ALLOWABLE FOR A TRANSLATOR TO ADD TO OR RETRENCH - THE IDEAS OF THE ORIGINAL.—EXAMPLES OF THE USE AND ABUSE OF - THIS LIBERTY - - -If it is necessary that a translator should give a complete transcript -of the ideas of the original work, it becomes a question, whether it -is allowable in any case to add to the ideas of the original what may -appear to give greater force or illustration; or to take from them what -may seem to weaken them from redundancy. To give a general answer to -this question, I would say, that this liberty may be used, but with -the greatest caution. It must be further observed, that the superadded -idea shall have the most necessary connection with the original -thought, and actually increase its force. And, on the other hand, that -whenever an idea is cut off by the translator, it must be only such -as is an accessory, and not a principal in the clause or sentence. It -must likewise be confessedly redundant, so that its retrenchment shall -not impair or weaken the original thought. Under these limitations, a -translator may exercise his judgement, and assume to himself, in so far, -the character of an original writer. - -It will be allowed, that in the following instance the translator, the -elegant Vincent Bourne, has added a very beautiful idea, which, while -it has a most natural connection with the original thought, greatly -heightens its energy and tenderness. The two following stanzas are a part -of the fine ballad of _Colin and Lucy_, by Tickell. - - 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. - -Thus translated by Bourne: - - Jungere cras dextræ dextram properatis uterque, - Et tardè interea creditis ire diem. - Credula quin virgo, juvenis quin perfide, uterque - Scite, quod et pacti Lucia testis erit. - - Exangue, oh! illuc, comites, deferte cadaver, - Qua semel, oh! iterum congrediamur, ait; - Vestibus ornatus sponsalibus ille, caputque - Ipsa sepulchrali vincta, pedesque stolâ. - -In this translation, which is altogether excellent, it is evident, that -there is one most beautiful idea superadded by Bourne, in the line _Qua -semel, oh!_ &c.; which wonderfully improves upon the original thought. -In the original, the speaker, deeply impressed with the sense of her -wrongs, has no other idea than to overwhelm her perjured lover with -remorse at the moment of his approaching nuptials. In the translation, -amidst this prevalent idea, the speaker all at once gives way to an -involuntary burst of tenderness and affection, “Oh, let us meet once -more, and for the last time!” _Semel, oh! iterum congrediamur, ait._—It -was only a man of exquisite feeling, who was capable of thus improving on -so fine an original.[15] - -Achilles (in the first book of the _Iliad_), won by the persuasion of -Minerva, resolves, though indignantly, to give up Briseis, and Patroclus -is commanded to deliver her to the heralds of Agamemnon: - - Ως φατο· Πατροκλος δε φιλω επεπεἰθεθ’ εταιρω· - Εκ δ’ ἄγαγε κλισιης Βρισηιδα καλλιπαρηον, - Δῶκε δ’ αγειν· τω δ’ αυτις ιτην παρα νηας Αχαιων· - Ἡ δ’ αεκουσ’ ἁμα τοισι γυνὴ κιεν. - - _Ilias_, A. 345. - -“Thus he spoke. But Patroclus was obedient to his dear friend. He brought -out the beautiful Briseis from the tent, and gave her to be carried away. -They returned to the ships of the Greeks; but she unwillingly went, along -with her attendants.” - - Patroclus now th’ unwilling Beauty brought; - _She in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,_ - _Past silent, as the heralds held her hand,_ - _And oft look’d back, slow moving o’er the strand._ - - POPE. - -The ideas contained in the three last lines are not indeed expressed in -the original, but they are implied in the word αεκουσα; for she who goes -unwillingly, will _move slowly_, and _oft look back_. The amplification -highly improves the effect of the picture. It may be incidentally -remarked, that the pause in the third line, _Past silent_, is admirably -characteristic of the slow and hesitating motion which it describes. - -In the poetical version of the 137th Psalm, by Arthur Johnston, a -composition of classical elegance, there are several examples of ideas -superadded by the translator, intimately connected with the original -thoughts, and greatly heightening their energy and beauty. - - Urbe procul Solymæ, fusi Babylonis ad undas - Flevimus, et lachrymæ fluminis instar erant: - Sacra Sion toties animo totiesque recursans, - Materiem lachrymis præbuit usque novis. - Desuetas saliceta lyras, et muta ferebant - Nablia, servili non temeranda manu. - Qui patria exegit, patriam qui subruit, hostis - Pendula captivos sumere plectra jubet: - Imperat et lætos, mediis in fletibus, hymnos, - Quosque Sion cecinit, nunc taciturna! modos. - Ergone pacta Deo peregrinæ barbita genti - Fas erit, et sacras prostituisse lyras? - Ante meo, Solyme, quam tu de pectore cedas, - Nesciat Hebræam tangere dextra chelyn. - Te nisi tollat ovans unam super omnia, lingua - Faucibus hærescat sidere tacta meis. - Ne tibi noxa recens, scelerum Deus ultor! Idumes - Excidat, et Solymis perniciosa dies: - Vertite, clamabant, fundo jam vertite templum, - Tectaque montanis jam habitanda feris. - Te quoque pœna manet, Babylon! quibus astra lacessis - Culmina mox fient, quod premis, æqua solo: - Felicem, qui clade pari data damna rependet, - Et feret ultrices in tua tecta faces! - Felicem, quisquis scopulis illidet acutis - Dulcia materno pignora rapta sinu! - -I pass over the superadded idea in the second line, _lachrymæ fluminis -instar erant_, because, bordering on the hyperbole, it derogates, in -some degree, from the chaste simplicity of the original. To the simple -fact, “We hanged our harps on the willows in the midst thereof,” which is -most poetically conveyed by _Desuetas saliceta lyras, et muta ferebant -nablia_, is superadded all the force of sentiment in that beautiful -expression, which so strongly paints the mixed emotions of a proud mind -under the influence of poignant grief, heightened by shame, _servili non -temeranda manu_. So likewise in the following stanza there is the noblest -improvement of the sense of the original. - - Imperat et lætos, mediis in fletibus, hymnos, - Quosque Sion cecinit, _nunc taciturna!_ modos. - -The reflection on the melancholy silence that now reigned on that sacred -hill, “once vocal with their songs,” is an additional thought, the force -of which is better felt than it can be conveyed by words. - -An ordinary translator sinks under the energy of his original: the man of -genius frequently rises above it. Horace, arraigning the abuse of riches, -makes the plain and honest Ofellus thus remonstrate with a wealthy -Epicure (_Sat._ 2, b. 2). - - Cur eget indignus quisquam te divite? - -A question to the energy of which it was not easy to add, but which has -received the most spirited improvement from Mr. Pope: - - How _dar’st_ thou let one worthy man be poor? - -An improvement is sometimes very happily made, by substituting figure -and metaphor to simple sentiment; as in the following example, from Mr. -Mason’s excellent translation of Du Fresnoy’s _Art of Painting_. In the -original, the poet, treating of the merits of the antique statues, says: - - queis posterior nil protulit ætas - Condignum, et non inferius longè, arte modoque. - -This is a simple fact, in the perusal of which the reader is struck with -nothing else but the truth of the assertion. Mark how in the translation -the same truth is conveyed in one of the finest figures of poetry: - - with reluctant gaze - To these the genius of succeeding days - Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread, - Hides in his mantle his diminish’d head. - -In the two following lines, Horace inculcates a striking moral truth; but -the figure in which it is conveyed has nothing of dignity: - - Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas - Regumque turres. - -Malherbe has given to the same sentiment a high portion of tenderness, -and even sublimity: - - Le pauvre en sa cabane, où le chaume le couvre, - Est sujet à ses loix; - Et la garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre, - N’en défend pas nos rois.[16] - -Cicero writes thus to Trebatius, Ep. ad fam. lib. 7, ep. 17: _Tanquam -enim syngrapham ad Imperatorem, non epistolam attulisses, sic pecuniâ -ablatâ domum redire properabas: nec tibi in mentem veniebat, eos ipsos -qui cum syngraphis venissent Alexandriam, nullum adhuc nummum auferre -potuisse_. The passage is thus translated by Melmoth, b. 2, l. 12: “One -would have imagined indeed, you had carried a bill of exchange upon -Cæsar, instead of a letter of recommendation: As you seemed to think -you had nothing more to do, than to receive your money, and to hasten -home again. But money, my friend, is not so easily acquired; and I could -name some of our acquaintance, who have been obliged to travel as far -as Alexandria in pursuit of it, without having yet been able to obtain -even their just demands.” The expressions, “_money, my friend, is not so -easily acquired_,” and “_I could name some of our acquaintance_,” are not -to be found in the original; but they have an obvious connection with -the ideas of the original: they increase their force, while, at the same -time, they give ease and spirit to the whole passage. - -I question much if a licence so unbounded as the following is -justifiable, on the principle of giving either ease or spirit to the -original. - -In Lucian’s Dialogue _Timon_, Gnathonides, after being beaten by Timon, -says to him, - - Αει φιλοσκῴμμων συ γε· αλλα ποῦ το συμποσιον; ὡς καινον τι σοι - ασμα των νεοδιδακτων διθυραμβων ἥκω κομιζων. - -“You were always fond of a joke—but where is the banquet? for I have -brought you a new dithyrambic song, which I have lately learned.” - -In Dryden’s _Lucian_, “translated by several eminent hands,” this passage -is thus translated: “Ah! Lord, Sir, I see you keep up your old merry -humour still; you love dearly to rally and break a jest. Well, but have -you got a noble supper for us, and plenty of delicious inspiring claret? -Hark ye, Timon, I’ve got a virgin-song for ye, just new composed, and -smells of the gamut: ’Twill make your heart dance within you, old boy. A -very pretty she-player, I vow to Gad, that I have an interest in, taught -it me this morning.” - -There is both ease and spirit in this translation; but the licence which -the translator has assumed, of superadding to the ideas of the original, -is beyond all bounds. - -An equal degree of judgement is requisite when the translator assumes the -liberty of retrenching the ideas of the original. - -After the fatal horse had been admitted within the walls of Troy, Virgil -thus describes the coming on of that night which was to witness the -destruction of the city: - - _Vertitur interea cœlum, et ruit oceano nox,_ - _Involvens umbrâ magnâ terramque polumque,_ - _Myrmidonumque dolos._ - -The principal effect attributed to the night in this description, and -certainly the most interesting, is its concealment of the treachery of -the Greeks. Add to this, the beauty which the picture acquires from this -association of natural with moral effects. How inexcusable then must Mr. -Dryden appear, who, in his translation, has suppressed the _Myrmidonumque -dolos_ altogether? - - Mean time the rapid heav’ns roll’d down the light, - And on the shaded ocean rush’d the night: - Our men secure, &c. - -Ogilby, with less of the spirit of poetry, has done more justice to the -original: - - Meanwhile night rose from sea, whose spreading shade - Hides heaven and earth, and plots the Grecians laid. - -Mr. Pope, in his translation of the _Iliad_, has, in the parting scene -between Hector and Andromache (vi. 466), omitted a particular respecting -the dress of the nurse, which he thought an impropriety in the picture. -Homer says, - - Αψ δ’ ὁ παϊς προς κολπον ἐϋζωνοιο τιθηνης - Εκλινθη ἰαχων. - -“The boy crying, threw himself back into the arms of his nurse, whose -waist was elegantly girt.” Mr. Pope, who has suppressed the epithet -descriptive of the waist, has incurred on that account the censure of Mr. -Melmoth, who says, “He has not touched the picture with that delicacy of -pencil which graces the original, as he has entirely lost the beauty of -one of the figures.—Though the hero and his son were designed to draw -our principal attention, Homer intended likewise that we should cast a -glance towards the nurse” (_Fitzosborne’s Letters_, l. 43). If this was -Homer’s intention, he has, in my opinion, shewn less good taste in this -instance than his translator, who has, I think with much propriety, left -out the compliment to the nurse’s waist altogether. And this liberty of -the translator was perfectly allowable; for Homer’s epithets are often -nothing more than mere expletives, or additional designations of his -persons. They are always, it is true, significant of some principal -attribute of the person; but they are often applied by the poet in -circumstances where the mention of that attribute is quite preposterous. -It would shew very little judgement in a translator, who should honour -Patroclus with the epithet of _godlike_, while he is blowing the fire -to roast an ox; or bestow on Agamemnon the designation of _King of many -nations_, while he is helping Ajax to a large piece of the chine. - -It were to be wished that Mr. Melmoth, who is certainly one of the -best of the English translators, had always been equally scrupulous in -retrenching the ideas of his author. Cicero thus superscribes one of his -letters: _M. T. C. Terentiæ, et Pater suavissimæ filiæ Tulliolæ, Cicero -matri et sorori S. D._ (Ep. Fam. l. 14, ep. 18). And another in this -manner: _Tullius Terentiæ, et Pater Tulliolæ, duabus animis suis, et -Cicero Matri optimæ, suavissimæ sorori_ (lib. 14, ep. 14). Why are these -addresses entirely sunk in the translation, and a naked title poorly -substituted for them, “To Terentia and Tullia,” and “To the same”? The -addresses to these letters give them their highest value, as they mark -the warmth of the author’s heart, and the strength of his conjugal and -paternal affections. - -In one of Pliny’s Epistles, speaking of Regulus, he says, _Ut ipse mihi -dixerit quum consuleret, quam citò sestertium sexcenties impleturus -esset, invenisse se exta duplicata, quibus portendi millies et ducenties -habiturum_ (Plin. Ep. l. 2, ep. 20). Thus translated by Melmoth, “That he -once told me, upon consulting the omens, to know how soon he should be -worth sixty millions of sesterces, he found them so favourable to him as -to portend that he should possess double that sum.” Here a material part -of the original idea is omitted; no less than that very circumstance upon -which the omen turned, viz., that the entrails of the victim were double. - -Analogous to this liberty of adding to or retrenching from the ideas of -the original, is the liberty which a translator may take of correcting -what appears to him a careless or inaccurate expression of the original, -where that inaccuracy seems materially to affect the sense. Tacitus -says, when Tiberius was entreated to take upon him the government of the -empire, _Ille variè disserebat, de magnitudine imperii, suâ modestiâ_ -(An. l. 1, c. 11). Here the word _modestiâ_ is improperly applied. The -author could not mean to say, that Tiberius discoursed to the people -about his own modesty. He wished that his discourse should seem to -proceed from modesty; but he did not talk to them about his modesty. -D’Alembert saw this impropriety, and he has therefore well translated the -passage: “Il répondit par des discours généraux sur son peu de talent, et -sur la grandeur de l’empire.” - -A similar impropriety, not indeed affecting the sense, but offending -against the dignity of the narrative, occurs in that passage where -Tacitus relates, that Augustus, in the decline of life, after the death -of Drusus, appointed his son Germanicus to the command of eight legions -on the Rhine, _At, hercule, Germanicum Druso ortum octo apud Rhenum -legionibus imposuit_ (An. l. 1, c. 3). There was no occasion here for -the historian swearing; and though, to render the passage with strict -fidelity, an English translator must have said, “Augustus, Egad, gave -Germanicus the son of Drusus the command of eight legions on the Rhine,” -we cannot hesitate to say, that the simple fact is better announced -without such embellishment. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - OF THE FREEDOM ALLOWED IN POETICAL TRANSLATION.—PROGRESS OF - POETICAL TRANSLATION IN ENGLAND.—B. JONSON, HOLIDAY, SANDYS, - FANSHAW, DRYDEN.—ROSCOMMON’S ESSAY ON TRANSLATED VERSE.—POPE’S - HOMER. - - -In the preceding chapter, in treating of the liberty assumed by -translators, of adding to, or retrenching from the ideas of the original, -several examples have been given, where that liberty has been assumed -with propriety both in prose composition and in poetry. In the latter, it -is more peculiarly allowable. “I conceive it,” says Sir John Denham, “a -vulgar error in translating poets, to affect being _fidus interpres_. Let -that care be with them who deal in matters of fact or matters of faith; -but whosoever aims at it in poetry, as he attempts what is not required, -so shall he never perform what he attempts; for it is not his business -alone to translate language into language, but poesie into poesie; and -poesie is of so subtle a spirit, that in pouring out of one language into -another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit is not added in the -transfusion, there will remain nothing but a _caput mortuum_” (Denham’s -_Preface to the second book of Virgil’s Æneid_). - -In poetical translation, the English writers of the 16th, and the -greatest part of the 17th century, seem to have had no other care than -(in Denham’s phrase) to translate language into language, and to have -placed their whole merit in presenting a literal and servile transcript -of their original. - -Ben Jonson, in his translation of Horace’s _Art of Poetry_, has paid no -attention to the judicious precept of the very poem he was translating: - - _Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere, fidus_ - _Interpres._ - -Witness the following specimens, which will strongly illustrate Denham’s -judicious observations. - - Mortalia facta peribunt; - Nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia vivax. - Multa renascentur quæ jam cecidere, cadentque - Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus, - Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi. - - _De Art. Poet._ - - All mortal deeds - Shall perish; so far off it is the state - Or grace of speech should hope a lasting date. - Much phrase that now is dead shall be reviv’d, - And much shall die that now is nobly liv’d, - If custom please, at whose disposing will - The power and rule of speaking resteth still. - - B. JONSON. - - _Interdum tamen et vocem Comœdia tollit,_ - _Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore,_ - _Et Tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri._ - _Telephus et Peleus, cùm pauper et exul uterque,_ - _Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,_ - _Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela._ - - _De Art. Poet._ - - Yet sometime doth the Comedy excite, - Her voice, and angry Chremes chafes outright, - With swelling throat, and oft the tragic wight - Complains in humble phrase. Both Telephus - And Peleus, if they seek to heart-strike us, - That are spectators, with their misery, - When they are poor and banish’d must throw by - Their bombard-phrase, and foot-and-half-foot words. - - B. JONSON. - -So, in B. Jonson’s translations from the _Odes_ and _Epodes_ of Horace, -besides the most servile adherence to the words, even the measure of the -original is imitated. - - Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia, - Magisve rhombus, aut scari, - Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus - Hyems ad hoc vertat mare: - Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum, - Non attagen Ionicus - Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis - Oliva ramis arborum; - Aut herba lapathi prata amantis, et gravi - Malvæ salubres corpori. - - HOR. _Epod. 2._ - - Not Lucrine oysters I could then more prize, - Nor turbot, nor bright golden eyes; - If with east floods the winter troubled much - Into our seas send any such: - The Ionian god-wit, nor the ginny-hen - Could not go down my belly then - More sweet than olives that new-gathered be, - From fattest branches of the tree, - Or the herb sorrel that loves meadows still, - Or mallows loosing bodies ill. - - B. JONSON. - -Of the same character for rigid fidelity, is the translation of _Juvenal_ -by Holiday, a writer of great learning, and even of critical acuteness, -as the excellent commentary on his author fully shews. - - _Omnibus in terris quæ sunt a Gadibus usque_ - _Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt_ - _Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remotâ_ - _Erroris nebulâ. Quid enim ratione timemus,_ - _Aut cupimus? quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te_ - _Conatûs non pœniteat, votique peracti._ - _Evertêre domos totas optantibus ipsis_ - _Dii faciles._ - - JUV. _Sat. 10._ - - In all the world which between Cadiz lies - And eastern Ganges, few there are so wise - To know true good from feign’d, without all mist - Of Error. For by Reason’s rule what is’t - We fear or wish? What is’t we e’er begun - With foot so right, but we dislik’d it done? - Whole houses th’ easie gods have overthrown - At their fond prayers that did the houses own. - - HOLIDAY’S _Juvenal_. - -There were, however, even in that age, some writers who manifested a -better taste in poetical translation. May, in his translation of Lucan’s -_Pharsalia_, and Sandys, in his _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, while they -strictly adhered to the sense of their authors, and generally rendered -line for line, have given to their versions both an ease of expression -and a harmony of numbers, which approach them very near to original -composition. The reason is, they have disdained to confine themselves to -a literal interpretation, but have everywhere adapted their expression to -the idiom of the language in which they wrote. - -The following passage will give no unfavourable idea of the style and -manner of May. In the ninth book of the _Pharsalia_, Cæsar, when in Asia, -is led from curiosity to visit the plain of Troy: - - Here fruitless trees, old oaks with putrefy’d - And sapless roots, the Trojan houses hide, - And temples of their Gods: all Troy’s o’erspread - With bushes thick, her ruines ruined. - He sees the bridall grove Anchises lodg’d; - Hesione’s rock; the cave where Paris judg’d; - Where nymph Oenone play’d; the place so fam’d - For Ganymedes’ rape; each stone is nam’d. - A little gliding stream, which Xanthus was, - Unknown he past, and in the lofty grass - Securely trode; a Phrygian straight forbid - Him tread on Hector’s dust! (with ruins hid, - The stone retain’d no sacred memory.) - Respect you not great Hector’s tomb, quoth he! - —O great and sacred work of poesy, - That free’st from fate, and giv’st eternity - To mortal wights! But, Cæsar, envy not - Their living names, if Roman Muses aught - May promise thee, while Homer’s honoured - By future times, shall thou, and I, be read: - No age shall us with darke oblivion staine, - But our Pharsalia ever shall remain. - - MAY’S _Lucan_, b. 9. - - Jam silvæ steriles, et putres robore trunci - Assaraci pressere domos, et templa deorum - Jam lassa radice tenent; ac tota teguntur - Pergama dumetis; etiam periere ruinæ. - Aspicit Hesiones scopulos, silvasque latentes - Anchisæ thalamos; quo judex sederit antro; - Unde puer raptus cœlo; quo vertice Nais - Luserit Oenone: nullum est sine nomine saxum. - Inscius in sicco serpentem pulvere rivum - Transierat, qui Xanthus erat; securus in alto - Gramine ponebat gressus: Phryx incola manes - Hectoreos calcare vetat: discussa jacebant - Saxa, nec ullius faciem servantia sacri: - Hectoreas, monstrator ait, non respicis aras? - O sacer, et magnus vatum labor; omnia fato - Eripis, et populis donas mortalibus ævum! - Invidia sacræ, Cæsar, ne tangere famæ: - Nam siquid Latiis fas est promittere Musis, - Quantum Smyrnei durabunt vatis honores, - Venturi me teque legent: Pharsalia nostra - Vivet, et a nullo tenebris damnabitur ævo. - - _Pharsal._ l. 9. - -Independently of the excellence of the above translation, in completely -conveying the sense, the force, and spirit of the original, it possesses -one beauty which the more modern English poets have entirely neglected, -or rather purposely banished from their versification in rhyme; I mean -the varied harmony of the measure, which arises from changing the -place of the pauses. In the modern heroic rhyme, the pause is almost -invariably found at the end of a couplet. In the older poetry, the sense -is continued from one couplet to another, and closes in various parts -of the line, according to the poet’s choice, and the completion of his -meaning: - - _A little gliding stream, which Xanthus was,_ - _Unknown he past—and in the lofty grass_ - _Securely trode—a Phrygian straight forbid_ - _Him tread on Hector’s dust—with ruins hid,_ - _The stone retain’d no sacred memory._ - -He must be greatly deficient in a musical ear, who does not prefer the -varied harmony of the above lines to the uniform return of sound, and -chiming measure of the following: - - Here all that does of Xanthus stream remain, - Creeps a small brook along the dusty plain. - While careless and securely on they pass, - The Phrygian guide forbids to press the grass; - This place, he said, for ever sacred keep, - For here the sacred bones of Hector sleep: - Then warns him to observe, where rudely cast, - Disjointed stones lay broken and defac’d. - - ROWE’S _Lucan_. - -Yet the _Pharsalia_ by Rowe is, on the whole, one of the best of the -modern translations of the classics. Though sometimes diffuse and -paraphrastical, it is in general faithful to the sense of the original; -the language is animated, the verse correct and melodious; and when we -consider the extent of the work, it is not unjustly characterised by Dr. -Johnson, as “one of the greatest productions of English poetry.” - -Of similar character to the versification of May, though sometimes more -harsh in its structure, is the poetry of Sandys: - - There’s no Alcyone! none, none! she died - Together with her Ceÿx. Silent be - All sounds of comfort. These, these eyes did see - My shipwrack’t Lord. I knew him; and my hands - Thrust forth t’ have held him: but no mortal bands - Could force his stay. A ghost! yet manifest, - My husband’s ghost: which, Oh, but ill express’d - His forme and beautie, late divinely rare! - Now pale and naked, with yet dropping haire: - Here stood the miserable! in this place: - Here, here! (and sought his aërie steps to trace). - - SANDYS’ _Ovid_, b. 11. - - _Nulla est Alcyone, nulla est, ait: occidit una_ - _Cum Ceyce suo; solantia tollite verba:_ - _Naufragus interiit; vidi agnovique, manusque_ - _Ad discedentem, cupiens retinere, tetendi._ - _Umbra fuit: sed et umbra tamen manifesta, virique_ - _Vera mei: non ille quidem, si quæris, habebat_ - _Assuetos vultus, nec quo prius ore nitebat._ - _Pallentem, nudumque, et adhuc humente capillo,_ - _Infelix vidi: stetit hoc miserabilis ipso_ - _Ecce loco: (et quærit vestigia siqua supersint)._ - - _Metam._ l. 11. - -In the above example, the _solantia tollite verba_ is translated with -peculiar felicity, “Silent be all sounds of comfort;” as are these words, -_Nec quo prius ore nitebat_, “Which, oh! but ill express’d his forme -and beautie.” “No mortal bands could force his stay,” has no strictly -corresponding sentiment in the original. It is a happy amplification; -which shews that Sandys knew what freedom was allowed to a poetical -translator, and could avail himself of it. - -From the time of Sandys, who published his translation of the -_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid in 1626, there does not appear to have been much -improvement in the art of translating poetry till the age of Dryden:[17] -for though Sir John Denham has thought proper to pay a high compliment -to Fanshaw on his translation of the _Pastor Fido_, terming him the -inventor of “a new and nobler way”[18] of translation, we find nothing -in that performance which should intitle it to more praise than the -_Metamorphoses_ by Sandys, and the _Pharsalia_ by May.[19] - -But it was to Dryden that poetical translation owed a complete -emancipation from her fetters; and exulting in her new liberty, the -danger now was, that she should run into the extreme of licentiousness. -The followers of Dryden saw nothing so much to be emulated in his -translations as the ease of his poetry: Fidelity was but a secondary -object, and translation for a while was considered as synonymous with -paraphrase. A judicious spirit of criticism was now wanting to prescribe -bounds to this increasing licence, and to determine to what precise -degree a poetical translator might assume to himself the character of an -original writer. In that design, Roscommon wrote his _Essay on Translated -Verse_; in which, in general, he has shewn great critical judgement; but -proceeding, as all reformers, with rigour, he has, amidst many excellent -precepts on the subject, laid down one rule, which every true poet (and -such only should attempt to translate a poet) must consider as a very -prejudicial restraint. After judiciously recommending to the translator, -first to possess himself of the sense and meaning of his author, and then -to imitate his manner and style, he thus prescribes a general rule, - - Your author always will the best advise; - Fall when he falls, and when he rises, rise. - -Far from adopting the former part of this maxim, I conceive it to be the -duty of a poetical translator, never to suffer his original to fall. He -must maintain with him a perpetual contest of genius; he must attend -him in his highest flights, and soar, if he can, beyond him: and when -he perceives, at any time, a diminution of his powers, when he sees -a drooping wing, he must raise him on his own pinions.[20] Homer has -been judged by the best critics to fall at times beneath himself, and -to offend, by introducing low images and puerile allusions. Yet how -admirably is this defect veiled over, or altogether removed, by his -translator Pope. In the beginning of the eighth book of the _Iliad_, -Jupiter is introduced in great majesty, calling a council of the gods, -and giving them a solemn charge to observe a strict neutrality between -the Greeks and Trojans: - - Ἠὼς μεν κροκόπεπλος ἐκιδνατο πᾶσαν ἐπ’ αίαν· - Ζευς δε θεῶν ἀγορην ποιησατο τερπικέραυνος, - Ἀκροτάτη κορυφη πολυδειραδος Οὐλυμποιο· - Αὐτὸς δέ σφ’ ἀγόρευε, θεοὶ δ’ ἅμα πάντες ἄκουον· - -“Aurora with her saffron robe had spread returning light upon the world, -when Jove delighting-in-thunder summoned a council of the gods upon the -highest point of the many-headed Olympus; and while he thus harangued, -all the immortals listened with deep attention.” This is a very solemn -opening; but the expectation of the reader is miserably disappointed by -the harangue itself, of which I shall give a literal translation. - - Κέκλυτέ μευ, πάντες τε θεοὶ, πᾶσαὶ τε θέαιναι, - Ὄφρ’ εἴπω, τά με θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι κελεύει· - Μήτε τις οὖν θήλεια θεὸς τόγε, μήτε τις ἄρσην - Πειράτω διακέρσαι ἐμὸν ἔπος· ἀλλ’ ἅμα πάντες - Αἰνεῖτ’, ὄφρα τάχιστα τελευτήσω τάδε ἔργα. - Ον δ’ ἂν ἐγὼν ἀπάνευθε θεῶν ἐθέλοντα νοήσω - Ἐλθόντ, ἢ Τρώεσσιν ἀρηγέμεν, ἢ Δαναοῖσι, - Πληγεὶς οὐ κατα κόσμον ἐλευσεται Οὔλυμπόνδε· - Η μιν ἑλὼν ῥίψω ἐς Τάρταρον ἠερόεντα, - Τῆλε μάλ’, ἦχι βάθιστον ὑπο χθονός ἐστι βέρεθρον, - Ἔνθα σιδήρειαί τε πύλαι καὶ χάλκεος οὐδὸς, - Τόσσον ἔνερθ’ Ἀΐδεω, ὅσον οὐρανός ἐστ’ ἀπὸ γαίης· - Γνώσετ’ ἔπειθ’, ὅσον εἰμὶ θεῶν κάρτιστος ἁπάντων. - Εἴ δ’ ἄγε, πειρήσασθε θεοὶ, ἵνα εἴδετε πάντες, - Σειρην χρυσείην ἐξ οὐρανόθεν κρεμάσαντες· - Πάντες δ’ ἐξάπτεσθε θεοὶ, πᾶσαί τε θέαιναι· - Ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἂν ἐρύσαιτ’ ἐξ οὐρανόθεν πεδίονδε - Ζῆν’ ὕπατον μήστωρ’ οὐδ’ εἰ μάλα πολλὰ κάμοιτε. - Ἀλλ’ ὅτε δὴ καὶ ἐγὼ πρόφρων ἐθέλοιμι ἐρύσσαι, - Αὐτῆ κεν γάιῃ ἐρύσαιμ’, αὐτῆ τε θαλάσσῃ· - Σειρην μέν κεν ἔπειτα περὶ ῥίον Οὐλύμποιο - Δησαίμην· τὰ δέ κ’ αὖτε μετήορα πάντα γένοιτο· - Τόσσον ἐγώ περί τ’ εἰμὶ θεῶν, περί τ’ εἴμ’ ἀνθρώπων. - -“Hear me, all ye gods and goddesses, whilst I declare to you the dictates -of my inmost heart. Let neither male nor female of the gods attempt to -controvert what I shall say; but let all submissively assent, that I may -speedily accomplish my undertakings: for whoever of you shall be found -withdrawing to give aid either to the Trojans or Greeks, shall return to -Olympus marked with dishonourable wounds; or else I will seize him and -hurl him down to gloomy Tartarus, where there is a deep dungeon under the -earth, with gates of iron, and a threshold of brass, as far below hell, -as the earth is below the heavens. Then he will know how much stronger -I am than all the other gods. But come now, and make trial, that ye may -all be convinced. Suspend a golden chain from heaven, and hang all by -one end of it, with your whole weight, gods and goddesses together: you -will never pull down from the heaven to the earth, Jupiter, the supreme -counsellor, though you should strain with your utmost force. But when I -chuse to pull, I will raise you all, with the earth and sea together, and -fastening the chain to the top of Olympus, will keep you all suspended at -it. So much am I superior both to gods and men.” - -It must be owned, that this speech is far beneath the dignity of the -Thunderer; that the braggart vaunting in the beginning of it is nauseous; -and that a mean and ludicrous picture is presented, by the whole group -of gods and goddesses pulling at one end of a chain, and Jupiter at the -other. To veil these defects in a translation was difficult;[21] but -to give any degree of dignity to this speech required certainly most -uncommon powers. Yet I am much mistaken, if Mr. Pope has not done so. I -shall take the passage from the beginning: - - Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn, - Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn, - When Jove conven’d the senate of the skies, - Where high Olympus’ cloudy tops arise. - The fire of Gods his awful silence broke, - The heavens attentive, trembled as he spoke. - - Celestial states, immortal gods! give ear; - Hear our decree, and reverence what ye hear; - The fix’d decree, which not all heaven can move; - Thou, fate! fulfil it; and, ye powers! approve! - What God but enters yon forbidden field, - Who yields assistance, or but wills to yield, - Back to the skies with shame he shall be driven, - Gash’d with dishonest wounds, the scorn of Heaven; - Or far, oh far, from steep Olympus thrown, - Low in the dark Tartarean gulph shall groan; - With burning chains fix’d to the brazen floors, - And lock’d by hell’s inexorable doors; - As deep beneath th’ infernal centre hurl’d, - As from that centre to th’ ethereal world. - Let him who tempts me dread those dire abodes; - And know th’ Almighty is the God of gods. - League all your forces then, ye powr’s above, - Join all, and try th’ omnipotence of Jove: - Let down our golden everlasting chain, - Whose strong embrace holds Heav’n, and Earth, and Main: - Strive all, of mortal and immortal birth, - To drag, by this, the Thunderer down to earth: - Ye strive in vain! If I but stretch this hand, - I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land; - I fix the chain to great Olympus’ height, - And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight! - For such I reign, unbounded and above; - And such are men and gods, compar’d to Jove![22] - -It would be endless to point out all the instances in which Mr. Pope -has improved both upon the thought and expression of his original. -We find frequently in Homer, amidst the most striking beauties, some -circumstances introduced which diminish the merit of the thought or of -the description. In such instances, the good taste of the translator -invariably covers the defect of the original, and often converts it into -an additional beauty. Thus, in the simile in the beginning of the third -book, there is one circumstance which offends against good taste. - - Ευτ’ ορεος κορυφῆσι Νοτος κατεχευεν ὀμιχλην, - Ποιμεσιν ουτὶ φιλην, κλεπτη δε τε νυκτος αμεινω, - Τὸσσον τις τ’ επιλευσσει, ὅσον τ’ επι λααν ἵησιν· - Ὡς ἂρα των ὓπο ποσσι κονισσαλος ωρνυτ’ αελλης - Ερχομενων· μαλα δ’ ώκα διεπρησσον πεδίοιο. - -“As when the south wind pours a thick cloud upon the tops of the -mountains, whose shade is unpleasant to the shepherds, but more -commodious to the thief than the night itself, and when the gloom is so -intense, that one cannot see farther than he can throw a stone: So rose -the dust under the feet of the Greeks marching silently to battle.” - -With what superior taste has the translator heightened this simile, and -exchanged the offending circumstance for a beauty. The fault is in the -third line; τοσσον τις τ’ επιλευσσει, &c., which is a mean idea, compared -with that which Mr. Pope has substituted in its stead: - - Thus from his shaggy wings when Eurus sheds - A night of vapours round the mountain-heads, - Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade, - To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade; - While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey, - Lost and confus’d amidst the thicken’d day: - So wrapt in gath’ring dust the Grecian train, - A moving cloud, swept on and hid the plain. - -In the ninth book of the _Iliad_, where Phœnix reminds Achilles of the -care he had taken of him while an infant, one circumstance extremely -mean, and even disgusting, is found in the original. - - οτε δη σ’ επ εμοισιν εγα γουνασσι καθισας, - Οψου τ’ ασαιμι προταμων, και οινον επισχων. - Πολλακι μοι κατεδευσας επι στηθεσσι χιτωνα, - Οινου αποβλυζων εν νηπιεη αλεγεινῆ. - -“When I placed you before my knees, I filled you full with meat, and gave -you wine, which you often vomited upon my bosom, and stained my clothes, -in your troublesome infancy.” The English reader certainly feels an -obligation to the translator for sinking altogether this nauseous image, -which, instead of heightening the picture, greatly debases it: - - Thy infant breast a like affection show’d, - Still in my arms, an ever pleasing load; - Or at my knee, by Phœnix would’st thou stand, - No food was grateful but from Phœnix hand: - I pass my watchings o’er thy helpless years, - The tender labours, the compliant cares.[23] - - POPE. - -But even the highest beauties of the original receive additional lustre -from this admirable translator. - -A striking example of this kind has been remarked by Mr. Melmoth.[24] It -is the translation of that picture in the end of the eighth book of the -_Iliad_, which Eustathius esteemed the finest night-piece that could be -found in poetry: - - Ὡς δ’ ὁτ εν ουρανῶ αστρα φαεινην αμφι σεληνην, - Φαίνετ’ ἀριπρεπέα, ὅτε τ’ ἔπλετο νήνεμος αἰθὴρ, - Ἔκ τ’ ἔφανον πᾶσαι σκοπιαί, καὶ πρώονες ἄκροι, - Καὶ νάπαι· οὐρανόθεν δ’ ἄρ’ ὑπεῤῥάγη ἄσπετος αἰθὴρ, - Πάντα δέ τ’ εἴδεται ἄστρα· γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα ποιμήν· - -“As when the resplendent moon appears in the serene canopy of the -heavens, surrounded with beautiful stars, when every breath of air is -hush’d, when the high watch-towers, the hills, and woods, are distinctly -seen; when the sky appears to open to the sight in all its boundless -extent; and when the shepherd’s heart is delighted within him.” How nobly -is this picture raised and improved by Mr. Pope! - - As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, - O’er heav’n’s clear azure spreads her sacred light: - When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, - And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene; - Around her throne the vivid planets roll, - And stars unnumber’d gild the glowing pole: - O’er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, - And tip with silver every mountain’s head: - Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, - A flood of glory bursts from all the skies: - The conscious swains rejoicing in the sight, - Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.[25] - -These passages from Pope’s _Homer_ afford examples of a translator’s -improvement of his original, by a happy amplification and embellishment -of his imagery, or by the judicious correction of defects; but to fix -the precise degree to which this amplification, this embellishment, and -this liberty of correction, may extend, requires a great exertion of -judgement. It may be useful to remark some instances of the want of this -judgement. - -It is always a fault when the translator adds to the sentiment of the -original author, what does not strictly accord with his characteristic -mode of thinking, or expressing himself. - - Pone sub curru nimium propinqui - Solis, in terrâ domibus negatâ; - Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, - Dulce loquentem. - - HOR. _Od. 22_, l. 1. - -Thus translated by Roscommon: - - The burning zone, the frozen isles, - Shall hear me sing of Celia’s smiles; - All cold, but in her breast, I will despise, - And dare all heat, but that in Celia’s eyes. - -The witty ideas in the two last lines are foreign to the original; and -the addition of these is quite unjustifiable, as they belong to a quaint -species of wit, of which the writings of Horace afford no example. - -Equally faulty, therefore, is Cowley’s translation of a passage in the -_Ode to Pyrrha_: - - Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem - Sperat, nescius auræ fallacis. - - He sees thee gentle, fair, and gay, - And trusts the faithless April of thy May. - -As is the same author’s version of that passage, which is characterised -by its beautiful simplicity. - - somnus agrestium - Lenis virorum non humiles domos - Fastidit, umbrosamque ripam, - Non zephyris agitata Tempe. - - HOR. 3, 1. - - Sleep is a god, too proud to wait on palaces, - And yet so humble too, as not to scorn - The meanest country cottages; - This poppy grows among the corn. - The Halcyon Sleep will never build his nest - In any stormy breast: - ’Tis not enough that he does find - Clouds and darkness in their mind; - Darkness but half his work will do, - ’Tis not enough; he must find quiet too. - -Here is a profusion of wit, and poetic imagery; but the whole is quite -opposite to the character of the original. - -Congreve is guilty of a similar impropriety in translating - - Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum - Soracte: nec jam sustineant onus - Sylvæ laborantes. - - HOR. i. 9. - - Bless me, ’tis cold! how chill the air! - How naked does the world appear! - Behold the mountain tops around, - As if with fur of ermine crown’d: - And lo! how by degrees, - The universal mantle hides the trees, - In hoary flakes which downward fly, - As if it were the autumn of the sky, - Whose fall of leaf would theirs supply: - Trembling the groves sustain the weight, and bow, - Like aged limbs which feebly go, - Beneath a venerable head of snow. - -No author of real genius is more censurable on this score than Dryden. - - Obsidere alii telis angusta viarum - Oppositi: stat ferri acies mucrone corusco - Stricta parata neci. - - _Æneis_, ii. 322. - -Thus translated by Dryden: - - To several posts their parties they divide, - Some block the narrow streets, some scour the wide: - The bold they kill, th’ unwary they surprise; - Who fights finds death, and death finds him who flies. - -Of these four lines, there are scarcely more than four words which are -warranted by the original. “Some block the narrow streets.” Even this -is a faulty translation of _Obsidere alii telis angusta viarum_; but -it fails on the score of mutilation, not redundancy. The rest of the -ideas which compose these four lines, are the original property of the -translator; and the antithetical witticism in the concluding line, is far -beneath the chaste simplicity of Virgil. - -The same author, Virgil, in describing a pestilential disorder among the -cattle, gives the following beautiful picture, which, as an ingenious -writer justly remarks,[26] has every excellence that can belong to -descriptive poetry: - - Ecce autem duro fumans sub vomere taurus - Concidit, et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem, - Extremosque ciet gemitus. It tristis arator, - Mœrentem abjungens fraterna morte juvencum, - Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra. - -Which Mr. Dryden thus translates: - - The steer who to the yoke was bred to bow, - (Studious of tillage and the crooked plow), - Falls down and dies; and dying, spews a flood - Of foamy madness, mixed with clotted blood. - The clown, who _cursing Providence repines_, - His mournful fellow from the team disjoins; - With many a groan forsakes his fruitless care, - And in the unfinished furrow leaves the share. - -“I would appeal to the reader,” says Dr. Beattie, “whether, by debasing -the charming simplicity of _It tristis arator_ with his blasphemous -paraphrase, Dryden has not destroyed the beauty of the passage.” He has -undoubtedly, even although the translation had been otherwise faultless. -But it is very far from being so. _Duro fumans sub vomere_, is not -translated at all, and another idea is put in its place. _Extremosque -ciet gemitus_, a most striking part of the description, is likewise -entirely omitted. “Spews a flood” is vulgar and nauseous; and “a flood -of foamy madness” is nonsense. In short, the whole passage in the -translation is a mass of error and impropriety. - -The simple expression, _Jam Procyon furit_, in Horace, 3, 29, is thus -translated by the same author: - - The Syrian star - Barks from afar, - And with his sultry breath infects the sky. - -This _barking_ of a _star_ is a bad specimen of the music of the spheres. -Dryden, from the fervour of his imagination, and the rapidity with -which he composed, is frequently guilty of similar impropriety in his -metaphorical language. Thus, in his version of Du Fresnoy, _de Arte -Graphica_, he translates - - Indolis ut vigor inde potens obstrictus hebescat, - -“Neither would I extinguish the _fire_ of a _vein_ which is lively and -abundant.” - -The following passage in the second _Georgic_, as translated by Delille, -is an example of vitious taste. - - Ac dum prima novis adolescit frondibus ætas, - Parcendum teneris: et dum se lætus ad auras - Palmes agit, laxis per purum immissus habenis, - Ipsa acies nondum falce tentanda;— - - Quand ses premiers bourgeons s’empresseront d’eclore, - Que l’acier rigoureux n’y touche point encore; - Même lorsque dans l’air, qu’il commence à braver, - Le rejetton moins frêle ose enfin s’elever; - Pardonne à son audace en faveur de son age:— - -The expression of the original is bold and figurative, _lætus ad -auras,—laxis per purum immissus habenis_; but there is nothing that -offends the chastest taste. The concluding line of the translation is -disgustingly finical, - - _Pardonne à son audace en faveur de son age._ - -Mr. Pope’s translation of the following passage of the _Iliad_, is -censurable on a similar account: - - Λαοὶ μεν φθινυθουσι περι πτολιν, αιπυ τε τεῖχος, - Μαρναμενοι· - - _Iliad_, 6, 327. - - For thee great Ilion’s guardian heroes fall, - Till heaps of dead alone defend the wall. - -Of this conceit, of dead men defending the walls of Troy, Mr. Pope has -the sole merit. The original, with grave simplicity, declares, that the -people fell, fighting before the town, and around the walls.[27] - -In the translation of the two following lines from Ovid’s _Epistle of -Sappho to Phaon_, the same author has added a witticism, which is less -reprehensible, because it accords with the usual manner of the poet whom -he translates: yet it cannot be termed an improvement of the original: - - “Scribimus, et lachrymis oculi rorantur abortis, - Aspice, quam sit in hoc multa litura loco.” - - See while I write, my words are lost in tears, - The less my sense, the more my love appears. - - POPE. - -But if authors, even of taste and genius, are found at times to have made -an injudicious use of that liberty which is allowed in the translation -of poetry, we must expect to see it miserably abused indeed, where those -talents are evidently wanting. The following specimen of a Latin version -of the _Paradise Lost_ is an example of everything that is vitious and -offensive in poetical translation. - - Primævi cano _furta_ patris, _furtumque_ secutæ - _Tristia fata necis_, labes ubi prima notavit - Quotquot Adamæo genitos de sanguine vidit - _Phœbus ad Hesperias ab Eoo cardine metas_; - Quos procul _auricomis_ Paradisi depulit _hortis_, - Dira cupido atavûm, _raptique injuria pomi_: - Terrigena donec meliorque et major Adamus, - Amissis meliora bonis, majora reduxit. - Quosque dedit morti _lignum inviolabile_, mortis - Unicus ille _alio_ rapuit de limine _ligno_. - Terrenusque licet pereat Paradisus, at ejus - Munere _laxa patet Paradisi porta_ superni: - Hæc œstro stimulata novo mens pandere gestit. - Quis mihi monstret iter? Quis carbasa nostra profundo - Dirigat in dubio? - - _Gul. Hogæi Paradisus Amissus_, l. 1. - -How completely is Milton disguised in this translation! His Majesty -exchanged for meanness, and his simplicity for bombast![28] - -The preceding observations, though they principally regard the first -general rule of translation, viz. that which enjoins a complete -transfusion of the ideas and sentiments of the original work, have -likewise a near connection with the second general rule, which I shall -now proceed to consider. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - SECOND GENERAL RULE: THE STYLE AND MANNER OF WRITING IN A - TRANSLATION SHOULD BE OF THE SAME CHARACTER WITH THAT OF THE - ORIGINAL.—TRANSLATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES;—OF HOMER, ETC.—A JUST - TASTE REQUISITE FOR THE DISCERNMENT OF THE CHARACTERS OF STYLE - AND MANNER.—EXAMPLES OF FAILURE IN THIS PARTICULAR;—THE GRAVE - EXCHANGED FOR THE FORMAL;—THE ELEVATED FOR THE BOMBAST;—THE - LIVELY FOR THE PETULANT;—THE SIMPLE FOR THE CHILDISH.—HOBBES, - L’ESTRANGE, ECHARD, ETC. - - -Next in importance to a faithful transfusion of the sense and meaning -of an author, is an assimilation of the style and manner of writing -in the translation to that of the original. This requisite of a good -translation, though but secondary in importance, is more difficult to -be attained than the former; for the qualities requisite for justly -discerning and happily imitating the various characters of style and -manner, are much more rare than the ability of simply understanding an -author’s sense. A good translator must be able to discover at once the -true character of his author’s style. He must ascertain with precision -to what class it belongs; whether to that of the grave, the elevated, -the easy, the lively, the florid and ornamented, or the simple and -unaffected; and these characteristic qualities he must have the capacity -of rendering equally conspicuous in the translation as in the original. -If a translator fails in this discernment, and wants this capacity, let -him be ever so thoroughly master of the sense of his author, he will -present him through a distorting medium, or exhibit him often in a garb -that is unsuitable to his character. - -The chief characteristic of the historical style of the sacred -scriptures, is its simplicity. This character belongs indeed to the -language itself. Dr. Campbell has justly remarked, that the Hebrew is -a simple tongue: “That their verbs have not, like the Greek and Latin, -a variety of moods and tenses, nor do they, like the modern languages, -abound in auxiliaries and conjunctions. The consequence is, that in -narrative, they express by several simple sentences, much in the way of -the relations used in conversation, what in most other languages would -be comprehended in one complex sentence of three or four members.”[29] -The same author gives, as an example of this simplicity, the beginning of -the first chapter of Genesis, where the account of the operations of the -Creator on the first day is contained in eleven separate sentences. “1. -In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. 2. And the earth -was without form, and void. 3. And darkness was upon the face of the -deep. 4. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 5. And -God said, let there be light. 6. And there was light. 7. And God saw the -light, that it was good. 8. And God divided the light from the darkness. -9. And God called the light day. 10. And the darkness he called night. -11. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” “This,” says -Dr. Campbell, “is a just representation of the style of the original. A -more perfect example of simplicity of structure, we can nowhere find. The -sentences are simple, the substantives are not attended by adjectives, -nor the verbs by adverbs; no synonymas, no superlatives, no effort at -expressing things in a bold, emphatical, or uncommon manner.” - -Castalio’s version of the Scriptures is intitled to the praise of elegant -Latinity, and he is in general faithful to the sense of his original; but -he has totally departed from its style and manner, by substituting the -complex and florid composition to the simple and unadorned. His sentences -are formed in long and intricate periods, in which many separate members -are artfully combined; and we observe a constant endeavour at a classical -phraseology and ornamented diction.[30] In Castalio’s version of the -foregoing passage of Genesis, nine sentences of the original are thrown -into one period. 1. _Principio creavit Deus cœlum et terram._ 2. _Quum -autem esset terra iners atque rudis, tenebrisque effusum profundum, et -divinus spiritus sese super aquas libraret, jussit Deus ut existeret -lux, et extitit lux; quam quum videret Deus esse bonam, lucem secrevit a -tenebris, et lucem diem, et tenebras noctem appellavit._ 3. _Ita extitit -ex vespere et mane dies primus._ - -Dr. Beattie, in his essay _On Laughter and Ludicrous Composition_, has -justly remarked, that the translation of the Old Testament by Castalio -does great honour to that author’s learning, but not to his taste. “The -quaintness of his Latin betrays a deplorable inattention to the simple -majesty of his original. In the Song of Solomon, he has debased the -magnificence of the language and subject by _diminutives_, which, though -expressive of familiar endearment, he should have known to be destitute -of dignity, and therefore improper on solemn occasions.” _Mea Columbula, -ostende mihi tuum vulticulum; fac ut audiam tuam voculam; nam et voculam -venustulam, et vulticulum habes lepidulum.—Veni in meos hortulos, -sororcula mea sponsa.—Ego dormio, vigilante meo corculo_, &c. - -The version of the Scriptures by Arias Montanus, is in some respects -a contrast to that of Castalio. Arias, by adopting the literal mode -of translation, probably intended to give as faithful a picture as he -could, both of the sense and manner of the original. Not considering -the different genius of the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin, in the -various meaning and import of words of the same primary sense; the -difference of combination and construction, and the peculiarity of idioms -belonging to each tongue, he has treated the three languages as if they -corresponded perfectly in all those particulars; and the consequence -is, he has produced a composition which fails in every one requisite -of a good translation: it conveys neither the sense of the original, -nor its manner and style; and it abounds in barbarisms, solecisms, and -grammatical inaccuracy.[31] In Latin, two negatives make an affirmative; -but it is otherwise in Greek; they only give force to the negation: -χωρις εμου ου δυνασθε ποιειν ουδεν, as translated by Arias, _sine me -non potestis facere nihil_, is therefore directly contrary to the sense -of the original: And surely that translator cannot be said either to -do justice to the manner and style of his author, or to write with the -ease of original composition, who, instead of perspicuous thought, -expressed in pure, correct, and easy phraseology, gives us obscure and -unintelligible sentiments, conveyed in barbarous terms and constructions, -irreconcileable to the rules of the language in which he uses them. _Et -nunc dixi vobis ante fieri, ut quum factum fuerit credatis.—Ascendit -autem et Joseph a Galilæa in civitatem David, propter esse ipsum ex domo -et familia David, describi cum Maria desponsata sibi uxore, existente -prægnante. Factum autem in esse eos ibi, impleti sunt dies parere -ipsam.—Venerunt ad portam, quæ spontanea aperta est eis, et exeuntes -processerunt vicum.—Nunquid aquam prohibere potest quis ad non baptizare -hos?—Spectat descendens super se vas quoddam linteum, quatuor initiis -vinctum.—Aperiens autem Petrus os, dixit: in veritate deprehendo quia non -est personarum acceptor Deus._[32] - -The characteristic of the language of Homer is strength united with -simplicity. He employs frequent images, allusions, and similes; but -he very rarely uses metaphorical expression. The use of this style, -therefore, in a translation of Homer, is an offence against the character -of the original. Mr. Pope, though not often, is sometimes chargeable with -this fault; as where he terms the arrows of Apollo “the feather’d fates,” -_Iliad_, 1, 68, a quiver of arrows, “a store of flying fates,” _Odyssey_, -22, 136: or instead of saying, that the soil is fertile in corn, “in wavy -gold the summer vales are dress’d,” _Odyssey_, 19, 131; the soldier wept, -“from his eyes pour’d down the tender dew,” _Ibid._ 11, 486. - -Virgil, in describing the shipwreck of the Trojans, says, - - _Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto_, - -Which the Abbé des Fontaines thus translates: “A peine un petit nombre -de ceux qui montoient le vaisseau purent se sauver à la nage.” Of this -translation Voltaire justly remarks, “C’est traduire Virgile en style de -gazette. Où est ce vaste gouffre que peint le poête, _gurgite vasto_? -Où est l’_apparent rari nantes_? Ce n’est pas ainsi qu’on doit traduire -l’Eneide.” _Voltaire_, _Quest. sur l’Encyclop. mot Amplification_. - -If we are thus justly offended at hearing Virgil speak in the style of -the _Evening Post_ or the _Daily Advertiser_, what must we think of the -translator, who makes the solemn and sententious Tacitus express himself -in the low cant of the streets, or in the dialect of the waiters of a -tavern? - -_Facile Asinium et Messalam inter Antonium et Augustum bellorum præmiis -refertos_: Thus translated, in a version of Tacitus by Mr. Dryden -and several eminent hands: “Asinius and Messala, who feathered their -nests well in the civil wars ’twixt Antony and Augustus.” _Vinolentiam -et libidines usurpans_: “Playing the good-fellow.” _Frustra Arminium -præscribi_: “Trumping up Arminius’s title.” _Sed Agrippina libertam -æmulam, nurum ancillam, aliaque eundem in modum muliebriter fremere_: -“But Agrippina could not bear that a freedwoman should _nose_ her.” And -another translator says, “But Agrippina could not bear that a freedwoman -should _beard_ her.” Of a similar character with this translation of -Tacitus is a translation of Suetonius by several gentlemen of Oxford,[33] -which abounds with such elegancies as the following: _Sestio Gallo, -libidinoso et prodigo seni_: “Sestius Gallus, a most notorious old Sir -Jolly.” _Jucundissimos et omnium horarum amicos_: “His boon companions -and sure cards.” _Nullam unquam occasionem dedit_: “They never could -pick the least hole in his coat.” - -Juno’s apostrophe to Troy, in her speech to the Gods in council, is thus -translated in a version of Horace by “The Most Eminent Hands.” - - _Ilion, Ilion,_ - _Fatalis incestusque judex, &c._ - - HOR. 3, 3. - - O Ilion, Ilion, I with transport view - The fall of all thy wicked, perjur’d _crew_! - Pallas and I have _borne a rankling grudge_ - To that _curst_ Shepherd, that incestuous judge. - -The description of the majesty of Jupiter, contained in the following -passage of the first book of the _Iliad_, is allowed to be a true -specimen of the sublime. It is the archetype from which Phidias -acknowledged he had framed his divine sculpture of the Olympian Jupiter: - - Η, και κυανεησιν επ’ οφρυσι νευσε Κρονιων· - Αμβροσιαι δ’ αρα χαιται επερρωσαντο ανακτος, - Κρατος απ’ αθανατοιο, μεγαν δ’ ελελιξεν Ολυμπον. - - He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows, - Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, - The stamp of fate, and sanction of the God: - High heaven, with trembling, the dread signal took, - And all Olympus to its centre shook. - - POPE. - -Certainly Mr. Hobbes of Malmsbury perceived no portion of that sublime -which was felt by Phidias and by Mr. Pope, when he could thus translate -this fine description: - - This said, with his black brows he to her nodded, - Wherewith displayed were his locks divine; - Olympus shook at stirring of his godhead, - And Thetis from it jump’d into the brine. - -In the translation of the _Georgics_, Mr. Dryden has displayed great -powers of poetry. But Dryden had little relish for the pathetic, and -no comprehension of the natural language of the heart. The beautiful -simplicity of the following passage has entirely escaped his observation, -and he has been utterly insensible to its tenderness: - - _Ipse cavâ solans ægrum testudine amorem,_ - _Te, dulcis conjux, te solo in littore secum,_ - _Te veniente die, te decedente canebat._ - - VIRG. _Geor. 4._ - - Th’ unhappy husband, now no more, - Did on his tuneful harp his loss deplore, - And sought his mournful mind with music to restore. - On thee, dear Wife, in deserts all alone, - He call’d, sigh’d, sung; his griefs with day begun, - Nor were they finish’d till the setting sun. - -The three verbs, _call’d_, _sigh’d_, _sung_, are here substituted, with -peculiar infelicity, for the repetition of the pronoun; a change which -converts the pathetic into the ludicrous. - -In the same episode, the poet compares the complaint of Orpheus to the -wailing of a nightingale, robb’d of her young, in those well-known -beautiful verses: - - _Qualis populea mœrens Philomela sub umbra_ - _Amissos queritur fœtus, quos durus arator_ - _Observans nido implumes, detraxit: at illa_ - _Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen_ - _Integrat, et mœstis late loca questibus implet._ - -Thus translated by De Lille: - - Telle sur un rameau durant la nuit obscure - Philomele plaintive attendrit la nature, - Accuse en gémissant l’oiseleur inhumain, - Qui, glissant dans son nid une furtive main, - Ravit ces tendres fruits que l’amour fit eclorre, - Et qu’un leger duvet ne couvroit pas encore. - -It is evident, that there is a complete evaporation of the beauties of -the original in this translation: and the reason is, that the French -poet has substituted sentiments for facts, and refinement for the -simple pathetic. The nightingale of De Lille melts all nature with her -complaint; accuses with her sighs the inhuman fowler, who glides his -thievish hand into her nest, and plunders the tender fruits that were -hatched by love! How different this sentimental foppery from the chaste -simplicity of Virgil! - -The following beautiful passage in the sixth book of the _Iliad_ has -not been happily translated by Mr. Pope. It is in the parting interview -between Hector and Andromache. - - Ως ειπων, αλοχοιο φιλης εν χερσιν εθηκε - Παιδ’ ἑον· ἡ δ’ αρα μιν κηωδει δεξατο κολπω, - Δακρυοεν γελασασα· ποσις δ’ ελεησε νοησας, - Χειρι τε μιν κατερεξεν, επος τ’ εφατ’ εκ τ’ ονομαζε. - - He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms, - Restor’d the pleasing burden to her arms; - Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid, - Hush’d to repose, and with a smile survey’d. - The troubled pleasure soon chastis’d by fear, - She mingled with the smile a tender tear. - The soften’d chief with kind compassion view’d, - And dried the falling drops, and thus pursu’d. - -This, it must be allowed, is good poetry; but it wants the affecting -simplicity of the original. _Fondly gazing on her charms—pleasing -burden—The troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear_, are injudicious -embellishments. The beautiful expression Δακρυοεν γελασασα is totally -lost by amplification; and the fine circumstance, which so much heightens -the tenderness of the picture, Χειρι τε μιν κατερεξεν, is forgotten -altogether. - -But a translator may discern the general character of his author’s -style, and yet fail remarkably in the imitation of it. Unless he is -possessed of the most correct taste, he will be in continual danger of -presenting an exaggerated picture or a caricatura of his original. The -distinction between good and bad writing is often of so very slender a -nature, and the shadowing of difference so extremely delicate, that a -very nice perception alone can at all times define the limits. Thus, -in the hands of some translators, who have discernment to perceive the -general character of their author’s style, but want this correctness of -taste, the grave style of the original becomes heavy and formal in the -translation; the elevated swells into bombast, the lively froths up into -the petulant, and the simple and _naïf_ degenerates into the childish and -insipid.[34] - -In the fourth Oration against Catiline, Cicero, after drawing the most -striking picture of the miseries of his country, on the supposition that -success had crowned the designs of the conspirators, closes the detail -with this grave and solemn application: - -_Quia mihi vehementer hæc videntur misera atque miseranda, idcirca in -eos qui ea perficere voluerunt, me severum, vehementemque præbeo. Etenim -quæro, si quis paterfamilias, liberis suis a servo interfectis, uxore -occisa, incensa domo, supplicium de servo quam acerbissimum sumserit; -utrum is clemens ac misericors, an inhumanissimus et crudelissimus esse -videatur? Mihi vero importunus ac ferreus, qui non dolore ac cruciatu -nocentis, suum dolorem ac cruciatum lenierit._ - -How awkwardly is the dignified gravity of the original imitated, in the -following heavy, formal, and insipid version. - -“Now as to me these calamities appear extremely shocking and deplorable: -therefore I am extremely keen and rigorous in punishing those who -endeavoured to bring them about. For let me put the case, that a -master of a family had his children butchered, his wife murdered, his -house burnt down by a slave, yet did not inflict the most rigorous of -punishments imaginable upon that slave: would such a master appear -merciful and compassionate, and not rather a monster of cruelty and -inhumanity? To me that man would appear to be of a flinty cruel nature, -who should not endeavour to soothe his own anguish and torment by the -anguish and torment of its guilty cause.”[35] - -Ovid, in describing the fatal storm in which Ceyx perished, says, - - _Undarum incursa gravis unda, tonitrubus æther_ - _Fluctibus erigitur, cœlumque æquare videtur_ - _Pontus._ - -An hyperbole, allowable in poetical description; but which Dryden has -exaggerated into the most outrageous bombast: - - Now waves on waves ascending scale the skies, - And in the fires above the water fries. - -In the first scene of the _Amphitryo of Plautus_, Sosia thus remarks on -the unusual length of the night: - - _Neque ego hac nocte longiorem me vidisse censeo,_ - _Nisi item unam, verberatus quam pependi perpetem._ - _Eam quoque, Ædepol, etiam multo hæc vicit longitudine._ - _Credo equidem dormire solem atque appotum probe._ - _Mira sunt, nisi invitavit sese in cœna plusculum._ - -To which Mercury answers: - - _Ain vero, verbero? Deos esse tui similes putas?_ - _Ego Pol te istis tuis pro dictis et malefactis, furcifer,_ - _Accipiam, modò sis veni huc: invenies infortunium._ - -Echard, who saw no distinction between the familiar and the vulgar, has -translated this in the true dialect of the streets: - -“I think there never was such a long night since the beginning of the -world, except that night I had the strappado, and rid the wooden horse -till morning; and, o’ my conscience, that was twice as long.[36] By the -mackins, I believe Phœbus has been playing the good-fellow, and ’s asleep -too. I’ll be hang’d if he ben’t in for’t, and has took a little too much -o’ the creature.” - -“_Mer._ Say ye so, slave? What, treat Gods like yourselves. By Jove, have -at your doublet, Rogue, for _scandalum magnatum_. Approach then, you’ll -ha’ but small joy here.” - -“Mer. _Accedam, atque hanc appellabo atque supparasitabo patri._” Ibid. -sc. 3. - -“_Mer._ I’ll to her, and tickle her up as my father has done.” - -“Sosia. _Irritabis crabrones._” Ibid. act 2, sc. 2. - -“_Sosia._ You’d as good p—ss in a bee-hive.” - -Seneca, though not a chaste writer, is remarkable for a courtly dignity -of expression, which, though often united with ease, never descends to -the mean or vulgar. L’Estrange has presented him through a medium of such -coarseness, that he is hardly to be known. - -_Probatos itaque semper lege, et siquando ad alios divertere libuerit, -ad priores redi.—Nihil æque sanitatem impedit quam remediorum crebra -mutatio_, Ep. 2.—“Of authors be sure to make choice of the best; and, -as I said before, stick close to them; and though you take up others by -the bye, reserve some select ones, however, for your study and retreat. -Nothing is more hurtful, in the case of diseases and wounds, than the -frequent shifting of physic and plasters.” - -_Fuit qui diceret, Quid perdis operam? ille quem quæris elatus, combustus -est._ _De benef._, lib. 7. c. 21.—“Friend, says a fellow, you may hammer -your heart out, for the man you look for is dead.” - -_Cum multa in crudelitatem Pisistrati conviva ebrius dixisset._ _De ira_, -lib. 3, c. 11. “Thrasippus, in his drink, fell foul upon the cruelties of -Pisistratus.” - -From the same defect of taste, the simple and natural manner degenerates -into the childish and insipid. - - J’ai perdu tout mon bonheur, - J’ai perdu mon serviteur, - Colin me délaisse. - Helas! il a pu changer! - Je voudrois n’y plus songer: - J’y songe sans cesse. - - ROUSSEAU, _Devin de Village_. - - I’ve lost my love, I’ve lost my swain; - Colin leaves me with disdain. - Naughty Colin! hateful thought! - To Colinette her Colin’s naught. - I will forget him—that I will! - Ah, t’wont do—I love him still. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - EXAMPLES OF A GOOD TASTE IN POETICAL TRANSLATION.—BOURNE’S - TRANSLATIONS FROM MALLET AND FROM PRIOR.—THE DUKE DE NIVERNOIS - FROM HORACE.—DR. JORTIN FROM SIMONIDES.—IMITATION OF THE SAME - BY DR. MARKHAM.—MR. WEBB FROM THE ANTHOLOGIA.—HUGHES FROM - CLAUDIAN.—FRAGMENTS OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS BY MR. CUMBERLAND. - - -After these examples of faulty translation, from a defect of taste in the -translator, or a want of a just discernment of his author’s style and -manner of writing, I shall now present the reader with some specimens of -perfect translation, where the authors have entered with exquisite taste -into the manner of their originals, and have succeeded most happily in -the imitation of it. - -The first is the opening of the beautiful ballad of _William and -Margaret_, translated by Vincent Bourne. - - I - - When all was wrapt in dark midnight, - And all were fast asleep, - In glided Margaret’s grimly ghost, - And stood at William’s feet. - - II - - Her face was like the April morn, - Clad in a wintry-cloud; - And clay-cold was her lily hand, - That held her sable shrowd. - - III - - So shall the fairest face appear, - When youth and years are flown; - Such is the robe that Kings must wear, - When death has reft their crown. - - IV - - Her bloom was like the springing flower, - That sips the silver dew; - The rose was budded in her cheek, - And opening to the view. - - V - - But Love had, like the canker-worm, - Consum’d her early prime; - The rose grew pale and left her cheek, - She died before her time. - - I - - _Omnia nox tenebris, tacitâque involverat umbrâ._ - _Et fessos homines vinxerat alta quies;_ - _Cùm valvæ patuere, et gressu illapsa silenti,_ - _Thyrsidis ad lectum stabat imago Chloes._ - - II - - _Vultus erat, qualis lachrymosi vultus Aprilis,_ - _Cui dubia hyberno conditur imbre dies;_ - _Quaque sepulchralem à pedibus collegit amictum,_ - _Candidior nivibus, frigidiorque manus,_ - - III - - _Cùmque dies aberunt molles, et læta juventus,_ - _Gloria pallebit, sic Cyparissi tua;_ - _Cùm mors decutiet capiti diademata, regum_ - _Hâc erit in trabeâ conspiciendus honos._ - - IV - - _Forma fuit (dum forma fuit) nascentis ad instar_ - _Floris, cui cano gemmula rore tumet;_ - _Et Veneres risere, et subrubuere labella,_ - _Subrubet ut teneris purpura prima rosis._ - - V - - _Sed lenta exedit tabes mollemque ruborem,_ - _Et faciles risus, et juvenile decus;_ - _Et rosa paulatim languens, nudata reliquit_ - _Oscula; præripuit mors properata Chloen._ - -The second is a small poem by Prior, intitled _Chloe Hunting_, which is -likewise translated into Latin by Bourne. - - Behind her neck her comely tresses tied, - Her ivory quiver graceful by her side, - A-hunting Chloe went; she lost her way, - And through the woods uncertain chanc’d to stray. - Apollo passing by beheld the maid; - And, sister dear, bright Cynthia, turn, he said; - The hunted hind lies close in yonder brake. - Loud Cupid laugh’d, to see the God’s mistake: - And laughing cried, learn better, great Divine, - To know thy kindred, and to honour mine. - Rightly advis’d, far hence thy sister seek, - Or on Meander’s banks, or Latmus’ peak. - But in this nymph, my friend, my sister know; - She draws my arrows, and she bends my bow. - Fair Thames she haunts, and every neighbouring grove, - Sacred to soft recess, and gentle Love. - Go with thy Cynthia, hurl the pointed spear - At the rough boar, or chace the flying deer: - I, and my Chloe, take a nobler aim; - At human hearts we fling, nor ever miss the game. - - _Forte Chloe, pulchros nodo collecta capillos_ - _Post collum, pharetrâque latus succincta decorâ,_ - _Venatrix ad sylvam ibat; cervumque secuta_ - _Elapsum visu, deserta per avia tendit_ - _Incerta. Errantem nympham conspexit Apollo,_ - _Et, converte tuos, dixit, mea Cynthia, cursus;_ - _En ibi (monstravitque manu) tibi cervus anhelat_ - _Occultus dumo, latebrisque moratur in illis._ - _Improbus hæc audivit Amor, lepidumque cachinnum_ - _Attollens, poterantne etiam tua numina falli?_ - _Hinc, quæso, bone Phœbe, tuam dignosce sororem,_ - _Et melius venerare meam. Tua Cynthia longè,_ - _Mæandri ad ripas, aut summi in vertice Latmi,_ - _Versatur; nostra est soror hæc, nostra, inquit, amica est._ - _Hæc nostros promit calamos, arcumque sonantem_ - _Incurvat, Tamumque colens, placidosque recessus_ - _Lucorum, quos alma quies sacravit amori._ - _Ite per umbrosos saltus, lustrisque vel aprum_ - _Excutite horrentem setis, cervumve fugacem,_ - _Tuque sororque tua, et directo sternite ferro:_ - _Nobilior labor, et divis dignissima cura,_ - _Meque Chloenque manet; nos corda humana ferimus,_ - _Vibrantes certum vulnus nec inutile telum._ - -The third specimen, is a translation by the Duke de Nivernois, of -Horace’s dialogue with Lydia: - - HORACE - - Plus heureux qu’un monarque au faite des grandeurs, - J’ai vu mes jours dignes d’envie, - Tranquiles, ils couloient au gré de nos ardeurs: - Vous m’aimiez, charmante Lydie. - - LYDIE - - Que mes jours étoient beaux, quand des soins les plus doux - Vous payiez ma flamme sincére! - Venus me regardoit avec des yeux jaloux; - Chloé n’avoit pas sçu vous plaire. - - HORACE - - Par son luth, par sa voix, organe des amours, - Chloé seule me paroit belle: - Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours, - Je donnerai les miens pour elle. - - LYDIE - - Le jeune Calaïs, plus beau que les amours, - Plait seul à mon ame ravie: - Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours, - Je donnerai deux fois ma vie. - - HORACE - - Quoi, si mes premiers feux, ranimant leur ardeur, - Etouffoient une amour fatale; - Si, perdant pour jamais tous ses droits sur mon cœur, - Chloé vous laissoit sans rivale—— - - LYDIE - - Calaïs est charmant: mais je n’aime que vous, - Ingrat, mon cœur vous justifie; - Heureuse également en des liens si doux, - De perdre ou de passer la vie.[37] - -If any thing is faulty in this excellent translation, it is the last -stanza, which does not convey the happy petulance, the _procacitas_ of -the original. The reader may compare with this, the fine translation of -the same ode by Bishop Atterbury, “Whilst I was fond, and you were kind,” -which is too well known to require insertion. - -The fourth example is a translation by Dr. Jortin of that beautiful -fragment of Simonides, preserved by Dionysius, in which Danae, exposed -with her child to the fury of the ocean, by command of her inhuman -father, is described lamenting over her sleeping infant. - -_Ex Dionys. Hal. De Compositione Verborum_, c. 26. - - Οτε λαρνακι εν δαιδαλεα ανεμος - Βρεμη πνεων, κινηθεισα δε λιμνα - Δειματι ερειπεν· ουτ’ αδιανταισι - Παρειαῖς, αμφι τε Περσεῖ βαλλε - Φιλαν χερα, ειπεν τε· ω τεκνον, - Ὁιον εχω πονον. συ δ’ αυτε γαλαθηνω - Ητορι κνοσσεις εν ατερπει δωματι, - Χαλκεογομφω δε, νυκτιλαμπεῖ, - Κυανεω τε δνοφω· συ δ’ αυαλεαν - Υπερθε τεαν κομαν βαθειαν - Παριοντος κυματος ουκ αλεγεις - Ουδ’ ανεμου φθογγων, πορφυρεα - Κειμενος εν χλανιδι, προσωπον καλον· - Ει δε τοι δεινον το γε δεινον ην - Και μεν εμων ρηματων λεπτον - Υπειχες οὐας. κελομαι, ἑυδε, βρεφος, - Ἑυδετω δε ποντος, ευδετω αμετρον κακον. - Ματαιοβουλια δε τις φανειη - Ζευ πατερ, εκ σεο· ὁτι δη θαρσαλεον - Επος, ευχομαι τεκνοφι δικας μοι. - - Nocte sub obscura, verrentibus æquora ventis, - Quum brevis immensa cymba nataret aqua, - Multa gemens Danaë subjecit brachia nato, - Et teneræ lacrymis immaduere genæ. - Tu tamen ut dulci, dixit, pulcherrime, somno - Obrutus, et metuens tristia nulla, jaces! - Quamvis, heu quales cunas tibi concutit unda, - Præbet et incertam pallida luna facem, - Et vehemens flavos everberat aura capillos, - Et prope, subsultans, irrigat ora liquor. - Nate, meam sentis vocem? Nil cernis et audis, - Teque premunt placidi vincula blanda dei; - Nec mihi purpureis effundis blæsa labellis - Murmura, nec notos confugis usque sinus. - Care, quiesce, puer, sævique quiescite fluctus, - Et mea qui pulsas corda, quiesce, dolor. - Cresce puer; matris leni atque ulciscere luctus, - Tuque tuos saltem protege summe Tonans. - -This admirable translation falls short of its original only in a -single particular, the measure of the verse. One striking beauty of -the original, is the easy and loose structure of the verse, which -has little else to distinguish it from animated discourse but the -harmony of the syllables; and hence it has more of natural impassioned -eloquence, than is conveyed by the regular measure of the translation. -That this characteristic of the original should have been overlooked -by the ingenious translator, is the more remarkable, that the poem is -actually quoted by Dionysius, as an apposite example of that species -of composition in which poetry approaches to the freedom of prose; της -εμμελους και εμμετρου συνθεσεως της εχουσης πολλην ὁμοιοτητα προς την -πεζην λεξιν. Dr. Markham saw this excellence of the original; and in -that fine imitation of the verses of Simonides, which an able critic[38] -has pronounced to be far superior to the original, has given it its -full effect. The passage alluded to is an apostrophe of a mother to her -sleeping infant, a widowed mother, who has just left the deathbed of her -husband. - - His conatibus occupata, ocellos - Guttis lucidulis adhuc madentes - Convertit, puerum sopore vinctum - Qua nutrix placido sinu fovebat: - Dormis, inquiit, O miselle, nec te - Vultus exanimes, silentiumque - Per longa atria commovent, nec ullo - Fratrum tangeris, aut meo dolore; - Nec sentis patre destitutus illo - Qui gestans genibusve brachiove - Aut formans lepidam tuam loquelam - Tecum mille modis ineptiebat. - Tu dormis, volitantque qui solebant - Risus in roseis tuis labellis.—— - Dormi parvule! nec mali dolores - Qui matrem cruciant tuæ quietis - Rumpant somnia.—Quando, quando tales - Redibunt oculis meis sopores! - -The next specimen I shall give, is the translation of a beautiful -epigram, from the _Anthologia_ which is supposed by Junius to be -descriptive of a painting mentioned by Pliny,[39] in which, a mother -wounded, and in the agony of death, is represented as giving suck to her -infant for the last time: - - Ελκε τάλαν παρα μητρος ὅν οὐκ ἔτι μαζὸν ἀμελξεις, - Ελκυσον ὑστατιον νᾶμα καταφθιμενης - Ηδη γαρ ξιφέεσσι λιπόπνοος, ἀλλὰ τὰ μητρος - Φιλτρα καὶ εν ἀϊδη παιδοκομειν ἔμαθον. - -Thus happily translated into English by Mr. Webb: - - Suck, little wretch, while yet thy mother lives, - Suck the last drop her fainting bosom gives! - She dies: her tenderness survives her breath, - And her fond love is provident in death. - -Equal in merit to any of the preceding, is the following translation by -Mr. Hughes from _Claudian_. - -_Ex Epithalamio Honorii & Mariæ._ - - _Cunctatur stupefacta Venus; nunc ora puellæ,_ - _Nunc flavam niveo miratur vertice matrem._ - _Hæc modo crescenti, plenæ par altera Lunæ:_ - _Assurgit ceu fortè minor sub matre virenti_ - _Laurus; et ingentes ramos, olimque futuras_ - _Promittit jam parva comas: vel flore sub uno_ - _Seu geminæ Pæstana rosæ per jugera regnant._ - _Hæc largo matura die, saturataque vernis_ - _Roribus indulget spatio: latet altera nodo,_ - _Nec teneris audet foliis admittere soles._ - - The goddess paus’d; and, held in deep amaze, - Now views the mother’s, now the daughter’s face. - Different in each, yet equal beauty glows; - That, the full moon, and this, the crescent shows, - Thus, rais’d beneath its parent tree is seen - The laurel shoot, while in its early green - Thick sprouting leaves and branches are essay’d, - And all the promise of a future shade. - Or blooming thus, in happy Pæstan fields, - One common stock two lovely roses yields: - Mature by vernal dews, this dares display - Its leaves full-blown, and boldly meets the day - That, folded in its tender nonage lies, - A beauteous bud, nor yet admits the skies. - -The following passage, from a Latin version of the _Messiah_ of Pope, -by a youth of uncommon genius,[40] exhibits the singular union of ease, -animation, and harmony of numbers, with the strictest fidelity to the -original. - - _Lanigera ut cautè placidus regit agmina pastor,_ - _Aera ut explorat purum, camposque virentes;_ - _Amissas ut quærit oves, moderatur euntûm_ - _Ut gressus, curatque diu, noctuque tuetur;_ - _Ut teneros agnos lenta inter brachia tollit,_ - _Mulcenti pascit palma, gremioque focillat;_ - _Sic genus omne hominum sic complectetur amanti_ - _Pectore, promissus seclo Pater ille futuro._ - - As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, - Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air; - Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs, - By day o’ersees them, and by night protects; - The tender lambs he raises in his arms, - Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms: - Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage - The promis’d Father of the future age. - -To these specimens of perfect translation, in which not only the -ideas of the original are completely transfused, but the manner most -happily imitated, I add the following admirable translations by Mr. -Cumberland,[41] of two fragments from the Greek dramatists Timocles and -Diphilus, which are preserved by Athenæus. - -The first of these passages beautifully illustrates the moral uses of the -tragic drama: - - Nay, my good friend, but hear me! I confess - Man is the child of sorrow, and this world, - In which we breathe, hath cares enough to plague us; - But it hath means withal to soothe these cares: - And he who meditates on others’ woes, - Shall in that meditation lose his own: - Call then the tragic poet to your aid, - Hear him, and take instruction from the stage: - Let Telephus appear; behold a prince, - A spectacle of poverty and pain, - Wretched in both.—And what if you are poor? - Are you a demigod? Are you the son - Of Hercules? Begone! Complain no more. - Doth your mind struggle with distracting thoughts? - Do your wits wander? Are you mad? Alas! - So was Alcmeon, whilst the world ador’d - His father as their God. Your eyes are dim; - What then? The eyes of Œdipus were dark, - Totally dark. You mourn a son; he’s dead; - Turn to the tale of Niobe for comfort, - And match your loss with hers. You’re lame of foot; - Compare it with the foot of Philoctetes, - And make no more complaint. But you are old, - Old and unfortunate; consult Oëneus; - Hear what a king endur’d, and learn content. - Sum up your miseries, number up your sighs, - The tragic stage shall give you tear for tear, - And wash out all afflictions but its own.[42] - -The following fragment from Diphilus conveys a very favourable idea of -the spirit of the dialogue, in what has been termed the New Comedy of the -Greeks, or that which was posterior to the age of Alexander the Great. -Of this period Diphilus and Menander were among the most shining -ornaments. - - We have a notable good law at Corinth, - Where, if an idle fellow outruns reason, - Feasting and junketting at furious cost, - The sumptuary proctor calls upon him, - And thus begins to sift him.—You live well, - But have you well to live? You squander freely, - Have you the wherewithal? Have you the fund - For these outgoings? If you have, go on! - If you have not, we’ll stop you in good time, - Before you outrun honesty; for he - Who lives we know not how, must live by plunder; - Either he picks a purse, or robs a house, - Or is accomplice with some knavish gang, - Or thrusts himself in crowds, to play th’ informer, - And put his perjur’d evidence to sale: - This a well-order’d city will not suffer; - Such vermin we expel.—“And you do wisely: - But what is that to me?”—Why, this it is: - Here we behold you every day at work, - Living, forsooth! not as your neighbours live, - But richly, royally, ye gods!—Why man, - We cannot get a fish for love or money, - You swallow the whole produce of the sea: - You’ve driv’n our citizens to brouze on cabbage; - A sprig of parsley sets them all a-fighting, - As at the Isthmian games: If hare or partridge, - Or but a simple thrush comes to the market, - Quick, at a word, you snap him: By the Gods! - Hunt Athens through, you shall not find a feather - But in your kitchen; and for wine, ’tis gold— - Not to be purchas’d.—We may drink the ditches.[43] - -Of equal merit with these two last specimens, are the greatest part of -those translations given by Mr. Cumberland of the fragments of the Greek -dramatists. The literary world owes to that ingenious writer a very high -obligation for his excellent view of the progress of the dramatic art -among the Greeks, and for the collection he has made of the remains of -more than fifty of their comic poets.[44] - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - LIMITATION OF THE RULE REGARDING THE IMITATION OF STYLE.—THIS - IMITATION MUST BE REGULATED BY THE GENIUS OF LANGUAGES.—THE - LATIN ADMITS OF A GREATER BREVITY OF EXPRESSION THAN THE - ENGLISH;—AS DOES THE FRENCH.—THE LATIN AND GREEK ALLOW GREATER - INVERSIONS THAN THE ENGLISH,—AND ADMIT MORE FREELY OF ELLIPSIS - - -The rule which enjoins to a translator the imitation of the style of the -original author, demands several limitations. - -1. This imitation must always be regulated by the nature or genius of the -languages of the original and of the translation. - -The Latin language admits of a brevity, which cannot be successfully -imitated in the English. - -Cicero thus writes to Trebatius (lib. 7, ep. 17): - -_In Britanniam te profectum non esse gaudeo, quod et tu labore caruisti, -et ego te de rebus illis non audiam._ - -It is impossible to translate this into English with equal brevity, -and at the same time do complete justice to the sentiment. Melmoth, -therefore, has shewn great judgement in sacrificing the imitation of -style to the perfect transfusion of the sense. “I am glad, for my sake -as well as yours, that you did not attend Cæsar into Britain; as it has -not only saved you the fatigue of a very disagreeable journey, but me -likewise that of being the perpetual auditor of your wonderful exploits.” -_Melm. Cic. Lett._ b. 2, l. 12. - -Pliny to Minutianus, lib. 3, ep. 9, says, towards the end of his letter: -_Temerè dixi—Succurrit quod præterieram, et quidem serò: sed quanquam -preposterè reddetur. Facit hoc Homerus, multique illius exemplo. Est -alioqui perdecorum: a me tamen non ideo fiet._ It is no doubt possible -to translate this passage into English with a conciseness almost equal -to the original; but in this experiment we must sacrifice all its ease -and spirit. “I have said this rashly—I recollect an omission—somewhat too -late indeed. It shall now be supplied, though a little preposterously. -Homer does this: and many after his example. Besides, it is not -unbecoming; but this is not my reason.” Let us mark how Mr. Melmoth, -by a happy amplification, has preserved the spirit and ease, though -sacrificing the brevity of the original. “But upon recollection, I find -that I must recall that last word; for I perceive, a little too late -indeed, that I have omitted a material circumstance. However, I will -mention it here, though something out of its place. In this, I have -the authority of Homer, and several other great names, to keep me in -countenance; and the critics will tell you this irregular manner has its -beauties: but, upon my word, it is a beauty I had not at all in my view.” - -An example of a similar brevity of expression, which admits of no -imitation in English, occurs in another letter of Cicero to Trebatius, -_Ep._ l. 7, 14. - -_Chrysippus Vettius, Cyri architecti libertus, fecit, ut te non immemorem -putarem mei. Valde jam lautus es qui gravere literas ad me dare, homini -præsertim domestico. Quod si scribere oblitus es, minus multi jam te -advocato causâ cadent. Sin nostri oblitus es, dabo operam ut isthuc -veniam antequam planè ex animo tuo effluo._ - -In translating this passage, Mr. Melmoth has shewn equal judgement. -Without attempting to imitate the brevity of the original, which he knew -to be impossible, he saw that the characterising features of the passage -were ease and vivacity; and these he has very happily transfused into his -translation. - -“If it were not for the compliments you sent me by Chrysippus, the -freedman of Cyrus the architect, I should have imagined I no longer -possessed a place in your thoughts. But surely you are become a most -intolerable fine gentleman, that you could not bear the fatigue of -writing to me, when you had the opportunity of doing so by a man, whom, -you know, I look upon as one almost of my own family. Perhaps, however, -you may have forgotten the use of your pen: and so much the better, let -me tell you, for your clients, as they will lose no more causes by its -blunders. But if it is myself only that has escaped your remembrance, I -must endeavour to refresh it by a visit, before I am worn out of your -memory, beyond all power of recollection.” - -Numberless instances of a similar exercise of judgement and of good -taste are to be found in Mr. Murphy’s excellent translation of Tacitus. -After the death of Germanicus, poisoned, as was suspected, by Piso, with -the tacit approbation of Tiberius, the public loudly demanded justice -against the supposed murderer, and the cause was solemnly tried in -the Roman Senate. Piso, foreseeing a judgement against him, chose to -anticipate his fate by a voluntary death. The senate decreed that his -family name should be abolished for ever, and that his brother Marcus -should be banished from his country for ten years; but in deference to -the solicitations of the Empress, they granted a free pardon to Plancina, -his widow. Tacitus proceeds to relate, that this sentence of the senate -was altered by Tiberius: _Multa ex ea sententia mitigata sunt a principe; -“ne nomen Pisonis fastis eximeretur, quando M. Antonii, qui bellum patriæ -fecisset, Juli Antonii, qui domum Augusti violasset, manerent;” et M. -Pisonem ignominiæ exemit, concessitque ei paterna bona; satis firmus, -ut sæpe memoravi, adversus pecuniam; et tum pudore absolutæ Plancinæ -placabilior. Atque idem cum Valerius Messalinus signum aureum in æde -Martis Ultoris, Cæcina Severus aram ultioni statuendam censuissent, -prohibuit: ob externas ea victorias sacrari dictitans, domestica mala -tristitia operienda._ An. l. 3, c. 18. - -Thus necessarily amplified, and translated with the ease of original -composition, by Mr. Murphy: - -“This sentence, in many particulars, was mitigated by Tiberius. The -family name, he said, ought not to be abolished, while that of Mark -Antony, who appeared in arms against his country, as well as that of -Julius Antonius, who by his intrigues dishonoured the house of Augustus, -subsisted still, and figured in the Roman annals. Marcus Piso was left -in possession of his civil dignities, and his father’s fortune. Avarice, -as has been already observed, was not the passion of Tiberius. On this -occasion, the disgrace incurred by the partiality shewn to Plancina, -softened his temper, and made him the more willing to extend his mercy to -the son. Valerius Messalinus moved, that a golden statue might be erected -in the temple of Mars the Avenger. An altar to Vengeance was proposed by -Cæcina Severus. Both these motions were over-ruled by the Emperor. The -principle on which he argued was, that public monuments, however proper -in cases of foreign conquest, were not suited to the present juncture. -Domestic calamity should be lamented, and as soon as possible consigned -to oblivion.” - -The conclusion of the same chapter affords an example yet more striking -of the same necessary and happy amplification by the translator. - -_Addiderat Messalinus, Tiberio et Augustæ, et Antoniæ, et Agrippinæ, -Drusoque, ob vindictam Germanici grates agendas, omiseratque Claudii -mentionem; et Messalinum quidem L. Asprenas senatu coram percunctatus -est, an prudens præterîsset? Actum demum nomen Claudii adscriptum est. -Mihi quanto plura recentium, seu veterum revolvo, tanto magis ludibria -rerum mortalium cunctis in negotiis obversantur; quippe fama, spe, -veneratione potius omnes destinabantur imperio, quam quem futurum -principem fortuna in occulto tenebat._ - -“Messalinus added to his motion a vote of thanks to Tiberius and Livia, -to Antonia, Agrippina, and Drusus, for their zeal in bringing to justice -the enemies of Germanicus. The name of Claudius was not mentioned. -Lucius Asprenas desired to know whether that omission was intended. -The consequence was, that Claudius was inserted in the vote. Upon an -occasion like this, it is impossible not to pause for a moment, to make a -reflection that naturally rises out of the subject. When we review what -has been doing in the world, is it not evident, that in all transactions, -whether of ancient or of modern date, some strange caprice of fortune -turns all human wisdom to a jest? In the juncture before us, Claudius -figured so little on the stage of public business, that there was scarce -a man in Rome, who did not seem, by the voice of fame and the wishes -of the people, designed for the sovereign power, rather than the very -person, whom fate, in that instant, cherished in obscurity, to make him, -at a future period, master of the Roman world.” - -So likewise in the following passage, we must admire the judgement of -the translator in abandoning all attempt to rival the brevity of the -original, since he knew it could not be attained but with the sacrifice -both of ease and perspicuity: - -_Is finis fuit ulciscenda Germanici morte, non modo apud illos homines -qui tum agebant, etiam secutis temporibus vario rumore jactata; -adeo maxima quæque ambigua sunt, dum alii quoquo modo audita pro -compertis habent; alii vera in contrarium vertunt; et gliscit utrumque -posteritate._ An. l. 3, c. 19. - -“In this manner ended the enquiry concerning the death of Germanicus; a -subject which has been variously represented, not only by men of that -day, but by all subsequent writers. It remains, to this hour, the problem -of history. A cloud for ever hangs over the most important transactions; -while, on the one hand, credulity adopts for fact the report of the day; -and, on the other, politicians warp and disguise the truth: between -both parties two different accounts go down from age to age, and gain -strength with posterity.” - -The French language admits of a brevity of expression more corresponding -to that of the Latin: and of this D’Alembert has given many happy -examples in his translations from Tacitus. - -_Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervæ et imperium Trajani, -uberiorem, securioremque materiam senectuti seposui: rarâ temporum -felicitate, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet_, Praef. -ad Hist. “Si les dieux m’accordent des jours, je destine à l’occupation -et à la consolation de ma vieillesse, l’histoire interessante et -tranquille de Nerva et de Trajan; tems heureux et rares, où l’on est -libre de penser et de parler.” - -And with equal, perhaps superior felicity, the same passage is thus -translated by Rousseau: “Que s’il me reste assez de vie, je réserve pour -ma vieillesse la riche et paisible matiere des regnes de Nerva et de -Trajan: rares et heureux tems, où l’on peut penser librement, et dire ce -que l’on pense.” - -But D’Alembert, from too earnest a desire to imitate the conciseness -of his original, has sometimes left the sense imperfect. Of this an -example occurs in the passage before quoted, _An._ l. 1, c. 2. _Cum -cæteri nobilium, quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus -extollerentur_: the translator, too studious of brevity, has not given -the complete idea of his author, “Le reste des nobles trouvoit dans les -richesses et dans les honneurs la récompense de l’esclavage.” _Omnium -consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset_, Tac. Hist. 1, 49. “Digne de -l’empire au jugement de tout le monde tant qu’il ne regna pas.” This is -not the idea of the author; for Tacitus does not mean to say that Galba -was judged worthy of the empire till he attained to it; but that all -the world would have thought him worthy of the empire if he had never -attained to it. - -2. The Latin and Greek languages admit of inversions which are -inconsistent with the genius of the English. - -Mr. Gordon, injudiciously aiming at an imitation of the Latin -construction, has given a barbarous air to his translation of Tacitus: -“To Pallas, who was by Claudius declared to be the deviser of this -scheme, the ornaments of the prætorship, and three hundred seventy-five -thousand crowns, were adjudged by Bareas Soranus, consul designed,” -_An._ b. 12.—“Still to be seen are the Roman standards in the German -groves, there, by me, hung up,” _An._ lib. 1. “Naturally violent was the -spirit of Arminius, and now, by the captivity of his wife, and by the -fate of his child, doomed to bondage though yet unborn, enraged even to -distraction.” _Ib._ “But he, the more ardent he found the affections of -the soldiers, and the greater the hatred of his uncle, so much the more -intent upon a decisive victory, weighed with himself all the methods,” -&c. _Ib._ lib. 2. - -Thus, Mr. Macpherson, in his translation of Homer, (a work otherwise -valuable, as containing a most perfect transfusion of the sense of -his author), has generally adopted an inverted construction, which is -incompatible with the genius of the English language. “Tlepolemus, the -race of Hercules,—brave in battle and great in arms, nine ships led -to Troy, with magnanimous Rhodians filled. Those who dwelt in Rhodes, -distinguished in nations three,—who held Lindus, Ialyssus, and white -Camirus, beheld him afar.—Their leader in arms was Tlepolemus, renowned -at the spear, _Il._ l. 2.—The heroes the slaughter began.—Alexander first -a warrior slew.—Through the neck, by the helm passed the steel.—Iphinous, -the son of Dexius, through the shoulder he pierced—to the earth fell the -chief in his blood, _Ib._ l. 7. Not unjustly we Hector admire; matchless -at launching the spear; to break the line of battle, bold, _Ib._ l. 5. -Nor for vows unpaid rages Apollo; nor solemn sacrifice denied,” _Ib._ l. -1. - -3. The English language is not incapable of an elliptical mode of -expression; but it does not admit of it to the same degree as the Latin. -Tacitus says, _Trepida civitas incusare Tiberium_, for _trepida civitas -incepit incusare Tiberium_. We cannot say in English, “The terrified city -to blame Tiberius:” And even as Gordon has translated these words, the -ellipsis is too violent for the English language; “hence against Tiberius -many complaints.” - - Εννημαρ μεν ανα στρατὸν ωκετο κῆλα θεοῖο. - - _Il._ l. 1, l. 53. - -“For nine days the arrows of the god were darted through the army.” The -elliptical brevity of Mr. Macpherson’s translation of this verse, has no -parallel in the original; nor is it agreeable to the English idiom: - - “Nine days rush the shafts of the God.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - WHETHER A POEM CAN BE WELL TRANSLATED INTO PROSE - - -From all the preceding observations respecting the imitation of style, -we may derive this precept, That 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. - -This precept leads to the examination, and probably to the decision, of a -question which has admitted of some dispute, Whether a poem can be well -translated into prose? - -There are certain species of poetry, of which the chief merit consists in -the sweetness and melody of the versification. Of these it is evident, -that the very essence must perish in translating them into prose. What -should we find in the following beautiful lines, when divested of the -melody of verse? - - She said, and melting as in tears she lay, - In a soft silver stream dissolved away. - The silver stream her virgin coldness keeps, - For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps; - Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore, - And bathes the forest where she rang’d before. - - POPE’S _Windsor Forest_. - -But a great deal of the beauty of every regular poem, consists in -the melody of its numbers. Sensible of this truth, many of the prose -translators of poetry, have attempted to give a sort of measure to their -prose, which removes it from the nature of ordinary language. If this -measure is uniform, and its return regular, the composition is no longer -prose, but blank-verse. If it is not uniform, and does not regularly -return upon the ear, the composition will be more unharmonious, than -if the measure had been entirely neglected. Of this, Mr. Macpherson’s -translation of the _Iliad_ is a strong example. - -But it is not only by the measure that poetry is distinguishable from -prose. It is by the character of its thoughts and sentiments, and by -the nature of that language in which they are clothed.[45] A boldness -of figures, a luxuriancy of imagery, a frequent use of metaphors, a -quickness of transition, a liberty of digressing; all these are not only -_allowable_ in poetry, but to many species of it, _essential_. But they -are quite unsuitable to the character of prose. When seen in a _prose -translation_, they appear preposterous and out of place, because they are -never found in an _original prose composition_. - -In opposition to these remarks, it may be urged, that there are examples -of poems originally composed in prose, as Fenelon’s _Telemachus_. -But to this we answer, that Fenelon, in composing his _Telemachus_, -has judiciously adopted nothing more of the characteristics of poetry -than what might safely be given to a prose composition. His good taste -prescribed to him certain limits, which he was under no necessity of -transgressing. But a translator is not left to a similar freedom of -judgement: he must follow the footsteps of his original. Fenelon’s _Epic -Poem_ is of a very different character from the _Iliad_, the _Æneid_, or -the _Gierusalemme Liberata_. The French author has, in the conduct of his -fable, seldom transgressed the bounds of historic probability; he has -sparingly indulged himself in the use of the Epic machinery; and there -is a chastity and sobriety even in his language, very different from the -glowing enthusiasm that characterises the diction of the poems we have -mentioned: We find nothing in the _Telemaque_ of the _Os magna sonaturum_. - -The difficulty of translating poetry into prose, is different in its -degree, according to the nature or species of the poem. Didactic poetry, -of which the principal merit consists in the detail of a regular system, -or in rational precepts which flow from each other in a connected train -of thought, will evidently suffer least by being transfused into prose. -But every didactic poet judiciously enriches his work with such ornaments -as are not strictly attached to his subject. In a prose translation -of such a poem, all that is strictly systematic or preceptive may be -transfused with propriety; all the rest, which belongs to embellishment, -will be found impertinent and out of place. Of this we have a convincing -proof in Dryden’s translation of the valuable poem of Du Fresnoy, _De -Arte Graphica_. The didactic parts of the poem are translated with -becoming propriety; but in the midst of those practical instructions in -the art of painting, how preposterous appear in prose such passages as -the following? - -“Those things which the poets have thought unworthy of their pens, the -painters have judged to be unworthy of their pencils. For both those -arts, that they might advance the sacred honours of religion, have raised -themselves to heaven; and having found a free admission into the palace -of Jove himself, have enjoyed the sight and conversation of the Gods, -whose awful majesty they observe, and whose dictates they communicate to -mankind, whom, at the same time they inspire with those celestial flames -which shine so gloriously in their works. - -“Besides all this, you are to express the motions of the spirits, and the -affections or passions, whose centre is the heart. This is that in which -the greatest difficulty consists. Few there are whom Jupiter regards with -a favourable eye in this undertaking. - -“And as this part, (the Art of Colouring), which we may call the utmost -perfection of Painting, is a deceiving beauty, but withal soothing and -pleasing; so she has been accused of procuring lovers for her sister -(Design), and artfully engaging us to admire her.” - -But there are certain species of poetry, of the merits of which it will -be found impossible to convey the smallest idea in a prose translation. -Such is Lyric poetry, where a greater degree of irregularity of thought, -and a more unrestrained exuberance of fancy, is allowable than in any -other species of composition. To attempt, therefore, a translation of a -lyric poem into prose, is the most absurd of all undertakings; for those -very characters of the original which are essential to it, and which -constitute its highest beauties, if transferred to a prose translation, -become unpardonable blemishes. The excursive range of the sentiments, and -the play of fancy, which we admire in the original, degenerate in the -translation into mere raving and impertinence. Of this the translation of -Horace in prose, by Smart, furnishes proofs in every page. - -We may certainly, from the foregoing observations, conclude, that it is -impossible to do complete justice to any species of poetical composition -in a prose translation; in other words, that none but a poet can -translate a poet. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - THIRD GENERAL RULE—A TRANSLATION SHOULD HAVE ALL THE EASE OF - ORIGINAL COMPOSITION.—EXTREME DIFFICULTY IN THE OBSERVANCE OF - THIS RULE.—CONTRASTED INSTANCES OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE.—OF THE - NECESSITY OF SOMETIMES SACRIFICING ONE RULE TO ANOTHER - - -It remains now that we consider the third general law of translation. - -In order that the merit of the original work may be so completely -transfused as to produce its full effect, it is necessary, not only that -the translation should contain a perfect transcript of the sentiments -of the original, and present likewise a resemblance of its style and -manner; but, That the translation should have all the ease of original -composition. - -When we consider those restraints within which a translator finds himself -necessarily confined, with regard to the sentiments and manner of his -original, it will soon appear that this last requisite includes the most -difficult part of his task.[46] To one who walks in trammels, it is -not easy to exhibit an air of grace and freedom. It is difficult, even -for a capital painter, to preserve in a copy of a picture all the ease -and spirit of the original; yet the painter employs precisely the same -colours, and has no other care than faithfully to imitate the touch and -manner of the picture that is before him. If the original is easy and -graceful, the copy will have the same qualities, in proportion as the -imitation is just and perfect. The translator’s task is very different: -He uses not the same colours with the original, but is required to -give his picture the same force and effect. He is not allowed to copy -the touches of the original, yet is required, by touches of his own, -to produce a perfect resemblance. The more he studies a scrupulous -imitation, the less his copy will reflect the ease and spirit of the -original. How then shall a translator accomplish this difficult union of -ease with fidelity? To use a bold expression, he must adopt the very soul -of his author, which must speak through his own organs. - -Let us proceed to exemplify this third rule of translation, which regards -the attainment of ease of style, by instances both of success and failure. - -The familiar style of epistolary correspondence is rarely attainable -even in original composition. It consists in a delicate medium between -the perfect freedom of ordinary conversation and the regularity of -written dissertation or narrative. It is extremely difficult to attain -this delicate medium in a translation; because the writer has neither -a freedom of choice in the sentiments, nor in the mode of expressing -them. Mr. Melmoth appears to me to be a great model in this respect. -His Translations of the _Epistles of Cicero_ and of Pliny have all the -ease of the originals, while they present in general a very faithful -transcript of his author’s sense. - -“Surely, _my friend_, your couriers are _a set of the most unconscionable -fellows_. _Not that they have given_ me any particular offence; but as -they never bring me a letter when they arrive here, _is it fair_, they -should always press me for one when they return?” Melmoth, _Cic. Ep._ 10, -20. - -_Præposteros habes tabellarios; etsi me quidem non offendunt. Sed tamen -cum a me discedunt, flagitant litteras, cum ad me veniunt, nullas -afferunt._ Cic. Ep. l. 15, ep. 17. - -“Is it not more worthy of your _mighty_ ambition, to be blended with your -learned brethren at Rome, than to stand _the sole great wonder of wisdom_ -amidst a _parcel of paltry provincials_?” Melmoth, _Cic. Ep._ 2, 23. - -_Velim—ibi malis esse ubi aliquo numero sis, quam isthic ubi solus sapere -videare._ Cic. Ep. l. 1, ep. 10. - -“_In short_, I plainly perceive your _finances_ are in no flourishing -situation, and I expect to hear the same account of all your neighbours; -so that famine, _my friend, most formidable famine_, must be your _fate_, -if you do not provide against it in due time. And since you have been -reduced to sell your horse, _e’en mount_ your mule, (the only animal, -_it seems_, belonging to you, which you have not yet _sacrificed to your -table_), and _convey yourself_ immediately to Rome. _To encourage you to -do so_, you shall be honoured with a chair and cushion next to mine, and -sit the second _great pedagogue_ in my _celebrated_ school.” Melmoth, -_Cic. Ep._ 8, 22. - -_Video te bona perdidisse: spero idem isthuc familiares tuos. Actum -igitur de te est, nisi provides. Potes mulo isto quem tibi reliquum dicis -esse (quando cantherium comedisti) Romam pervehi. Sella tibi erit in -ludo, tanquam hypodidascalo; proxima eam pulvinus sequetur._ Cic. Ep. l. -9, ep. 18. - -“Are you not a _pleasant mortal_, to question me concerning the fate of -those estates you mention, when Balbus had just before been _paying you a -visit_?” Melmoth, _Cic. Ep._ 8, 24. - -_Non tu homo ridiculus es, qui cum Balbus noster apud te fuerit, ex me -quæras quid de istis municipiis et agris futurum putem?_ Cic. Ep. 9, 17. - -“_And now_ I have raised your expectations of this piece, _I doubt_ you -will be disappointed when _it comes to your hands_. In the meanwhile, -however, you may expect it, as something that will please you: _And who -knows but it may?_” Plin. Ep. 8, 3. - -_Erexi expectationem tuam; quam vereor ne destituat oratio in manus -sumpta. Interim tamen, tanquam placituram, et fortasse placebit, -expecta._ Plin. Ep. 8, 3. - -“I consent to undertake the cause which you so earnestly recommend to me; -but _as glorious and honourable as it may be, I will not be your counsel -without a fee_. Is it possible, you will say, that _my friend Pliny_ -should be so mercenary? _In truth it is_; and _I insist upon_ a reward, -which will do me more honour than the most disinterested patronage.” -_Plin. Ep._ 6, 23. - -_Impense petis ut agam causam pertinentem ad curam tuam, pulchram -alioquin et famosam. Faciam, sed non gratis. Qui fieri potest (inquis) -ut non gratis tu? Potest: exigam enim mercedem honestiorem gratuito -patrocinio._ Plin. Ep. 8, 3. - -To these examples of the ease of epistolary correspondence, I add a -passage from one of the orations of Cicero, which is yet in a strain -of greater familiarity: “A certain mechanic—_What’s his name?—Oh, I’m -obliged to you for helping me to it_: Yes, I mean Polycletus.” Melmoth. - -_Artificem—quemnam? Recte admones. Polycletum esse ducebant._ Cicero, -Orat. 2, in Verrem. - -In the preceding instances from Mr. Melmoth, the words of the English -translation which are marked in Italics, are those which, in my opinion, -give it the ease of original composition. - -But while a translator thus endeavours to transfuse into his work all -the ease of the original, the most correct taste is requisite to prevent -that ease from degenerating into licentiousness. I have, in treating of -the imitation of style and manner, given some examples of the want of -this taste. The most licentious of all translators was Mr. Thomas Brown, -of facetious memory, in whose translations from Lucian we have the most -perfect ease; but it is the ease of Billingsgate and of Wapping. I shall -contrast a few passages of his translation of this author, with those of -another translator, who has given a faithful transcript of the sense of -his original, but from an over-scrupulous fidelity has failed a little in -point of ease. - -GNATHON. “What now! Timon, do you strike me? Bear witness, Hercules! O -me, O me! But I will call you into the Areopagus for this. TIMON. Stay a -little only, and you may bring me in guilty of murder.”[47] Francklin’s -_Lucian_. - -GNATHON. “Confound him! what a blow he has given me! What’s this for, old -Touchwood? Bear witness, Hercules, that he has struck me. I warrant you, -I shall make you repent of this blow. I’ll indite you upon an action of -the case, and bring you _coram nobis_ for an assault and battery.” TIMON. -“Do, thou confounded law-pimp, do; but if thou stay’st one minute longer, -I’ll beat thee to pap. I’ll make thy bones rattle in thee, like three -blue beans in a blue bladder. Go, stinkard, or else I shall make you -alter your action, and get me indicted for manslaughter.” _Timon_, Trans. -by Brown in Dryden’s _Lucian_. - -“On the whole, a most perfect character; we shall see presently, with -all his modesty, what a bawling he will make.” Francklin’s _Lucian_, -_Timon_.[48] - -“In fine, he’s a person that knows the world better than any one, and is -extremely well acquainted with the whole Encyclopædia of villany; a true -elaborate finished rascal, and for all he appears so demure now, that -you’d think butter would not melt in his mouth, yet I shall soon make -him open his pipes, and roar like a persecuted bear.” Dryden’s _Lucian_, -_Timon_. - -“He changes his name, and instead of Byrria, Dromo, or Tibius, now takes -the name of Megacles, or Megabyzus, or Protarchus, leaving the rest of -the expectants gaping and looking at one another in silent sorrow.” -Francklin’s _Lucian_, _Timon_.[49] - -“Straight he changes his name, so that the rascal, who the moment -before had no other title about the house, but, you son of a whore, you -bulk-begotten cur, you scoundrel, must now be called his worship, his -excellency, and the Lord knows what. The best on’t is, that this mushroom -puts all these fellows noses out of joint,” &c. Dryden’s _Lucian_, -_Timon_. - -From these contrasted specimens we may decide, that the one translation -of Lucian errs perhaps as much on the score of restraint, as the other on -that of licentiousness. The preceding examples from Melmoth point out, -in my opinion, the just medium of free and spirited translation, for the -attainment of which the most correct taste is requisite. - -If the order in which I have classed the three general laws of -translation is their just and natural arrangement, which I think will -hardly be denied, it will follow, that in all cases where a sacrifice is -necessary to be made of one of those laws to another, a due regard ought -to be paid to their rank and comparative importance. The different genius -of the languages of the original and translation, will often make it -necessary to depart from the manner of the original, in order to convey -a faithful picture of the sense; but it would be highly preposterous -to depart, in any case, from the sense, for the sake of imitating the -manner. Equally improper would it be, to sacrifice either the sense -or manner of the original, if these can be preserved consistently -with purity of expression, to a fancied ease or superior gracefulness -of composition. This last is the fault of the French translations of -D’Ablancourt, an author otherwise of very high merit. His versions are -admirable, so long as we forbear to compare them with the originals; they -are models of ease, of elegance, and perspicuity; but he has considered -these qualities as the primary requisites of translation, and both the -sense and manner of his originals are sacrificed, without scruple, to -their attainment.[50] - - - - -CHAPTER X - - IT IS LESS DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN THE EASE OF ORIGINAL COMPOSITION - IN POETICAL, THAN IN PROSE TRANSLATION.—LYRIC POETRY ADMITS OF - THE GREATEST LIBERTY OF TRANSLATION.—EXAMPLES DISTINGUISHING - PARAPHRASE FROM TRANSLATION,—FROM DRYDEN, LOWTH, FONTENELLE, - PRIOR, ANGUILLARA, HUGHES. - - -It may perhaps appear paradoxical to assert, that it is less difficult -to give to a poetical translation all the ease of original composition, -than to give the same degree of ease to a prose translation. Yet the -truth of this assertion will be readily admitted, if assent is given to -that observation, which I before endeavoured to illustrate, viz. That -a superior degree of liberty is allowed to a poetical translator in -amplifying, retrenching from, and embellishing his original, than to a -prose translator. For without some portion of this liberty, there can -be no ease of composition; and where the greatest liberty is allowable, -there that ease will be most apparent, as it is less difficult to attain -to it. - -For the same reason, among the different species of poetical composition, -the lyric is that which allows of the greatest liberty in translation; as -a freedom both of thought and expression is agreeable to its character. -Yet even in this, which is the freest of all species of translation, -we must guard against licentiousness; and perhaps the more so, that we -are apt to persuade ourselves that the less caution is necessary. The -difficulty indeed is, where so much freedom is allowed, to define what -is to be accounted licentiousness in poetical translation. A moderate -liberty of amplifying and retrenching the ideas of the original, has -been granted to the translator of prose; but is it allowable, even to -the translator of a lyric poem, to add new images and new thoughts to -those of the original, or to enforce the sentiments by illustrations -which are not in the original? As the limits between free translation -and paraphrase are more easily perceived than they can be well defined, -instead of giving a general answer to this question, I think it safer to -give my opinion upon particular examples. - -Dr. Lowth has adapted to the present times, and addressed to his own -countrymen, a very noble imitation of the 6th ode of the third book -of Horace: _Delicta majorum immeritus lues_, &c. The greatest part of -this composition is of the nature of parody; but in the version of the -following stanza there is perhaps but a slight excess of that liberty -which may be allowed to the translator of a lyric poet: - - _Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos_ - _Matura virgo, et fingitur artubus_ - _Jam nunc, et incestos amores_ - _De tenero meditatur ungui._ - - The ripening maid is vers’d in every dangerous art, - That ill adorns the form, while it corrupts the heart; - Practis’d to dress, to dance, to play, - In wanton mask to lead the way, - To move the pliant limbs, to roll the luring eye; - With Folly’s gayest partizans to vie - In empty noise and vain expence; - To celebrate with flaunting air - The midnight revels of the fair; - Studious of every praise, but virtue, truth, and sense. - -Here the translator has superadded no new images or illustrations; but he -has, in two parts of the stanza, given a moral application which is not -in the original: “That ill adorns the form, while it corrupts the heart;” -and “Studious of every praise, but virtue, truth, and sense.” These moral -lines are unquestionably a very high improvement of the original; but -they seem to me to transgress, though indeed very slightly, the liberty -allowed to a poetical translator. - -In that fine translation by Dryden, of the 29th ode of the third book of -Horace, which upon the whole is paraphrastical, the version of the two -following stanzas has no more licence than what is justifiable: - - _Fortuna sævo læto negotio, et_ - _Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax,_ - _Transmutat incertos honores,_ - _Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna._ - - _Laudo manentem: si celeres quatit_ - _Pennas, resigno quæ dedit: et mea_ - _Virtute me involvo, probamque_ - _Pauperiem sine dote quæro._ - - Fortune, who with malicious joy - Does man, her slave, oppress, - Proud of her office to destroy, - Is seldom pleas’d to bless. - Still various and inconstant still, - But with an inclination to be ill, - Promotes, degrades, delights in strife, - And makes a lottery of life. - I can enjoy her while she’s kind; - But when she dances in the wind, - And shakes her wings, and will not stay, - I puff the prostitute away: - The little or the much she gave is quietly resign’d; - Content with poverty, my soul I arm, - And Virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm. - -The celebrated verses of Adrian, addressed to his Soul, have been -translated and imitated by many different writers. - - Animula, vagula, blandula, - Hospes, comesque corporis! - Quæ nunc abibis in loca, - Pallidula, frigida, nudula, - Nec ut soles dabis joca? - -By Casaubon. - - Ερασμιον ψυχαριον, - Ξενη και εταιρη σωματος, - Ποι νυν ταλαιν ελευσεαι, - Αμενης, γοερατε και σκια, - Ουδ’ ὁια παρος τρυφησεαι; - -Except in the fourth line, where there is a slight change of epithets, -this may be termed a just translation, exhibiting both the sense and -manner of the original. - -By Fontenelle. - - Ma petite ame, ma mignonne, - Tu t’en vas donc, ma fille, et Dieu sache ou tu vas. - Tu pars seulette, nue, et tremblotante, helas! - Que deviendra ton humeur folichonne? - Que deviendront tant de jolis ébats? - -The French translation is still more faithful to the original, and -exhibits equally with the former its spirit and manner. - -The following verses by Prior are certainly a great improvement upon the -original; by a most judicious and happy amplification of the sentiments, -(which lose much of their effect in the Latin, from their extreme -compression); nor do they, in my opinion, exceed the liberty of poetical -translation. - - Poor little pretty flutt’ring thing, - Must we no longer live together? - And do’st thou prune thy trembling wing, - To take thy flight, thou know’st not whither? - - The hum’rous vein, the pleasing folly, - Lies all neglected, all forgot; - And pensive, wav’ring, melancholy, - Thou dread’st and hop’st thou know’st not what. - -Mr. Pope’s _Dying Christian to his Soul_, which is modelled on the -verses of Adrian, retains so little of the thoughts of the original, -and substitutes in their place a train of sentiments so different, that -it cannot even be called a _paraphrase_, but falls rather under the -description of _imitation_. - -The Italian version of _Ovid_ in _ottava rima_, by Anguillara, is a work -of great poetical merit; but is scarcely in any part to be regarded as -a translation of the original. It is almost entirely paraphrastical. In -the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, the simple ideas announced in these two -lines, - - Tempore crevit amor: tædæ quoque jure coïssent; - Sed vetuere patres quod non potuere vetare, - -are the subject of the following paraphrase, which is as beautiful in its -composition, as it is unbounded in the licence of its amplification. - - Era l’amor cresciuto à poco à poco - Secondo erano in lor cresciuti gli anni: - E dove prima era trastullo, e gioco, - Scherzi, corrucci, e fanciulleschi inganni, - Quando fur giunti a quella età di foco - Dove comincian gli amorosi affanni - Che l’alma nostra ha si leggiadro il manto - E che la Donna e’l huom s’amano tanto; - - Era tanto l’amor, tanto il desire, - Tanta la fiamma, onde ciascun ardea: - Che l’uno e l’altro si vedea morire, - Se pietoso Himeneo non gli giungea. - E tanto era maggior d’ambi il martire, - Quanto il voler de l’un l’altro scorge. - Ben ambo de le nozze eran contenti, - Ma no’l soffriro i loro empi parenti. - - Eran fra i padri lor pochi anni avanti - Nata una troppo cruda inimicitia: - E quanto amore, e fè s’hebber gli amanti, - Tanto regnò ne’ padri odiò e malitia. - Gli huomini della terra piu prestanti, - Tentar pur di ridurli in amicitia; - E vi s’affaticar piu volte assai; - Ma non vi sepper via ritrovar mai. - - Quei padri, che fra lor fur si infedeli - Vetaro à la fanciulla, e al giovinetto, - A due si belli amanti, e si fedeli - Che non dier luogo al desiato affetto: - Ahi padri irragionevoli e crudeli,[51] - Perche togliete lor tanto diletto; - S’ogn’un di loro il suo desio corregge - Con la terrena, e la celeste legge? - - O sfortunati padri, ove tendete, - Qual ve gli fa destin tener disgiunti? - Perche vetate, quel che non potete? - Che gli animi saran sempre congiunti? - Ahi, che sara di voi, se gli vedrete - Per lo vostro rigor restar defunti? - Ahi, che co’ vostri non sani consigli - Procurate la morte a’ vostri figli! - -In the following poem by Mr. Hughes, which the author has intitled an -imitation of the 16th ode of the second book of Horace, the greatest part -of the composition is a just and excellent translation, while the rest is -a free paraphrase or commentary on the original. I shall mark in Italics -all that I consider as paraphrastical: the rest is a just translation, in -which the writer has assumed no more liberty, than was necessary to give -the poem the easy air of an original composition. - - I - - Indulgent Quiet! _Pow’r serene,_ - _Mother of Peace, and Joy, and Love,_ - _O say, thou calm, propitious Queen,_ - _Say, in what solitary grove,_ - _Within what hollow rock, or winding cell,_ - _By human eyes unseen,_ - _Like some retreated Druid dost thou dwell?_ - _And why, illusive Goddess! why,_ - _When we thy mansion would surround,_ - _Why dost thou lead us through enchanted ground,_ - _To mock our vain research, and from our wishes fly._ - - II - - The wand’ring sailors, pale with fear, - For thee the gods implore, - When the tempestuous sea runs high - And when through all the dark, benighted sky - No friendly moon or stars appear, - To guide their steerage to the shore: - For thee the weary soldier prays, - Furious in fight the sons of Thrace, - And Medes, that wear majestic by their side - A full-charg’d quiver’s decent pride, - Gladly with thee would pass inglorious days, - Renounce the warrior’s tempting praise, - And buy thee, if thou might’st be sold, - With gems, and purple vests, and stores of plunder’d gold. - - III - - But neither boundless wealth, nor guards that wait - Around the Consul’s honour’d gate, - Nor antichambers with attendants fill’d, - The mind’s unhappy tumults can abate, - Or banish sullen cares, that fly - Across the gilded rooms of state, - _And their foul nests like swallows build_ - _Close to the palace-roofs and towers that pierce the sky?_ - Much less will Nature’s modest wants supply: - And happier lives the homely swain, - Who in some cottage, far from noise, - His few paternal goods enjoys; - Nor knows the sordid lust of gain, - Nor with Fear’s tormenting pain - His hovering sleeps destroys. - - IV - - Vain man! that in a narrow space - At endless game projects the darting spear! - For short is life’s uncertain race; - Then why, capricious mortal! why - Dost thou for happiness repair - To distant climates and a foreign air? - Fool! from thyself thou canst not fly, - Thyself the source of all thy care: - _So flies the wounded stag, provoked with pain,_ - _Bounds o’er the spacious downs in vain;_ - _The feather’d torment sticks within his side,_ - _And from the smarting wound a purple tide_ - _Marks all his way with blood, and dies the grassy plain._ - - V - - But swifter far is execrable Care - Than stags, or winds, that through the skies - Thick-driving snows and gather’d tempests bear; - Pursuing Care the sailing ship out-flies. - Climbs the tall vessel’s painted sides; - Nor leaves arm’d squadrons in the field, - But with the marching horseman rides, - And dwells alike in courts and camps, and makes all places yield. - - VI - - Then, since no state’s completely blest, - Let’s learn the bitter to allay - With gentle mirth, and, wisely gay, - Enjoy at least the present day, - And leave to Fate the rest. - Nor with vain fear of ills to come - Anticipate th’ appointed doom. - Soon did Achilles quit the stage; - The hero fell by sudden death; - While Tithon to a tedious, wasting age - Drew his protracted breath. - And thus, old partial Time, my friend, - Perhaps unask’d, to worthless me - Those hours of lengthen’d life may lend, - Which he’ll refuse to thee. - - VII - - Thee shining wealth, and plenteous joys surround, - And all thy fruitful fields around - Unnumber’d herds of cattle stray; - Thy harness’d steeds with sprightly voice, - Make neighbouring vales and hills rejoice, - While smoothly thy gay chariot flies o’er the swift-measur’d way. - To me the stars with less profusion kind, - An humble fortune have assign’d, - And no untuneful Lyric vein, - But a sincere contented mind - That can the vile, malignant crowd disdain.[52] - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - OF THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMATIC PHRASES.—EXAMPLES FROM COTTON, - ECHARD, STERNE.—INJUDICIOUS USE OF IDIOMS IN THE TRANSLATION, - WHICH DO NOT CORRESPOND WITH THE AGE OR COUNTRY OF THE - ORIGINAL.—IDIOMATIC PHRASES SOMETIMES INCAPABLE OF TRANSLATION. - - -While a translator endeavours to give to his work all the ease of -original composition, the chief difficulty he has to encounter will be -found in the translation of idioms, or those turns of expression which -do not belong to universal grammar, but of which every language has its -own, that are exclusively proper to it. It will be easily understood, -that when I speak of the difficulty of translating idioms, I do not -mean those general modes of arrangement or construction which regulate -a whole language, and which may not be common to it with other tongues: -As, for example, the placing the adjective always before the substantive -in English, which in French and in Latin is most commonly placed after -it; the use of the participle in English, where the present tense is -used in other languages; as he is writing, _scribit_, _il écrit_; the -use of the preposition _to_ before the infinitive in English, where the -French use the preposition _de_ or _of_. These, which may be termed the -_general_ idioms of a language, are soon understood, and are exchanged -for parallel idioms with the utmost ease. With regard to these a -translator can never err, unless through affectation or choice.[53] For -example, in translating the French phrase, _Il profita d’un avis_, he -may choose fashionably to say, in violation of the English construction, -_he profited_ of _an advice_; or, under the sanction of poetical licence, -he may choose to engraft the idiom of one language into another, as Mr. -Macpherson has done, where he says, “Him to _the strength of Hercules_, -the lovely Astyochea bore;” Ον τεκεν Αστυοχεια, βιη Ηρακληειη· _Il._ lib. -2, l. 165. But it is not with regard to such idiomatic constructions, -that a translator will ever find himself under any difficulty. It is in -the translation of those particular idiomatic phrases of which every -language has its own collection; phrases which are generally of a -familiar nature, and which occur most commonly in conversation, or in -that species of writing which approaches to the ease of conversation. - -The translation is perfect, when the translator finds in his own language -an idiomatic phrase corresponding to that of the original. Montaigne -(_Ess._ l. 1, c. 29) says of Gallio, “Lequel ayant été envoyé en exil en -l’isle de Lesbos, on fut averti à Rome, _qu’il s’y donnoit du bon temps_, -et que ce qu’on lui avoit enjoint pour peine, lui tournoit à commodité.” -The difficulty of translating this sentence lies in the idiomatic phrase, -“_qu’il s’y donnoit du bon temps_.” Cotton finding a parallel idiom in -English, has translated the passage with becoming ease and spirit: “As -it happened to one Gallio, who having been sent an exile to the isle of -Lesbos, news was not long after brought to Rome, that _he there lived as -merry as the day was long_; and that what had been enjoined him for a -penance, turned out to his greatest pleasure and satisfaction.” Thus, in -another passage of the same author, (_Essais_, l. 1, c. 29) “_Si j’eusse -été chef de part_, j’eusse prins autre voye plus naturelle.” “_Had I -rul’d the roast_, I should have taken another and more natural course.” -So likewise, (_Ess._ l. 1, c. 25) “Mais d’y enfoncer plus avant, et de -_m’être rongé les ongles à l’étude d’Aristote_, monarche de la doctrine -moderne.” “But, to dive farther than that, and to have _cudgell’d my -brains in the study of Aristotle_, the monarch of all modern learning.” -So, in the following passages from Terence, translated by Echard: “_Credo -manibus pedibusque obnixè omnia facturum_,” Andr. act 1. “I know he’ll be -at it tooth and nail.” “_Herus, quantum audio, uxore excidit_,” Andr. act -2. “For aught I perceive, my poor master may go whistle for a wife.” - -In like manner, the following colloquial phrases are capable of a perfect -translation by corresponding idioms. _Rem acu tetigisti_, “You have hit -the nail upon the head.” _Mihi isthic nec seritur nec repitur_, Plaut. -“That’s no bread and butter of mine.” _Omnem jecit aleam_, “It was neck -or nothing with him.” Τι προς τ’ αλφιτα; Aristoph. _Nub._ “Will that make -the pot boil?” - -It is not perhaps possible to produce a happier instance of translation -by corresponding idioms, than Sterne has given in the translation of -_Slawkenbergius’s Tale_. “_Nihil me pœnitet hujus nasi_, quoth Pamphagus; -that is, My nose has been the making of me.” “_Nec est cur pœniteat_; -that is, How the deuce should such a nose fail?” _Tristram Shandy_, vol. -3, ch. 7. “_Miles peregrini in faciem suspexit. Dî boni, nova forma -nasi!_ The centinel look’d up into the stranger’s face.—Never saw such a -nose in his life!” _Ibid._ - -As there is nothing which so much conduces both to the ease and spirit -of composition, as a happy use of idiomatic phrases, there is nothing -which a translator, who has a moderate command of his own language, is -so apt to carry to a licentious extreme. Echard, whose translations of -_Terence_ and of _Plautus_ have, upon the whole, much merit, is extremely -censurable for his intemperate use of idiomatic phrases. In the first -act of the _Andria_, Davus thus speaks to himself: - - _Enimvero, Dave, nihil loci est segnitiæ neque socordiæ._ - _Quantum intellexi senis sententiam de nuptiis:_ - _Quæ si non astu providentur, me aut herum pessundabunt;_ - _Nec quid agam certum est, Pamphilumne adjutem an auscultem seni._ - - TERENT. _Andr._ act 1, sc. 3. - -The translation of this passage by Echard, exhibits a strain of vulgar -petulance, which is very opposite to the chastened simplicity of the -original. - -“Why, seriously, poor Davy, ’tis high time to bestir thy stumps, and to -leave off dozing; at least, if a body may guess at the old man’s meaning -by his mumping. If these brains do not help me out at a dead lift, to pot -goes Pilgarlick, or his master, for certain: and hang me for a dog, if I -know which side to take; whether to help my young master, or make fair -with his father.” - -In the use of idiomatic phrases, a translator frequently forgets both -the country of his original author, and the age in which he wrote; and -while he makes a Greek or a Roman speak French or English, he unwittingly -puts into his mouth allusions to the manners of modern France or -England.[54] This, to use a phrase borrowed from painting, may be termed -an offence against the _costume_. The proverbial expression, βατραχω -ὑδωρ, in _Theocritus_, is of similar import with the English proverb, -_to carry coals to Newcastle_; but it would be a gross impropriety to -use this expression in the translation of an ancient classic. Cicero, in -his oration for Archias, says, “_Persona quæ propter otium et studium -minime in judiciis periculisque versata est._” M. Patru has translated -this, “Un homme que ses études et ses livres ont éloigné du commerce du -_Palais_.” The _Palais_, or the Old Palace of the kings of France, it is -true, is the place where the parliament of Paris and the chief courts -of justice were assembled for the decision of causes; but it is just -as absurd to make Cicero talk of his haranguing in the _Palais_, as it -would be of his pleading in Westminster Hall. In this respect, Echard is -most notoriously faulty: We find in every page of his translations of -_Terence_ and _Plautus_, the most incongruous jumble of ancient and of -modern manners. He talks of the “Lord Chief Justice of Athens,” _Jam tu -autem nobis Præturam geris?_ Pl. Epid. act 1, sc. 1, and says, “I will -send him to Bridewell with his skin stripped over his ears,” _Hominem -irrigatum plagis pistori dabo_, Ibid. sc. 3. “I must expect to beat -hemp in Bridewell all the days of my life,” _Molendum mihi est usque -in pistrina_, Ter. Phormio, act 2. “He looks as grave as an alderman,” -_Tristis severitas inest in vultû_, Ibid. Andria, act 5.—The same author -makes the ancient heathen Romans and Greeks swear British and Christian -oaths; such as “Fore George, Blood and ounds, Gadzookers, ’Sbuddikins, By -the Lord Harry!” They are likewise well read in the books both of the Old -and New Testament: “Good b’ye, Sir Solomon,” says Gripus to Trachalion, -_Salve, Thales!_ Pl. Rudens, act 4, sc. 3; and Sosia thus vouches his -own identity to Mercury, “By Jove I am he, and ’tis as true as the -gospel,” _Per Jovem juro, med esse, neque me falsum dicere_, Pl. Amphit. -act 1, sc. 1.[55] The same ancients, in Mr. Echard’s translation, are -familiarly acquainted with the modern invention of gunpowder; “Had we -but a mortar now to play upon them under the covert way, one bomb would -make them scamper,” _Fundam tibi nunc nimis vellem dari, ut tu illos -procul hinc ex oculto cæderes, facerent fugam_, Ter. Eun. act 4. And -as their soldiers swear and fight, so they must needs drink like the -moderns: “This god can’t afford one brandy-shop in all his dominions,” -_Ne thermopolium quidem ullum ille instruit_, Pl. Rud. act 2, sc. 9. In -the same comedy, Plautus, who wrote 180 years before Christ, alludes to -the battle of La Hogue, fought A.D. 1692. “I’ll be as great as a king,” -says Gripus, “I’ll have a _Royal Sun_[56] for pleasure, like the king of -France, and sail about from port to port,” _Navibus magnis mercaturam -faciam_, Pl. Rud. act 4, sc. 2. - -In the Latin poems of Pitcairne, we remark an uncommon felicity in -cloathing pictures of modern manners in classical phraseology. In -familiar poetry, and in pieces of a witty or humorous nature, this has -often a very happy effect, and exalts the ridicule of the sentiment, or -humour of the picture. But Pitcairne’s fondness for the language of -Horace, Ovid, and Lucretius, has led him sometimes into a gross violation -of propriety, and the laws of good taste. In the translation of a Psalm, -we are shocked when we find the Almighty addressed by the epithets of -a heathen divinity, and his attributes celebrated in the language and -allusions proper to the Pagan mythology. Thus, in the translation of the -104th Psalm, every one must be sensible of the glaring impropriety of the -following expressions: - - Dexteram invictam canimus, Jovemque - Qui triumphatis, hominum et Deorum - Præsidet regnis. - - Quam tuæ virtus tremefecit orbem - Juppiter dextræ. - - Et manus ventis tua Dædaleas - Assuit alas. - - facilesque leges - Rebus imponis, quibus antra parent - Æoli. - - Proluit siccam pluvialis æther - Barbam, et arentes humeros Atlantis. - - Que fovet tellus, fluviumque regnum - Tethyos. - - Juppiter carmen mihi semper. - - Juppiter solus mihi rex. - -In the entire translation of the Psalms by Johnston, we do not find a -single instance of similar impropriety. And in the admirable version -by Buchanan, there are (to my knowledge) only two passages which are -censurable on that account. The one is the beginning of the 4th Psalm: - - O Pater, O hominum _Divûmque_ æterna potestas! - -which is the first line of the speech of Venus to Jupiter, in the 10th -_Æneid_: and the other is the beginning of Psalm lxxxii. where two entire -lines, with the change of one syllable, are borrowed from Horace: - - Regum timendorum in proprios greges, - Reges in ipsos imperium est _Jovæ_. - -In the latter example, the poet probably judged that the change of -_Jovis_ into _Jovæ_ removed all objection; and Ruddiman has attempted to -vindicate the _Divûm_ of the former passage, by applying it to saints -or angels: but allowing there were sufficient apology for both those -words, the impropriety still remains; for the associated ideas present -themselves immediately to the mind, and we are justly offended with the -literal adoption of an address to Jupiter in a hymn to the Creator. - -If a translator is bound, in general, to adhere with fidelity to the -manners of the age and country to which his original belongs, there -are some instances in which he will find it necessary to make a slight -sacrifice to the manners of his modern readers. The ancients, in the -expression of resentment or contempt, made use of many epithets and -appellations which sound extremely shocking to our more polished ears, -because we never hear them employed but by the meanest and most degraded -of the populace. By similar reasoning we must conclude, that those -expressions conveyed no such mean or shocking ideas to the ancients, -since we find them used by the most dignified and exalted characters. In -the 19th book of the _Odyssey_, Melantho, one of Penelope’s maids, having -vented her spleen against Ulysses, and treated him as a bold beggar who -had intruded himself into the palace as a spy, is thus sharply reproved -by the Queen: - - Παντως θαρσαλεη κυον αδδεες, ουτι με ληθεις - Ερδουσα μεγα εργον, ὁ ση κεφαλη αναμαξεις. - -These opprobrious epithets, in a literal translation, would sound -extremely offensive from the lips of the περιφρων Πηνελοπεια, whom -the poet has painted as a model of female dignity and propriety. Such -translation, therefore, as conveying a picture different from what the -poet intended, would be in reality injurious to his sense. Of this sort -of refinement Mr. Hobbes had no idea; and therefore he gives the epithets -in their genuine purity and simplicity: - - Bold bitch, said she, I know what deeds you’ve done, - Which thou shalt one day pay for with thy head. - -We cannot fail, however, to perceive, that Mr. Pope has in fact been more -faithful to the sense of his original, by accommodating the expressions -of the speaker to that character which a modern reader must conceive to -belong to her: - - Loquacious insolent, she cries, forbear! - Thy head shall pay the forfeit of thy tongue. - -A translator will often meet with idiomatic phrases in the original -author, to which no corresponding idiom can be found in the language -of the translation. As a literal translation of such phrases cannot -be tolerated, the only resource is, to express the sense in plain and -easy language. Cicero, in one of his letters to Papirius Pætus, says, -“_Veni igitur, si vires, et disce jam προλεγομενας quas quæris; etsi -sus Minervam_,” Ep. ad Fam. 9, 18. The idiomatic phrase _si vires_, -is capable of a perfect translation by a corresponding idiom; but that -which occurs in the latter part of the sentence, _etsi sus Minervam_, -can neither be translated by a corresponding idiom, nor yet literally. -Mr. Melmoth has thus happily expressed the sense of the whole passage: -“If you have any spirit then, fly hither, and learn from our elegant -bills of fare how to refine your own; though, to do your talents justice, -this is a sort of knowledge in which you are much superior to your -instructors.”—Pliny, in one of his epistles to Calvisius, thus addresses -him, _Assem para, et accipe auream fabulam: fabulas immo: nam me priorum -nova admonuit_, lib. 2, ep. 20. To this expression, _assem para_, &c. -which is a proverbial mode of speech, we have nothing that corresponds -in English. To translate the phrase literally would have a poor effect: -“Give me a penny, and take a golden story, or a story worth gold.” Mr. -Melmoth has given the sense in easy language: “Are you inclined to hear -a story? or, if you please, two or three? for one brings to my mind -another.” - -But this resource, of translating the idiomatic phrase into easy -language, must fail, where the merit of the passage to be translated -actually lies in that expression which is idiomatical. This will often -occur in epigrams, many of which are therefore incapable of translation: -Thus, in the following epigram, the point of wit lies in an idiomatic -phrase, and is lost in every other language where the same precise idiom -does not occur: - -_On the wretched imitations of the_ Diable Boiteux _of Le Sage_: - - Le Diable Boiteux est aimable; - Le Sage y triomphe aujourdhui; - Tout ce qu’on a fait après lui - N’a pas valu le Diable. - -We say in English, “’Tis not worth a fig,” or, “’tis not worth a -farthing;” but we cannot say, as the French do, “’Tis not worth the -devil;” and therefore the epigram cannot be translated into English. - -Somewhat of the same nature are the following lines of Marot, in his -_Epitre au Roi_, where the merit lies in the ludicrous _naïveté_ of -the last line, which is idiomatical, and has no strictly corresponding -expression in English: - - J’avois un jour un valet de Gascogne, - Gourmand, yvrogne, et assuré menteur, - Pipeur, larron, jureur, blasphémateur, - Sentant la hart de cent pas à la ronde: - Au demeurant le meilleur filz du monde. - -Although we have idioms in English that are nearly similar to this, we -have none which has the same _naïveté_, and therefore no justice can be -done to this passage by any English translation. - -In like manner, it appears to me impossible to convey, in any -translation, the _naïveté_ of the following remark on the fanciful -labours of Etymologists: “Monsieur,—dans l’Etymologie il faut compter les -voyelles pour rien, et les consonnes pour peu de chose.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - DIFFICULTY OF TRANSLATING DON QUIXOTE, FROM ITS - IDIOMATIC PHRASEOLOGY.—OF THE BEST TRANSLATIONS OF THAT - ROMANCE.—COMPARISON OF THE TRANSLATION BY MOTTEUX WITH THAT BY - SMOLLET. - - -There is perhaps no book to which it is more difficult to do perfect -justice in a translation than the _Don Quixote_ of Cervantes. This -difficulty arises from the extreme frequency of its idiomatic phrases. As -the Spanish language is in itself highly idiomatical, even the narrative -part of the book is on that account difficult; but the colloquial part -is studiously filled with idioms, as one of the principal characters -continually expresses himself in proverbs. Of this work there have -been many English translations, executed, as may be supposed, with -various degrees of merit. The two best of these, in my opinion, are the -translations of Motteux and Smollet, both of them writers eminently well -qualified for the task they undertook. It will not be foreign to the -purpose of this Essay, if I shall here make a short comparative estimate -of the merit of these translations.[57] - -Smollet inherited from nature a strong sense of ridicule, a great fund -of original humour, and a happy versatility of talent, by which he could -accommodate his style to almost every species of writing. He could adopt -alternately the solemn, the lively, the sarcastic, the burlesque, and -the vulgar. To these qualifications he joined an inventive genius, and a -vigorous imagination. As he possessed talents equal to the composition of -original works of the same species with the romance of Cervantes; so it -is not perhaps possible to conceive a writer more completely qualified to -give a perfect translation of that romance. - -Motteux, with no great abilities as an original writer, appears to me -to have been endowed with a strong perception of the ridiculous in -human character; a just discernment of the weaknesses and follies of -mankind. He seems likewise to have had a great command of the various -styles which are accommodated to the expression both of grave burlesque, -and of low humour. Inferior to Smollet in inventive genius, he seems -to have equalled him in every quality which was essentially requisite -to a translator of _Don Quixote_. It may therefore be supposed, that -the contest between them will be nearly equal, and the question of -preference very difficult to be decided. It would have been so, had -Smollet confided in his own strength, and bestowed on his task that time -and labour which the length and difficulty of the work required: but -Smollet too often wrote in such circumstances, that dispatch was his -primary object. He found various English translations at hand, which he -judged might save him the labour of a new composition. Jarvis could give -him faithfully the sense of his author; and it was necessary, only to -polish his asperities, and lighten his heavy and aukward phraseology. To -contend with Motteux, Smollet found it necessary to assume the armour of -Jarvis. This author had purposely avoided, through the whole of his work, -the smallest coincidence of expression with Motteux, whom, with equal -presumption and injustice, he accuses in his preface of having “taken his -version wholly from the French.”[58] We find, therefore, both in the -translation of Jarvis and in that of Smollet, which is little else than -an improved edition of the former, that there is a studied rejection -of the phraseology of Motteux. Now, Motteux, though he has frequently -assumed too great a licence, both in adding to and retrenching from the -ideas of his original, has upon the whole a very high degree of merit -as a translator. In the adoption of corresponding idioms he has been -eminently fortunate, and, as in these there is no great latitude, he has -in general preoccupied the appropriated phrases; so that a succeeding -translator, who proceeded on the rule of invariably rejecting his -phraseology, must have, in general, altered for the worse. Such, I have -said, was the rule laid down by Jarvis, and by his copyist and improver, -Smollet, who by thus absurdly rejecting what his own judgement and taste -must have approved, has produced a composition decidedly inferior, on the -whole, to that of Motteux. While I justify the opinion I have now given, -by comparing several passages of both translations, I shall readily allow -full credit to the performance of Smollet, wherever I find that there is -a real superiority to the work of his rival translator. - -After Don Quixote’s unfortunate encounter with the Yanguesian carriers, -in which the Knight, Sancho, and Rozinante, were all most grievously -mauled, his faithful squire lays his master across his ass, and conducts -him to the nearest inn, where a miserable bed is made up for him in a -cock-loft. Cervantes then proceeds as follows: - -_En esta maldita cama se accostó Don Quixote: y luego la ventera y su -hija le emplastáron de arriba abaxo, alumbrandoles Maritornes: que -asi se llamaba la Asturiana. Y como al vizmalle, viese la ventera tan -acardenalado á partes á Don Quixote, dixo que aquello mas parecian golpes -que caida. No fuéron golpes, dixo Sancho, sino que la peña tenia muchos -picos y tropezones, y que cada uno habia hecho su cardinal, y tambien le -dixo: haga vuestra merced, señora, de manera que queden algunas estopas, -que no faltará quien las haya menester, que tambien me duelen á mí un -poco los lomos. Desa manera, respondió la ventera, tambien debistes vos -de caer? No caí, dico Sancho Panza, sino que del sobresalto que tome de -ver caer á mí amo, de tal manera me duele á mí el cuerpo, que me parece -que me han dado mil palos._ - -_Translation by Motteux_ - -“In this ungracious bed was the Knight laid to rest his belaboured -carcase; and presently the hostess and her daughter anointed and -plastered him all over, while Maritornes (for that was the name of the -Asturian wench) held the candle. The hostess, while she greased him, -wondering to see him so bruised all over, I fancy, said she, those bumps -look much more like a dry beating than a fall. ’Twas no dry beating, -mistress, I promise you, quoth Sancho; but the rock had I know not how -many cragged ends and knobs, and every one of them gave my master a -token of its kindness. And by the way, forsooth, continued he, I beseech -you save a little of that same tow and ointment for me too, for I don’t -know what’s the matter with my back, but I fancy I stand mainly in -want of a little greasing too. What, I suppose you fell too, quoth the -landlady. Not I, quoth Sancho, but the very fright that I took to see my -master tumble down the rock, has so wrought upon my body, that I am as -sore as if I had been sadly mauled.” - -_Translation by Smollet_ - -“In this wretched bed Don Quixote having laid himself down, was anointed -from head to foot by the good woman and her daughter, while Maritornes -(that was the Asturian’s name) stood hard by, holding a light. The -landlady, in the course of her application, perceiving the Knight’s whole -body black and blue, observed, that those marks seemed rather the effects -of drubbing than of a fall; but Sancho affirmed she was mistaken, and -that the marks in question were occasioned by the knobs and corners of -the rocks among which he fell. And now, I think of it, said he, pray, -Madam, manage matters so as to leave a little of your ointment, for it -will be needed, I’ll assure you: my own loins are none of the soundest at -present. What, did you fall too, said she? I can’t say I did, answered -the squire; but I was so infected by seeing my master tumble, that my -whole body akes, as much as if I had been cudgelled without mercy.” - -Of these two translations, it will hardly be denied that Motteux’s is -both easier in point of style, and conveys more forcibly the humour of -the dialogue in the original. A few contrasted phrases will shew clearly -the superiority of the former. - -_Motteux._ “In this ungracious bed was the Knight laid to rest his -belaboured carcase.” - -_Smollet._ “In this wretched bed Don Quixote having laid himself down.” - -_Motteux._ “While Maritornes (for that was the name of the Asturian -wench) held the candle.” - -_Smollet._ “While Maritornes (that was the Asturian’s name) stood hard -by, holding a light.” - -_Motteux._ “The hostess, while she greased him.” - -_Smollet._ “The landlady, in the course of her application.” - -_Motteux._ “I fancy, said she, those bumps look much more like a dry -beating than a fall.” - -_Smollet._ “Observed, that those marks seemed rather the effect of -drubbing than of a fall.” - -_Motteux._ “’Twas no dry beating, mistress, I promise you, quoth Sancho.” - -_Smollet._ “But Sancho affirmed she was in a mistake.” - -_Motteux._ “And, by the way, forsooth, continued he, I beseech you save -a little of that same tow and ointment for me; for I don’t know what’s -the matter with my back, but I fancy I stand mainly in need of a little -greasing too.” - -_Smollet._ “And now, I think of it, said he, pray, Madam, manage matters -so as to leave a little of your ointment, for it will be needed, I’ll -assure you: my own loins are none of the soundest at present.” - -_Motteux._ “What, I suppose you fell too, quoth the landlady? Not I, -quoth Sancho, but the very fright,” &c. - -_Smollet._ “What, did you fall too, said she? I can’t say I did, answered -the squire; but I was so infected,” &c. - -There is not only more ease of expression and force of humour in -Motteux’s translation of the above passages than in Smollet’s, but -greater fidelity to the original. In one part, _no fueron golpes_, -Smollet has improperly changed the first person for the third, or the -colloquial style for the narrative, which materially weakens the spirit -of the passage. _Cada uno habia hecho su cardenal_ is most happily -translated by Motteux, “every one of them gave him a token of its -kindness;” but in Smollet’s version, this spirited clause of the sentence -evaporates altogether.—_Algunas estopas_ is more faithfully rendered by -Motteux than by Smollet. In the latter part of the passage, when the -hostess jeeringly says to Sancho, _Desa manera tambien debistes vos de -caer?_ the squire, impatient to wipe off that sly insinuation against the -veracity of his story, hastily answers, _No cai_. To this Motteux has -done ample justice, “Not I, quoth Sancho.” But Smollet, instead of the -arch effrontery which the author meant to mark by this answer, gives a -tame apologetic air to the squire’s reply, “I can’t say I did, answered -the squire.” _Don Quix._ par. 1, cap. 16. - -Don Quixote and Sancho, travelling in the night through a desert valley, -have their ears assailed at once by a combination of the most horrible -sounds, the roaring of cataracts, clanking of chains, and loud strokes -repeated at regular intervals; all which persuade the Knight, that his -courage is immediately to be tried in a most perilous adventure. Under -this impression, he felicitates himself on the immortal renown he is -about to acquire, and brandishing his lance, thus addresses Sancho, whose -joints are quaking with affright: - -_Asi que aprieta un poco las cinchas a Rocinante, y quédate a Dios, y -asperame aqui hasta tres dias, no mas, en los quales si no volviere, -puedes tú volverte á nuestra aldea, y desde allí, por hacerme merced -y buena obra, irás al Toboso, donde dirás al incomparable señora mia -Dulcinea, que su cautivo caballero murió por acometer cosas, que le -hiciesen digno de poder llamarse suyo._ Don Quix. par. 1, cap. 20. - -_Translation by Motteux_ - -“Come, girth Rozinante straiter, and then Providence protect thee: Thou -may’st stay for me here; but if I do not return in three days, go back to -our village, and from thence, for my sake, to Toboso, where thou shalt -say to my incomparable lady Dulcinea, that her faithful knight fell a -sacrifice to love and honour, while he attempted things that might have -made him worthy to be called her adorer.” - -_Translation by Smollet_ - -“Therefore straiten Rozinante’s girth, recommend thyself to God, and wait -for me in this place, three days at farthest; within which time if I come -not back, thou mayest return to our village, and, as the last favour and -service done to me, go from thence to Toboso, and inform my incomparable -mistress Dulcinea, that her captive knight died in attempting things that -might render him worthy to be called her lover.” - -On comparing these two translations, that of Smollet appears to me to -have better preserved the ludicrous solemnity of the original. This is -particularly observable in the beginning of the sentence, where there -is a most humorous association of two counsels very opposite in their -nature, the recommending himself to God, and girding Rozinante. In the -request, “and as the last favour and service done to me, go from thence -to Toboso;” the translations of Smollet and Motteux are, perhaps, nearly -equal in point of solemnity, but the simplicity of the original is better -preserved by Smollet.[59] - -Sancho, after endeavouring in vain to dissuade his master from engaging -in this perilous adventure, takes advantage of the darkness to tie -Rozinante’s legs together, and thus to prevent him from stirring from -the spot; which being done, to divert the Knight’s impatience under this -supposed enchantment, he proceeds to tell him, in his usual strain of -rustic buffoonery, a long story of a cock and a bull, which thus begins: -“_Erase que se era, el bien que viniere para todos sea, y el mal para -quien lo fuere á buscar; y advierta vuestra merced, señor mio, que el -principio que los antiguos dieron a sus consejas, no fue así como quiera, -que fue una sentencia de Caton Zonzorino Romano que dice, y el mal para -quien lo fuere á buscar._” Ibid. - -In this passage, the chief difficulties that occur to the translator -are, _first_, the beginning, which seems to be a customary prologue to -a nursery-tale among the Spaniards, which must therefore be translated -by a corresponding phraseology in English; and _secondly_, the blunder -of _Caton Zonzorino_. Both these are, I think, most happily hit off by -Motteux. “In the days of yore, when it was as it was, good betide us all, -and evil to him that evil seeks. And here, Sir, you are to take notice, -that they of old did not begin their tales in an ordinary way; for ’twas -a saying of a wise man, whom they call’d Cato the Roman Tonsor, that -said, Evil to him that evil seeks.” Smollet thus translates the passage: -“There was, so there was; the good that shall fall betide us all; and he -that seeks evil may meet with the devil. Your worship may take notice, -that the beginning of the ancient tales is not just what came into the -head of the teller: no, they always began with some saying of Cato, the -censor of Rome, like this, of “He that seeks evil may meet with the -devil.” - -The beginning of the story, thus translated, has neither any meaning in -itself, nor does it resemble the usual preface of a foolish tale. Instead -of _Caton Zonzorino_, a blunder which apologises for the mention of Cato -by such an ignorant clown as Sancho, we find the blunder rectified by -Smollet, and Cato distinguished by his proper epithet of the Censor. -This is a manifest impropriety in the last translator, for which no -other cause can be assigned, than that his predecessor had preoccupied -the blunder of _Cato the Tonsor_, which, though not a translation of -_Zonzorino_, (the purblind), was yet a very happy parallelism. - -In the course of the same cock-and-bull story, Sancho thus proceeds: -“_Asi que, yendo dias y viniendo dias, el diablo que no duerme y que -todo lo añasca, hizo de manera, que el amor que el pastor tenia á su -pastora se volviese en omecillo y mala voluntad, y la causa fué segun -malas lenguas, una cierta cantidad de zelillos que ella le dió, tales -que pasaban de la raya, y llegaban á lo vedado, y fue tanto lo que el -pastor la aborreció de alli adelante, que por on verla se quiso ausentar -de aquella tierra, é irse donde sus ojos no la viesen jamas: la Toralva, -que se vió desdeñada del Lope, luego le quiso bien mas que nunca le habla -querido._” Ibid. - -_Translation by Motteux_ - -“Well, but, as you know, days come and go, and time and straw makes -medlars ripe; so it happened, that after several days coming and going, -the devil, who seldom lies dead in a ditch, but will have a finger in -every pye, so brought it about, that the shepherd fell out with his -sweetheart, insomuch that the love he bore her turned into dudgeon and -ill-will; and the cause was, by report of some mischievous tale-carriers, -that bore no good-will to either party, for that the shepherd thought -her no better than she should be, a little loose i’ the hilts, &c.[60] -Thereupon being grievous in the dumps about it, and now bitterly hating -her, he e’en resolved to leave that country to get out of her sight: for -now, as every dog has his day, the wench perceiving he came no longer a -suitering to her, but rather toss’d his nose at her and shunn’d her, she -began to love him, and doat upon him like any thing.” - -I believe it will be allowed, that the above translation not only conveys -the complete sense and spirit of the original, but that it greatly -improves upon its humour. When Smollet came to translate this passage, -he must have severely felt the hardship of that law he had imposed on -himself, of invariably rejecting the expressions of Motteux, who had in -this instance been eminently fortunate. It will not therefore surprise -us, if we find the new translator to have here failed as remarkably as -his predecessor has succeeded. - -_Translation by Smollet_ - -“And so, in process of time, the devil, who never sleeps, but _wants to -have a finger in every pye_, managed matters in such a manner, that the -shepherd’s love for the shepherdess was turned into malice and deadly -hate: and the cause, according to evil tongues, was a certain quantity -of small jealousies she gave him, exceeding all bounds of measure. And -such was the abhorrence the shepherd conceived for her, that, in order -to avoid the sight of her, he resolved to absent himself from his own -country, and go where he should never set eyes on her again. Toralvo -finding herself despised by Lope, began to love him more than ever.” - -Smollet, conscious that in the above passage Motteux had given the best -possible _free_ translation, and that he had supplanted him in the -choice of corresponding idioms, seems to have piqued himself on a rigid -adherence to the very _letter_ of his original. The only English idiom, -being a plagiarism from Motteux, “_wants to have a finger in every pye_,” -seems to have been adopted from absolute necessity: the Spanish phrase -would not bear a literal version, and no other idiom was to be found but -that which Motteux had preoccupied. - -From an inflexible adherence to the same law, of invariably rejecting the -phraseology of Motteux, we find in every page of this new translation -numberless changes for the worse: - -_Se que no mira de mal ojo á la mochacha._ - -“I have observed he casts a sheep’s eye at the wench.” _Motteux._ - -“I can perceive he has no dislike to the girl.” _Smollet._ - -_Teresa me pusieron en el bautismo, nombre mondo y escueto, sin -anadiduras, ni cortopizas, ni arrequives de Dones ni Donas._ - -“I was christened plain Teresa, without any fiddle-faddle, or addition of -Madam, or Your Ladyship.” _Motteux._ - -“Teresa was I christened, a bare and simple name, without the addition, -garniture, and embroidery of Don or Donna.” _Smollet._ - -_Sigue tu cuenta, Sancho._ - -“Go on with thy story, Sancho.” _Motteux._ - -“Follow thy story, Sancho.” _Smollet._ - -_Yo confieso que he andado algo risueño en demasía._ - -“I confess I carried the jest too far.” _Motteux._ - -“I see I have exceeded a little in my pleasantry.” _Smollet._ - -_De mis viñas vengo, no se nada, no soy amigo de saber vidas agenas._ - -“I never thrust my nose into other men’s porridge; it’s no bread and -butter of mine: Every man for himself, and God for us all, say I.” -_Motteux._ - -“I prune my own vine, and I know nothing about thine. I never meddle with -other people’s concerns.” _Smollet._ - -_Y advierta que ya tengo edad para dar consejos. Quien bien tiene, y mal -escoge, por bien que se enoja, no se venga._[61] - -“Come, Master, I have hair enough in my beard to make a counsellor: he -that will not when he may, when he will he shall have nay.” _Motteux._ - -“Take notice that I am of an age to give good counsels. He that hath -good in his view, and yet will not evil eschew, his folly deserveth to -rue.” _Smollet._ Rather than adopt a corresponding proverb, as Motteux -has done, Smollet chuses, in this instance, and in many others, to make -a proverb for himself, by giving a literal version of the original in a -sort of doggrel rhime. - -_Vive Roque, que es la señora nuestra amo mas ligera que un alcotan, y -que puede enseñar al mas diestro Cordobes o Mexicano._ - -“By the Lord Harry, quoth Sancho, our Lady Mistress is as nimble as an -eel. Let me be hang’d, if I don’t think she might teach the best Jockey -in Cordova or Mexico to mount a-horseback.” _Motteux._ - -“By St. Roque, cried Sancho, my Lady Mistress is as light as a hawk,[62] -and can teach the most dexterous horseman to ride.” _Smollet._ - -The chapter which treats of the puppet-show, is well translated both by -Motteux and Smollet. But the discourse of the boy who explains the story -of the piece, in Motteux’s translation, appears somewhat more consonant -to the phraseology commonly used on such occasions: “Now, gentlemen, in -the next place, mark that personage that peeps out there with a crown on -his head, and a sceptre in his hand: That’s the Emperor Charlemain.—Mind -how the Emperor turns his back upon him.—Don’t you see that Moor;—hear -what a smack he gives on her sweet lips,—and see how she spits, and wipes -her mouth with her white smock-sleeve. See how she takes on, and tears -her hair for very madness, as if it was to blame for this affront.—Now -mind what a din and hurly-burly there is.” _Motteux._ This jargon appears -to me to be more characteristic of the speaker than the following: “And -that personage who now appears with a crown on his head and a sceptre in -his hand, is the Emperor Charlemagne.—Behold how the Emperor turns about -and walks off.—Don’t you see that Moor;—Now mind how he prints a kiss in -the very middle of her lips, and with what eagerness she spits, and wipes -them with the sleeve of her shift, lamenting aloud, and tearing for anger -her beautiful hair, as if it had been guilty of the transgression.”[63] - -In the same scene of the puppet-show, the scraps of the old Moorish -ballad are translated by Motteux with a corresponding naïveté of -expression, which it seems to me impossible to exceed: - - _Jugando está á las tablas Don Gayféros,_ - _Que y a de Melisendra está olvidado._ - - Now Gayferos the live-long day, - Oh, errant shame! at draughts doth play; - And, as at court most husbands do, - Forgets his lady fair and true. _Motteux._ - - Now Gayferos at tables playing, - Of Melisendra thinks no more. _Smollet._ - - _Caballero, si á Francia ides,_ - _Por Gayféros preguntad._ - - Quoth Melisendra, if perchance, - Sir Traveller, you go for France, - For pity’s sake, ask, when you’re there, - For Gayferos, my husband dear. _Motteux._ - - Sir Knight, if you to France do go, - For Gayferos inquire. _Smollet._ - -How miserably does the new translator sink in the above comparison! Yet -Smollet was a good poet, and most of the verse translations interspersed -through this work are executed with ability. It is on this head that -Motteux has assumed to himself the greatest licence. He has very -presumptuously mutilated the poetry of Cervantes, by leaving out many -entire stanzas from the larger compositions, and suppressing some of -the smaller altogether: Yet the translation of those parts which he has -retained, is possessed of much poetical merit; and in particular, those -verses which are of a graver cast, are, in my opinion, superior to those -of his rival. The song in the first volume, which in the original is -intitled _Cancion de Grisōstomo_, and which Motteux has intitled, _The -Despairing Lover_, is greatly abridged by the suppression of more than -one half of the stanzas in the original; but the translation, so far as -it goes, is highly poetical. The translation of this song by Smollet, -though inferior as a poem, is, perhaps, more valuable on the whole, -because more complete. There is, however, only a single passage in which -he maintains with Motteux a contest which is nearly equal: - - O thou, whose cruelty and hate, - The tortures of my breast proclaim, - Behold, how willingly to fate - I offer this devoted frame. - If thou, when I am past all pain, - Shouldst think my fall deserves a tear, - Let not one single drop distain - Those eyes, so killing and so clear. - No! rather let thy mirth display - The joys that in thy bosom flow: - Ah! need I bid that heart be gay, - Which always triumph’d in my woe. _Smollet._ - -It will be allowed that there is much merit in these lines, and that -the last stanza in particular is eminently beautiful and delicate. Yet -there is in my opinion an equal vein of poetry, and more passion, in the -corresponding verses of Motteux: - - O thou, by whose destructive hate - I’m hurry’d to this doleful fate, - When I’m no more, thy pity spare! - I dread thy tears; oh, spare them then— - But, oh! I rave, I was too vain— - My death can never cost a tear! _Motteux._ - -In the song of Cardenio, there is a happy combination of tenderness of -expression with ingenious thought; the versification is likewise of a -peculiar structure, the second line forming an echo to the first. This -song has been translated in a corresponding measure both by Motteux and -Smollet; but by the latter with far inferior merit. - -CANCION DE CARDENIO - - I - - Quien menoscaba mis bienes? - Desdenes. - Y quien aumenta mis duelos? - Los Zelos. - Y quien prueba mi paciencia? - Ausencia. - De ese modo en mi dolencia, - Ningun remedio se alcanza; - Pues me matan la Esperanza, - Desdenes, Zelos, y Ausencia. - - II - - Quien me causa este dolor? - Amor. - Y quien mi gloria repuna? - Fortuna. - Y quien consiente mi duelo? - El Cielo. - De ese modo yo rezelo, - Morir deste mal extraño, - Pues se aunan en mì daño - Amor, Fortuna, y el Cielo. - - III - - Quien mejorará mi suerte? - La Muerte. - Y el bien de amor, quien le alcanza? - Mudanza. - Y sus malos quien los cura? - Locura. - De ese modo no es cordura - Querer curar la pasion; - Quando los remedios son - Muerte, Mudanza, y Locura. - -CARDENIO’S SONG, by MOTTEUX - - I - - What makes me languish and complain? - O, ’tis _Disdain_! - What yet more fiercely tortures me? - ’Tis _Jealousy_. - How have I my patience lost? - By _Absence_ crost. - Then Hope, farewell, there’s no relief; - I sink beneath oppressing grief; - Nor can a wretch, without despair, - _Scorn_, _Jealousy_, and _Absence_, bear. - - II - - What in my breast this anguish drove? - Intruding _Love_. - Who could such mighty ills create? - Blind _Fortune’s_ hate. - What cruel powers my fate approve? - The _Powers_ above. - Then let me bear, and cease to moan; - ’Tis glorious thus to be undone: - When these invade, who dares oppose? - _Heaven_, _Love_, and _Fortune_ are my foes. - - III - - Where shall I find a speedy cure? - Oh! _Death_ is sure. - No milder means to set me free? - _Inconstancy._ - Can nothing else my pains assuage? - _Distracting Rage._ - What, die or change? Lucinda lose? - O let me rather madness chuse! - But judge, ye gods, what we endure, - When _death_ or _madness_ are a cure! - -In the last four lines, Motteux has used more liberty with the thought -of the original than is allowable for a translator. It must be owned, -however, that he has much improved it. - -CARDENIO’S SONG, by SMOLLET - - I - - Ah! what inspires my woful strain? - Unkind Disdain! - Ah! what augments my misery? - Fell Jealousy! - Or say what hath my patience worn? - An absent lover’s scorn! - The torments then that I endure - No mortal remedy can cure: - For every languid hope is slain - By Absence, Jealousy, Disdain. - - II - - From Love, my unrelenting foe, - These sorrows flow: - My infant glory’s overthrown - By Fortune’s frown. - Confirm’d in this my wretched state - By the decrees of Fate, - In death alone I hope release - From this compounded dire disease, - Whose cruel pangs to aggravate, - Fortune and Love conspire with Fate! - - III - - Ah! what will mitigate my doom? - The silent tomb. - Ah! what retrieve departed joy? - Inconstancy! - Or say, can ought but frenzy bear - This tempest of despair! - All other efforts then are vain - To cure this soul-tormenting pain, - That owns no other remedy - Than madness, death, inconstancy. - -“The torments then that I endure—no _mortal_ remedy can cure.” Who ever -heard of a _mortal_ remedy? or who could expect to be cured by it? In the -next line, the epithet of _languid_ is injudiciously given to Hope in -this place; for a _languid_ or a _languishing_ hope was already dying, -and needed not so powerful a host of murderers to _slay_ it, as Absence, -Jealousy, and Disdain.—In short, the latter translation appears to me to -be on the whole of much inferior merit to the former. I have remarked, -that Motteux excels his rival chiefly in the translation of those poems -that are of a graver cast. But perhaps he is censurable for having thrown -too much gravity into the poems that are interspersed in this work, as -Smollet is blameable on the opposite account, of having given them too -much the air of burlesque. In the song which Don Quixote composed while -he was doing penance in the _Sierra-Morena_, beginning _Arboles, Yerbas -y Plantas_, every stanza of which ends with _Del Toboso_, the author -intended, that the composition should be quite characteristic of its -author, a ludicrous compound of gravity and absurdity. In the translation -of Motteux there is perhaps too much gravity; but Smollet has rendered -the composition altogether burlesque. The same remark is applicable to -the song of Antonio, beginning _Yo sé, Olalla, que me adoras_, and to -many of the other poems. - -On the whole, I am inclined to think, that the version of Motteux is -by far the best we have yet seen of the Romance of Cervantes; and that -if corrected in its licentious abbreviations and enlargements, and -in some other particulars which I have noticed in the course of this -comparison, we should have nothing to desire superior to it in the way of -translation. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITION, WHICH RENDER - TRANSLATION DIFFICULT.—ANTIQUATED TERMS—NEW TERMS—VERBA - ARDENTIA.—SIMPLICITY OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION—IN PROSE—IN - POETRY.—NAÏVETÉ IN THE LATTER.—CHAULIEU—PARNELL—LA - FONTAINE.—SERIES OF MINUTE DISTINCTIONS MARKED BY - CHARACTERISTIC TERMS.—STRADA.—FLORID STYLE AND VAGUE - EXPRESSION.—PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY. - - -In the two preceding chapters I have treated pretty fully of what I have -considered as a principal difficulty in translation, the permutation of -idioms. I shall in this chapter touch upon several other characteristics -of composition, which, in proportion as they are found in original works, -serve greatly to enhance the difficulty of doing complete justice to them -in a translation. - -1. The poets, in all languages, have a licence peculiar to themselves, -of employing a mode of expression very remote from the diction of prose, -and still more from that of ordinary speech. Under this licence, it is -customary for them to use antiquated terms, to invent new ones, and to -employ a glowing and rapturous phraseology, or what Cicero terms _Verba -ardentia_. To do justice to these peculiarities in a translation, by -adopting similar terms and phrases, will be found extremely difficult; -yet, without such assimilation, the translation presents no just copy -of the original. It would require no ordinary skill to transfuse into -another language the thoughts of the following passages, in a similar -species of phraseology: - -Antiquated Terms: - - For Nature crescent doth not grow alone - In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes, - The inward service of the mind and soul - Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves thee now, - And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch - The virtue of his will. - - SHAK. _Hamlet_, act 1. - -New Terms: - - So over many a tract - Of heaven they march’d, and many a province wide, - Tenfold the length of this terrene: at last - Far in th’ horizon to the north appear’d - From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretcht - In battailous aspect, and nearer view - Bristl’d with upright beams innumerable - Of rigid spears, and helmets throng’d, and shields - Various with boastful argument pourtrayed. - - _Paradise Lost_, b. 6. - - All come to this? the hearts - That spaniel’d me at heels, to whom I gave - Their wishes, do discandy. - - SHAK. _Ant. & Cleop._ act 4, sc. 10. - -Glowing Phraseology, or _Verba ardentia_: - - Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er ye are, - That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, - How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, - Your loop’d and window’d raggedness defend you - From seasons such as these? Oh, I have ta’en - Too little care of this: Take physic, pomp! - Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, - That thou may’st shake the superflux to them, - And show the heavens more just. - - SHAK. _K. Lear_. - - Tremble, thou wretch, - That hast within thee undivulged crimes, - Unwhipt of justice! Hide thee, thou bloody hand; - Thou perjure, and thou simular of virtue, - That art incestuous! Caitiff, shake to pieces, - That under covert and convenient seeming - Hast practis’d on man’s life! Close pent up guilts, - Rive your concealing continents, and ask - Those dreadful summoners grace. - - _Ibid._ - - Can any mortal mixture of Earth’s mould, - Breathe such divine, enchanting ravishment? - Sure something holy lodges in that breast, - And with these raptures moves the vocal air - To testify his hidden residence: - How sweetly did they float upon the wings - Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night; - At every fall smoothing the raven down - Of darkness till it smil’d: I have oft heard, - Amidst the flow’ry-kirtled Naiades, - My mother Circe, with the Sirens three, - Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, - Who, as they sung, would take the poison’d soul - And lap it in Elysium.—— - But such a sacred, and home-felt delight, - Such sober certainty of waking bliss, - I never heard till now. - - MILTON’S _Comus_. - -2. There is nothing more difficult to imitate successfully in a -translation than that species of composition which conveys just, simple, -and natural thoughts, in plain, unaffected, and perfectly appropriate -terms; and which rejects all those _aucupia sermonis_, those _lenocinia -verborum_, which constitute what is properly termed _florid writing_. -It is much easier to imitate in a translation that kind of composition -(provided it be at all intelligible),[64] which is brilliant and -rhetorical, which employs frequent antitheses, allusions, similes, -metaphors, than it is to give a perfect copy of just, apposite, and -natural sentiments, which are clothed in pure and simple language: For -the former characters are strong and prominent, and therefore easily -caught; whereas the latter have no striking attractions, their merit -eludes altogether the general observation, and is discernible only to the -most correct and chastened taste. - -It would be difficult to approach to the beautiful simplicity of -expression of the following passages, in any translation. - -“In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, -it were an injury and sullenness against Nature, not to go out to see her -riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.” Milton’s -_Tract of Education_. - -“Can I be made capable of such great expectations, which those animals -know nothing of, (happier by far in this regard than I am, if we must -die alike), only to be disappointed at last? Thus placed, just upon the -confines of another, better world, and fed with hopes of penetrating into -it, and enjoying it, only to make a short appearance here, and then to -be shut out and totally sunk? Must I then, when I bid my last farewell -to these walks, when I close these lids, and yonder blue regions and all -this scene darken upon me and go out; must I then only serve to furnish -dust to be mingled with the ashes of these herds and plants, or with this -dirt under my feet? Have I been set so far above them in life, only to be -levelled with them at death?” Wollaston’s _Rel. of Nature_, sect. ix. - -3. The union of just and delicate sentiments with simplicity of -expression, is more rarely found in poetical composition than in prose; -because the enthusiasm of poetry prompts rather to what is brilliant than -what is just, and is always led to clothe its conceptions in that species -of figurative language which is very opposite to simplicity. It is -natural, therefore, to conclude, that in those few instances which are to -be found of a chastened simplicity of thought and expression in poetry, -the difficulty of transfusing the same character into a translation -will be great, in proportion to the difficulty of attaining it in the -original. Of this character are the following beautiful passages from -Chaulieu: - - Fontenay, lieu délicieux - Où je vis d’abord la lumiere, - Bientot au bout de ma carriere, - Chez toi je joindrai mes ayeux. - Muses, qui dans ce lieu champêtre - Avec soin me fites nourir, - Beaux arbres, qui m’avez vu naitre, - Bientot vous me verrez mourir. - - _Les louanges de la vie champêtre._ - - Je touche aux derniers instans - De mes plus belles années, - Et déja de mon printems - Toutes les fleurs sont fanées. - Je ne vois, et n’envisage - Pour mon arriere saison, - Que le malheur d’etre sage, - Et l’inutile avantage - De connoitre la raison. - - Autrefois mon ignorance - Me fournissoit des plaisirs; - Les erreurs de l’espérance - Faisoient naitre mes désirs. - A present l’experience - M’apprend que la jouissance - De nos biens les plus parfaits - Ne vaut pas l’impatience - Ni l’ardeur de nos souhaits. - La Fortune à ma jeunesse - Offrit l’éclat des grandeurs; - Comme un autre avec souplesse - J’aurois brigué ses faveurs. - Mais sur le peu de mérite - De ceux qu’elle a bien traités, - J’eus honte de la poursuite - De ses aveugles bontés; - Et je passai, quoique donne - D’éclat, et pourpre, et couronne, - Du mépris de la personne, - Au mépris des dignités.[65] - - _Poesies diverses de Chaulieu_, p. 44. - -4. The foregoing examples exhibit a species of composition, which uniting -just and natural sentiments with simplicity of expression, preserves at -the same time a considerable portion of elevation and dignity. But there -is another species of composition, which, possessing the same union -of natural sentiments with simplicity of expression, is essentially -distinguished from the former by its always partaking, in a considerable -degree, of comic humour. This is that kind of writing which the French -characterise by the term _naif_, and for which we have no perfectly -corresponding expression in English. “Le naif,” says Fontenelle, “est une -nuance du bas.” - -In the following fable of Phædrus, there is a _naïveté_, which I think it -is scarcely possible to transfuse into any translation: - -_Inops potentem dum vult imitari, perit._ - - In prato quædam rana conspexit bovem; - Et tacta invidiâ tantæ magnitudinis - Rugosam inflavit pellem: tum natos suos - Interrogavit, _an bove esset latior_. - Illi _negarunt_. Rursus intendit cutem - Majore nisu, et simili quæsivit modo - _Quis major esset?_ Illi dixerunt, _bovem_. - Novissimè indignata, dum vult validius - Inflare sese, rupto jacuit corpore. - -It would be extremely difficult to attain, in any translation, the -laconic brevity with which this story is told. There is not a single word -which can be termed superfluous; yet there is nothing wanting to complete -the effect of the picture. The gravity, likewise, of the narrative when -applied to describe an action of the most consummate absurdity; the -self-important, but anxious questions, and the mortifying dryness of -the answers, furnish an example of a delicate species of humour, which -cannot easily be conveyed by corresponding terms in another language. La -Fontaine was better qualified than any another for this attempt. He saw -the merits of the original, and has endeavoured to rival them; but even -La Fontaine has failed. - - Une Grenouille vit un boeuf - Qui lui sembla de belle taille. - Elle, qui n’etoit pas grosse en tout comme un oeuf, - Envieuse s’étend, et s’enfle, et se travaille - Pour égaler l’animal en grosseur; - Disant, Regardez bien ma soeur, - Est ce assez, dites moi, n’y suis-je pas encore? - Nenni. M’y voila donc? Point du tout. M’y voila - Vous n’en approchez point. La chetive pecore - S’enfla si bien qu’elle creva. - Le monde est plein de gens qui ne sont pas plus sages, - Tout bourgeois veut batir comme les grands seigneurs; - Tout prince a des ambassadeurs, - Tout marquis veut avoir des pages. - -But La Fontaine himself when original, is equally inimitable. The -source of that _naïveté_ which is the characteristic of his fables, has -been ingeniously developed by Marmontel: “Ce n’est pas un poete qui -imagine, ce n’est pas un conteur qui plaisante; c’est un temoin present -à l’action, et qui veut vous rendre present vous-même. Il met tout en -oeuvre de la meilleure foi du monde pour vous persuader; et ce sont -tous ces efforts, c’est le sérieux avec lequel il mêle les plus grandes -choses avec les plus petites; c’est l’importance qu’il attache à des jeux -d’enfans; c’est l’interêt qu’il prend pour un lapin et une belette, qui -font qu’on est tenté de s’écrier a chaque instant, _Le bon homme!_ On le -disoit de lui dans la societé. Son caractere n’a fait que passer dans -ses fables. C’est du fond de ce caractere que sont émanés ces tours si -naturels, ces expressions si naïves, ces images si fideles.” - -It would require most uncommon powers to do justice in a translation -to the natural and easy humour which characterises the dialogue in the -following fable: - -_Les animaux malades de la Peste._ - - Un mal qui répand la terreur, - Mal que le ciel en sa fureur - Inventa pour punir les crimes de la terre, - La peste, (puis qu’il faut l’apeller par son nom), - Capable d’enrichir en un jour L’Acheron, - Faisoit aux animaux la guerre. - Ils ne mouroient pas tous, mais tous etoient frappés. - On n’en voyoit point d’occupés - A chercher le soûtien d’une mourante vie; - Nul mets n’excitoit leur envie. - Ni loups ni renards n’épioient - La douce et l’innocente proye. - Les tourterelles se fuyoient; - Plus d’amour, partant plus de joye. - Le Lion tint conseil, et dit, Mes chers amis, - Je crois que le ciel a permis - Pour nos pechés cette infortune: - Que le plus coupable de nous - Se sacrifie aux traits du céleste courroux; - Peut-être il obtiendra la guérison commune. - L’histoire nous apprend qu’en de tels accidents, - On fait de pareils dévoûements: - Ne nous flattons donc point, voions sans indulgence - L’état de notre conscience. - Pour moi, satisfaisant mes appetits gloutons - J’ai dévoré force moutons; - Que m’avoient-ils fait? Nulle offense: - Même il m’est arrivé quelquefois de manger le Berger. - Je me dévoûrai donc, s’il le faut; mais je pense - Qu’il est bon que chacun s’accuse ainsi que moi; - Car on doit souhaiter, selon toute justice, - Que le plus coupable périsse. - Sire, dit le Renard, vous êtes trop bon roi; - Vos scrupules font voir trop de délicatesse; - Eh bien, manger moutons, canaille, sotte espece, - Est-ce un péchê? Non, non: Vous leur fites, seigneur, - En les croquant beaucoup d’honneur: - Et quant au Berger, l’on peut dire - Qu’il etoit digne de tous maux, - Etant de ces gens-là qui sur les animaux - Se font un chimérique empire. - Ainsi dit le Renard, et flatteurs d’applaudir. - On n’osa trop approfondir - Du Tigre, ni de l’Ours, ni des autres puissances - Les moins pardonnables offenses. - Tous les gens querelleurs, jusqu’aux simples mâtins - Au dire de chacun, etoient de petits saints. - L’âne vint à son tour, et dit, J’ai souvenance - Qu’en un pré de moines passant, - La faim, l’occasion, l’herbe tendre, et je pense - Quelque diable aussi me poussant, - Je tondis de ce pré la largeur de ma langue: - Je n’en avois nul droit, puisqu’il faut parler net. - À ces mots on cria haro sur le baudet: - Un loup quelque peu clerc prouva par sa harangue - Qu’il falloit dévoüer ce maudit animal, - Ce pelé, ce galeux, d’ou venoit tout leur mal. - Sa peccadille fut jugee un cas pendable; - Manger l’herbe d’autrui, quel crime abominable! - Rien que la mort n’etoit capable - D’expier son forfait, on le lui fit bien voir. - Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable, - Les jugements de cour vous rendront blanc ou noir. - -5. No compositions will be found more difficult to be translated, than -those descriptions, in which a series of minute distinctions are marked -by characteristic terms, each peculiarly appropriated to the thing to -be designed, but many of them so nearly synonymous, or so approaching -to each other, as to be clearly understood only by those who possess -the most critical knowledge of the language of the original, and a -very competent skill in the subject treated of. I have always regarded -Strada’s _Contest of the Musician and Nightingale_, as a composition -which almost bids defiance to the art of a translator. The reader will -easily perceive the extreme difficulty of giving the full, distinct, and -appropriate meaning of those expressions marked in Italics. - - Jam Sol a medio pronus deflexerat orbe, - Mitius e radiis vibrans crinalibus ignem: - Cum fidicen propter Tiberina fluenta, sonanti - Lenibat plectro curas, æstumque levabat, - Ilice defensus nigra, scenaque virenti. - Audiit hunc hospes sylvæ philomela propinquæ, - Musa loci, nemoris Siren, innoxia Siren; - Et prope succedens stetit abdita frondibus, altè - Accipiens sonitum, secumque remurmurat, et quos - Ille modos variat digitis, hæc gutture reddit. - - Sensit se fidicen philomela imitante referri, - Et placuit ludum volucri dare; plenius ergo - Explorat citharam, tentamentumque futuræ - Præbeat ut pugnæ, percurrit protinus omnes - Impulsu pernice fides. Nec segnius illa - Mille per excurrens variæ discrimina vocis, - Venturi specimen præfert argutula cantûs. - - Tunc fidicen per fila movens trepidantia dextram, - Nunc contemnenti similis _diverberat ungue,_ - _Depectitque pari chordas et simplice ductu:_ - _Nunc carptim replicat, digitisque micantibus urget,_ - _Fila minutatim, celerique repercutit ictu._ - Mox silet. Illa modis totidem respondet, et artem - Arte refert. Nunc, ceu rudis aut incerta canendi, - Projicit in longum, _nulloque plicatile flexu,_ - _Carmen init simili serie, jugique tenore_ - Præbet iter liquidum labenti e pectore voci: - Nunc _cæsim variat, modulisque canora minutis_ - _Delibrat vocem_, tremuloque reciprocat ore. - - Miratur fidicen parvis è faucibus ire - Tam varium, tam dulce melos: majoraque tentans, - _Alternat mira arte fides_; dum _torquet acutas_ - _Inciditque, graves operoso verbere pulsat_, - Permiscetque simul _certantia rauca sonoris_; - Ceu resides in bella viros clangore lacessat. - Hoc etiam philomela canit: dumque ore liquenti - _Vibrat acuta sonum, modulisque interplicat æquis_; - Ex inopinato gravis intonat, et _leve murmur_ - _Turbinat introrsus, alternantique sonore,_ - _Clarat et infuscat_, ceu martia classica pulset. - - Scilicet erubuit fidicen, iraque calente, - Aut non hoc, inquit, referes, citharistia sylvæ, - Aut fractâ cedam citharâ. Nec plura locutus, - Non imitabilibus plectrum concentibus urget. - Namque manu per fila volat, simul hos, simul illos - Explorat numeros, chordâque laborat in omni; - Et _strepit et tinnit_, crescitque superbius, et se - _Multiplicat relegens, plenoque choreumate plaudit_. - Tum stetit expectans si quid paret æmula contra. - - Illa autem, quanquam vox dudum exercita fauces - Asperat, impatiens vinci, simul advocat omnes - Necquicquam vires: nam dum discrimina tanta - Reddere tot fidium nativa et simplice tentat - Voce, canaliculisque imitari grandia parvis, - Impar magnanimis ausis, imparque dolori, - Deficit, et vitam summo in certamine linquens, - Victoris cadit in plectrum, par nacta sepulchrum. - -He that should attempt a translation of this most artful composition, -_dum tentat discrimina tanta reddere_, would probably, like the -nightingale, find himself _impar magnanimis ausis_.[66] - -It must be here remarked, that Strada has not the merit of originality -in this characteristic description of the song of the Nightingale. He -found it in Pliny, and with still greater amplitude, and variety of -discrimination. He seems even to have taken from that author the hint of -his fable: “Digna miratu avis. Primum, tanta vox tam parvo in corpusculo, -tam pertinax spiritus. Deinde in una perfecta musicæ scientia modulatus -editur sonus; et nunc continuo spiritu trahitur in longum, nunc variatur -inflexo, nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto, promittitur -revocato, infuscatur ex inopinato: interdum et secum ipse murmurat, -plenus, gravis, acutus, creber, extentus; ubi visum est vibrans, summus, -medius, imus. Breviterque omnia tam parvulis in faucibus, quæ tot -exquisitis tibiarum tormentis ars hominum excogitavit.—Certant inter se, -palamque animosa contentio est. Victa morte finit sæpe vitam, spiritu -prius deficiente quam cantu.” Plin. _Nat. Hist._ lib. 10, c. 29. - -It would perhaps be still more difficult to give a perfect translation -of this passage from Pliny, than of the fable of Strada. The attempt, -however, has been made by an old English author, Philemon Holland; and -it is curious to remark the extraordinary shifts to which he has been -reduced in the search of corresponding expressions: - - _Explorat numeros, chordaque laborat in omni._ - -“Surely this bird is not to be set in the last place of those that -deserve admiration; for is it not a wonder, that so loud and clear a -voice should come from so little a body? Is it not as strange, that -shee should hold her wind so long, and continue with it as shee doth? -Moreover, shee alone in her song keepeth time and measure truly, she -riseth and falleth in her note just with the rules of music, and perfect -harmony; for one while, in one entire breath she drawes out her tune -at length treatable; another while she quavereth, and goeth away as -fast in her running points: sometimes she maketh stops and short cuts -in her notes; another time she gathereth in her wind, and singeth -descant between the plain song: she fetcheth in her breath again, and -then you shall have her in her catches and divisions: anon, all on a -sudden, before a man would think it, she drowneth her voice that one -can scarce heare her; now and then she seemeth to record to herself, -and then she breaketh out to sing voluntarie. In sum, she varieth and -altereth her voice to all keies: one while full of her largs, longs, -briefs, semibriefs, and minims; another while in her crotchets, quavers, -semiquavers, and double semiquavers: for at one time you shall hear her -voice full of loud, another time as low; and anon shrill and on high; -thick and short when she list; drawn out at leisure again when she is -disposed; and then, (if she be so pleased), shee riseth and mounteth -up aloft, as it were with a wind organ. Thus shee altereth from one to -another, and sings all parts, the treble, the mean, and the base. To -conclude, there is not a pipe or instrument devised with all the art and -cunning of man, that can affoord more musick than this pretty bird doth -out of that little throat of hers.—They strive who can do best, and one -laboreth to excel another in variety of song and long continuance; yea, -and evident it is that they contend in good earnest with all their will -and power: for oftentimes she that hath the worse, and is not able to -hold out with another, dieth for it, and sooner giveth she up her vitall -breath, than giveth over her song.” - -The consideration of the above passage in the original, leads to the -following remark. - -5. There is no species of writing so difficult to be translated, as -that where the character of the style is florid, and the expression -consequently vague, and of indefinite meaning. The natural history of -Pliny furnishes innumerable examples of this fault; and hence it will -ever be found one of the most difficult works to be translated. A short -chapter shall be here analyzed, as an instructive specimen. - -_Lib._ 11, _Cap._ 2. - -In magnis siquidem corporibus, aut certe majoribus, facilis officina -sequaci materia fuit. In his tam parvis atque tam nullis, quæ ratio, -quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio! Ubi tot sensus collocavit in -culice? Et sunt alia dictu minora. Sed ubi visum in eo prætendit? Ubi -gustatum applicavit? Ubi odoratum inseruit? Ubi vero truculentam illam -et portione maximam vocem ingeneravit? Qua subtilitate pennas adnexuit? -Prælongavit pedum crura? disposuit jejunam caveam, uti alvum? Avidam -sanguinis et potissimum humani sitim accendit? Telum vero perfodiendo -tergori, quo spiculavit ingenio? Atque ut in capaci, cum cerni non possit -exilitas, ita reciproca geminavit arte, ut fodiendo acuminatum, pariter -sorbendoque fistulosum esset. Quos teredini ad perforanda robora cum sono -teste dentes affixit? Potissimumque e ligno cibatum fecit? Sed turrigeros -elephantorum miramur humeros, taurorumque colla, et truces in sublime -jactus, tigrium rapinas, leonum jubas; cùm rerum natura nusquam magis -quam in minimis tota sit. Quapropter quæso, ne hæc legentes, quoniam ex -his spernunt multa, etiam relata fastidio damnent, cùm in contemplatione -naturæ, nihil possit videri supervacuum. - -Although, after the perusal of the whole of this chapter, we are at -no loss to understand its general meaning, yet when it is taken -to pieces, we shall find it extremely difficult to give a precise -interpretation, much less an elegant translation of its single sentences. -The latter indeed may be accounted impossible, without the exercise -of such liberties as will render the version rather a paraphrase than -a translation. _In magnis siquidem corporibus, aut certe majoribus, -facilis officina sequaci materiæ fuit._ The sense of the term magnus, -which is in itself indefinite, becomes in this sentence much more so, -from its opposition to _major_; and the reader is quite at a loss to -know, whether in those two classes of animals, the _magni_ and the -_majores_, the largest animals are signified by the former term, or by -the latter. Had the opposition been between _magnus_ and _maximus_, or -_major_ and _maximus_, there could not have been the smallest ambiguity. -_Facilis officina sequaci materiæ fuit._ _Officina_ is the workhouse -where an artist exercises his craft; but no author, except Pliny himself, -ever employed it to signify the labour of the artist. With a similar -incorrectness of expression, which, however, is justified by general use, -the French employ _cuisine_ to signify both the place where victuals are -dressed, and the art of dressing them. _Sequax materia_ signifies pliable -materials, and therefore easily wrought; but the term _sequax_ cannot -be applied with any propriety to such materials as are easily wrought, -on account of their magnitude or abundance. _Tam parvis_ is easily -understood, but _tam nullis_ has either no meaning at all, or a very -obscure one. _Inextricabilis perfectio._ It is no perfection in anything -to be inextricable; for the meaning of inextricable is, embroiled, -perplexed, and confounded. _Ubi tot sensus collocavit in culice?_ What is -the meaning of the question _ubi_? Does it mean, in what part of the body -of the gnat? I conceive it can mean nothing else: And if so, the question -is absurd; for all the senses of a gnat are not placed in any _one_ part -of its body, any more than the senses of a man. _Dictu minora._ By these -words the author intended to convey the meaning of _alia etiam minora -possunt dici_; but the meaning which he has actually conveyed is, _Sunt -alia minora quam quæ dici possunt_, which is false and hyperbolical; -for no insect is so small that words may not be found to convey an idea -of its size. _Portione maximam vocem ingeneravit._ What is _portione -maximam_? It is only from the context that we guess the author’s meaning -to be, _maximam ratione portionis_, i. e. _magnitudinis insecti_; for -neither use, nor the analogy of the language, justify such an expression -as _vocem maximam portione_. If it is alledged, that _portio_ is here -used to signify the power or intensity of the voice, and is synonymous in -this place to _vis_, ενεργεια, we may safely assert, that this use of the -term is licentious, improper, and unwarranted by custom. _Jejunam caveam -uti alvum_; “a hungry cavity for a belly:” but is not the stomach of all -animals a hungry cavity, as well as that of the gnat? _Capaci cum cernere -non potest exilitas._ _Capax_ is improperly contrasted with _exilis_, and -cannot be otherwise translated than in the sense of _magnus_. _Reciproca -geminavit arte_ is incapable of any translation which shall render the -proper sense of the words, “doubled with reciprocal art.” The author’s -meaning is, “fitted for a double function.” _Cum sono teste_ is guessed -from the context to mean, _uti sonus testatur_. _Cum rerum natura nusquam -magis quam in minimis tota sit._ This is a very obscure expression of a -plain sentiment, “The wisdom and power of Providence, or of Nature, is -never more conspicuous than in the smallest bodies.” Ex his _spernunt -multa_. The meaning of _ex his_ is indefinite, and therefore obscure: we -can but conjecture that it means _ex rebus hujusmodi_; and not _ex his -quæ diximus_; for that sense is reserved for _relata_. - -From this specimen, we may judge of the difficulty of giving a _just -translation_ of Pliny’s _Natural History_. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - OF BURLESQUE TRANSLATION.—TRAVESTY AND PARODY.—SCARRON’S - VIRGILE TRAVESTI.—ANOTHER SPECIES OF LUDICROUS TRANSLATION. - - -In a preceding chapter, while treating of the translation of idiomatic -phrases, we censured the use of such idioms in the translation as do -not correspond with the age or country of the original. There is, -however, one species of translation, in which that violation of the -_costume_ is not only blameless, but seems essential to the nature of -the composition: I mean burlesque translation, or Travesty. This species -of writing partakes, in a great degree, of original composition; and -is therefore not to be measured by the laws of serious translation. -It conveys neither a just picture of the sentiments, nor a faithful -representation of the style and manner of the original; but pleases -itself in exhibiting a ludicrous caricatura of both. It displays an -overcharged and grotesque resemblance, and excites our risible emotions -by the incongruous association of dignity and meanness, wisdom and -absurdity. This association forms equally the basis of Travesty and of -Ludicrous Parody, from which it is no otherwise distinguished than by -its assuming a different language from the original. In order that the -mimickry may be understood, it is necessary that the writer choose, for -the exercise of his talents, a work that is well known, and of great -reputation. Whether that reputation is deserved or unjust, the work may -be equally the subject of burlesque imitation. If it has been the subject -of general, but undeserved praise, a Parody or a Travesty is then a fair -satire on the false taste of the original author, and his admirers, and -we are pleased to see both become the objects of a just castigation. -The _Rehearsal_, _Tom Thumb_, and _Chrononhotonthologos_, which exhibit -ludicrous parodies of passages from the favourite dramatic writers of the -times, convey a great deal of just and useful criticism. If the original -is a work of real excellence, the Travesty or Parody detracts nothing -from its merit, nor robs the author of the smallest portion of his just -praise.[67] We laugh at the association of dignity and meanness; but the -former remains the exclusive property of the original, the latter belongs -solely to the copy. We give due praise to the mimical powers of the -imitator, and are delighted to see how ingeniously he can elicit subject -of mirth and ridicule from what is grave, dignified, pathetic, or sublime. - -In the description of the games in the 5th _Æneid_, Virgil everywhere -supports the dignity of the Epic narration. His persons are heroes, -their actions are suitable to that character, and we feel our passions -seriously interested in the issue of the several contests. The same -scenes travestied by Scarron are ludicrous in the extreme. His heroes -have the same names, they are engaged in the same actions, they have even -a grotesque resemblance in character to their prototypes; but they have -all the meanness, rudeness, and vulgarity of ordinary prize-fighters, -hackney coachmen, horse-jockeys, and water-men. - - _Medio Gyas in gurgite victor_ - _Rectorem navis compellat voce Menœtem;_ - _Quo tantum mihi dexter abis? huc dirige cursum,_ - _Littus ama, et lævas stringat sine palmula cautes;_ - _Altum alii teneant. Dixit: sed cæca Menœtes_ - _Saxa timens, proram pelagi detorquet ad undas._ - _Quo diversus abis? iterum pete saxa, Menœte,_ - _Cum clamore Gyas revocabat._ - - Gyas, qui croit que son pilote, - Comme un vieil fou qu’il est, radote, - De ce qu’en mer il s’elargit, - Aussi fort qu’un lion rugit; - Et s’ecrie, écumant de rage, - Serre, serre donc le rivage, - Fils de putain de Ménétus, - Serre, ou bien nous somme victus: - Serre donc, serre à la pareille: - Ménétus fit la sourde oreille, - Et s’éloigne toujours du bord, - Et si pourtant il n’a pas tort: - Habile qu’il est, il redoute - Certains rocs, ou l’on ne voit goute— - Lors Gyas se met en furie, - Et de rechef crie et recrie, - Vieil coyon, pilote enragé, - Mes ennemis t’ont ils gagé - Pour m’oter l’honneur de la sorte? - Serre, ou que le diable t’emporte, - Serre le bord, ame de chien: - Mais au diable, s’il en fait rien. - -In Virgil, the prizes are suitable to the dignity of the persons who -contend for them: - - Munera principio ante oculos, circoque locantur - In medio: sacri tripodes, viridesque coronæ, - Et palmæ, pretium victoribus; armaque, et ostro - Perfusæ vestes, argenti aurique talenta. - -In Scarron, the prizes are accommodated to the contending parties with -equal propriety: - - Maitre Eneas faisant le sage, &c. - Fit apporter une marmitte, - C’etoit un des prix destinés, - Deux pourpoints fort bien galonnés - Moitié filet et moitié soye, - Un sifflet contrefaisant l’oye, - Un engin pour casser des noix, - Vingt et quatre assiettes de bois, - Qu’Eneas allant au fourrage - Avoit trouvé dans le bagage - Du vénérable Agamemnon: - Certain auteur a dit que non, - Comptant la chose d’autre sorte, - Mais ici fort peu nous importe: - Une toque de velous gras, - Un engin à prendre des rats, - Ouvrage du grand Aristandre, - Qui savoit bien les rats prendre - En plus de cinquante façons, - Et meme en donnoit des leçons: - Deux tasses d’etain émaillées, - Deux pantoufles despareillées, - Dont l’une fut au grand Hector, - Toutes deux de peau de castor— - Et plusieurs autres nippes rares, &c. - -But this species of composition pleases only in a short specimen. We -cannot bear a lengthened work in Travesty. The incongruous association -of dignity and meanness excites risibility chiefly from its being -unexpected. Cotton’s and Scarron’s _Virgil_ entertain but for a few -pages: the composition soon becomes tedious, and at length disgusting. We -laugh at a short exhibition of buffoonery; but we cannot endure a man, -who, with good talents, is constantly playing the fool. - -There is a species of ludicrous verse translation which is not of the -nature of Travesty, and which seems to be regulated by all the laws -of serious translation. It is employed upon a ludicrous original, and -its purpose is not to burlesque, but to represent it with the utmost -fidelity. For that purpose, even the metrical stanza is closely -imitated. The ludicrous effect is heightened, when the stanza is peculiar -in its structure, and is transferred from a modern to an ancient -language; as in Dr. Aldrich’s translation of the well-known song, - - A soldier and a sailor, - A tinker and a tailor, - Once had a doubtful strife, Sir, - To make a maid a wife, Sir, - Whose name was buxom Joan, &c. - - _Miles et navigator,_ - _Sartor et ærator,_ - _Jamdudum litigabant,_ - _De pulchra quam amabant,_ - _Nomen cui est Joanna, &c._ - -Of the same species of translation is the facetious composition intitled -_Ebrii Barnabæ Itinerarium_, or _Drunken Barnaby’s Journal_: - - _O Faustule, dic amico,_ - _Quo in loco, quo in vico,_ - _Sive campo, sive tecto,_ - _Sine linteo, sine lecto;_ - _Propinasti queis tabernis,_ - _An in terris, an Avernis._ - - Little Fausty, tell thy true heart, - In what region, coast, or new part, - Field or fold, thou hast been bousing, - Without linen, bedding, housing; - In what tavern, pray thee, show us, - Here on earth, or else below us: - -And the whimsical, though serious translation of Chevy-chace: - - _Vivat Rex noster nobilis,_ - _Omnis in tuto sit;_ - _Venatus olim flebilis_ - _Chevino luco fit._ - - God prosper long our noble King, - Our lives and safeties all: - A woful hunting once there did - In Chevy-chace befal, &c. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - THE GENIUS OF THE TRANSLATOR SHOULD BE AKIN TO THAT OF THE - ORIGINAL AUTHOR.—THE BEST TRANSLATORS HAVE SHONE IN ORIGINAL - COMPOSITION OF THE SAME SPECIES WITH THAT WHICH THEY HAVE - TRANSLATED.—OF VOLTAIRE’S TRANSLATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE.—OF - THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE WIT OF VOLTAIRE.—HIS TRANSLATION - FROM HUDIBRAS.—EXCELLENT ANONYMOUS FRENCH TRANSLATION OF - HUDIBRAS.—TRANSLATION OF RABELAIS BY URQUHART AND MOTTEUX. - - -From the consideration of those general rules of translation which in -the foregoing essay I have endeavoured to illustrate, it will appear no -unnatural conclusion to assert, that he only is perfectly accomplished -for the duty of a translator who possesses a genius akin to that of -the original author. I do not mean to carry this proposition so far as -to affirm, that in order to give a perfect translation of the works -of Cicero, a man must actually be as great an orator, or inherit the -same extent of philosophical genius; but he must have a mind capable of -discerning the full merits of his original, of attending with an acute -perception to the whole of his reasoning, and of entering with warmth -and energy of feeling into all the beauties of his composition. Thus -we shall observe invariably, that the best translators have been those -writers who have composed original works of the same species with those -which they have translated. The mutilated version which yet remains to us -of the _Timæus_ of Plato translated by Cicero, is a masterly composition, -which, in the opinion of the best judges, rivals the merit of the -original. A similar commendation cannot be bestowed on those fragments -of the _Phænomena_ of Aratus translated into verse by the same author; -for Cicero’s poetical talents were not remarkable: but who can entertain -a doubt, that had time spared to us his versions of the orations of -Demosthenes and Æschines, we should have found them possessed of the most -transcendent merit? - -We have observed, in the preceding part of this essay, that poetical -translation is less subjected to restraint than prose translation, and -allows more of the freedom of original composition. It will hence follow, -that to exercise this freedom with propriety, a translator must have the -talent of original composition in poetry; and therefore, that in this -species of translation, the possession of a genius akin to that of his -author, is more essentially necessary than in any other. We know the -remark of Denham, that the subtle spirit of poesy evaporates entirely in -the transfusion from one language into another, and that unless a new, -or an original spirit, is infused by the translator himself, there will -remain nothing but a _caput mortuum_. The best translators of poetry, -therefore, have been those who have approved their talents in original -poetical composition. Dryden, Pope, Addison, Rowe, Tickell, Pitt, Warton, -Mason, and Murphy, rank equally high in the list of original poets, as in -that of the translators of poetry. - -But as poetical composition is various in its kind, and the characters -of the different species of poetry are extremely distinct, and often -opposite in their nature, it is very evident that the possession of -talents adequate to one species of translation, as to one species of -original poetry, will not infer the capacity of excelling in other -species of which the character is different. Still further, it may be -observed, that as there are certain species of poetical composition, as, -for example, the dramatic, which, though of the same general character -in all nations, will take a strong tincture of difference from the -manners of a country, or the peculiar genius of a people; so it will be -found, that a poet, eminent as an original author in his own country, -may fail remarkably in attempting to convey, by a translation, an idea -of the merits of a foreign work which is tinctured by the national -genius of the country which produced it. Of this we have a striking -example in those translations from Shakespeare by Voltaire; in which the -French poet, eminent himself in dramatical composition, intended to -convey to his countrymen a just idea of our most celebrated author in -the same department. But Shakespeare and Voltaire, though perhaps akin -to each other in some of the great features of the mind, were widely -distinguished, even by nature, in the characters of their poetical -genius; and this natural distinction was still more sensibly increased by -the general tone of manners, the _hue and fashion_ of thought of their -respective countries. Voltaire, in his essay _sur la Tragédie Angloise_, -has chosen the famous soliloquy in the tragedy of Hamlet, “_To be, or -not to be_,” as one of those striking passages which best exemplify the -genius of Shakespeare, and which, in the words of the French author, -_demandent grace pour toutes ses fautes_. It may therefore be presumed, -that the translator in this instance endeavoured, as far as lay in his -power, not only to adopt the spirit of his author, but to represent him -as favourably as possible to his countrymen. Yet, how wonderfully has he -metamorphosed, how miserably disfigured him! In the original, we have the -perfect picture of a mind deeply agitated, giving vent to its feelings -in broken starts of utterance, and in language which plainly indicates, -that the speaker is reasoning solely with his own mind, and not with any -auditor. In the translation, we have a formal and connected harangue, in -which it would appear, that the author, offended with the abrupt manner -of the original, and judging those irregular starts of expression to be -unsuitable to that precision which is required in abstract reasoning, has -corrected, as he thought, those defects of the original, and given union, -strength, and precision, to this philosophical argument. - - Demeure, il faut choisir, et passer à l’instant - De la vie à la mort, ou de l’être au néant. - Dieux justes, s’il en est, éclairez mon courage. - Faut-il vieillir courbé sous la main qui m’outrage, - Supporter, ou finir mon malheur et mon sort? - Que suis-je? qui m’arrête? et qu’est ce que la mort? - C’est la fin de nos maux, c’est mon unique azile; - Apres de longs transports, c’est un sommeil tranquile. - On s’endort et tout meurt; mais un affreux reveil, - Doit succéder peut-être aux douceurs du sommeil. - On nous menace; on dit que cette courte vie - De tourmens éternels est aussitôt suivie. - O mort! moment fatale! affreuse éternité! - Tout cœur à ton seul nom se glace épouvanté. - Eh! qui pourrait sans toi supporter cette vie? - De nos prêtres menteurs bénir l’hypocrisie? - D’une indigne maitresse encenser les erreurs? - Ramper sous un ministre, adorer ses hauteurs? - Et montrer les langueurs de son âme abattue, - A des amis ingrats qui detournent la vue? - La mort serait trop douce en ces extrémités. - Mais le scrupule parle, et nous crie, arrêtez. - Il defend à nos mains cet heureux homicide, - Et d’un héros guerrier, fait un Chrétien timide.[68] - -Besides the general fault already noticed, of substituting formal and -connected reasoning, to the desultory range of thought and abrupt -transitions of the original, Voltaire has in this passage, by the -looseness of his paraphrase, allowed some of the most striking beauties, -both of the thought and expression, entirely to escape; while he has -superadded, with unpardonable licence, several ideas of his own, not only -unconnected with the original, but dissonant to the general tenor of the -speaker’s thoughts, and foreign to his character. Adopting Voltaire’s -own style of criticism on the translations of the Abbé des Fontaines, we -may ask him, “Where do we find, in this translation of Hamlet’s soliloquy, - - “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune—— - To take arms against a sea of troubles—— - The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks - That flesh is heir to—— - Perchance to dream; ay, there’s the rub—— - The whips and scorns of time—— - The law’s delay, the insolence of office—— - The spurns—that patient merit from th’ unworthy takes—— - That undiscover’d country, from whose bourne - No traveller returns——?” - -Can Voltaire, who has omitted in this short passage all the above -striking peculiarities of thought and expression, be said to have given a -translation from Shakespeare? - -But in return for what he has retrenched from his author, he has made a -liberal addition of several new and original ideas of his own. Hamlet, -whose character in Shakespeare exhibits the strongest impressions of -religion, who feels these impressions even to a degree of superstition, -which influences his conduct in the most important exigences, and renders -him weak and irresolute, appears in Mr. Voltaire’s translation a thorough -sceptic and freethinker. In the course of a few lines, he expresses his -doubt of the existence of a God; he treats the priests as liars and -hypocrites, and the Christian religion as a system which debases human -nature, and makes a coward of a hero: - - Dieux justes! S’il en est—— - De nos prêtres menteurs bénir l’hypocrisie—— - Et d’un héros guerrier, fait un Chrêtien timide—— - -Now, who gave Mr. Voltaire a right thus to transmute the pious and -superstitious Hamlet into a modern _philosophe_ and _Esprit fort_? -Whether the French author meant by this transmutation to convey to his -countrymen a favourable idea of our English bard, we cannot pretend to -say; but we may at least affirm, that he has not conveyed a just one.[69] - -But what has prevented the translator, who professes that he wished -to give a just idea of the merits of his original, from accomplishing -what he wished? Not ignorance of the language; for Voltaire, though no -great critic in the English tongue, had yet a competent knowledge of it; -and the change he has put upon the reader was not involuntary, or the -effect of ignorance. Neither was it the want of genius, or of poetical -talents; for Voltaire is certainly one of the best poets, and one of the -greatest ornaments of the drama. But it was the original difference of -his genius and that of Shakespeare, increased by the general opposition -of the national character of the French and English. His mind, accustomed -to connect all ideas of dramatic sublimity or beauty with regular design -and perfect symmetry of composition, could not comprehend this union -of the great and beautiful with irregularity of structure and partial -disproportion. He was capable indeed of discerning some features of -majesty in this colossal statue; but the rudeness of the parts, and the -want of polish in the whole figure, prevailed over the general impression -of its grandeur, and presented it altogether to his eye as a monstrous -production. - -The genius of Voltaire was more akin to that of Dryden, of Waller, of -Addison, and of Pope, than to that of Shakespeare: he has therefore -succeeded much better in the translations he has given of particular -passages from these poets, than in those he has attempted from our great -master of the drama. - -Voltaire possessed a large share of wit; but it is of a species peculiar -to himself, and which I think has never yet been analysed. It appears -to me to be the result of acute philosophical talents, a strong spirit -of satire, and a most brilliant imagination. As all wit consists in -unexpected combinations, the singular union of a philosophic thought with -a lively fancy, which is a very uncommon association, seems in general to -be the basis of the wit of Voltaire. It is of a very different species -from that wit which is associated with humour, which is exercised in -presenting odd, extravagant, but natural views of human character, and -which forms the essence of ludicrous composition. The novels of Voltaire -have no other scope than to illustrate certain philosophical doctrines, -or to expose certain philosophical errors; they are not pictures of life -or of manners; and the persons who figure in them are pure creatures -of the imagination, fictitious beings, who have nothing of nature in -their composition, and who neither act nor reason like the ordinary -race of men. Voltaire, then, with a great deal of wit, seems to have -had no talent for humorous composition. Now if such is the character of -his original genius, we may presume, that he was not capable of justly -estimating in the compositions of others what he did not possess himself. -We may likewise fairly conclude, that he should fail in attempting to -convey by a translation a just idea of the merits of a work, of which -one of the main ingredients is that quality in which he was himself -deficient. Of this I proceed to give a strong example. - -In the poem of _Hudibras_, we have a remarkable combination of Wit -with Humour; nor is it easy to say which of these qualities chiefly -predominates in the composition. A proof that humour forms a most capital -ingredient is, that the inimitable Hogarth has told the whole story of -the poem in a series of characteristic prints: now painting is completely -adequate to the representation of humour, but can convey no idea of wit. -Of this singular poem, Voltaire has attempted to give a specimen to his -countrymen by a translation; but in this experiment he says he has found -it necessary to concentrate the first four hundred lines into little more -than eighty of the translation.[70] The truth is, that, either insensible -of that part of the merit of the original, or conscious of his own -inability to give a just idea of it, he has left out all that constitutes -the humour of the painting, and attached himself solely to the wit of -the composition. In the original, we have a description of the figure, -dress, and accoutrements of Sir Hudibras, which is highly humorous, and -which conveys to the imagination as complete a picture as is given by the -characteristic etchings of Hogarth. In the translation of Voltaire, all -that we learn of those particulars which _paint_ the hero, is, that he -wore mustachios, and rode with a pair of pistols. - -Even the wit of the original, in passing through the alembic of Voltaire, -has changed in a great measure its nature, and assimilated itself to -that which is peculiar to the translator. The wit of Butler is more -concentrated, more pointed, and is announced in fewer words, than the -wit of Voltaire. The translator, therefore, though he pretends to have -abridged four hundred verses into eighty, has in truth effected this by -the retrenchment of the wit of his original, and not by the concentration -of it: for when we compare any particular passage or point, we find there -is more diffusion in the translation than in the original. Thus, Butler -says, - - The difference was so small, his brain - Outweigh’d his rage but half a grain; - Which made some take him for a tool - That knaves do work with, call’d a fool. - -Thus amplified by Voltaire, and at the same time imperfectly translated. - - Mais malgré sa grande eloquence, - Et son mérite, et sa prudence, - Il passa chez quelques savans - Pour être un de ces instrumens - Dont les fripons avec addresse - Savent user sans dire mot, - Et qu’ils tournent avec souplesse; - Cet instrument s’appelle un sot. - -Thus likewise the famous simile of Taliacotius, loses, by the -amplification of the translator, a great portion of its spirit. - - So learned Taliacotius from - The brawny part of porter’s bum - Cut supplemental noses, which - Would last as long as parent breech; - But, when the date of nock was out, - Off dropt the sympathetic snout. - - Ainsi Taliacotius, - Grand Esculape d’Etrurie, - Répara tous les nez perdus - Par une nouvelle industrie: - Il vous prenoit adroitement - Un morceau du cul d’un pauvre homme, - L’appliquoit au nez proprement; - Enfin il arrivait qu’en somme, - Tout juste à la mort du prêteur - Tombait le nez de l’emprunteur, - Et souvent dans la même bière, - Par justice et par bon accord, - On remettait au gré du mort - Le nez auprès de son derriere. - -It will be allowed, that notwithstanding the supplemental witticism of -the translator, contained in the last four lines, the simile loses, upon -the whole, very greatly by its diffusion. The following anonymous Latin -version of this simile is possessed of much higher merit, as, with equal -brevity of expression, it conveys the whole spirit of the original. - - _Sic adscititios nasos de clune torosi_ - _Vectoris doctâ secuit Talicotius arte,_ - _Qui potuere parent durando æquare parentem:_ - _At postquam fato clunis computruit, ipsum_ - _Unâ sympathicum cœpit tabescere rostrum._ - -With these translations may be compared the following, which is taken -from a complete version of the poem of _Hudibras_, a very remarkable -work, with the merits of which (as the book is less known than it -deserves to be) I am glad to have this opportunity of making the English -reader acquainted: - - Ainsi Talicot d’une fesse - Savoit tailler avec addresse - Nez tous neufs, qui ne risquoient rien - Tant que le cul se portoit bien; - Mais si le cul perdoit la vie, - Le nez tomboit par sympathie. - -In one circumstance of this passage no translation can come up to the -original: it is in that additional pleasantry which results from the -structure of the verses, the first line ending most unexpectedly with a -preposition, and the third with a pronoun, both which are the rhyming -syllables in the two couplets: - - So learned Taliacotius _from_, &c. - Cut supplemental noses, _which_, &c. - -It was perhaps impossible to imitate this in a translation; but setting -this circumstance aside, the merit of the latter French version seems to -me to approach very near to that of the original. - -The author of this translation of the poem of _Hudibras_, evidently -a man of superior abilities,[71] appears to have been endowed with an -uncommon share of modesty. He presents his work to the public with the -utmost diffidence; and, in a short preface, humbly deprecates its censure -for the presumption that may be imputed to him in attempting that which -the celebrated Voltaire had declared to be one of the most difficult of -tasks. Yet this task he has executed in a very masterly manner. A few -specimens will shew the high merit of this work, and clearly evince, that -the translator possessed that essential requisite for his undertaking, a -kindred genius with that of his great original. - -The religion of Hudibras is thus described: - - For his religion, it was fit - To match his learning and his wit: - ’Twas Presbyterian true blue; - For he was of that stubborn crew - Of errant saints, whom all men grant - To be the true church-militant: - Such as do build their faith upon - The holy text of pike and gun; - Decide all controversies by - Infallible artillery; - And prove their doctrine orthodox, - By apostolic blows and knocks. - - _Canto_ 1. - - Sa réligion au genie - Et sçavoir étoit assortie; - Il étoit franc Presbyterien, - Et de sa secte le soutien, - Secte, qui justement se vante - D’être l’Eglise militante; - Qui de sa foi vous rend raison - Par la bouche de son canon, - Dont le boulet et feu terrible - Montre bien qu’elle est infallible, - Et sa doctrine prouve à tous - Orthodoxe, à force de coups. - -In the following passage, the arch ratiocination of the original is -happily rivalled in the translation: - - For Hudibras wore but one spur, - As wisely knowing could he stir - To active trot one side of’s horse, - The other would not hang an a—se. - - Car Hudibras avec raison - Ne se chaussoit qu’un éperon, - Ayant preuve démonstrative - Qu’un coté marchant, l’autre arrive. - -The language of Sir Hudibras is described as a strange jargon, compounded -of English, Greek, and Latin, - - Which made some think when he did gabble - They’d heard three labourers of Babel, - Or Cerberus himself pronounce - A leash of languages at once. - -It was difficult to do justice in the translation to the metaphor of -Cerberus, by translating _leash of languages_: This, however, is very -happily effected by a parallel witticism: - - Ce qui pouvoit bien faire accroire - Quand il parloit à l’auditoire, - D’entendre encore le bruit mortel - De trois ouvriers de Babel, - Ou Cerbere aux ames errantes - Japper trois langues différentes. - -The wit of the following passage is completely transfused, perhaps even -heightened in the translation: - - For he by geometric scale - Could take the size of pots of ale; - Resolve by sines and tangents straight - If bread or butter wanted weight; - And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day - The clock does strike, by algebra. - - En géometre raffiné - Un pot de bierre il eut jaugé; - Par tangente et sinus sur l’heure - Trouvé le poids de pain ou beurre, - Et par algebre eut dit aussi - A quelle heure il sonne midi. - -The last specimen I shall give from this work, is Hudibras’s consultation -with the lawyer, in which the Knight proposes to prosecute Sidrophel in -an action of battery: - - Quoth he, there is one Sidrophel - Whom I have cudgell’d—“Very well.”— - And now he brags t’have beaten me. - “Better and better still, quoth he.”— - And vows to stick me to the wall - Where’er he meets me—“Best of all.”— - ’Tis true, the knave has taken’s oath - That I robb’d him—“Well done, in troth.”— - When h’ has confessed he stole my cloak, - And pick’d my fob, and what he took, - Which was the cause that made me bang him - And take my goods again—“Marry, hang him.” - ——“Sir,” quoth the lawyer, “not to flatter ye, - You have as good and fair a battery - As heart can wish, and need not shame - The proudest man alive to claim: - For if they’ve us’d you as you say; - Marry, quoth I, God give you joy: - I would it were my case, I’d give - More than I’ll say, or you believe.” - - Il est, dit-il, de par le monde - Un Sidrophel, que Dieu confonde, - Que j’ai rossé des mieux. “Fort bien”— - Et maintenant il dit, le chien, - Qu’il m’a battu.—“Bien mieux encore.”— - Et jure, afin qu’on ne l’ignore, - Que s’il me trouve il me tuera— - “Le meilleur de tout le voila”— - Il est vrai que ce misérable - A fait serment au préalable - Que moi je l’ai dévalisé— - “C’est fort bien fait, en vérité”— - Tandis que lui-meme il confesse, - Qu’il m’a volé dans une presse, - Mon manteau, mon gousset vuidé; - Et c’est pourquoi je l’ai rossé; - Puis mes effets j’ai sçu reprendre— - “Oui da,” dit-il, “il faut le pendre.” - ——Dit l’avocat, “sans flatterie, - Vous avez, Monsieur, batterie - Aussi bonne qu’on puisse avoir; - Vous devez vous en prévaloir. - S’ils vous ont traité de la sorte, - Comme votre recit le porte, - Je vous en fais mon compliment; - Je voudrais pour bien de l’argent, - Et plus que vous ne sauriez croire, - Qu’il m’arrivât pareille histoire.” - -These specimens are sufficient to shew how completely this translator -has entered into the spirit of his original, and has thus succeeded in -conveying a very perfect idea to his countrymen of one of those works -which are most strongly tinctured with the peculiarities of national -character, and which therefore required a singular coincidence of the -talents of the translator with those of the original author. - -If the English can boast of any parallel to this, in a version from the -French, where the translator has given equal proof of a kindred genius -to that of his original, and has as successfully accomplished a task of -equal difficulty, it is in the translation of Rabelais, begun by Sir -Thomas Urquhart, and finished by Mr. Motteux, and lastly, revised and -corrected by Mr. Ozell. The difficulty of translating this work, arises -less from its obsolete style, than from a phraseology peculiar to the -author, which he seems to have purposely rendered obscure, in order to -conceal that satire which he levels both against the civil government -and the ecclesiastical policy of his country. Such is the studied -obscurity of this satire, that but a very few of the most learned and -acute among his own countrymen have professed to understand Rabelais in -the original. The history of the English translation of this work, is -in itself a proof of its very high merit. The three first books were -translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart, but only two of them were published in -his lifetime. Mr. Motteux, a Frenchman by birth, but whose long residence -in England had given him an equal command of both languages, republished -the work of Urquhart, and added the remaining three books translated by -himself. In this publication he allows the excellence of the work of -his predecessor, whom he declares to have been a complete master of the -French language, and to have possessed both learning and fancy equal to -the task he undertook. He adds, that he has preserved in his translation -“the very style and air of his original;” and finally, “that the English -readers may now understand that author better in their own tongue, than -many of the French can do in theirs.” The work thus completed in English, -was taken up by Mr. Ozell, a person of considerable literary abilities, -and who possessed an uncommon knowledge both of the ancient and modern -languages. Of the merits of the translation, none could be a better -judge, and to these he has given the strongest testimony, by adopting it -entirely in his new edition, and limiting his own undertaking solely -to the correction of the text of Urquhart and Motteux, to which he has -added a translation of the notes of M. Du Chat, who spent, as Mr. Ozell -informs us, forty years in composing annotations on the original work. -The English version of Rabelais thus improved, may be considered, in -its present form, as one of the most perfect specimens of the art of -translation. The best critics in both languages have borne testimony -to its faithful transfusion of the sense, and happy imitation of the -style of the original; and every English reader will acknowledge, that -it possesses all the ease of original composition. If I have forborne -to illustrate any of the rules or precepts of the preceding Essay from -this work, my reasons were, that obscurity I have already noticed, which -rendered it less fit for the purpose of such illustration, and that -strong tincture of licentiousness which characterises the whole work. - - - - -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 - - RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, - BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND - BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF -TRANSLATION *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that: - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/64890-0.zip b/old/64890-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8769236..0000000 --- a/old/64890-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64890-h.zip b/old/64890-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0b1a0b2..0000000 --- a/old/64890-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64890-h/64890-h.htm b/old/64890-h/64890-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 3dda47a..0000000 --- a/old/64890-h/64890-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11630 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Essay on the Principles of Translation, by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - -<style type="text/css"> - -a { - text-decoration: none; -} - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -h1,h2,h3 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -h2.nobreak { - page-break-before: avoid; -} - -hr.chap { - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - clear: both; - width: 65%; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; -} - -div.chapter { - page-break-before: always; -} - -ul { - list-style-type: none; -} - -li.indx { - margin-top: .5em; - padding-left: 2em; - text-indent: -2em; -} - -li.ifrst { - margin-top: 2em; - padding-left: 5em; -} - -li.isub1 { - padding-left: 4em; - text-indent: -2em; -} - -p { - margin-top: 0.5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - -table { - margin: 1em auto 1em auto; - max-width: 40em; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -td { - padding-left: 2.25em; - padding-right: 0.25em; - vertical-align: top; - text-indent: -2em; - text-align: justify; -} - -.tdc { - text-align: center; - padding-top: 0.75em; -} - -.top-pad { - padding-top: 0.75em; -} - -.tdpg { - vertical-align: bottom; - text-align: right; -} - -.blockquote { - margin: 1.5em 10%; -} - -.box { - border: 2px solid black; - max-width: 25em; - margin: auto; -} - -.box-top { - border-bottom: 2px solid black; - padding: 0.5em; -} - -.box-bottom { - border-top: 2px solid black; - padding: 0.5em; -} - -.caption { - text-align: center; - margin-bottom: 1em; - font-size: 90%; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.center { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.footnotes { - margin-top: 1em; - border: dashed 1px; -} - -.footnote { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - font-size: 0.9em; -} - -.footnote .label { - position: absolute; - right: 84%; - text-align: right; -} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: none; -} - -.larger { - font-size: 150%; -} - -.noindent { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; -} - -.poetry-container { - text-align: center; - margin: 1em; -} - -.poetry { - display: inline-block; - text-align: left; -} - -.poetry .stanza { - margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; -} - -.poetry .new-stanza { - text-align: center; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; -} - -.poetry .verse { - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.poetry .indent0 { - text-indent: -3em; -} - -.poetry .indent2 { - text-indent: -2em; -} - -.poetry .indent4 { - text-indent: -1em; -} - -.poetry .indent6 { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.poetry .indent8 { - text-indent: 1em; -} - -.poetry .indent10 { - text-indent: 2em; -} - -.poetry .indent12 { - text-indent: 3em; -} - -.poetry .indent14 { - text-indent: 4em; -} - -.poetry .indent16 { - text-indent: 5em; -} - -.poetry .indent18 { - text-indent: 6em; -} - -.poetry .indent22 { - text-indent: 8em; -} - -.poetry .indent26 { - text-indent: 10em; -} - -.poetry .indent30 { - text-indent: 12em; - -} - -.right { - text-align: right; -} - -.smaller { - font-size: 80%; -} - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; -} - -.allsmcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; - text-transform: lowercase; -} - -.subhead { - font-size: 90%; - padding-left: 2em; - text-indent: -2em; - font-variant: small-caps; - margin-bottom: 1em; -} - -.titlepage { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 3em; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -@media handheld { - -img { - max-width: 100%; - width: auto; - height: auto; -} - -.poetry { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; -} - -.blockquote { - margin: 1.5em 5%; -} -} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Essay on the Principles of Translation, by Alexander Fraser Tytler</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Essay on the Principles of Translation</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Alexander Fraser Tytler</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 20, 2021 [eBook #64890]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION ***</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>[i]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY<br /> -EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS</p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">ESSAYS</p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES<br /> -OF TRANSLATION</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a>[ii]</span></p> - -<div class="box"> - -<div class="box-top"> - -<p class="center">THE PUBLISHERS OF <i>EVERYMAN’S<br /> -LIBRARY</i> WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND<br /> -FREELY TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST<br /> -OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED<br /> -VOLUMES TO BE COMPRISED UNDER<br /> -THE FOLLOWING TWELVE HEADINGS:</p> - -</div> - -<div class="box-top"> - -<p class="center">TRAVEL ❦ SCIENCE ❦ FICTION<br /> -THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY<br /> -HISTORY ❦ CLASSICAL<br /> -FOR YOUNG PEOPLE<br /> -ESSAYS ❦ ORATORY<br /> -POETRY & DRAMA<br /> -BIOGRAPHY<br /> -ROMANCE</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/deco.jpg" width="300" height="200" alt="" /> -</div> - -</div> - -<p class="center">IN TWO STYLES OF BINDING, CLOTH,<br /> -FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP, AND<br /> -LEATHER, ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP.</p> - -<div class="box-bottom"> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London</span>: J. M. DENT & CO.<br /> -<span class="smcap">New York</span>: E. P. DUTTON & CO.</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iv"></a>[iv]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> - -<img src="images/epi.jpg" width="450" height="700" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Most current for that they come -home to men’s business & bosoms</span></p> - -<p class="caption"><span class="allsmcap">LORD BACON</span></p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>[v]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> - -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="650" height="1000" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption">ESSAY on the<br /> -PRINCIPLES <i>of</i><br /> -TRANSLATION<br /> -<i>by</i> ALEXANDER<br /> -FRASER·TYTLER<br /> -LORD WOODHOUSELEE</p> - -<p class="caption">LONDON: PUBLISHED<br /> -by J·M·DENT·&·CO<br /> -AND IN NEW YORK<br /> -BY E·P·DUTTON & CO</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>[vi]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smcap">Richard Clay & Sons, Limited</span>,<br /> -BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND<br /> -BUNGAY SUFFOLK.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">INTRODUCTION</h2> - -</div> - -<p>Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, -author of the present essay on Translation, and of various -works on Universal and on Local History, was one of that -Edinburgh circle which was revolving when Sir Walter -Scott was a young probationer. Tytler was born at Edinburgh, -October 15, 1747, went to the High School there, -and after two years at Kensington, under Elphinston—Dr. -Johnson’s Elphinston—entered Edinburgh University -(where he afterwards became Professor of Universal -History). He seems to have been Elphinston’s favourite -pupil, and to have particularly gratified his master, “the -celebrated Dr. Jortin” too, by his Latin verse.</p> - -<p>In 1770 he was called to the bar; in 1776 married a -wife; in 1790 was appointed Judge-Advocate of Scotland; -in 1792 became the master of Woodhouselee on the death -of his father. Ten years later he was raised to the bench -of the court of session, with his father’s title—Lord Woodhouselee. -But the law was only the professional background -to his other avocation—of literature. Like his -father, something of a personage at the Royal Society of -Edinburgh, it was before its members that he read the -papers which were afterwards cast into the present work. -In them we have all that is still valid of his very considerable -literary labours. Before it appeared, his effect on -his younger contemporaries in Edinburgh had already -been very marked—if we may judge by Lockhart. His -encouragement undoubtedly helped to speed Scott on his -way, especially into that German romantic region out of -which a new Gothic breath was breathed on the Scottish -thistle.</p> - -<p>It was in 1790 that Tytler read in the Royal Society<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>[viii]</span> -his papers on Translation, and they were soon after -published, without his name. Hardly had the work seen -the light, than it led to a critical correspondence with -Dr. Campbell, then Principal of Marischal College, -Aberdeen. Dr. Campbell had at some time previous -to this published his Translations of the Gospels, to -which he had prefixed some observations upon the -principles of translation. When Tytler’s anonymous work -appeared he was led to express some suspicion that the -author might have borrowed from his Dissertation, without -acknowledging the obligation. Thereupon Tytler -instantly wrote to Dr. Campbell, acknowledging himself -to be the author, and assuring him that the coincidence, -such as it was, “was purely accidental, and that the name -of Dr. Campbell’s work had never reached him until his -own had been composed.... There seems to me no -wonder,” he continued, “that two persons, moderately -conversant in critical occupations, sitting down professedly -to investigate the principles of this art, should hit upon -the same principles, when in fact there are none other to -hit upon, and the truth of these is acknowledged at their -first enunciation. But in truth, the merit of this little -essay (if it has any) does not, in my opinion, lie in these -particulars. It lies in the establishment of those various -subordinate rules and precepts which apply to the nicer -parts and difficulties of the art of translation; in deducing -those rules and precepts which carry not their own -authority <i>in gremio</i>, from the general principles which -are of acknowledged truth, and in proving and illustrating -them by examples.”</p> - -<p>Tytler has here put his finger on one of the critical -good services rendered by his book. But it has a further -value now, and one that he could not quite foresee it was -going to have. The essay is an admirably typical dissertation -on the classic art of poetic translation, and of literary -style, as the eighteenth century understood it; and even -where it accepts Pope’s Homer or Melmoth’s Cicero in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span> -way that is impossible to us now, the test that is applied, -and the difference between that test and our own, will -be found, if not convincing, extremely suggestive. In -fact, Tytler, while not a great critic, was a charming -dilettante, and a man of exceeding taste; and something -of that grace which he is said to have had personally -is to be found lingering in these pages. Reading them, -one learns as much by dissenting from some of his -judgments as by subscribing to others. Woodhouselee, -Lord Cockburn said, was not a Tusculum, but it was -a country-house with a fine tradition of culture, and its -quondam master was a delightful host, with whom it was -a memorable experience to spend an evening discussing -the <i>Don Quixote</i> of Motteux and of Smollett, or how to -capture the aroma of Virgil in an English medium, in -the era before the Scottish prose Homer had changed the -literary perspective north of the Tweed. It is sometimes -said that the real art of poetic translation is still to seek; -yet one of its most effective demonstrators was certainly -Alexander Fraser Tytler, who died in 1814.</p> - -<p>The following is his list of works:</p> - -<p>Piscatory Eclogues, with other Poetical Miscellanies of -Phinehas Fletcher, illustrated with notes, critical and explanatory, -1771; The Decisions of the Court of Sessions, from -its first Institution to the present Time, etc. (supplementary -volume to Lord Kames’s “Dictionary of Decisions”), 1778; Plan -and Outline of a Course of Lectures on Universal History, -Ancient and Modern (delivered at Edinburgh), 1782; Elements -of General History, Ancient and Modern (with table of -Chronology and a comparative view of Ancient and Modern -Geography), 2 vols., 1801. A third volume was added by -E. Nares, being a continuation to death of George III., 1822; -further editions continued to be issued with continuations, and -the work was finally brought down to the present time, and -edited by G. Bell, 1875; separate editions have appeared of the -ancient and modern parts, and an abridged edition in 1809 by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span> -T. D. Hincks. To Vols. I. and II. (1788, 1790) of the Transactions -of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Tytler contributed -History of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Life of Lord-President -Dundas, and An Account of some Extraordinary -Structures on the Tops of Hills in the Highlands, etc.; to -Vol. V., Remarks on a Mixed Species of Evidence in Matters of -History, 1805; A Life of Sir John Gregory, prefixed to an -edition of the latter’s works, 1788; Essay on the Principles of -Translations, 1791, 1797; Third Edition, with additions and -alterations, 1813; Translation of Schiller’s “The Robbers,” 1792; -A Critical Examination of Mr. Whitaker’s Course of Hannibal -over the Alps, 1798; A Dissertation on Final Causes, with a -Life of Dr. Derham, in edition of the latter’s works, 1798; -Ireland Profiting by Example, or the Question Considered -whether Scotland has Gained or Lost by the Union, 1799; -Essay on Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial, 1800; -Remarks on the Writings and Genius of Ramsay (preface to -edition of works), 1800, 1851, 1866; Memoirs of the Life and -Writings of the Hon. Henry Horne, Lord Kames, 1807, 1814; -Essay on the Life and Character of Petrarch, with Translation -of Seven Sonnets, 1784; An Historical and Critical Essay on -the Life and Character of Petrarch, with a Translation of a few -of his Sonnets (including the above pamphlet and the dissertation -mentioned above in Vol. V. of Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.), 1812; -Consideration of the Present Political State of India, etc., 1815, -1816. Tytler contributed to the “Mirror,” 1779-80, and to the -“Lounger,” 1785-6.</p> - -<p>Life of Tytler, by Rev. Archibald Alison, Trans. Roy. Soc. -Edin.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2> - -</div> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad">Introduction</td> - <td class="tdpg top-pad"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Description of a good Translation—General Rules - flowing from that description</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">7</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>First General Rule: A Translation should give a - complete transcript of the ideas of the original - work—Knowledge of the language of the original, - and acquaintance with the subject—Examples of - imperfect transfusion of the sense of the original—What - ought to be the conduct of a Translator - where the sense is ambiguous</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">10</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Whether it is allowable for a Translator to add to - or retrench the ideas of the original—Examples - of the use and abuse of this liberty</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Of the freedom allowed in poetical Translation—Progress - of poetical Translation in England—B. - Jonson, Holiday, May, Sandys, Fanshaw, - Dryden—Roscommon’s Essay on Translated - Verse—Pope’s Homer</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">35</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xii"></a>[xii]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Second general Rule: The style and manner of - writing in a Translation should be of the same - character with that of the Original—Translations - of the Scriptures—Of Homer, &c.—A just - Taste requisite for the discernment of the - Characters of Style and Manner—Examples of - failure in this particular; The grave exchanged - for the formal; the elevated for the bombast; - the lively for the petulant; the simple for the - childish—Hobbes, L’Estrange, Echard, &c.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Examples of a good Taste in poetical Translation—Bourne’s - Translations from Mallet and from - Prior—The Duke de Nivernois, from Horace—Dr. - Jortin, from Simonides—Imitation of the - same by the Archbishop of York—Mr. Webb, - from the Anthologia—Hughes, from Claudian—Fragments - of the Greek Dramatists by Mr. - Cumberland</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Limitation of the rule regarding the Imitation of - Style—This Imitation must be regulated by the - Genius of Languages—The Latin admits of a - greater brevity of Expression than the English; - as does the French—The Latin and Greek allow - of greater Inversions than the English, and admit - more freely of Ellipsis</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">96</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Whether a Poem can be well Translated into - Prose?</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">107</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiii"></a>[xiii]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Third general Rule: A Translation should have - all the ease of original composition—Extreme - difficulty in the observance of this rule—Contrasted - instances of success and failure—Of the - necessity of sacrificing one rule to another</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER X</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>It is less difficult to attain the ease of original - composition in poetical, than in Prose Translation—Lyric - Poetry admits of the greatest - liberty of Translation—Examples distinguishing - Paraphrase from Translation, from Dryden, - Lowth, Fontenelle, Prior, Anguillara, Hughes</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">123</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Of the Translation of Idiomatic Phrases—Examples - from Cotton, Echard, Sterne—Injudicious use of - Idioms in the Translation, which do not correspond - with the age or country of the Original—Idiomatic - Phrases sometimes incapable of - Translation</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Difficulty of translating <i>Don Quixote</i>, from its - Idiomatic Phraseology—Of the best Translations - of that Romance—Comparison of the Translation - by Motteux with that by Smollett</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">150</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Other Characteristics of Composition which render - Translation difficult—Antiquated Terms—New - Terms—<i>Verba Ardentia</i>—Simplicity of Thought - and Expression—In Prose—In Poetry—<i>Naiveté</i><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiv"></a>[xiv]</span> - in the latter—Chaulieu—Parnelle—La Fontaine—Series - of Minute Distinctions marked by - characteristic Terms—Strada—Florid Style, and - vague expression—Pliny’s Natural History</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">176</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Of Burlesque Translation—Travesty and Parody—Scarron’s - <i>Virgile Travesti</i>—Another species of - Ludicrous Translation</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">197</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>The genius of the Translator should be akin to that - of the original author—The best Translators - have shone in original composition of the same - species with that which they have translated—Of - Voltaire’s Translations from Shakespeare—Of - the peculiar character of the wit of Voltaire—His - Translation from <i>Hudibras</i>—Excellent - anonymous French Translation of <i>Hudibras</i>—Translation - of Rabelais by Urquhart and - Motteux</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">204</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad">Appendix</td> - <td class="tdpg top-pad"><a href="#APPENDIX">225</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="top-pad">Index</td> - <td class="tdpg top-pad"><a href="#INDEX">231</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> - -<h1>ESSAY ON THE<br /> -PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION</h1> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2> - -</div> - -<p>There is perhaps no department of literature -which has been less the object of cultivation, -than the <i>Art of Translating</i>. Even among the -ancients, who seem to have had a very just idea -of its importance, and who have accordingly -ranked it among the most useful branches of -literary education, we meet with no attempt to -unfold the principles of this art, or to reduce it to -rules. In the works of Quinctilian, of Cicero, -and of the Younger Pliny, we find many passages -which prove that these authors had made translation -their peculiar study; and, conscious themselves -of its utility, they have strongly recommended -the practice of it, as essential towards -the formation both of a good writer and an -accomplished orator.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> But it is much to be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span> -regretted, that they who were so eminently well -qualified to furnish instruction in the art itself, -have contributed little more to its advancement -than by some general recommendations of its -importance. If indeed time had spared to us any -complete or finished specimens of translation -from the hand of those great masters, it had been -some compensation for the want of actual precepts, -to have been able to have deduced them -ourselves from those exquisite models. But of -ancient translations the fragments that remain -are so inconsiderable, and so much mutilated, -that we can scarcely derive from them any -advantage.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>To the moderns the art of translation is of -greater importance than it was to the ancients, in -the same proportion that the great mass of -ancient and of modern literature, accumulated up -to the present times, bears to the general stock -of learning in the most enlightened periods of -antiquity. But it is a singular consideration, -that under the daily experience of the advantages -of good translations, in opening to us all the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span> -stores of ancient knowledge, and creating a free -intercourse of science and of literature between -all modern nations, there should have been so -little done towards the improvement of the art -itself, by investigating its laws, or unfolding its -principles. Unless a very short essay, published -by M. D’Alembert, in his <i>Mélanges de Litterature, -d’Histoire, &c.</i> as introductory to his translations -of some pieces of Tacitus, and some remarks on -translation by the Abbé Batteux, in his <i>Principes -de la Litterature</i>, I have met with nothing that -has been written professedly upon the subject.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span> -The observations of M. D’Alembert, though -extremely judicious, are too general to be considered -as rules, or even principles of the art; -and the remarks of the Abbé Batteux are employed -chiefly on what may be termed the -Philosophy of Grammar, and seem to have for -their principal object the ascertainment of the -analogy that one language bears to another, or -the pointing out of those circumstances of construction -and arrangement in which languages -either agree with, or differ from each other.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> - -<p>While such has been our ignorance of the -principles of this art, it is not at all wonderful, -that amidst the numberless translations which -every day appear, both of the works of the -ancients and moderns, there should be so few -that are possessed of real merit. The utility of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> -translations is universally felt, and therefore -there is a continual demand for them. But this -very circumstance has thrown the practice of -translation into mean and mercenary hands. It -is a profession which, it is generally believed, -may be exercised with a very small portion of -genius or abilities.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> “It seems to me,” says -Dryden, “that the true reason why we have so -few versions that are tolerable, is, because there -are so few who have all the talents requisite for -translation, and that there is so little praise and -small encouragement for so considerable a part -of learning” (<i>Pref. to Ovid’s Epistles</i>).</p> - -<p>It must be owned, at the same time, that there -<i>have been</i>, and that there <i>are</i> men of genius -among the moderns who have vindicated the -dignity of this art so ill-appreciated, and who -have furnished us with excellent translations, -both of the ancient classics, and of the productions -of foreign writers of our own and of -former ages. These works lay open a great field -of useful criticism; and from them it is certainly -possible to draw the principles of that art which -has never yet been methodised, and to establish<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> -its rules and precepts. Towards this purpose, -even the worst translations would have their -utility, as in such a critical exercise, it would be -equally necessary to illustrate defects as to -exemplify perfections.</p> - -<p>An attempt of this kind forms the subject of -the following Essay, in which the Author solicits -indulgence, both for the imperfections of his -treatise, and perhaps for some errors of opinion. -His apology for the first, is, that he does not -pretend to exhaust the subject, or to treat it in -all its amplitude, but only to point out the -general principles of the art; and for the last, -that in matters where the ultimate appeal is to -Taste, it is almost impossible to be secure of the -solidity of our opinions, when the criterion of -their truth is so very uncertain.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> - -<p class="subhead">DESCRIPTION OF A GOOD TRANSLATION—GENERAL -RULES FLOWING FROM THAT -DESCRIPTION</p> - -</div> - -<p>If it were possible accurately to define, or, -perhaps more properly, to describe what is -meant by a <i>good Translation</i>, it is evident that -a considerable progress would be made towards -establishing the Rules of the <i>Art</i>; for these -Rules would flow naturally from that definition -or description. But there is no subject of -criticism where there has been so much difference -of opinion. If the genius and character of -all languages were the same, it would be an easy -task to translate from one into another; nor -would anything more be requisite on the part of -the translator, than fidelity and attention. But -as the genius and character of languages is -confessedly very different, it has hence become -a common opinion, that it is the duty of a -translator to attend only to the sense and spirit -of his original, to make himself perfectly master -of his author’s ideas, and to communicate them -in those expressions which he judges to be best -suited to convey them. It has, on the other -hand, been maintained, that, in order to constitute -a perfect translation, it is not only<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> -requisite that the ideas and sentiments of the -original author should be conveyed, but likewise -his style and manner of writing, which, it is -supposed, cannot be done without a strict -attention to the arrangement of his sentences, -and even to their order and construction.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> -According to the former idea of translation, -it is allowable to improve and to embellish; -according to the latter, it is necessary to preserve -even blemishes and defects; and to these must, -likewise be superadded the harshness that must -attend every copy in which the artist scrupulously -studies to imitate the minutest lines or traces of -his original.</p> - -<p>As these two opinions form opposite extremes, -it is not improbable that the point of perfection -should be found between the two. I would -therefore describe a good translation to be, <i>That, -in which the merit of the original work is so -completely transfused into another language, as -to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strongly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span> -felt, by a native of the country to which that -language belongs, as it is by those who speak the -language of the original work</i>.</p> - -<p>Now, supposing this description to be a just -one, which I think it is, let us examine what are -the laws of translation which may be deduced -from it.</p> - -<p>It will follow,</p> - -<p>I. That the Translation should give a complete -transcript of the ideas of the original work.</p> - -<p>II. That the style and manner of writing -should be of the same character with that of the -original.</p> - -<p>III. That the Translation should have all the -ease of original composition.</p> - -<p>Under each of these general laws of translation, -are comprehended a variety of subordinate -precepts, which I shall notice in their order, and -which, as well as the general laws, I shall -endeavour to prove, and to illustrate by -examples.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> - -<p class="subhead">FIRST GENERAL RULE—A TRANSLATION -SHOULD GIVE A COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT -OF THE IDEAS OF THE ORIGINAL WORK—KNOWLEDGE -OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE -ORIGINAL, AND ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE -SUBJECT—EXAMPLES OF IMPERFECT TRANSFUSION -OF THE SENSE OF THE ORIGINAL—WHAT -OUGHT TO BE THE CONDUCT OF -A TRANSLATOR WHERE THE SENSE IS -AMBIGUOUS</p> - -</div> - -<p>In order that a translator may be enabled to -give a complete transcript of the ideas of the -original work, it is indispensably necessary, -that he should have a perfect knowledge of the -language of the original, and a competent -acquaintance with the subject of which it treats. -If he is deficient in either of these requisites, he -can never be certain of thoroughly comprehending -the sense of his author. M. Folard is allowed -to have been a great master of the art of war. -He undertook to translate Polybius, and to -give a commentary illustrating the ancient -Tactic, and the practice of the Greeks and -Romans in the attack and defence of fortified -places. In this commentary, he endeavours to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> -shew, from the words of his author, and of other -ancient writers, that the Greek and Roman -engineers knew and practised almost every -operation known to the moderns; and that, in -particular, the mode of approach by parallels -and trenches, was perfectly familiar to them, -and in continual use. Unfortunately M. Folard -had but a very slender knowledge of the Greek -language, and was obliged to study his author -through the medium of a translation, executed -by a Benedictine monk,<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> who was entirely -ignorant of the art of war. M. Guischardt, a -great military genius, and a thorough master of -the Greek language, has shewn, that the work -of Folard contains many capital misrepresentations -of the sense of his author, in his account of -the most important battles and sieges, and has -demonstrated, that the complicated system -formed by this writer of the ancient art of war, -has no support from any of the ancient authors -fairly interpreted.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> - -<p>The extreme difficulty of translating from the -works of the ancients, is most discernible to -those who are best acquainted with the ancient -languages. It is but a small part of the genius -and powers of a language which is to be learnt -from dictionaries and grammars. There are -innumerable niceties, not only of construction -and of idiom, but even in the signification of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span> -words, which are discovered only by much -reading, and critical attention.</p> - -<p>A very learned author, and acute critic,<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> has, -in treating “of the causes of the differences in -languages,” remarked, that a principal difficulty -in the art of translating arises from this circumstance, -“that there are certain words in every -language which but imperfectly correspond to -any of the words of other languages.” Of this -kind, he observes, are most of the terms relating -to morals, to the passions, to matters of sentiment, -or to the objects of the reflex and internal -senses. Thus the Greek words αρετη, σωφροσυνη, -ελεος, have not their sense precisely and perfectly -conveyed by the Latin words <i>virtus</i>, <i>temperantia</i>, -<i>misericordia</i>, and still less by the English words, -<i>virtue</i>, <i>temperance</i>, <i>mercy</i>. The Latin word <i>virtus</i> -is frequently synonymous to <i>valour</i>, a sense -which it never bears in English. <i>Temperantia</i>, -in Latin, implies moderation in every desire, -and is defined by Cicero, <i>Moderatio cupiditatum -rationi obediens</i>.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The English word <i>temperance</i>, -in its ordinary use, is limited to moderation in -eating and drinking.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent30">Observe</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rule of not too much, by <i>Temperance</i> taught,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In what thou eat’st and drink’st.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Par. Lost</i>, b. 11.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span></p> - -<p class="noindent">It is true, that Spenser has used the term in its -more extensive signification.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He calm’d his wrath with goodly <i>temperance</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">But no modern prose-writer authorises such -extension of its meaning.</p> - -<p>The following passage is quoted by the -ingenious writer above mentioned, to shew, in -the strongest manner, the extreme difficulty of -apprehending the precise import of words of -this order in dead languages: “<i>Ægritudo est -opinio recens mali præsentis, in quo demitti contrahique -animo rectum esse videatur. Ægritudini -subjiciuntur angor, mœror, dolor, luctus, ærumna, -afflictatio: angor est ægritudo premens, mœror -ægritudo flebilis, ærumna ægritudo laboriosa, -dolor ægritudo crucians, afflictatio ægritudo cum -vexatione corporis, luctus ægritudo ex ejus qui -carus fuerat, interitu acerbo.</i>”<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>—“Let any one,” -says D’Alembert, “examine this passage with -attention, and say honestly, whether, if he had -not known of it, he would have had any idea of -those nice shades of signification here marked, -and whether he would not have been much -embarrassed, had he been writing a dictionary, -to distinguish, with accuracy, the words <i>ægritudo</i>, -<i>mœror</i>, <i>dolor</i>, <i>angor</i>, <i>luctus</i>, <i>ærumna</i>, <i>afflictatio</i>.”</p> - -<p>The fragments of Varro, <i>de Lingua Latina</i>, the -treatises of Festus and of Nonius, the <i>Origines</i> -of Isidorus Hispalensis, the work of Ausonius<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> -Popma, <i>de Differentiis Verborum</i>, the <i>Synonymes</i> -of the Abbé Girard, and a short essay by Dr. -Hill<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> on “the utility of defining synonymous -terms,” will furnish numberless instances of those -very delicate shades of distinction in the signification -of words, which nothing but the most -intimate acquaintance with a language can teach; -but without the knowledge of which distinctions -in the original, and an equal power of discrimination -of the corresponding terms of his own -language, no translator can be said to possess -the primary requisites for the task he undertakes.</p> - -<p>But a translator, thoroughly master of the -language, and competently acquainted with the -subject, may yet fail to give a complete transcript -of the ideas of his original author.</p> - -<p>M. D’Alembert has favoured the public with -some admirable translations from Tacitus; and -it must be acknowledged, that he possessed every -qualification requisite for the task he undertook. -If, in the course of the following observations, I -may have occasion to criticise any part of his -writings, or those of other authors of equal -celebrity, I avail myself of the just sentiment of -M. Duclos, “On peut toujours relever les défauts -des grands hommes, et peut-être sont ils les seuls -qui en soient dignes, et dont la critique soit utile” -(Duclos, <i>Pref. de l’Hist. de Louis XI.</i>).</p> - -<p>Tacitus, in describing the conduct of <i>Piso</i> -upon the death of Germanicus, says: <i>Pisonem<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -interim apud Coum insulam nuncius adsequitur, -excessisse Germanicum</i> (Tacit. An. lib. 2, c. 75). -This passage is thus translated by M. D’Alembert, -“Pison apprend, dans l’isle de Cos, la mort -de Germanicus.” In translating this passage, it -is evident that M. D’Alembert has not given the -complete sense of the original. The sense of -Tacitus is, that Piso was overtaken on his voyage -homeward, at the Isle of Cos, by a messenger, -who informed him that Germanicus was dead. -According to the French translator, we understand -simply, that when Piso arrived at the Isle of -Cos, he was informed that Germanicus was dead. -We do not learn from this, that a messenger had -followed him on his voyage to bring him this -intelligence. The fact was, that Piso purposely -lingered on his voyage homeward, expecting this -very messenger who here overtook him. But, -by M. D’Alembert’s version it might be understood, -that Germanicus had died in the island of -Cos, and that Piso was informed of his death by -the islanders immediately on his arrival. The -passage is thus translated, with perfect precision, -by D’Ablancourt: “Cependant Pison apprend -la nouvelle de cette mort par un courier exprès, -qui l’atteignit en l’isle de Cos.”</p> - -<p>After Piso had received intelligence of the -death of Germanicus, he deliberated whether to -proceed on his voyage to Rome, or to return -immediately to Syria, and there put himself at -the head of the legions. His son advised the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> -former measure; but his friend Domitius Celer -argued warmly for his return to the province, -and urged, that all difficulties would give way to -him, if he had once the command of the army, -and had increased his force by new levies. <i>At -si teneat exercitum, augeat vires, multa quæ provideri -non possunt in melius casura</i> (An. l. 2, c. -77). This M. D’Alembert has translated, “Mais -que s’il savoit se rendre redoutable à la tête des -troupes, le hazard ameneroit des circonstances -heureuses et imprévues.” In the original passage, -Domitius advises Piso to adopt two distinct -measures; the first, to obtain the command of -the army, and the second, to increase his force by -new levies. These two distinct measures are -confounded together by the translator, nor is the -sense of either of them accurately given; for -from the expression, “se rendre redoutable à la -tête des troupes,” we may understand, that Piso -already had the command of the troops, and that -all that was requisite, was to render himself -formidable in that station, which he might do in -various other ways than by increasing the levies.</p> - -<p>Tacitus, speaking of the means by which -Augustus obtained an absolute ascendency over -all ranks in the state, says, <i>Cùm cæteri nobilium, -quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus -extollerentur</i> (An. l. 1, c. 2). This D’Alembert -has translated, “Le reste des nobles trouvoit -dans les richesses et dans les honneurs la récompense -de l’esclavage.” Here the translator has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span> -but half expressed the meaning of his author, -which is, that “the rest of the nobility were -exalted to riches and honours, in proportion as -Augustus found in them an aptitude and disposition -to servitude:” or, as it is well translated -by Mr. Murphy, “The leading men were -raised to wealth and honours, in proportion -to the alacrity with which they courted the -yoke.”<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> - -<p>Cicero, in a letter to the Proconsul Philippus -says, <i>Quod si Romæ te vidissem, coramque gratias -egissem, quod tibi L. Egnatius familiarissimus -meus absens, L. Oppius præsens curæ fuisset</i>. -This passage is thus translated by Mr. Melmoth: -“If I were in Rome, I should have waited upon -you for this purpose in person, and in order likewise -to make my acknowledgements to you for -your favours to my friends Egnatius and Oppius.” -Here the sense is not completely rendered, as -there is an omission of the meaning of the words -<i>absens</i> and <i>præsens</i>.</p> - -<p>Where the sense of an author is doubtful, and -where more than one meaning can be given to -the same passage or expression, (which, by the -way, is always a defect in composition), the -translator is called upon to exercise his judgement, -and to select that meaning which is most -consonant to the train of thought in the whole<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> -passage, or to the author’s usual mode of thinking, -and of expressing himself. To imitate the -obscurity or ambiguity of the original, is a fault; -and it is still a greater, to give more than one -meaning, as D’Alembert has done in the beginning -of the Preface of Tacitus. The original runs -thus: <i>Urbem Romam a principio Reges habuere. -Libertatem et consulatum L. Brutus instituit. -Dictaturæ ad tempus sumebantur: neque Decemviralis -potestas ultra biennium, neque Tribunorum -militum consulare jus diu valuit.</i> The ambiguous -sentence is, <i>Dictaturæ ad tempus sumebantur</i>; -which may signify either “Dictators were chosen -for a limited time,” or “Dictators were chosen -on particular occasions or emergencies.” D’Alembert -saw this ambiguity; but how did he -remove the difficulty? Not by exercising his -judgement in determining between the two -different meanings, but by giving them both in -his translation. “On créoit au besoin des dictateurs -passagers.” Now, this double sense it was -impossible that Tacitus should ever have intended -to convey by the words <i>ad tempus</i>: and -between the two meanings of which the words -are susceptible, a very little critical judgement -was requisite to decide. I know not that <i>ad -tempus</i> is ever used in the sense of “for the -occasion, or emergency.” If this had been the -author’s meaning, he would probably have used -either the words <i>ad occasionem</i>, or <i>pro re nata</i>. -But even allowing the phrase to be susceptible<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> -of this meaning,<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> it is not the meaning which -Tacitus chose to give it in this passage. That -the author meant that the Dictator was created -for a limited time, is, I think, evident from the sentence -immediately following, which is connected -by the copulative <i>neque</i> with the preceding: -<i>Dictaturæ ad tempus sumebantur: neque Decemviralis -potestas ultra biennium valuit</i>: “The -office of Dictator was instituted for a limited -time: nor did the power of the Decemvirs subsist -beyond two years.”</p> - -<p>M. D’Alembert’s translation of the concluding -sentence of this chapter is censurable on the -same account. Tacitus says, <i>Sed veteris populi -Romani prospera vel adversa, claris scriptoribus -memorata sunt; temporibusque Augusti dicendis -non defuere decora ingenia, donec gliscente adulatione -deterrerentur. Tiberii, Caiique, et Claudii, -ac Neronis res, florentibus ipsis, ob metum falsæ: -postquam occiderant, recentibus odiis compositæ -sunt. Inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto, et -extrema tradere: mox Tiberii principatum, et -cetera, sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul -habeo.</i> Thus translated by D’Alembert: “Des -auteurs illustres ont fait connoitre la gloire et les -malheurs de l’ancienne république; l’histoire<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> -même d’Auguste a été écrite par de grands génies, -jusqu’aux tems ou la necessité de flatter les condamna -au silence. La crainte ménagea tant -qu’ils vécurent, Tibere, Caius, Claude, et Néron; -des qu’ils ne furent plus, la haine toute récente -les déchira. J’écrirai donc en peu de mots la fin -du regne d’Auguste, puis celui de Tibere, et les -suivans; sans fiel et sans bassesse: mon caractere -m’en éloigne, et les tems m’en dispensent.” In -the last part of this passage, the translator has -given <i>two</i> different meanings to the same clause, -<i>sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo</i>, to -which the author certainly meant to annex only -one meaning; and that, as I think, a different -<i>one</i> from either of those expressed by the translator. -To be clearly understood, I must give my -own version of the whole passage. “The history -of the ancient republic of Rome, both in its -prosperous and in its adverse days, has been -recorded by eminent authors: Even the reign of -Augustus has been happily delineated, down to -those times when the prevailing spirit of adulation -put to silence every ingenuous writer. The -annals of Tiberius, of Caligula, of Claudius, and -of Nero, written while they were alive, were -falsified from terror; as were those histories -composed after their death, from hatred to their -recent memories. For this reason, I have resolved -to attempt a short delineation of the latter -part of the reign of Augustus; and afterwards -that of Tiberius, and of the succeeding princes;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span> -conscious of perfect impartiality, as, from the -remoteness of the events, I have no motive, -either of odium or adulation.” In the last clause -of this sentence, I believe I have given the true -version of <i>sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul -habeo</i>: But if this be the true meaning of the -author, M. D’Alembert has given two different -meanings to the same sentence, and neither of -them the true one: “sans fiel et sans bassesse: -mon caractere m’en éloigne, et les tems m’en -dispensent.” According to the French translator, -the historian pays a compliment first to his own -character, and secondly, to the character of the -times; both of which he makes the pledges of -his impartiality: but it is perfectly clear that -Tacitus neither meant the one compliment nor -the other; but intended simply to say, that the -remoteness of the events which he proposed to -record, precluded every motive either of unfavourable -prejudice or of adulation.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> - -<p class="subhead">WHETHER IT IS ALLOWABLE FOR A TRANSLATOR -TO ADD TO OR RETRENCH THE IDEAS -OF THE ORIGINAL.—EXAMPLES OF THE USE -AND ABUSE OF THIS LIBERTY</p> - -</div> - -<p>If it is necessary that a translator should give -a complete transcript of the ideas of the original -work, it becomes a question, whether it is allowable -in any case to add to the ideas of the -original what may appear to give greater force -or illustration; or to take from them what may -seem to weaken them from redundancy. To -give a general answer to this question, I would -say, that this liberty may be used, but with -the greatest caution. It must be further observed, -that the superadded idea shall have the -most necessary connection with the original -thought, and actually increase its force. And, -on the other hand, that whenever an idea is cut -off by the translator, it must be only such as is -an accessory, and not a principal in the clause -or sentence. It must likewise be confessedly -redundant, so that its retrenchment shall not -impair or weaken the original thought. Under -these limitations, a translator may exercise his -judgement, and assume to himself, in so far, -the character of an original writer.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span></p> - -<p>It will be allowed, that in the following instance -the translator, the elegant Vincent Bourne, -has added a very beautiful idea, which, while it -has a most natural connection with the original -thought, greatly heightens its energy and tenderness. -The two following stanzas are a part -of the fine ballad of <i>Colin and Lucy</i>, by Tickell.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To-morrow in the church to wed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Impatient both prepare;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But know, fond maid, and know, false man,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That Lucy will be there.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There bear my corse, ye comrades, bear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The bridegroom blithe to meet,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He in his wedding-trim so gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I in my winding-sheet.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus translated by Bourne:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Jungere cras dextræ dextram properatis uterque,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et tardè interea creditis ire diem.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Credula quin virgo, juvenis quin perfide, uterque</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Scite, quod et pacti Lucia testis erit.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Exangue, oh! illuc, comites, deferte cadaver,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Qua semel, oh! iterum congrediamur, ait;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vestibus ornatus sponsalibus ille, caputque</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ipsa sepulchrali vincta, pedesque stolâ.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In this translation, which is altogether excellent, -it is evident, that there is one most -beautiful idea superadded by Bourne, in the line -<i>Qua semel, oh!</i> &c.; which wonderfully improves -upon the original thought. In the original, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -speaker, deeply impressed with the sense of her -wrongs, has no other idea than to overwhelm -her perjured lover with remorse at the moment -of his approaching nuptials. In the translation, -amidst this prevalent idea, the speaker all at -once gives way to an involuntary burst of tenderness -and affection, “Oh, let us meet once -more, and for the last time!” <i>Semel, oh! iterum -congrediamur, ait.</i>—It was only a man of exquisite -feeling, who was capable of thus improving -on so fine an original.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> - -<p>Achilles (in the first book of the <i>Iliad</i>), won -by the persuasion of Minerva, resolves, though -indignantly, to give up Briseis, and Patroclus is -commanded to deliver her to the heralds of -Agamemnon:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ως φατο· Πατροκλος δε φιλω επεπεἰθεθ’ εταιρω·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εκ δ’ ἄγαγε κλισιης Βρισηιδα καλλιπαρηον,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Δῶκε δ’ αγειν· τω δ’ αυτις ιτην παρα νηας Αχαιων·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἡ δ’ αεκουσ’ ἁμα τοισι γυνὴ κιεν.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Ilias</i>, A. 345.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">“Thus he spoke. But Patroclus was obedient to -his dear friend. He brought out the beautiful -Briseis from the tent, and gave her to be carried -away. They returned to the ships of the -Greeks; but she unwillingly went, along with -her attendants.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Patroclus now th’ unwilling Beauty brought;</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>She in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Past silent, as the heralds held her hand,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>And oft look’d back, slow moving o’er the strand.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pope.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">The ideas contained in the three last lines are -not indeed expressed in the original, but they -are implied in the word αεκουσα; for she who -goes unwillingly, will <i>move slowly</i>, and <i>oft look -back</i>. The amplification highly improves the -effect of the picture. It may be incidentally -remarked, that the pause in the third line, <i>Past -silent</i>, is admirably characteristic of the slow and -hesitating motion which it describes.</p> - -<p>In the poetical version of the 137th Psalm, by -Arthur Johnston, a composition of classical -elegance, there are several examples of ideas -superadded by the translator, intimately connected -with the original thoughts, and greatly -heightening their energy and beauty.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Urbe procul Solymæ, fusi Babylonis ad undas</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Flevimus, et lachrymæ fluminis instar erant:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sacra Sion toties animo totiesque recursans,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Materiem lachrymis præbuit usque novis.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Desuetas saliceta lyras, et muta ferebant</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nablia, servili non temeranda manu.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui patria exegit, patriam qui subruit, hostis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pendula captivos sumere plectra jubet:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Imperat et lætos, mediis in fletibus, hymnos,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Quosque Sion cecinit, nunc taciturna! modos.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ergone pacta Deo peregrinæ barbita genti</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fas erit, et sacras prostituisse lyras?</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Ante meo, Solyme, quam tu de pectore cedas,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nesciat Hebræam tangere dextra chelyn.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Te nisi tollat ovans unam super omnia, lingua</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Faucibus hærescat sidere tacta meis.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne tibi noxa recens, scelerum Deus ultor! Idumes</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Excidat, et Solymis perniciosa dies:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vertite, clamabant, fundo jam vertite templum,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Tectaque montanis jam habitanda feris.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Te quoque pœna manet, Babylon! quibus astra lacessis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Culmina mox fient, quod premis, æqua solo:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Felicem, qui clade pari data damna rependet,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et feret ultrices in tua tecta faces!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Felicem, quisquis scopulis illidet acutis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dulcia materno pignora rapta sinu!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>I pass over the superadded idea in the second -line, <i>lachrymæ fluminis instar erant</i>, because, -bordering on the hyperbole, it derogates, in some -degree, from the chaste simplicity of the original. -To the simple fact, “We hanged our harps on -the willows in the midst thereof,” which is most -poetically conveyed by <i>Desuetas saliceta lyras, et -muta ferebant nablia</i>, is superadded all the -force of sentiment in that beautiful expression, -which so strongly paints the mixed emotions of -a proud mind under the influence of poignant -grief, heightened by shame, <i>servili non temeranda -manu</i>. So likewise in the following stanza there -is the noblest improvement of the sense of the -original.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Imperat et lætos, mediis in fletibus, hymnos,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quosque Sion cecinit, <i>nunc taciturna!</i> modos.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The reflection on the melancholy silence that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> -now reigned on that sacred hill, “once vocal -with their songs,” is an additional thought, the -force of which is better felt than it can be -conveyed by words.</p> - -<p>An ordinary translator sinks under the energy -of his original: the man of genius frequently -rises above it. Horace, arraigning the abuse of -riches, makes the plain and honest Ofellus thus remonstrate -with a wealthy Epicure (<i>Sat.</i> 2, b. 2).</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Cur eget indignus quisquam te divite?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">A question to the energy of which it was not -easy to add, but which has received the most -spirited improvement from Mr. Pope:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">How <i>dar’st</i> thou let one worthy man be poor?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>An improvement is sometimes very happily -made, by substituting figure and metaphor to -simple sentiment; as in the following example, -from Mr. Mason’s excellent translation of Du -Fresnoy’s <i>Art of Painting</i>. In the original, -the poet, treating of the merits of the antique -statues, says:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">queis posterior nil protulit ætas</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Condignum, et non inferius longè, arte modoque.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">This is a simple fact, in the perusal of which -the reader is struck with nothing else but the -truth of the assertion. Mark how in the translation -the same truth is conveyed in one of the -finest figures of poetry:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">with reluctant gaze</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To these the genius of succeeding days</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hides in his mantle his diminish’d head.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the two following lines, Horace inculcates -a striking moral truth; but the figure in which -it is conveyed has nothing of dignity:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Regumque turres.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Malherbe has given to the same sentiment a -high portion of tenderness, and even sublimity:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Le pauvre en sa cabane, où le chaume le couvre,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Est sujet à ses loix;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et la garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">N’en défend pas nos rois.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Cicero writes thus to Trebatius, Ep. ad fam. -lib. 7, ep. 17: <i>Tanquam enim syngrapham ad -Imperatorem, non epistolam attulisses, sic pecuniâ -ablatâ domum redire properabas: nec tibi in -mentem veniebat, eos ipsos qui cum syngraphis -venissent Alexandriam, nullum adhuc nummum -auferre potuisse</i>. The passage is thus translated -by Melmoth, b. 2, l. 12: “One would have -imagined indeed, you had carried a bill of -exchange upon Cæsar, instead of a letter of -recommendation: As you seemed to think you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> -had nothing more to do, than to receive your -money, and to hasten home again. But money, -my friend, is not so easily acquired; and I -could name some of our acquaintance, who have -been obliged to travel as far as Alexandria in -pursuit of it, without having yet been able to -obtain even their just demands.” The expressions, -“<i>money, my friend, is not so easily -acquired</i>,” and “<i>I could name some of our -acquaintance</i>,” are not to be found in the -original; but they have an obvious connection -with the ideas of the original: they increase -their force, while, at the same time, they give -ease and spirit to the whole passage.</p> - -<p>I question much if a licence so unbounded -as the following is justifiable, on the principle -of giving either ease or spirit to the original.</p> - -<p>In Lucian’s Dialogue <i>Timon</i>, Gnathonides, -after being beaten by Timon, says to him,</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>Αει φιλοσκῴμμων συ γε· αλλα ποῦ το συμποσιον; -ὡς καινον τι σοι ασμα των νεοδιδακτων διθυραμβων ἥκω -κομιζων.</p> - -</div> - -<p>“You were always fond of a joke—but where -is the banquet? for I have brought you a new -dithyrambic song, which I have lately learned.”</p> - -<p>In Dryden’s <i>Lucian</i>, “translated by several -eminent hands,” this passage is thus translated: -“Ah! Lord, Sir, I see you keep up your old -merry humour still; you love dearly to rally -and break a jest. Well, but have you got a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> -noble supper for us, and plenty of delicious -inspiring claret? Hark ye, Timon, I’ve got a -virgin-song for ye, just new composed, and -smells of the gamut: ’Twill make your heart -dance within you, old boy. A very pretty she-player, -I vow to Gad, that I have an interest in, -taught it me this morning.”</p> - -<p>There is both ease and spirit in this translation; -but the licence which the translator has -assumed, of superadding to the ideas of the -original, is beyond all bounds.</p> - -<p>An equal degree of judgement is requisite -when the translator assumes the liberty of -retrenching the ideas of the original.</p> - -<p>After the fatal horse had been admitted within -the walls of Troy, Virgil thus describes the -coming on of that night which was to witness -the destruction of the city:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vertitur interea cœlum, et ruit oceano nox,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Involvens umbrâ magnâ terramque polumque,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Myrmidonumque dolos.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The principal effect attributed to the night -in this description, and certainly the most -interesting, is its concealment of the treachery -of the Greeks. Add to this, the beauty which -the picture acquires from this association of -natural with moral effects. How inexcusable -then must Mr. Dryden appear, who, in his -translation, has suppressed the <i>Myrmidonumque -dolos</i> altogether?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Mean time the rapid heav’ns roll’d down the light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And on the shaded ocean rush’d the night:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Our men secure, &c.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Ogilby, with less of the spirit of poetry, has -done more justice to the original:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Meanwhile night rose from sea, whose spreading shade</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hides heaven and earth, and plots the Grecians laid.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Mr. Pope, in his translation of the <i>Iliad</i>, has, -in the parting scene between Hector and Andromache -(vi. 466), omitted a particular respecting -the dress of the nurse, which he thought an -impropriety in the picture. Homer says,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Αψ δ’ ὁ παϊς προς κολπον ἐϋζωνοιο τιθηνης</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εκλινθη ἰαχων.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">“The boy crying, threw himself back into the -arms of his nurse, whose waist was elegantly -girt.” Mr. Pope, who has suppressed the -epithet descriptive of the waist, has incurred on -that account the censure of Mr. Melmoth, who -says, “He has not touched the picture with that -delicacy of pencil which graces the original, as -he has entirely lost the beauty of one of the -figures.—Though the hero and his son were designed -to draw our principal attention, Homer -intended likewise that we should cast a glance -towards the nurse” (<i>Fitzosborne’s Letters</i>, l. 43). -If this was Homer’s intention, he has, in my -opinion, shewn less good taste in this instance<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> -than his translator, who has, I think with much -propriety, left out the compliment to the nurse’s -waist altogether. And this liberty of the translator -was perfectly allowable; for Homer’s -epithets are often nothing more than mere -expletives, or additional designations of his persons. -They are always, it is true, significant of -some principal attribute of the person; but they -are often applied by the poet in circumstances -where the mention of that attribute is quite -preposterous. It would shew very little judgement -in a translator, who should honour Patroclus -with the epithet of <i>godlike</i>, while he is -blowing the fire to roast an ox; or bestow on -Agamemnon the designation of <i>King of many -nations</i>, while he is helping Ajax to a large -piece of the chine.</p> - -<p>It were to be wished that Mr. Melmoth, who -is certainly one of the best of the English -translators, had always been equally scrupulous -in retrenching the ideas of his author. Cicero -thus superscribes one of his letters: <i>M. T. C. -Terentiæ, et Pater suavissimæ filiæ Tulliolæ, -Cicero matri et sorori S. D.</i> (Ep. Fam. l. 14, ep. -18). And another in this manner: <i>Tullius -Terentiæ, et Pater Tulliolæ, duabus animis suis, -et Cicero Matri optimæ, suavissimæ sorori</i> (lib. -14, ep. 14). Why are these addresses entirely -sunk in the translation, and a naked title poorly -substituted for them, “To Terentia and Tullia,” -and “To the same”? The addresses to these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> -letters give them their highest value, as they -mark the warmth of the author’s heart, and the -strength of his conjugal and paternal affections.</p> - -<p>In one of Pliny’s Epistles, speaking of Regulus, -he says, <i>Ut ipse mihi dixerit quum consuleret, -quam citò sestertium sexcenties impleturus esset, -invenisse se exta duplicata, quibus portendi millies -et ducenties habiturum</i> (Plin. Ep. l. 2, ep. 20). -Thus translated by Melmoth, “That he once -told me, upon consulting the omens, to know -how soon he should be worth sixty millions of -sesterces, he found them so favourable to him -as to portend that he should possess double -that sum.” Here a material part of the original -idea is omitted; no less than that very circumstance -upon which the omen turned, viz., -that the entrails of the victim were double.</p> - -<p>Analogous to this liberty of adding to or -retrenching from the ideas of the original, is the -liberty which a translator may take of correcting -what appears to him a careless or inaccurate -expression of the original, where that inaccuracy -seems materially to affect the sense. Tacitus -says, when Tiberius was entreated to take upon -him the government of the empire, <i>Ille variè -disserebat, de magnitudine imperii, suâ modestiâ</i> -(An. l. 1, c. 11). Here the word <i>modestiâ</i> is -improperly applied. The author could not -mean to say, that Tiberius discoursed to the -people about his own modesty. He wished -that his discourse should seem to proceed from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> -modesty; but he did not talk to them about his -modesty. D’Alembert saw this impropriety, -and he has therefore well translated the passage: -“Il répondit par des discours généraux sur son -peu de talent, et sur la grandeur de l’empire.”</p> - -<p>A similar impropriety, not indeed affecting -the sense, but offending against the dignity of -the narrative, occurs in that passage where -Tacitus relates, that Augustus, in the decline -of life, after the death of Drusus, appointed his -son Germanicus to the command of eight legions -on the Rhine, <i>At, hercule, Germanicum Druso -ortum octo apud Rhenum legionibus imposuit</i> -(An. l. 1, c. 3). There was no occasion here for -the historian swearing; and though, to render -the passage with strict fidelity, an English -translator must have said, “Augustus, Egad, -gave Germanicus the son of Drusus the command -of eight legions on the Rhine,” we cannot -hesitate to say, that the simple fact is better -announced without such embellishment.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> - -<p class="subhead">OF THE FREEDOM ALLOWED IN POETICAL -TRANSLATION.—PROGRESS OF POETICAL -TRANSLATION IN ENGLAND.—B. JONSON, -HOLIDAY, SANDYS, FANSHAW, DRYDEN.—ROSCOMMON’S -ESSAY ON TRANSLATED -VERSE.—POPE’S HOMER.</p> - -</div> - -<p>In the preceding chapter, in treating of the -liberty assumed by translators, of adding to, or -retrenching from the ideas of the original, several -examples have been given, where that liberty -has been assumed with propriety both in prose -composition and in poetry. In the latter, it is -more peculiarly allowable. “I conceive it,” says -Sir John Denham, “a vulgar error in translating -poets, to affect being <i>fidus interpres</i>. Let that -care be with them who deal in matters of fact or -matters of faith; but whosoever aims at it in -poetry, as he attempts what is not required, so -shall he never perform what he attempts; for it is -not his business alone to translate language into -language, but poesie into poesie; and poesie is of -so subtle a spirit, that in pouring out of one -language into another, it will all evaporate; and -if a new spirit is not added in the transfusion, -there will remain nothing but a <i>caput mortuum</i>” -(Denham’s <i>Preface to the second book of Virgil’s -Æneid</i>).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span></p> - -<p>In poetical translation, the English writers of -the 16th, and the greatest part of the 17th -century, seem to have had no other care than -(in Denham’s phrase) to translate language into -language, and to have placed their whole merit -in presenting a literal and servile transcript of -their original.</p> - -<p>Ben Jonson, in his translation of Horace’s -<i>Art of Poetry</i>, has paid no attention to the -judicious precept of the very poem he was -translating:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere, fidus</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Interpres.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Witness the following specimens, which will -strongly illustrate Denham’s judicious observations.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">Mortalia facta peribunt;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia vivax.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Multa renascentur quæ jam cecidere, cadentque</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>De Art. Poet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">All mortal deeds</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall perish; so far off it is the state</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or grace of speech should hope a lasting date.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Much phrase that now is dead shall be reviv’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And much shall die that now is nobly liv’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If custom please, at whose disposing will</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The power and rule of speaking resteth still.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">B. Jonson.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Interdum tamen et vocem Comœdia tollit,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Et Tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Telephus et Peleus, cùm pauper et exul uterque,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>De Art. Poet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet sometime doth the Comedy excite,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her voice, and angry Chremes chafes outright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With swelling throat, and oft the tragic wight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Complains in humble phrase. Both Telephus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Peleus, if they seek to heart-strike us,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That are spectators, with their misery,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When they are poor and banish’d must throw by</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their bombard-phrase, and foot-and-half-foot words.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">B. Jonson.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>So, in B. Jonson’s translations from the <i>Odes</i> -and <i>Epodes</i> of Horace, besides the most servile -adherence to the words, even the measure of the -original is imitated.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Magisve rhombus, aut scari,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Hyems ad hoc vertat mare:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Non attagen Ionicus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Oliva ramis arborum;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aut herba lapathi prata amantis, et gravi</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Malvæ salubres corpori.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> <i>Epod. 2.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Not Lucrine oysters I could then more prize,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor turbot, nor bright golden eyes;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">If with east floods the winter troubled much</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Into our seas send any such:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Ionian god-wit, nor the ginny-hen</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Could not go down my belly then</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More sweet than olives that new-gathered be,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From fattest branches of the tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or the herb sorrel that loves meadows still,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Or mallows loosing bodies ill.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">B. Jonson.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Of the same character for rigid fidelity, is the -translation of <i>Juvenal</i> by Holiday, a writer of -great learning, and even of critical acuteness, as -the excellent commentary on his author fully -shews.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Omnibus in terris quæ sunt a Gadibus usque</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remotâ</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Erroris nebulâ. Quid enim ratione timemus,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Aut cupimus? quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Conatûs non pœniteat, votique peracti.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Evertêre domos totas optantibus ipsis</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Dii faciles.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Juv.</span> <i>Sat. 10.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In all the world which between Cadiz lies</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And eastern Ganges, few there are so wise</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To know true good from feign’d, without all mist</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Error. For by Reason’s rule what is’t</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We fear or wish? What is’t we e’er begun</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With foot so right, but we dislik’d it done?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whole houses th’ easie gods have overthrown</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At their fond prayers that did the houses own.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Holiday’s</span> <i>Juvenal</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>There were, however, even in that age, some -writers who manifested a better taste in poetical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -translation. May, in his translation of Lucan’s -<i>Pharsalia</i>, and Sandys, in his <i>Metamorphoses</i> of -Ovid, while they strictly adhered to the sense of -their authors, and generally rendered line for line, -have given to their versions both an ease of -expression and a harmony of numbers, which -approach them very near to original composition. -The reason is, they have disdained to confine -themselves to a literal interpretation, but have -everywhere adapted their expression to the -idiom of the language in which they wrote.</p> - -<p>The following passage will give no unfavourable -idea of the style and manner of May. In -the ninth book of the <i>Pharsalia</i>, Cæsar, when in -Asia, is led from curiosity to visit the plain of -Troy:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here fruitless trees, old oaks with putrefy’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And sapless roots, the Trojan houses hide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And temples of their Gods: all Troy’s o’erspread</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With bushes thick, her ruines ruined.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He sees the bridall grove Anchises lodg’d;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hesione’s rock; the cave where Paris judg’d;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where nymph Oenone play’d; the place so fam’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Ganymedes’ rape; each stone is nam’d.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A little gliding stream, which Xanthus was,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unknown he past, and in the lofty grass</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Securely trode; a Phrygian straight forbid</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Him tread on Hector’s dust! (with ruins hid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The stone retain’d no sacred memory.)</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Respect you not great Hector’s tomb, quoth he!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">—O great and sacred work of poesy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That free’st from fate, and giv’st eternity</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To mortal wights! But, Cæsar, envy not</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their living names, if Roman Muses aught</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">May promise thee, while Homer’s honoured</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By future times, shall thou, and I, be read:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No age shall us with darke oblivion staine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But our Pharsalia ever shall remain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">May’s</span> <i>Lucan</i>, b. 9.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Jam silvæ steriles, et putres robore trunci</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Assaraci pressere domos, et templa deorum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Jam lassa radice tenent; ac tota teguntur</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pergama dumetis; etiam periere ruinæ.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aspicit Hesiones scopulos, silvasque latentes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Anchisæ thalamos; quo judex sederit antro;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unde puer raptus cœlo; quo vertice Nais</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Luserit Oenone: nullum est sine nomine saxum.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inscius in sicco serpentem pulvere rivum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Transierat, qui Xanthus erat; securus in alto</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gramine ponebat gressus: Phryx incola manes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hectoreos calcare vetat: discussa jacebant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Saxa, nec ullius faciem servantia sacri:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hectoreas, monstrator ait, non respicis aras?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O sacer, et magnus vatum labor; omnia fato</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eripis, et populis donas mortalibus ævum!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Invidia sacræ, Cæsar, ne tangere famæ:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nam siquid Latiis fas est promittere Musis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quantum Smyrnei durabunt vatis honores,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Venturi me teque legent: Pharsalia nostra</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vivet, et a nullo tenebris damnabitur ævo.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Pharsal.</i> l. 9.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Independently of the excellence of the above -translation, in completely conveying the sense, -the force, and spirit of the original, it possesses -one beauty which the more modern English -poets have entirely neglected, or rather purposely -banished from their versification in rhyme; I -mean the varied harmony of the measure, which -arises from changing the place of the pauses.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> -In the modern heroic rhyme, the pause is almost -invariably found at the end of a couplet. In the -older poetry, the sense is continued from one -couplet to another, and closes in various parts -of the line, according to the poet’s choice, and -the completion of his meaning:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>A little gliding stream, which Xanthus was,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Unknown he past—and in the lofty grass</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Securely trode—a Phrygian straight forbid</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Him tread on Hector’s dust—with ruins hid,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>The stone retain’d no sacred memory.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He must be greatly deficient in a musical ear, -who does not prefer the varied harmony of the -above lines to the uniform return of sound, and -chiming measure of the following:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here all that does of Xanthus stream remain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Creeps a small brook along the dusty plain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While careless and securely on they pass,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Phrygian guide forbids to press the grass;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This place, he said, for ever sacred keep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For here the sacred bones of Hector sleep:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then warns him to observe, where rudely cast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Disjointed stones lay broken and defac’d.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Rowe’s</span> <i>Lucan</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Yet the <i>Pharsalia</i> by Rowe is, on the whole, -one of the best of the modern translations of the -classics. Though sometimes diffuse and paraphrastical, -it is in general faithful to the sense of -the original; the language is animated, the verse -correct and melodious; and when we consider -the extent of the work, it is not unjustly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> -characterised by Dr. Johnson, as “one of the -greatest productions of English poetry.”</p> - -<p>Of similar character to the versification of -May, though sometimes more harsh in its -structure, is the poetry of Sandys:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There’s no Alcyone! none, none! she died</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Together with her Ceÿx. Silent be</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All sounds of comfort. These, these eyes did see</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My shipwrack’t Lord. I knew him; and my hands</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thrust forth t’ have held him: but no mortal bands</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could force his stay. A ghost! yet manifest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My husband’s ghost: which, Oh, but ill express’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His forme and beautie, late divinely rare!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now pale and naked, with yet dropping haire:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here stood the miserable! in this place:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here, here! (and sought his aërie steps to trace).</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Sandys’</span> <i>Ovid</i>, b. 11.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nulla est Alcyone, nulla est, ait: occidit una</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cum Ceyce suo; solantia tollite verba:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Naufragus interiit; vidi agnovique, manusque</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ad discedentem, cupiens retinere, tetendi.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Umbra fuit: sed et umbra tamen manifesta, virique</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vera mei: non ille quidem, si quæris, habebat</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Assuetos vultus, nec quo prius ore nitebat.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pallentem, nudumque, et adhuc humente capillo,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Infelix vidi: stetit hoc miserabilis ipso</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ecce loco: (et quærit vestigia siqua supersint).</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Metam.</i> l. 11.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the above example, the <i>solantia tollite -verba</i> is translated with peculiar felicity, “Silent -be all sounds of comfort;” as are these words, -<i>Nec quo prius ore nitebat</i>, “Which, oh! but ill -express’d his forme and beautie.” “No mortal -bands could force his stay,” has no strictly corresponding<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span> -sentiment in the original. It is a -happy amplification; which shews that Sandys -knew what freedom was allowed to a poetical -translator, and could avail himself of it.</p> - -<p>From the time of Sandys, who published his -translation of the <i>Metamorphoses</i> of Ovid in -1626, there does not appear to have been much -improvement in the art of translating poetry till -the age of Dryden:<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> for though Sir John Denham -has thought proper to pay a high compliment -to Fanshaw on his translation of the -<i>Pastor Fido</i>, terming him the inventor of “a -new and nobler way”<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> of translation, we find -nothing in that performance which should intitle -it to more praise than the <i>Metamorphoses</i> by -Sandys, and the <i>Pharsalia</i> by May.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span></p> - -<p>But it was to Dryden that poetical translation -owed a complete emancipation from her fetters; -and exulting in her new liberty, the danger now -was, that she should run into the extreme of -licentiousness. The followers of Dryden saw<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> -nothing so much to be emulated in his translations -as the ease of his poetry: Fidelity was but -a secondary object, and translation for a while -was considered as synonymous with paraphrase. -A judicious spirit of criticism was now wanting -to prescribe bounds to this increasing licence, -and to determine to what precise degree a -poetical translator might assume to himself the -character of an original writer. In that design, -Roscommon wrote his <i>Essay on Translated -Verse</i>; in which, in general, he has shewn -great critical judgement; but proceeding, as all -reformers, with rigour, he has, amidst many -excellent precepts on the subject, laid down one -rule, which every true poet (and such only -should attempt to translate a poet) must consider -as a very prejudicial restraint. After -judiciously recommending to the translator, first -to possess himself of the sense and meaning of -his author, and then to imitate his manner and -style, he thus prescribes a general rule,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Your author always will the best advise;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fall when he falls, and when he rises, rise.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Far from adopting the former part of this -maxim, I conceive it to be the duty of a poetical -translator, never to suffer his original to fall. -He must maintain with him a perpetual contest -of genius; he must attend him in his highest -flights, and soar, if he can, beyond him: and -when he perceives, at any time, a diminution of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> -his powers, when he sees a drooping wing, he -must raise him on his own pinions.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Homer -has been judged by the best critics to fall at -times beneath himself, and to offend, by introducing -low images and puerile allusions. Yet -how admirably is this defect veiled over, or -altogether removed, by his translator Pope. In -the beginning of the eighth book of the <i>Iliad</i>, -Jupiter is introduced in great majesty, calling a -council of the gods, and giving them a solemn -charge to observe a strict neutrality between the -Greeks and Trojans:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἠὼς μεν κροκόπεπλος ἐκιδνατο πᾶσαν ἐπ’ αίαν·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ζευς δε θεῶν ἀγορην ποιησατο τερπικέραυνος,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἀκροτάτη κορυφη πολυδειραδος Οὐλυμποιο·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Αὐτὸς δέ σφ’ ἀγόρευε, θεοὶ δ’ ἅμα πάντες ἄκουον·</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Aurora with her saffron robe had spread returning<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> -light upon the world, when Jove delighting-in-thunder -summoned a council of the gods -upon the highest point of the many-headed -Olympus; and while he thus harangued, all the -immortals listened with deep attention.” This -is a very solemn opening; but the expectation of -the reader is miserably disappointed by the -harangue itself, of which I shall give a literal -translation.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Κέκλυτέ μευ, πάντες τε θεοὶ, πᾶσαὶ τε θέαιναι,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ὄφρ’ εἴπω, τά με θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι κελεύει·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Μήτε τις οὖν θήλεια θεὸς τόγε, μήτε τις ἄρσην</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πειράτω διακέρσαι ἐμὸν ἔπος· ἀλλ’ ἅμα πάντες</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Αἰνεῖτ’, ὄφρα τάχιστα τελευτήσω τάδε ἔργα.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ον δ’ ἂν ἐγὼν ἀπάνευθε θεῶν ἐθέλοντα νοήσω</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἐλθόντ, ἢ Τρώεσσιν ἀρηγέμεν, ἢ Δαναοῖσι,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πληγεὶς οὐ κατα κόσμον ἐλευσεται Οὔλυμπόνδε·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Η μιν ἑλὼν ῥίψω ἐς Τάρταρον ἠερόεντα,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τῆλε μάλ’, ἦχι βάθιστον ὑπο χθονός ἐστι βέρεθρον,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἔνθα σιδήρειαί τε πύλαι καὶ χάλκεος οὐδὸς,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τόσσον ἔνερθ’ Ἀΐδεω, ὅσον οὐρανός ἐστ’ ἀπὸ γαίης·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Γνώσετ’ ἔπειθ’, ὅσον εἰμὶ θεῶν κάρτιστος ἁπάντων.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εἴ δ’ ἄγε, πειρήσασθε θεοὶ, ἵνα εἴδετε πάντες,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Σειρην χρυσείην ἐξ οὐρανόθεν κρεμάσαντες·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πάντες δ’ ἐξάπτεσθε θεοὶ, πᾶσαί τε θέαιναι·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἂν ἐρύσαιτ’ ἐξ οὐρανόθεν πεδίονδε</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ζῆν’ ὕπατον μήστωρ’ οὐδ’ εἰ μάλα πολλὰ κάμοιτε.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἀλλ’ ὅτε δὴ καὶ ἐγὼ πρόφρων ἐθέλοιμι ἐρύσσαι,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Αὐτῆ κεν γάιῃ ἐρύσαιμ’, αὐτῆ τε θαλάσσῃ·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Σειρην μέν κεν ἔπειτα περὶ ῥίον Οὐλύμποιο</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Δησαίμην· τὰ δέ κ’ αὖτε μετήορα πάντα γένοιτο·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τόσσον ἐγώ περί τ’ εἰμὶ θεῶν, περί τ’ εἴμ’ ἀνθρώπων.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Hear me, all ye gods and goddesses, whilst I -declare to you the dictates of my inmost heart.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> -Let neither male nor female of the gods attempt -to controvert what I shall say; but let all submissively -assent, that I may speedily accomplish -my undertakings: for whoever of you shall be -found withdrawing to give aid either to the -Trojans or Greeks, shall return to Olympus -marked with dishonourable wounds; or else I -will seize him and hurl him down to gloomy -Tartarus, where there is a deep dungeon under -the earth, with gates of iron, and a threshold -of brass, as far below hell, as the earth is below -the heavens. Then he will know how -much stronger I am than all the other gods. -But come now, and make trial, that ye may all -be convinced. Suspend a golden chain from -heaven, and hang all by one end of it, with your -whole weight, gods and goddesses together: -you will never pull down from the heaven to the -earth, Jupiter, the supreme counsellor, though -you should strain with your utmost force. But -when I chuse to pull, I will raise you all, with -the earth and sea together, and fastening the -chain to the top of Olympus, will keep you all -suspended at it. So much am I superior both -to gods and men.”</p> - -<p>It must be owned, that this speech is far -beneath the dignity of the Thunderer; that -the braggart vaunting in the beginning of it -is nauseous; and that a mean and ludicrous -picture is presented, by the whole group of -gods and goddesses pulling at one end of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -a chain, and Jupiter at the other. To veil -these defects in a translation was difficult;<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> but -to give any degree of dignity to this speech -required certainly most uncommon powers. -Yet I am much mistaken, if Mr. Pope has -not done so. I shall take the passage from -the beginning:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">When Jove conven’d the senate of the skies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where high Olympus’ cloudy tops arise.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fire of Gods his awful silence broke,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The heavens attentive, trembled as he spoke.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Celestial states, immortal gods! give ear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hear our decree, and reverence what ye hear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fix’d decree, which not all heaven can move;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou, fate! fulfil it; and, ye powers! approve!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What God but enters yon forbidden field,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who yields assistance, or but wills to yield,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Back to the skies with shame he shall be driven,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gash’d with dishonest wounds, the scorn of Heaven;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or far, oh far, from steep Olympus thrown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Low in the dark Tartarean gulph shall groan;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With burning chains fix’d to the brazen floors,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lock’d by hell’s inexorable doors;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As deep beneath th’ infernal centre hurl’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As from that centre to th’ ethereal world.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let him who tempts me dread those dire abodes;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And know th’ Almighty is the God of gods.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">League all your forces then, ye powr’s above,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Join all, and try th’ omnipotence of Jove:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let down our golden everlasting chain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose strong embrace holds Heav’n, and Earth, and Main:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Strive all, of mortal and immortal birth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To drag, by this, the Thunderer down to earth:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye strive in vain! If I but stretch this hand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I fix the chain to great Olympus’ height,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For such I reign, unbounded and above;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And such are men and gods, compar’d to Jove!<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It would be endless to point out all the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> -instances in which Mr. Pope has improved -both upon the thought and expression of -his original. We find frequently in Homer, -amidst the most striking beauties, some circumstances -introduced which diminish the merit of -the thought or of the description. In such -instances, the good taste of the translator -invariably covers the defect of the original, -and often converts it into an additional beauty. -Thus, in the simile in the beginning of the -third book, there is one circumstance which -offends against good taste.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ευτ’ ορεος κορυφῆσι Νοτος κατεχευεν ὀμιχλην,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ποιμεσιν ουτὶ φιλην, κλεπτη δε τε νυκτος αμεινω,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τὸσσον τις τ’ επιλευσσει, ὅσον τ’ επι λααν ἵησιν·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ὡς ἂρα των ὓπο ποσσι κονισσαλος ωρνυτ’ αελλης</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ερχομενων· μαλα δ’ ώκα διεπρησσον πεδίοιο.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“As when the south wind pours a thick -cloud upon the tops of the mountains, whose -shade is unpleasant to the shepherds, but -more commodious to the thief than the night -itself, and when the gloom is so intense, -that one cannot see farther than he can throw -a stone: So rose the dust under the feet of -the Greeks marching silently to battle.”</p> - -<p>With what superior taste has the translator -heightened this simile, and exchanged the -offending circumstance for a beauty. The -fault is in the third line; τοσσον τις τ’ επιλευσσει, -&c., which is a mean idea, compared with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span> -that which Mr. Pope has substituted in its -stead:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus from his shaggy wings when Eurus sheds</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A night of vapours round the mountain-heads,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lost and confus’d amidst the thicken’d day:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So wrapt in gath’ring dust the Grecian train,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A moving cloud, swept on and hid the plain.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the ninth book of the <i>Iliad</i>, where Phœnix -reminds Achilles of the care he had taken of him -while an infant, one circumstance extremely mean, -and even disgusting, is found in the original.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">οτε δη σ’ επ εμοισιν εγα γουνασσι καθισας,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Οψου τ’ ασαιμι προταμων, και οινον επισχων.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πολλακι μοι κατεδευσας επι στηθεσσι χιτωνα,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Οινου αποβλυζων εν νηπιεη αλεγεινῆ.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">“When I placed you before my knees, I filled -you full with meat, and gave you wine, which -you often vomited upon my bosom, and stained -my clothes, in your troublesome infancy.” The -English reader certainly feels an obligation to -the translator for sinking altogether this nauseous -image, which, instead of heightening the picture, -greatly debases it:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy infant breast a like affection show’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still in my arms, an ever pleasing load;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or at my knee, by Phœnix would’st thou stand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No food was grateful but from Phœnix hand:</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">I pass my watchings o’er thy helpless years,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The tender labours, the compliant cares.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pope.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But even the highest beauties of the original -receive additional lustre from this admirable -translator.</p> - -<p>A striking example of this kind has been -remarked by Mr. Melmoth.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> It is the translation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -of that picture in the end of the eighth -book of the <i>Iliad</i>, which Eustathius esteemed the -finest night-piece that could be found in poetry:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ὡς δ’ ὁτ εν ουρανῶ αστρα φαεινην αμφι σεληνην,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Φαίνετ’ ἀριπρεπέα, ὅτε τ’ ἔπλετο νήνεμος αἰθὴρ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἔκ τ’ ἔφανον πᾶσαι σκοπιαί, καὶ πρώονες ἄκροι,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Καὶ νάπαι· οὐρανόθεν δ’ ἄρ’ ὑπεῤῥάγη ἄσπετος αἰθὴρ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πάντα δέ τ’ εἴδεται ἄστρα· γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα ποιμήν·</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“As when the resplendent moon appears in -the serene canopy of the heavens, surrounded -with beautiful stars, when every breath of air is -hush’d, when the high watch-towers, the hills, -and woods, are distinctly seen; when the sky -appears to open to the sight in all its boundless -extent; and when the shepherd’s heart is delighted -within him.” How nobly is this picture -raised and improved by Mr. Pope!</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er heav’n’s clear azure spreads her sacred light:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around her throne the vivid planets roll,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And stars unnumber’d gild the glowing pole:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And tip with silver every mountain’s head:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The conscious swains rejoicing in the sight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span></p> - -<p>These passages from Pope’s <i>Homer</i> afford -examples of a translator’s improvement of his -original, by a happy amplification and embellishment -of his imagery, or by the judicious correction -of defects; but to fix the precise degree to -which this amplification, this embellishment, and -this liberty of correction, may extend, requires a -great exertion of judgement. It may be useful -to remark some instances of the want of this -judgement.</p> - -<p>It is always a fault when the translator adds -to the sentiment of the original author, what -does not strictly accord with his characteristic -mode of thinking, or expressing himself.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pone sub curru nimium propinqui</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Solis, in terrâ domibus negatâ;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dulce loquentem.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> <i>Od. 22</i>, l. 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus translated by Roscommon:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The burning zone, the frozen isles,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall hear me sing of Celia’s smiles;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All cold, but in her breast, I will despise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dare all heat, but that in Celia’s eyes.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span></p> - -<p>The witty ideas in the two last lines are foreign -to the original; and the addition of these is quite -unjustifiable, as they belong to a quaint species -of wit, of which the writings of Horace afford no -example.</p> - -<p>Equally faulty, therefore, is Cowley’s translation -of a passage in the <i>Ode to Pyrrha</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sperat, nescius auræ fallacis.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He sees thee gentle, fair, and gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And trusts the faithless April of thy May.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>As is the same author’s version of that passage, -which is characterised by its beautiful simplicity.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">somnus agrestium</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lenis virorum non humiles domos</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fastidit, umbrosamque ripam,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Non zephyris agitata Tempe.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> 3, 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sleep is a god, too proud to wait on palaces,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And yet so humble too, as not to scorn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The meanest country cottages;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">This poppy grows among the corn.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Halcyon Sleep will never build his nest</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In any stormy breast:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis not enough that he does find</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Clouds and darkness in their mind;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Darkness but half his work will do,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis not enough; he must find quiet too.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Here is a profusion of wit, and poetic imagery; -but the whole is quite opposite to the character -of the original.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span></p> - -<p>Congreve is guilty of a similar impropriety in -translating</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soracte: nec jam sustineant onus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sylvæ laborantes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> i. 9.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Bless me, ’tis cold! how chill the air!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How naked does the world appear!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Behold the mountain tops around,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As if with fur of ermine crown’d:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And lo! how by degrees,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The universal mantle hides the trees,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In hoary flakes which downward fly,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As if it were the autumn of the sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whose fall of leaf would theirs supply:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Trembling the groves sustain the weight, and bow,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like aged limbs which feebly go,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath a venerable head of snow.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>No author of real genius is more censurable -on this score than Dryden.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Obsidere alii telis angusta viarum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oppositi: stat ferri acies mucrone corusco</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stricta parata neci.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Æneis</i>, ii. 322.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus translated by Dryden:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To several posts their parties they divide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some block the narrow streets, some scour the wide:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The bold they kill, th’ unwary they surprise;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who fights finds death, and death finds him who flies.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Of these four lines, there are scarcely more -than four words which are warranted by the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> -original. “Some block the narrow streets.” -Even this is a faulty translation of <i>Obsidere alii -telis angusta viarum</i>; but it fails on the score of -mutilation, not redundancy. The rest of the -ideas which compose these four lines, are the -original property of the translator; and the -antithetical witticism in the concluding line, is -far beneath the chaste simplicity of Virgil.</p> - -<p>The same author, Virgil, in describing a -pestilential disorder among the cattle, gives -the following beautiful picture, which, as -an ingenious writer justly remarks,<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> has every -excellence that can belong to descriptive poetry:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ecce autem duro fumans sub vomere taurus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Concidit, et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Extremosque ciet gemitus. It tristis arator,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mœrentem abjungens fraterna morte juvencum,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Which Mr. Dryden thus translates:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The steer who to the yoke was bred to bow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">(Studious of tillage and the crooked plow),</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Falls down and dies; and dying, spews a flood</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of foamy madness, mixed with clotted blood.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The clown, who <i>cursing Providence repines</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His mournful fellow from the team disjoins;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With many a groan forsakes his fruitless care,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And in the unfinished furrow leaves the share.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“I would appeal to the reader,” says Dr. Beattie, -“whether, by debasing the charming simplicity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> -of <i>It tristis arator</i> with his blasphemous paraphrase, -Dryden has not destroyed the beauty of -the passage.” He has undoubtedly, even although -the translation had been otherwise faultless. But -it is very far from being so. <i>Duro fumans sub -vomere</i>, is not translated at all, and another idea -is put in its place. <i>Extremosque ciet gemitus</i>, a -most striking part of the description, is likewise -entirely omitted. “Spews a flood” is vulgar and -nauseous; and “a flood of foamy madness” is -nonsense. In short, the whole passage in the -translation is a mass of error and impropriety.</p> - -<p>The simple expression, <i>Jam Procyon furit</i>, in -Horace, 3, 29, is thus translated by the same -author:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">The Syrian star</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Barks from afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And with his sultry breath infects the sky.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This <i>barking</i> of a <i>star</i> is a bad specimen of the -music of the spheres. Dryden, from the fervour -of his imagination, and the rapidity with which -he composed, is frequently guilty of similar -impropriety in his metaphorical language. Thus, -in his version of Du Fresnoy, <i>de Arte Graphica</i>, -he translates</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Indolis ut vigor inde potens obstrictus hebescat,</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Neither would I extinguish the <i>fire</i> of a <i>vein</i> -which is lively and abundant.”</p> - -<p>The following passage in the second <i>Georgic</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -as translated by Delille, is an example of vitious -taste.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ac dum prima novis adolescit frondibus ætas,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Parcendum teneris: et dum se lætus ad auras</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Palmes agit, laxis per purum immissus habenis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ipsa acies nondum falce tentanda;—</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quand ses premiers bourgeons s’empresseront d’eclore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que l’acier rigoureux n’y touche point encore;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Même lorsque dans l’air, qu’il commence à braver,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le rejetton moins frêle ose enfin s’elever;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pardonne à son audace en faveur de son age:—</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The expression of the original is bold and -figurative, <i>lætus ad auras,—laxis per purum -immissus habenis</i>; but there is nothing that -offends the chastest taste. The concluding line -of the translation is disgustingly finical,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pardonne à son audace en faveur de son age.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Mr. Pope’s translation of the following passage -of the <i>Iliad</i>, is censurable on a similar account:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Λαοὶ μεν φθινυθουσι περι πτολιν, αιπυ τε τεῖχος,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Μαρναμενοι·</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Iliad</i>, 6, 327.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For thee great Ilion’s guardian heroes fall,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till heaps of dead alone defend the wall.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Of this conceit, of dead men defending the -walls of Troy, Mr. Pope has the sole merit. The -original, with grave simplicity, declares, that the -people fell, fighting before the town, and around -the walls.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span></p> - -<p>In the translation of the two following lines -from Ovid’s <i>Epistle of Sappho to Phaon</i>, the -same author has added a witticism, which is less -reprehensible, because it accords with the usual -manner of the poet whom he translates: yet it -cannot be termed an improvement of the -original:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Scribimus, et lachrymis oculi rorantur abortis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aspice, quam sit in hoc multa litura loco.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">See while I write, my words are lost in tears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The less my sense, the more my love appears.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pope.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But if authors, even of taste and genius, are -found at times to have made an injudicious use -of that liberty which is allowed in the translation -of poetry, we must expect to see it miserably -abused indeed, where those talents are evidently -wanting. The following specimen of a Latin -version of the <i>Paradise Lost</i> is an example of -everything that is vitious and offensive in -poetical translation.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Primævi cano <i>furta</i> patris, <i>furtumque</i> secutæ</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Tristia fata necis</i>, labes ubi prima notavit</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quotquot Adamæo genitos de sanguine vidit</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Phœbus ad Hesperias ab Eoo cardine metas</i>;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quos procul <i>auricomis</i> Paradisi depulit <i>hortis</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dira cupido atavûm, <i>raptique injuria pomi</i>:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Terrigena donec meliorque et major Adamus,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amissis meliora bonis, majora reduxit.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quosque dedit morti <i>lignum inviolabile</i>, mortis</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unicus ille <i>alio</i> rapuit de limine <i>ligno</i>.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Terrenusque licet pereat Paradisus, at ejus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Munere <i>laxa patet Paradisi porta</i> superni:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hæc œstro stimulata novo mens pandere gestit.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quis mihi monstret iter? Quis carbasa nostra profundo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dirigat in dubio?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Gul. Hogæi Paradisus Amissus</i>, l. 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>How completely is Milton disguised in this -translation! His Majesty exchanged for meanness, -and his simplicity for bombast!<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>The preceding observations, though they -principally regard the first general rule of translation, -viz. that which enjoins a complete transfusion -of the ideas and sentiments of the -original work, have likewise a near connection -with the second general rule, which I shall -now proceed to consider.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> - -<p class="subhead">SECOND GENERAL RULE: THE STYLE AND -MANNER OF WRITING IN A TRANSLATION -SHOULD BE OF THE SAME CHARACTER -WITH THAT OF THE ORIGINAL.—TRANSLATIONS -OF THE SCRIPTURES;—OF HOMER, -ETC.—A JUST TASTE REQUISITE FOR THE -DISCERNMENT OF THE CHARACTERS OF -STYLE AND MANNER.—EXAMPLES OF -FAILURE IN THIS PARTICULAR;—THE -GRAVE EXCHANGED FOR THE FORMAL;—THE -ELEVATED FOR THE BOMBAST;—THE -LIVELY FOR THE PETULANT;—THE -SIMPLE FOR THE CHILDISH.—HOBBES, -L’ESTRANGE, ECHARD, ETC.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Next in importance to a faithful transfusion -of the sense and meaning of an author, is an -assimilation of the style and manner of writing -in the translation to that of the original. This -requisite of a good translation, though but -secondary in importance, is more difficult to -be attained than the former; for the qualities -requisite for justly discerning and happily -imitating the various characters of style and -manner, are much more rare than the ability -of simply understanding an author’s sense. A -good translator must be able to discover at -once the true character of his author’s style.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span> -He must ascertain with precision to what class -it belongs; whether to that of the grave, the -elevated, the easy, the lively, the florid and -ornamented, or the simple and unaffected; and -these characteristic qualities he must have the -capacity of rendering equally conspicuous in -the translation as in the original. If a translator -fails in this discernment, and wants this -capacity, let him be ever so thoroughly master -of the sense of his author, he will present him -through a distorting medium, or exhibit him -often in a garb that is unsuitable to his character.</p> - -<p>The chief characteristic of the historical style -of the sacred scriptures, is its simplicity. This -character belongs indeed to the language itself. -Dr. Campbell has justly remarked, that the -Hebrew is a simple tongue: “That their verbs -have not, like the Greek and Latin, a variety -of moods and tenses, nor do they, like the -modern languages, abound in auxiliaries and -conjunctions. The consequence is, that in narrative, -they express by several simple sentences, -much in the way of the relations used in conversation, -what in most other languages would -be comprehended in one complex sentence of -three or four members.”<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> The same author -gives, as an example of this simplicity, the beginning -of the first chapter of Genesis, where -the account of the operations of the Creator on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> -the first day is contained in eleven separate -sentences. “1. In the beginning God created the -Heaven and the Earth. 2. And the earth was -without form, and void. 3. And darkness was -upon the face of the deep. 4. And the Spirit -of God moved upon the face of the waters. -5. And God said, let there be light. 6. And -there was light. 7. And God saw the light, -that it was good. 8. And God divided the -light from the darkness. 9. And God called -the light day. 10. And the darkness he called -night. 11. And the evening and the morning -were the first day.” “This,” says Dr. Campbell, -“is a just representation of the style of the -original. A more perfect example of simplicity -of structure, we can nowhere find. The sentences -are simple, the substantives are not attended -by adjectives, nor the verbs by adverbs; no -synonymas, no superlatives, no effort at expressing -things in a bold, emphatical, or -uncommon manner.”</p> - -<p>Castalio’s version of the Scriptures is intitled -to the praise of elegant Latinity, and he is in -general faithful to the sense of his original; -but he has totally departed from its style and -manner, by substituting the complex and florid -composition to the simple and unadorned. His -sentences are formed in long and intricate -periods, in which many separate members are -artfully combined; and we observe a constant -endeavour at a classical phraseology and ornamented<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> -diction.<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> In Castalio’s version of the -foregoing passage of Genesis, nine sentences of -the original are thrown into one period. 1. -<i>Principio creavit Deus cœlum et terram.</i> 2. <i>Quum -autem esset terra iners atque rudis, tenebrisque -effusum profundum, et divinus spiritus sese super -aquas libraret, jussit Deus ut existeret lux, et -extitit lux; quam quum videret Deus esse bonam, -lucem secrevit a tenebris, et lucem diem, et tenebras -noctem appellavit.</i> 3. <i>Ita extitit ex vespere et mane -dies primus.</i></p> - -<p>Dr. Beattie, in his essay <i>On Laughter and -Ludicrous Composition</i>, has justly remarked, -that the translation of the Old Testament by -Castalio does great honour to that author’s -learning, but not to his taste. “The quaintness -of his Latin betrays a deplorable inattention -to the simple majesty of his original. In -the Song of Solomon, he has debased the -magnificence of the language and subject by -<i>diminutives</i>, which, though expressive of familiar -endearment, he should have known to be destitute<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -of dignity, and therefore improper on -solemn occasions.” <i>Mea Columbula, ostende mihi -tuum vulticulum; fac ut audiam tuam voculam; -nam et voculam venustulam, et vulticulum habes -lepidulum.—Veni in meos hortulos, sororcula mea -sponsa.—Ego dormio, vigilante meo corculo</i>, &c.</p> - -<p>The version of the Scriptures by Arias Montanus, -is in some respects a contrast to that of -Castalio. Arias, by adopting the literal mode of -translation, probably intended to give as faithful -a picture as he could, both of the sense and -manner of the original. Not considering the -different genius of the Hebrew, the Greek, and -the Latin, in the various meaning and import of -words of the same primary sense; the difference -of combination and construction, and the peculiarity -of idioms belonging to each tongue, he has -treated the three languages as if they corresponded -perfectly in all those particulars; and -the consequence is, he has produced a composition -which fails in every one requisite of a good -translation: it conveys neither the sense of the -original, nor its manner and style; and it abounds -in barbarisms, solecisms, and grammatical inaccuracy.<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> -In Latin, two negatives make an affirmative; -but it is otherwise in Greek; they only -give force to the negation: χωρις εμου ου δυνασθε -ποιειν ουδεν, as translated by Arias, <i>sine me non -potestis facere nihil</i>, is therefore directly contrary -to the sense of the original: And surely that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> -translator cannot be said either to do justice to -the manner and style of his author, or to write -with the ease of original composition, who, instead -of perspicuous thought, expressed in pure, -correct, and easy phraseology, gives us obscure -and unintelligible sentiments, conveyed in barbarous -terms and constructions, irreconcileable -to the rules of the language in which he uses -them. <i>Et nunc dixi vobis ante fieri, ut quum -factum fuerit credatis.—Ascendit autem et Joseph -a Galilæa in civitatem David, propter esse ipsum -ex domo et familia David, describi cum Maria desponsata -sibi uxore, existente prægnante. Factum -autem in esse eos ibi, impleti sunt dies parere ipsam.—Venerunt -ad portam, quæ spontanea aperta est -eis, et exeuntes processerunt vicum.—Nunquid -aquam prohibere potest quis ad non baptizare hos?—Spectat -descendens super se vas quoddam linteum, -quatuor initiis vinctum.—Aperiens autem Petrus -os, dixit: in veritate deprehendo quia non est -personarum acceptor Deus.</i><a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span></p> - -<p>The characteristic of the language of Homer is -strength united with simplicity. He employs -frequent images, allusions, and similes; but he -very rarely uses metaphorical expression. The -use of this style, therefore, in a translation of -Homer, is an offence against the character of -the original. Mr. Pope, though not often, is -sometimes chargeable with this fault; as where -he terms the arrows of Apollo “the feather’d -fates,” <i>Iliad</i>, 1, 68, a quiver of arrows, “a store -of flying fates,” <i>Odyssey</i>, 22, 136: or instead of -saying, that the soil is fertile in corn, “in wavy -gold the summer vales are dress’d,” <i>Odyssey</i>, 19, -131; the soldier wept, “from his eyes pour’d -down the tender dew,” <i>Ibid.</i> 11, 486.</p> - -<p>Virgil, in describing the shipwreck of the -Trojans, says,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto</i>,</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Which the Abbé des Fontaines thus translates: -“A peine un petit nombre de ceux qui montoient -le vaisseau purent se sauver à la nage.” Of this -translation Voltaire justly remarks, “C’est traduire -Virgile en style de gazette. Où est ce -vaste gouffre que peint le poête, <i>gurgite vasto</i>? -Où est l’<i>apparent rari nantes</i>? Ce n’est pas -ainsi qu’on doit traduire l’Eneide.” <i>Voltaire</i>, -<i>Quest. sur l’Encyclop. mot Amplification</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span></p> - -<p>If we are thus justly offended at hearing -Virgil speak in the style of the <i>Evening Post</i> or -the <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, what must we think of the -translator, who makes the solemn and sententious -Tacitus express himself in the low cant of -the streets, or in the dialect of the waiters of a -tavern?</p> - -<p><i>Facile Asinium et Messalam inter Antonium -et Augustum bellorum præmiis refertos</i>: Thus -translated, in a version of Tacitus by Mr. Dryden -and several eminent hands: “Asinius and -Messala, who feathered their nests well in the -civil wars ’twixt Antony and Augustus.” <i>Vinolentiam -et libidines usurpans</i>: “Playing the -good-fellow.” <i>Frustra Arminium præscribi</i>: -“Trumping up Arminius’s title.” <i>Sed Agrippina -libertam æmulam, nurum ancillam, aliaque eundem -in modum muliebriter fremere</i>: “But -Agrippina could not bear that a freedwoman -should <i>nose</i> her.” And another translator says, -“But Agrippina could not bear that a freedwoman -should <i>beard</i> her.” Of a similar character -with this translation of Tacitus is a -translation of Suetonius by several gentlemen of -Oxford,<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> which abounds with such elegancies as -the following: <i>Sestio Gallo, libidinoso et prodigo -seni</i>: “Sestius Gallus, a most notorious old Sir -Jolly.” <i>Jucundissimos et omnium horarum amicos</i>: -“His boon companions and sure cards.” <i>Nullam<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> -unquam occasionem dedit</i>: “They never could -pick the least hole in his coat.”</p> - -<p>Juno’s apostrophe to Troy, in her speech to -the Gods in council, is thus translated in a version -of Horace by “The Most Eminent Hands.”</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent22"><i>Ilion, Ilion,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Fatalis incestusque judex, &c.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> 3, 3.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Ilion, Ilion, I with transport view</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fall of all thy wicked, perjur’d <i>crew</i>!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pallas and I have <i>borne a rankling grudge</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0">To that <i>curst</i> Shepherd, that incestuous judge.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The description of the majesty of Jupiter, -contained in the following passage of the first -book of the <i>Iliad</i>, is allowed to be a true -specimen of the sublime. It is the archetype -from which Phidias acknowledged he had framed -his divine sculpture of the Olympian Jupiter:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Η, και κυανεησιν επ’ οφρυσι νευσε Κρονιων·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Αμβροσιαι δ’ αρα χαιται επερρωσαντο ανακτος,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Κρατος απ’ αθανατοιο, μεγαν δ’ ελελιξεν Ολυμπον.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The stamp of fate, and sanction of the God:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">High heaven, with trembling, the dread signal took,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all Olympus to its centre shook.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pope.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Certainly Mr. Hobbes of Malmsbury perceived -no portion of that sublime which was felt by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -Phidias and by Mr. Pope, when he could thus -translate this fine description:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This said, with his black brows he to her nodded,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Wherewith displayed were his locks divine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Olympus shook at stirring of his godhead,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And Thetis from it jump’d into the brine.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the translation of the <i>Georgics</i>, Mr. Dryden -has displayed great powers of poetry. But -Dryden had little relish for the pathetic, and no -comprehension of the natural language of the -heart. The beautiful simplicity of the following -passage has entirely escaped his observation, and -he has been utterly insensible to its tenderness:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ipse cavâ solans ægrum testudine amorem,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Te, dulcis conjux, te solo in littore secum,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Te veniente die, te decedente canebat.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Virg.</span> <i>Geor. 4.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Th’ unhappy husband, now no more,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Did on his tuneful harp his loss deplore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And sought his mournful mind with music to restore.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On thee, dear Wife, in deserts all alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He call’d, sigh’d, sung; his griefs with day begun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor were they finish’d till the setting sun.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The three verbs, <i>call’d</i>, <i>sigh’d</i>, <i>sung</i>, are here -substituted, with peculiar infelicity, for the repetition -of the pronoun; a change which converts -the pathetic into the ludicrous.</p> - -<p>In the same episode, the poet compares the -complaint of Orpheus to the wailing of a nightingale,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> -robb’d of her young, in those well-known -beautiful verses:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Qualis populea mœrens Philomela sub umbra</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Amissos queritur fœtus, quos durus arator</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Observans nido implumes, detraxit: at illa</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Integrat, et mœstis late loca questibus implet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus translated by De Lille:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Telle sur un rameau durant la nuit obscure</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Philomele plaintive attendrit la nature,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Accuse en gémissant l’oiseleur inhumain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui, glissant dans son nid une furtive main,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ravit ces tendres fruits que l’amour fit eclorre,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et qu’un leger duvet ne couvroit pas encore.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It is evident, that there is a complete evaporation -of the beauties of the original in this -translation: and the reason is, that the French -poet has substituted sentiments for facts, and -refinement for the simple pathetic. The nightingale -of De Lille melts all nature with her -complaint; accuses with her sighs the inhuman -fowler, who glides his thievish hand into her nest, -and plunders the tender fruits that were hatched -by love! How different this sentimental foppery -from the chaste simplicity of Virgil!</p> - -<p>The following beautiful passage in the sixth -book of the <i>Iliad</i> has not been happily translated -by Mr. Pope. It is in the parting interview -between Hector and Andromache.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ως ειπων, αλοχοιο φιλης εν χερσιν εθηκε</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Παιδ’ ἑον· ἡ δ’ αρα μιν κηωδει δεξατο κολπω,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Δακρυοεν γελασασα· ποσις δ’ ελεησε νοησας,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Χειρι τε μιν κατερεξεν, επος τ’ εφατ’ εκ τ’ ονομαζε.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Restor’d the pleasing burden to her arms;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hush’d to repose, and with a smile survey’d.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The troubled pleasure soon chastis’d by fear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She mingled with the smile a tender tear.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The soften’d chief with kind compassion view’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dried the falling drops, and thus pursu’d.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This, it must be allowed, is good poetry; but -it wants the affecting simplicity of the original. -<i>Fondly gazing on her charms—pleasing burden—The -troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear</i>, -are injudicious embellishments. The beautiful -expression Δακρυοεν γελασασα is totally lost -by amplification; and the fine circumstance, -which so much heightens the tenderness of -the picture, Χειρι τε μιν κατερεξεν, is forgotten -altogether.</p> - -<p>But a translator may discern the general -character of his author’s style, and yet fail remarkably -in the imitation of it. Unless he is -possessed of the most correct taste, he will be in -continual danger of presenting an exaggerated -picture or a caricatura of his original. The -distinction between good and bad writing is -often of so very slender a nature, and the -shadowing of difference so extremely delicate, -that a very nice perception alone can at all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> -times define the limits. Thus, in the hands of -some translators, who have discernment to perceive -the general character of their author’s -style, but want this correctness of taste, the -grave style of the original becomes heavy and -formal in the translation; the elevated swells -into bombast, the lively froths up into the -petulant, and the simple and <i>naïf</i> degenerates -into the childish and insipid.<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> - -<p>In the fourth Oration against Catiline, Cicero, -after drawing the most striking picture of the -miseries of his country, on the supposition that -success had crowned the designs of the conspirators, -closes the detail with this grave and -solemn application:</p> - -<p><i>Quia mihi vehementer hæc videntur misera -atque miseranda, idcirca in eos qui ea perficere -voluerunt, me severum, vehementemque præbeo. -Etenim quæro, si quis paterfamilias, liberis suis -a servo interfectis, uxore occisa, incensa domo, -supplicium de servo quam acerbissimum sumserit; -utrum is clemens ac misericors, an inhumanissimus -et crudelissimus esse videatur? Mihi vero -importunus ac ferreus, qui non dolore ac cruciatu -nocentis, suum dolorem ac cruciatum lenierit.</i></p> - -<p>How awkwardly is the dignified gravity of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> -original imitated, in the following heavy, formal, -and insipid version.</p> - -<p>“Now as to me these calamities appear extremely -shocking and deplorable: therefore I -am extremely keen and rigorous in punishing -those who endeavoured to bring them about. -For let me put the case, that a master of a -family had his children butchered, his wife -murdered, his house burnt down by a slave, yet -did not inflict the most rigorous of punishments -imaginable upon that slave: would such a -master appear merciful and compassionate, and -not rather a monster of cruelty and inhumanity? -To me that man would appear to be of a flinty -cruel nature, who should not endeavour to soothe -his own anguish and torment by the anguish and -torment of its guilty cause.”<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<p>Ovid, in describing the fatal storm in which -Ceyx perished, says,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Undarum incursa gravis unda, tonitrubus æther</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Fluctibus erigitur, cœlumque æquare videtur</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pontus.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">An hyperbole, allowable in poetical description; -but which Dryden has exaggerated into the -most outrageous bombast:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now waves on waves ascending scale the skies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And in the fires above the water fries.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the first scene of the <i>Amphitryo of Plautus</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> -Sosia thus remarks on the unusual length of the -night:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Neque ego hac nocte longiorem me vidisse censeo,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nisi item unam, verberatus quam pependi perpetem.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Eam quoque, Ædepol, etiam multo hæc vicit longitudine.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Credo equidem dormire solem atque appotum probe.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mira sunt, nisi invitavit sese in cœna plusculum.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>To which Mercury answers:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ain vero, verbero? Deos esse tui similes putas?</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ego Pol te istis tuis pro dictis et malefactis, furcifer,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Accipiam, modò sis veni huc: invenies infortunium.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Echard, who saw no distinction between the -familiar and the vulgar, has translated this in -the true dialect of the streets:</p> - -<p>“I think there never was such a long night -since the beginning of the world, except that -night I had the strappado, and rid the wooden -horse till morning; and, o’ my conscience, that -was twice as long.<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> By the mackins, I believe -Phœbus has been playing the good-fellow, and -’s asleep too. I’ll be hang’d if he ben’t in -for’t, and has took a little too much o’ the -creature.”</p> - -<p>“<i>Mer.</i> Say ye so, slave? What, treat Gods -like yourselves. By Jove, have at your doublet, -Rogue, for <i>scandalum magnatum</i>. Approach -then, you’ll ha’ but small joy here.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span></p> - -<p>“Mer. <i>Accedam, atque hanc appellabo atque -supparasitabo patri.</i>” Ibid. sc. 3.</p> - -<p>“<i>Mer.</i> I’ll to her, and tickle her up as my -father has done.”</p> - -<p>“Sosia. <i>Irritabis crabrones.</i>” Ibid. act 2, sc. 2.</p> - -<p>“<i>Sosia.</i> You’d as good p—ss in a bee-hive.”</p> - -<p>Seneca, though not a chaste writer, is remarkable -for a courtly dignity of expression, which, -though often united with ease, never descends to -the mean or vulgar. L’Estrange has presented -him through a medium of such coarseness, that -he is hardly to be known.</p> - -<p><i>Probatos itaque semper lege, et siquando ad -alios divertere libuerit, ad priores redi.—Nihil -æque sanitatem impedit quam remediorum crebra -mutatio</i>, Ep. 2.—“Of authors be sure to make -choice of the best; and, as I said before, stick -close to them; and though you take up others -by the bye, reserve some select ones, however, -for your study and retreat. Nothing is more -hurtful, in the case of diseases and wounds, than -the frequent shifting of physic and plasters.”</p> - -<p><i>Fuit qui diceret, Quid perdis operam? ille quem -quæris elatus, combustus est.</i> <i>De benef.</i>, lib. 7. -c. 21.—“Friend, says a fellow, you may hammer -your heart out, for the man you look for is -dead.”</p> - -<p><i>Cum multa in crudelitatem Pisistrati conviva -ebrius dixisset.</i> <i>De ira</i>, lib. 3, c. 11. “Thrasippus, -in his drink, fell foul upon the cruelties of -Pisistratus.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span></p> - -<p>From the same defect of taste, the simple and -natural manner degenerates into the childish and -insipid.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">J’ai perdu tout mon bonheur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">J’ai perdu mon serviteur,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Colin me délaisse.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Helas! il a pu changer!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je voudrois n’y plus songer:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">J’y songe sans cesse.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Rousseau</span>, <i>Devin de Village</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ve lost my love, I’ve lost my swain;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Colin leaves me with disdain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Naughty Colin! hateful thought!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To Colinette her Colin’s naught.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I will forget him—that I will!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah, t’wont do—I love him still.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> - -<p class="subhead">EXAMPLES OF A GOOD TASTE IN POETICAL -TRANSLATION.—BOURNE’S TRANSLATIONS -FROM MALLET AND FROM PRIOR.—THE -DUKE DE NIVERNOIS FROM HORACE.—DR. -JORTIN FROM SIMONIDES.—IMITATION OF -THE SAME BY DR. MARKHAM.—MR. WEBB -FROM THE ANTHOLOGIA.—HUGHES FROM -CLAUDIAN.—FRAGMENTS OF THE GREEK -DRAMATISTS BY MR. CUMBERLAND.</p> - -</div> - -<p>After these examples of faulty translation, -from a defect of taste in the translator, or a want -of a just discernment of his author’s style and -manner of writing, I shall now present the -reader with some specimens of perfect translation, -where the authors have entered with -exquisite taste into the manner of their originals, -and have succeeded most happily in the imitation -of it.</p> - -<p>The first is the opening of the beautiful ballad -of <i>William and Margaret</i>, translated by Vincent -Bourne.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">I</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When all was wrapt in dark midnight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And all were fast asleep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In glided Margaret’s grimly ghost,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And stood at William’s feet.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">II</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her face was like the April morn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Clad in a wintry-cloud;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And clay-cold was her lily hand,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That held her sable shrowd.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">III</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So shall the fairest face appear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When youth and years are flown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Such is the robe that Kings must wear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When death has reft their crown.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">IV</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her bloom was like the springing flower,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That sips the silver dew;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rose was budded in her cheek,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And opening to the view.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">V</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But Love had, like the canker-worm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Consum’d her early prime;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rose grew pale and left her cheek,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">She died before her time.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">I</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Omnia nox tenebris, tacitâque involverat umbrâ.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Et fessos homines vinxerat alta quies;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cùm valvæ patuere, et gressu illapsa silenti,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Thyrsidis ad lectum stabat imago Chloes.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">II</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vultus erat, qualis lachrymosi vultus Aprilis,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Cui dubia hyberno conditur imbre dies;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quaque sepulchralem à pedibus collegit amictum,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Candidior nivibus, frigidiorque manus,</i></div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">III</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cùmque dies aberunt molles, et læta juventus,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Gloria pallebit, sic Cyparissi tua;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cùm mors decutiet capiti diademata, regum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Hâc erit in trabeâ conspiciendus honos.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">IV</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Forma fuit (dum forma fuit) nascentis ad instar</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Floris, cui cano gemmula rore tumet;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Et Veneres risere, et subrubuere labella,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Subrubet ut teneris purpura prima rosis.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">V</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sed lenta exedit tabes mollemque ruborem,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Et faciles risus, et juvenile decus;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Et rosa paulatim languens, nudata reliquit</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Oscula; præripuit mors properata Chloen.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The second is a small poem by Prior, intitled -<i>Chloe Hunting</i>, which is likewise translated into -Latin by Bourne.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Behind her neck her comely tresses tied,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her ivory quiver graceful by her side,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A-hunting Chloe went; she lost her way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And through the woods uncertain chanc’d to stray.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Apollo passing by beheld the maid;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, sister dear, bright Cynthia, turn, he said;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The hunted hind lies close in yonder brake.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Loud Cupid laugh’d, to see the God’s mistake:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And laughing cried, learn better, great Divine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To know thy kindred, and to honour mine.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rightly advis’d, far hence thy sister seek,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or on Meander’s banks, or Latmus’ peak.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But in this nymph, my friend, my sister know;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She draws my arrows, and she bends my bow.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Fair Thames she haunts, and every neighbouring grove,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sacred to soft recess, and gentle Love.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Go with thy Cynthia, hurl the pointed spear</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At the rough boar, or chace the flying deer:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I, and my Chloe, take a nobler aim;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At human hearts we fling, nor ever miss the game.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Forte Chloe, pulchros nodo collecta capillos</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Post collum, pharetrâque latus succincta decorâ,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Venatrix ad sylvam ibat; cervumque secuta</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Elapsum visu, deserta per avia tendit</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Incerta. Errantem nympham conspexit Apollo,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Et, converte tuos, dixit, mea Cynthia, cursus;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>En ibi (monstravitque manu) tibi cervus anhelat</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Occultus dumo, latebrisque moratur in illis.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Improbus hæc audivit Amor, lepidumque cachinnum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Attollens, poterantne etiam tua numina falli?</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hinc, quæso, bone Phœbe, tuam dignosce sororem,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Et melius venerare meam. Tua Cynthia longè,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mæandri ad ripas, aut summi in vertice Latmi,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Versatur; nostra est soror hæc, nostra, inquit, amica est.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hæc nostros promit calamos, arcumque sonantem</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Incurvat, Tamumque colens, placidosque recessus</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lucorum, quos alma quies sacravit amori.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ite per umbrosos saltus, lustrisque vel aprum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Excutite horrentem setis, cervumve fugacem,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Tuque sororque tua, et directo sternite ferro:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nobilior labor, et divis dignissima cura,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Meque Chloenque manet; nos corda humana ferimus,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vibrantes certum vulnus nec inutile telum.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The third specimen, is a translation by the Duke -de Nivernois, of Horace’s dialogue with Lydia:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza"><span class="smcap">Horace</span></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Plus heureux qu’un monarque au faite des grandeurs,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">J’ai vu mes jours dignes d’envie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tranquiles, ils couloient au gré de nos ardeurs:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Vous m’aimiez, charmante Lydie.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza"><span class="smcap">Lydie</span></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que mes jours étoient beaux, quand des soins les plus doux</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Vous payiez ma flamme sincére!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Venus me regardoit avec des yeux jaloux;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Chloé n’avoit pas sçu vous plaire.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza"><span class="smcap">Horace</span></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par son luth, par sa voix, organe des amours,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Chloé seule me paroit belle:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Je donnerai les miens pour elle.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza"><span class="smcap">Lydie</span></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le jeune Calaïs, plus beau que les amours,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Plait seul à mon ame ravie:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Je donnerai deux fois ma vie.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza"><span class="smcap">Horace</span></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quoi, si mes premiers feux, ranimant leur ardeur,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Etouffoient une amour fatale;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si, perdant pour jamais tous ses droits sur mon cœur,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Chloé vous laissoit sans rivale——</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza"><span class="smcap">Lydie</span></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Calaïs est charmant: mais je n’aime que vous,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ingrat, mon cœur vous justifie;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Heureuse également en des liens si doux,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">De perdre ou de passer la vie.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>If any thing is faulty in this excellent translation, -it is the last stanza, which does not convey<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span> -the happy petulance, the <i>procacitas</i> of the original. -The reader may compare with this, the fine -translation of the same ode by Bishop Atterbury, -“Whilst I was fond, and you were kind,” which -is too well known to require insertion.</p> - -<p>The fourth example is a translation by Dr. -Jortin of that beautiful fragment of Simonides, -preserved by Dionysius, in which Danae, exposed -with her child to the fury of the ocean, by -command of her inhuman father, is described -lamenting over her sleeping infant.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span></p> - -<p><i>Ex Dionys. Hal. De Compositione Verborum</i>, -c. 26.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Οτε λαρνακι εν δαιδαλεα ανεμος</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Βρεμη πνεων, κινηθεισα δε λιμνα</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Δειματι ερειπεν· ουτ’ αδιανταισι</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Παρειαῖς, αμφι τε Περσεῖ βαλλε</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Φιλαν χερα, ειπεν τε· ω τεκνον,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ὁιον εχω πονον. συ δ’ αυτε γαλαθηνω</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ητορι κνοσσεις εν ατερπει δωματι,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Χαλκεογομφω δε, νυκτιλαμπεῖ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Κυανεω τε δνοφω· συ δ’ αυαλεαν</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Υπερθε τεαν κομαν βαθειαν</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Παριοντος κυματος ουκ αλεγεις</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ουδ’ ανεμου φθογγων, πορφυρεα</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Κειμενος εν χλανιδι, προσωπον καλον·</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ει δε τοι δεινον το γε δεινον ην</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Και μεν εμων ρηματων λεπτον</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Υπειχες οὐας. κελομαι, ἑυδε, βρεφος,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ἑυδετω δε ποντος, ευδετω αμετρον κακον.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ματαιοβουλια δε τις φανειη</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ζευ πατερ, εκ σεο· ὁτι δη θαρσαλεον</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Επος, ευχομαι τεκνοφι δικας μοι.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Nocte sub obscura, verrentibus æquora ventis,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Quum brevis immensa cymba nataret aqua,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Multa gemens Danaë subjecit brachia nato,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et teneræ lacrymis immaduere genæ.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu tamen ut dulci, dixit, pulcherrime, somno</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Obrutus, et metuens tristia nulla, jaces!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quamvis, heu quales cunas tibi concutit unda,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Præbet et incertam pallida luna facem,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et vehemens flavos everberat aura capillos,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et prope, subsultans, irrigat ora liquor.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nate, meam sentis vocem? Nil cernis et audis,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Teque premunt placidi vincula blanda dei;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nec mihi purpureis effundis blæsa labellis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Murmura, nec notos confugis usque sinus.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Care, quiesce, puer, sævique quiescite fluctus,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et mea qui pulsas corda, quiesce, dolor.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cresce puer; matris leni atque ulciscere luctus,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Tuque tuos saltem protege summe Tonans.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This admirable translation falls short of its -original only in a single particular, the measure -of the verse. One striking beauty of the original, -is the easy and loose structure of the verse, -which has little else to distinguish it from animated -discourse but the harmony of the syllables; -and hence it has more of natural impassioned -eloquence, than is conveyed by the regular -measure of the translation. That this characteristic -of the original should have been overlooked -by the ingenious translator, is the more remarkable, -that the poem is actually quoted by Dionysius, -as an apposite example of that species of -composition in which poetry approaches to the -freedom of prose; της εμμελους και εμμετρου συνθεσεως -της εχουσης πολλην ὁμοιοτητα προς την πεζην -λεξιν. Dr. Markham saw this excellence of the -original; and in that fine imitation of the verses -of Simonides, which an able critic<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> has pronounced -to be far superior to the original, has -given it its full effect. The passage alluded to -is an apostrophe of a mother to her sleeping -infant, a widowed mother, who has just left the -deathbed of her husband.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His conatibus occupata, ocellos</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Guttis lucidulis adhuc madentes</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Convertit, puerum sopore vinctum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qua nutrix placido sinu fovebat:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dormis, inquiit, O miselle, nec te</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vultus exanimes, silentiumque</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Per longa atria commovent, nec ullo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fratrum tangeris, aut meo dolore;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nec sentis patre destitutus illo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui gestans genibusve brachiove</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aut formans lepidam tuam loquelam</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tecum mille modis ineptiebat.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu dormis, volitantque qui solebant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Risus in roseis tuis labellis.——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dormi parvule! nec mali dolores</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui matrem cruciant tuæ quietis</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rumpant somnia.—Quando, quando tales</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Redibunt oculis meis sopores!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The next specimen I shall give, is the translation -of a beautiful epigram, from the <i>Anthologia</i> -which is supposed by Junius to be descriptive of -a painting mentioned by Pliny,<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> in which, a -mother wounded, and in the agony of death, is -represented as giving suck to her infant for the -last time:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ελκε τάλαν παρα μητρος ὅν οὐκ ἔτι μαζὸν ἀμελξεις,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ελκυσον ὑστατιον νᾶμα καταφθιμενης</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ηδη γαρ ξιφέεσσι λιπόπνοος, ἀλλὰ τὰ μητρος</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Φιλτρα καὶ εν ἀϊδη παιδοκομειν ἔμαθον.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span></p> - -<p>Thus happily translated into English by Mr. -Webb:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Suck, little wretch, while yet thy mother lives,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Suck the last drop her fainting bosom gives!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She dies: her tenderness survives her breath,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And her fond love is provident in death.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Equal in merit to any of the preceding, is -the following translation by Mr. Hughes from -<i>Claudian</i>.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center"><i>Ex Epithalamio Honorii & Mariæ.</i></p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cunctatur stupefacta Venus; nunc ora puellæ,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nunc flavam niveo miratur vertice matrem.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hæc modo crescenti, plenæ par altera Lunæ:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Assurgit ceu fortè minor sub matre virenti</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Laurus; et ingentes ramos, olimque futuras</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Promittit jam parva comas: vel flore sub uno</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Seu geminæ Pæstana rosæ per jugera regnant.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hæc largo matura die, saturataque vernis</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Roribus indulget spatio: latet altera nodo,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nec teneris audet foliis admittere soles.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The goddess paus’d; and, held in deep amaze,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now views the mother’s, now the daughter’s face.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Different in each, yet equal beauty glows;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That, the full moon, and this, the crescent shows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus, rais’d beneath its parent tree is seen</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The laurel shoot, while in its early green</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thick sprouting leaves and branches are essay’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all the promise of a future shade.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or blooming thus, in happy Pæstan fields,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One common stock two lovely roses yields:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mature by vernal dews, this dares display</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its leaves full-blown, and boldly meets the day</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That, folded in its tender nonage lies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A beauteous bud, nor yet admits the skies.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p> - -<p>The following passage, from a Latin version of -the <i>Messiah</i> of Pope, by a youth of uncommon -genius,<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> exhibits the singular union of ease, animation, -and harmony of numbers, with the -strictest fidelity to the original.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lanigera ut cautè placidus regit agmina pastor,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Aera ut explorat purum, camposque virentes;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Amissas ut quærit oves, moderatur euntûm</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ut gressus, curatque diu, noctuque tuetur;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ut teneros agnos lenta inter brachia tollit,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mulcenti pascit palma, gremioque focillat;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sic genus omne hominum sic complectetur amanti</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pectore, promissus seclo Pater ille futuro.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By day o’ersees them, and by night protects;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The tender lambs he raises in his arms,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The promis’d Father of the future age.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>To these specimens of perfect translation, in -which not only the ideas of the original are -completely transfused, but the manner most -happily imitated, I add the following admirable -translations by Mr. Cumberland,<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> of two fragments -from the Greek dramatists Timocles and -Diphilus, which are preserved by Athenæus.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span></p> - -<p>The first of these passages beautifully illustrates -the moral uses of the tragic drama:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Nay, my good friend, but hear me! I confess</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Man is the child of sorrow, and this world,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In which we breathe, hath cares enough to plague us;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But it hath means withal to soothe these cares:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And he who meditates on others’ woes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall in that meditation lose his own:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Call then the tragic poet to your aid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hear him, and take instruction from the stage:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let Telephus appear; behold a prince,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A spectacle of poverty and pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wretched in both.—And what if you are poor?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are you a demigod? Are you the son</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Hercules? Begone! Complain no more.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Doth your mind struggle with distracting thoughts?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Do your wits wander? Are you mad? Alas!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So was Alcmeon, whilst the world ador’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His father as their God. Your eyes are dim;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What then? The eyes of Œdipus were dark,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Totally dark. You mourn a son; he’s dead;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Turn to the tale of Niobe for comfort,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And match your loss with hers. You’re lame of foot;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Compare it with the foot of Philoctetes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And make no more complaint. But you are old,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Old and unfortunate; consult Oëneus;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hear what a king endur’d, and learn content.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sum up your miseries, number up your sighs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The tragic stage shall give you tear for tear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And wash out all afflictions but its own.<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The following fragment from Diphilus conveys<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> -a very favourable idea of the spirit of the -dialogue, in what has been termed the New -Comedy of the Greeks, or that which was -posterior to the age of Alexander the Great.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> -Of this period Diphilus and Menander were -among the most shining ornaments.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We have a notable good law at Corinth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where, if an idle fellow outruns reason,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Feasting and junketting at furious cost,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sumptuary proctor calls upon him,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thus begins to sift him.—You live well,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But have you well to live? You squander freely,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have you the wherewithal? Have you the fund</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For these outgoings? If you have, go on!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If you have not, we’ll stop you in good time,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Before you outrun honesty; for he</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who lives we know not how, must live by plunder;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Either he picks a purse, or robs a house,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or is accomplice with some knavish gang,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or thrusts himself in crowds, to play th’ informer,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And put his perjur’d evidence to sale:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This a well-order’d city will not suffer;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Such vermin we expel.—“And you do wisely:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But what is that to me?”—Why, this it is:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here we behold you every day at work,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Living, forsooth! not as your neighbours live,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But richly, royally, ye gods!—Why man,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We cannot get a fish for love or money,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You swallow the whole produce of the sea:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You’ve driv’n our citizens to brouze on cabbage;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A sprig of parsley sets them all a-fighting,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As at the Isthmian games: If hare or partridge,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or but a simple thrush comes to the market,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quick, at a word, you snap him: By the Gods!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hunt Athens through, you shall not find a feather</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But in your kitchen; and for wine, ’tis gold—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not to be purchas’d.—We may drink the ditches.<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span></p> - -<p>Of equal merit with these two last specimens, -are the greatest part of those translations given -by Mr. Cumberland of the fragments of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span> -Greek dramatists. The literary world owes to -that ingenious writer a very high obligation for -his excellent view of the progress of the dramatic -art among the Greeks, and for the collection he -has made of the remains of more than fifty of -their comic poets.<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> - -<p class="subhead">LIMITATION OF THE RULE REGARDING THE -IMITATION OF STYLE.—THIS IMITATION -MUST BE REGULATED BY THE GENIUS OF -LANGUAGES.—THE LATIN ADMITS OF A -GREATER BREVITY OF EXPRESSION THAN -THE ENGLISH;—AS DOES THE FRENCH.—THE -LATIN AND GREEK ALLOW GREATER -INVERSIONS THAN THE ENGLISH,—AND -ADMIT MORE FREELY OF ELLIPSIS</p> - -</div> - -<p>The rule which enjoins to a translator the -imitation of the style of the original author, -demands several limitations.</p> - -<p>1. This imitation must always be regulated by -the nature or genius of the languages of the -original and of the translation.</p> - -<p>The Latin language admits of a brevity, which -cannot be successfully imitated in the English.</p> - -<p>Cicero thus writes to Trebatius (lib. 7, ep. 17):</p> - -<p><i>In Britanniam te profectum non esse gaudeo, -quod et tu labore caruisti, et ego te de rebus illis -non audiam.</i></p> - -<p>It is impossible to translate this into English -with equal brevity, and at the same time do complete -justice to the sentiment. Melmoth, therefore, -has shewn great judgement in sacrificing -the imitation of style to the perfect transfusion -of the sense. “I am glad, for my sake as well<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> -as yours, that you did not attend Cæsar into -Britain; as it has not only saved you the fatigue -of a very disagreeable journey, but me likewise -that of being the perpetual auditor of your -wonderful exploits.” <i>Melm. Cic. Lett.</i> b. 2, l. 12.</p> - -<p>Pliny to Minutianus, lib. 3, ep. 9, says, -towards the end of his letter: <i>Temerè dixi—Succurrit -quod præterieram, et quidem serò: sed -quanquam preposterè reddetur. Facit hoc Homerus, -multique illius exemplo. Est alioqui perdecorum: -a me tamen non ideo fiet.</i> It is no doubt possible -to translate this passage into English with a -conciseness almost equal to the original; but in -this experiment we must sacrifice all its ease -and spirit. “I have said this rashly—I recollect -an omission—somewhat too late indeed. It -shall now be supplied, though a little preposterously. -Homer does this: and many after -his example. Besides, it is not unbecoming; -but this is not my reason.” Let us mark how -Mr. Melmoth, by a happy amplification, has -preserved the spirit and ease, though sacrificing -the brevity of the original. “But upon recollection, -I find that I must recall that last -word; for I perceive, a little too late indeed, -that I have omitted a material circumstance. -However, I will mention it here, though something -out of its place. In this, I have the -authority of Homer, and several other great -names, to keep me in countenance; and the -critics will tell you this irregular manner has its<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -beauties: but, upon my word, it is a beauty I -had not at all in my view.”</p> - -<p>An example of a similar brevity of expression, -which admits of no imitation in English, occurs -in another letter of Cicero to Trebatius, <i>Ep.</i> l. 7, -14.</p> - -<p><i>Chrysippus Vettius, Cyri architecti libertus, -fecit, ut te non immemorem putarem mei. Valde -jam lautus es qui gravere literas ad me dare, -homini præsertim domestico. Quod si scribere -oblitus es, minus multi jam te advocato causâ -cadent. Sin nostri oblitus es, dabo operam ut -isthuc veniam antequam planè ex animo tuo effluo.</i></p> - -<p>In translating this passage, Mr. Melmoth has -shewn equal judgement. Without attempting to -imitate the brevity of the original, which he -knew to be impossible, he saw that the -characterising features of the passage were -ease and vivacity; and these he has very happily -transfused into his translation.</p> - -<p>“If it were not for the compliments you sent -me by Chrysippus, the freedman of Cyrus the -architect, I should have imagined I no longer -possessed a place in your thoughts. But surely -you are become a most intolerable fine gentleman, -that you could not bear the fatigue of -writing to me, when you had the opportunity of -doing so by a man, whom, you know, I look -upon as one almost of my own family. Perhaps, -however, you may have forgotten the use of -your pen: and so much the better, let me tell<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> -you, for your clients, as they will lose no more -causes by its blunders. But if it is myself only -that has escaped your remembrance, I must -endeavour to refresh it by a visit, before I am -worn out of your memory, beyond all power of -recollection.”</p> - -<p>Numberless instances of a similar exercise of -judgement and of good taste are to be found in -Mr. Murphy’s excellent translation of Tacitus. -After the death of Germanicus, poisoned, as was -suspected, by Piso, with the tacit approbation of -Tiberius, the public loudly demanded justice -against the supposed murderer, and the cause -was solemnly tried in the Roman Senate. Piso, -foreseeing a judgement against him, chose to -anticipate his fate by a voluntary death. The -senate decreed that his family name should be -abolished for ever, and that his brother Marcus -should be banished from his country for ten -years; but in deference to the solicitations of the -Empress, they granted a free pardon to Plancina, -his widow. Tacitus proceeds to relate, that this -sentence of the senate was altered by Tiberius: -<i>Multa ex ea sententia mitigata sunt a principe; -“ne nomen Pisonis fastis eximeretur, quando -M. Antonii, qui bellum patriæ fecisset, Juli -Antonii, qui domum Augusti violasset, manerent;” -et M. Pisonem ignominiæ exemit, concessitque ei -paterna bona; satis firmus, ut sæpe memoravi, -adversus pecuniam; et tum pudore absolutæ -Plancinæ placabilior. Atque idem cum Valerius<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> -Messalinus signum aureum in æde Martis Ultoris, -Cæcina Severus aram ultioni statuendam censuissent, -prohibuit: ob externas ea victorias -sacrari dictitans, domestica mala tristitia operienda.</i> -An. l. 3, c. 18.</p> - -<p>Thus necessarily amplified, and translated with -the ease of original composition, by Mr. Murphy:</p> - -<p>“This sentence, in many particulars, was -mitigated by Tiberius. The family name, he -said, ought not to be abolished, while that of -Mark Antony, who appeared in arms against his -country, as well as that of Julius Antonius, who -by his intrigues dishonoured the house of -Augustus, subsisted still, and figured in the -Roman annals. Marcus Piso was left in possession -of his civil dignities, and his father’s -fortune. Avarice, as has been already observed, -was not the passion of Tiberius. On this occasion, -the disgrace incurred by the partiality -shewn to Plancina, softened his temper, and -made him the more willing to extend his mercy -to the son. Valerius Messalinus moved, that a -golden statue might be erected in the temple of -Mars the Avenger. An altar to Vengeance was -proposed by Cæcina Severus. Both these -motions were over-ruled by the Emperor. The -principle on which he argued was, that public -monuments, however proper in cases of foreign -conquest, were not suited to the present juncture. -Domestic calamity should be lamented, -and as soon as possible consigned to oblivion.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span></p> - -<p>The conclusion of the same chapter affords -an example yet more striking of the same -necessary and happy amplification by the -translator.</p> - -<p><i>Addiderat Messalinus, Tiberio et Augustæ, et -Antoniæ, et Agrippinæ, Drusoque, ob vindictam -Germanici grates agendas, omiseratque Claudii -mentionem; et Messalinum quidem L. Asprenas -senatu coram percunctatus est, an prudens præterîsset? -Actum demum nomen Claudii adscriptum -est. Mihi quanto plura recentium, seu veterum -revolvo, tanto magis ludibria rerum mortalium -cunctis in negotiis obversantur; quippe fama, spe, -veneratione potius omnes destinabantur imperio, -quam quem futurum principem fortuna in occulto -tenebat.</i></p> - -<p>“Messalinus added to his motion a vote of -thanks to Tiberius and Livia, to Antonia, -Agrippina, and Drusus, for their zeal in bringing -to justice the enemies of Germanicus. The -name of Claudius was not mentioned. Lucius -Asprenas desired to know whether that omission -was intended. The consequence was, that -Claudius was inserted in the vote. Upon an -occasion like this, it is impossible not to pause -for a moment, to make a reflection that naturally -rises out of the subject. When we review what -has been doing in the world, is it not evident, -that in all transactions, whether of ancient or of -modern date, some strange caprice of fortune -turns all human wisdom to a jest? In the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span> -juncture before us, Claudius figured so little on the -stage of public business, that there was scarce a -man in Rome, who did not seem, by the voice of -fame and the wishes of the people, designed for -the sovereign power, rather than the very person, -whom fate, in that instant, cherished in obscurity, -to make him, at a future period, master of the -Roman world.”</p> - -<p>So likewise in the following passage, we must -admire the judgement of the translator in -abandoning all attempt to rival the brevity -of the original, since he knew it could not be -attained but with the sacrifice both of ease and -perspicuity:</p> - -<p><i>Is finis fuit ulciscenda Germanici morte, non -modo apud illos homines qui tum agebant, etiam -secutis temporibus vario rumore jactata; adeo -maxima quæque ambigua sunt, dum alii quoquo -modo audita pro compertis habent; alii vera in -contrarium vertunt; et gliscit utrumque posteritate.</i> -An. l. 3, c. 19.</p> - -<p>“In this manner ended the enquiry concerning -the death of Germanicus; a subject which has -been variously represented, not only by men of -that day, but by all subsequent writers. It -remains, to this hour, the problem of history. A -cloud for ever hangs over the most important -transactions; while, on the one hand, credulity -adopts for fact the report of the day; and, on -the other, politicians warp and disguise the -truth: between both parties two different<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> -accounts go down from age to age, and gain -strength with posterity.”</p> - -<p>The French language admits of a brevity of -expression more corresponding to that of the -Latin: and of this D’Alembert has given many -happy examples in his translations from Tacitus.</p> - -<p><i>Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi -Nervæ et imperium Trajani, uberiorem, securioremque -materiam senectuti seposui: rarâ temporum -felicitate, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias -dicere licet</i>, Praef. ad Hist. “Si les dieux m’accordent -des jours, je destine à l’occupation et à -la consolation de ma vieillesse, l’histoire interessante -et tranquille de Nerva et de Trajan; tems -heureux et rares, où l’on est libre de penser et de -parler.”</p> - -<p>And with equal, perhaps superior felicity, the -same passage is thus translated by Rousseau: -“Que s’il me reste assez de vie, je réserve pour -ma vieillesse la riche et paisible matiere des -regnes de Nerva et de Trajan: rares et heureux -tems, où l’on peut penser librement, et dire ce -que l’on pense.”</p> - -<p>But D’Alembert, from too earnest a desire to -imitate the conciseness of his original, has sometimes -left the sense imperfect. Of this an -example occurs in the passage before quoted, -<i>An.</i> l. 1, c. 2. <i>Cum cæteri nobilium, quanto quis -servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus extollerentur</i>: -the translator, too studious of brevity, -has not given the complete idea of his author,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span> -“Le reste des nobles trouvoit dans les richesses -et dans les honneurs la récompense de l’esclavage.” -<i>Omnium consensu capax imperii nisi -imperasset</i>, Tac. Hist. 1, 49. “Digne de l’empire -au jugement de tout le monde tant qu’il ne regna -pas.” This is not the idea of the author; for -Tacitus does not mean to say that Galba was -judged worthy of the empire till he attained to -it; but that all the world would have thought -him worthy of the empire if he had never -attained to it.</p> - -<p>2. The Latin and Greek languages admit of -inversions which are inconsistent with the genius -of the English.</p> - -<p>Mr. Gordon, injudiciously aiming at an imitation -of the Latin construction, has given a -barbarous air to his translation of Tacitus: -“To Pallas, who was by Claudius declared to -be the deviser of this scheme, the ornaments of -the prætorship, and three hundred seventy-five -thousand crowns, were adjudged by Bareas -Soranus, consul designed,” <i>An.</i> b. 12.—“Still -to be seen are the Roman standards in the -German groves, there, by me, hung up,” <i>An.</i> -lib. 1. “Naturally violent was the spirit of -Arminius, and now, by the captivity of his wife, -and by the fate of his child, doomed to bondage -though yet unborn, enraged even to distraction.” -<i>Ib.</i> “But he, the more ardent he found the -affections of the soldiers, and the greater the -hatred of his uncle, so much the more intent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> -upon a decisive victory, weighed with himself all -the methods,” &c. <i>Ib.</i> lib. 2.</p> - -<p>Thus, Mr. Macpherson, in his translation of -Homer, (a work otherwise valuable, as containing -a most perfect transfusion of the sense of his -author), has generally adopted an inverted construction, -which is incompatible with the genius -of the English language. “Tlepolemus, the race -of Hercules,—brave in battle and great in arms, -nine ships led to Troy, with magnanimous -Rhodians filled. Those who dwelt in Rhodes, -distinguished in nations three,—who held Lindus, -Ialyssus, and white Camirus, beheld him afar.—Their -leader in arms was Tlepolemus, renowned -at the spear, <i>Il.</i> l. 2.—The heroes the slaughter -began.—Alexander first a warrior slew.—Through -the neck, by the helm passed the -steel.—Iphinous, the son of Dexius, through -the shoulder he pierced—to the earth fell the -chief in his blood, <i>Ib.</i> l. 7. Not unjustly we -Hector admire; matchless at launching the -spear; to break the line of battle, bold, <i>Ib.</i> l. 5. -Nor for vows unpaid rages Apollo; nor solemn -sacrifice denied,” <i>Ib.</i> l. 1.</p> - -<p>3. The English language is not incapable of -an elliptical mode of expression; but it does not -admit of it to the same degree as the Latin. -Tacitus says, <i>Trepida civitas incusare Tiberium</i>, -for <i>trepida civitas incepit incusare Tiberium</i>. We -cannot say in English, “The terrified city to -blame Tiberius:” And even as Gordon has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -translated these words, the ellipsis is too violent -for the English language; “hence against -Tiberius many complaints.”</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Εννημαρ μεν ανα στρατὸν ωκετο κῆλα θεοῖο.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Il.</i> l. 1, l. 53.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“For nine days the arrows of the god were -darted through the army.” The elliptical brevity -of Mr. Macpherson’s translation of this verse, -has no parallel in the original; nor is it agreeable -to the English idiom:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Nine days rush the shafts of the God.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2> - -<p class="subhead">WHETHER A POEM CAN BE WELL TRANSLATED -INTO PROSE</p> - -</div> - -<p>From all the preceding observations respecting -the imitation of style, we may derive this -precept, That 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.</p> - -<p>This precept leads to the examination, and -probably to the decision, of a question which has -admitted of some dispute, Whether a poem can -be well translated into prose?</p> - -<p>There are certain species of poetry, of which -the chief merit consists in the sweetness and -melody of the versification. Of these it is -evident, that the very essence must perish in -translating them into prose. What should we -find in the following beautiful lines, when divested -of the melody of verse?</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">She said, and melting as in tears she lay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a soft silver stream dissolved away.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The silver stream her virgin coldness keeps,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And bathes the forest where she rang’d before.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pope’s</span> <i>Windsor Forest</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But a great deal of the beauty of every regular<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -poem, consists in the melody of its numbers. -Sensible of this truth, many of the prose translators -of poetry, have attempted to give a sort -of measure to their prose, which removes it from -the nature of ordinary language. If this measure -is uniform, and its return regular, the composition -is no longer prose, but blank-verse. If it is -not uniform, and does not regularly return upon -the ear, the composition will be more unharmonious, -than if the measure had been entirely -neglected. Of this, Mr. Macpherson’s translation -of the <i>Iliad</i> is a strong example.</p> - -<p>But it is not only by the measure that poetry -is distinguishable from prose. It is by the -character of its thoughts and sentiments, and -by the nature of that language in which they are -clothed.<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> A boldness of figures, a luxuriancy of -imagery, a frequent use of metaphors, a quickness -of transition, a liberty of digressing; all -these are not only <i>allowable</i> in poetry, but to many -species of it, <i>essential</i>. But they are quite unsuitable -to the character of prose. When seen -in a <i>prose translation</i>, they appear preposterous -and out of place, because they are never found -in an <i>original prose composition</i>.</p> - -<p>In opposition to these remarks, it may be -urged, that there are examples of poems originally -composed in prose, as Fenelon’s <i>Telemachus</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> -But to this we answer, that Fenelon, in composing -his <i>Telemachus</i>, has judiciously adopted -nothing more of the characteristics of poetry -than what might safely be given to a prose composition. -His good taste prescribed to him -certain limits, which he was under no necessity -of transgressing. But a translator is not left to -a similar freedom of judgement: he must follow -the footsteps of his original. Fenelon’s <i>Epic -Poem</i> is of a very different character from the -<i>Iliad</i>, the <i>Æneid</i>, or the <i>Gierusalemme Liberata</i>. -The French author has, in the conduct of his -fable, seldom transgressed the bounds of historic -probability; he has sparingly indulged himself -in the use of the Epic machinery; and there is -a chastity and sobriety even in his language, -very different from the glowing enthusiasm that -characterises the diction of the poems we have -mentioned: We find nothing in the <i>Telemaque</i> -of the <i>Os magna sonaturum</i>.</p> - -<p>The difficulty of translating poetry into prose, -is different in its degree, according to the nature -or species of the poem. Didactic poetry, of -which the principal merit consists in the detail -of a regular system, or in rational precepts which -flow from each other in a connected train of -thought, will evidently suffer least by being -transfused into prose. But every didactic poet -judiciously enriches his work with such ornaments -as are not strictly attached to his subject. -In a prose translation of such a poem, all that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span> -is strictly systematic or preceptive may be -transfused with propriety; all the rest, which -belongs to embellishment, will be found impertinent -and out of place. Of this we have a -convincing proof in Dryden’s translation of the -valuable poem of Du Fresnoy, <i>De Arte Graphica</i>. -The didactic parts of the poem are translated -with becoming propriety; but in the midst of -those practical instructions in the art of painting, -how preposterous appear in prose such passages -as the following?</p> - -<p>“Those things which the poets have thought -unworthy of their pens, the painters have judged -to be unworthy of their pencils. For both those -arts, that they might advance the sacred honours -of religion, have raised themselves to heaven; -and having found a free admission into the -palace of Jove himself, have enjoyed the sight -and conversation of the Gods, whose awful -majesty they observe, and whose dictates they -communicate to mankind, whom, at the same -time they inspire with those celestial flames -which shine so gloriously in their works.</p> - -<p>“Besides all this, you are to express the -motions of the spirits, and the affections or passions, -whose centre is the heart. This is that in -which the greatest difficulty consists. Few there -are whom Jupiter regards with a favourable eye -in this undertaking.</p> - -<p>“And as this part, (the Art of Colouring), -which we may call the utmost perfection of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> -Painting, is a deceiving beauty, but withal -soothing and pleasing; so she has been accused -of procuring lovers for her sister (Design), and -artfully engaging us to admire her.”</p> - -<p>But there are certain species of poetry, of the -merits of which it will be found impossible to -convey the smallest idea in a prose translation. -Such is Lyric poetry, where a greater degree of -irregularity of thought, and a more unrestrained -exuberance of fancy, is allowable than in any -other species of composition. To attempt, -therefore, a translation of a lyric poem into -prose, is the most absurd of all undertakings; -for those very characters of the original which -are essential to it, and which constitute its highest -beauties, if transferred to a prose translation, become -unpardonable blemishes. The excursive -range of the sentiments, and the play of fancy, -which we admire in the original, degenerate in -the translation into mere raving and impertinence. -Of this the translation of Horace in prose, by -Smart, furnishes proofs in every page.</p> - -<p>We may certainly, from the foregoing observations, -conclude, that it is impossible to do -complete justice to any species of poetical composition -in a prose translation; in other words, -that none but a poet can translate a poet.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2> - -<p class="subhead">THIRD GENERAL RULE—A TRANSLATION -SHOULD HAVE ALL THE EASE OF ORIGINAL -COMPOSITION.—EXTREME DIFFICULTY -IN THE OBSERVANCE OF THIS -RULE.—CONTRASTED INSTANCES OF SUCCESS -AND FAILURE.—OF THE NECESSITY -OF SOMETIMES SACRIFICING ONE RULE -TO ANOTHER</p> - -</div> - -<p>It remains now that we consider the third -general law of translation.</p> - -<p>In order that the merit of the original work -may be so completely transfused as to produce -its full effect, it is necessary, not only that the -translation should contain a perfect transcript of -the sentiments of the original, and present likewise -a resemblance of its style and manner; but, -That the translation should have all the ease of -original composition.</p> - -<p>When we consider those restraints within -which a translator finds himself necessarily confined, -with regard to the sentiments and manner -of his original, it will soon appear that this last -requisite includes the most difficult part of his -task.<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> To one who walks in trammels, it is not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span> -easy to exhibit an air of grace and freedom. It -is difficult, even for a capital painter, to preserve -in a copy of a picture all the ease and spirit of -the original; yet the painter employs precisely -the same colours, and has no other care than -faithfully to imitate the touch and manner of the -picture that is before him. If the original is -easy and graceful, the copy will have the same -qualities, in proportion as the imitation is just -and perfect. The translator’s task is very different: -He uses not the same colours with the -original, but is required to give his picture the -same force and effect. He is not allowed to -copy the touches of the original, yet is required,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> -by touches of his own, to produce a perfect -resemblance. The more he studies a scrupulous -imitation, the less his copy will reflect the ease -and spirit of the original. How then shall a -translator accomplish this difficult union of ease -with fidelity? To use a bold expression, he -must adopt the very soul of his author, which -must speak through his own organs.</p> - -<p>Let us proceed to exemplify this third rule of -translation, which regards the attainment of ease -of style, by instances both of success and failure.</p> - -<p>The familiar style of epistolary correspondence -is rarely attainable even in original composition. -It consists in a delicate medium between the perfect -freedom of ordinary conversation and the -regularity of written dissertation or narrative. -It is extremely difficult to attain this delicate -medium in a translation; because the writer has -neither a freedom of choice in the sentiments, -nor in the mode of expressing them. Mr. Melmoth -appears to me to be a great model in this -respect. His Translations of the <i>Epistles of -Cicero</i> and of Pliny have all the ease of the -originals, while they present in general a very -faithful transcript of his author’s sense.</p> - -<p>“Surely, <i>my friend</i>, your couriers are <i>a set of the -most unconscionable fellows</i>. <i>Not that they have -given</i> me any particular offence; but as they never -bring me a letter when they arrive here, <i>is it fair</i>, -they should always press me for one when they -return?” Melmoth, <i>Cic. Ep.</i> 10, 20.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p> - -<p><i>Præposteros habes tabellarios; etsi me quidem -non offendunt. Sed tamen cum a me discedunt, -flagitant litteras, cum ad me veniunt, nullas -afferunt.</i> Cic. Ep. l. 15, ep. 17.</p> - -<p>“Is it not more worthy of your <i>mighty</i> ambition, -to be blended with your learned brethren -at Rome, than to stand <i>the sole great wonder of -wisdom</i> amidst a <i>parcel of paltry provincials</i>?” -Melmoth, <i>Cic. Ep.</i> 2, 23.</p> - -<p><i>Velim—ibi malis esse ubi aliquo numero sis, -quam isthic ubi solus sapere videare.</i> Cic. Ep. -l. 1, ep. 10.</p> - -<p>“<i>In short</i>, I plainly perceive your <i>finances</i> are -in no flourishing situation, and I expect to hear -the same account of all your neighbours; so that -famine, <i>my friend, most formidable famine</i>, must -be your <i>fate</i>, if you do not provide against it in -due time. And since you have been reduced to -sell your horse, <i>e’en mount</i> your mule, (the only -animal, <i>it seems</i>, belonging to you, which you -have not yet <i>sacrificed to your table</i>), and <i>convey -yourself</i> immediately to Rome. <i>To encourage -you to do so</i>, you shall be honoured with a chair -and cushion next to mine, and sit the second -<i>great pedagogue</i> in my <i>celebrated</i> school.” Melmoth, -<i>Cic. Ep.</i> 8, 22.</p> - -<p><i>Video te bona perdidisse: spero idem isthuc -familiares tuos. Actum igitur de te est, nisi provides. -Potes mulo isto quem tibi reliquum dicis -esse (quando cantherium comedisti) Romam pervehi. -Sella tibi erit in ludo, tanquam hypodidascalo; -proxima eam pulvinus sequetur.</i> Cic. -Ep. l. 9, ep. 18.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span></p> - -<p>“Are you not a <i>pleasant mortal</i>, to question me -concerning the fate of those estates you mention, -when Balbus had just before been <i>paying you a -visit</i>?” Melmoth, <i>Cic. Ep.</i> 8, 24.</p> - -<p><i>Non tu homo ridiculus es, qui cum Balbus -noster apud te fuerit, ex me quæras quid de istis -municipiis et agris futurum putem?</i> Cic. Ep. 9, -17.</p> - -<p>“<i>And now</i> I have raised your expectations of -this piece, <i>I doubt</i> you will be disappointed when -<i>it comes to your hands</i>. In the meanwhile, however, -you may expect it, as something that will -please you: <i>And who knows but it may?</i>” Plin. -Ep. 8, 3.</p> - -<p><i>Erexi expectationem tuam; quam vereor ne -destituat oratio in manus sumpta. Interim tamen, -tanquam placituram, et fortasse placebit, expecta.</i> -Plin. Ep. 8, 3.</p> - -<p>“I consent to undertake the cause which you -so earnestly recommend to me; but <i>as glorious -and honourable as it may be, I will not be your -counsel without a fee</i>. Is it possible, you will say, -that <i>my friend Pliny</i> should be so mercenary? -<i>In truth it is</i>; and <i>I insist upon</i> a reward, which -will do me more honour than the most disinterested -patronage.” <i>Plin. Ep.</i> 6, 23.</p> - -<p><i>Impense petis ut agam causam pertinentem -ad curam tuam, pulchram alioquin et famosam. -Faciam, sed non gratis. Qui fieri potest (inquis)<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> -ut non gratis tu? Potest: exigam enim mercedem -honestiorem gratuito patrocinio.</i> Plin. Ep. 8, 3.</p> - -<p>To these examples of the ease of epistolary -correspondence, I add a passage from one of the -orations of Cicero, which is yet in a strain of -greater familiarity: “A certain mechanic—<i>What’s -his name?—Oh, I’m obliged to you for -helping me to it</i>: Yes, I mean Polycletus.” -Melmoth.</p> - -<p><i>Artificem—quemnam? Recte admones. Polycletum -esse ducebant.</i> Cicero, Orat. 2, in Verrem.</p> - -<p>In the preceding instances from Mr. Melmoth, -the words of the English translation which are -marked in Italics, are those which, in my opinion, -give it the ease of original composition.</p> - -<p>But while a translator thus endeavours to -transfuse into his work all the ease of the -original, the most correct taste is requisite to -prevent that ease from degenerating into licentiousness. -I have, in treating of the imitation -of style and manner, given some examples of -the want of this taste. The most licentious of -all translators was Mr. Thomas Brown, of facetious -memory, in whose translations from Lucian -we have the most perfect ease; but it is the ease -of Billingsgate and of Wapping. I shall contrast -a few passages of his translation of this author, -with those of another translator, who has given -a faithful transcript of the sense of his original, -but from an over-scrupulous fidelity has failed a -little in point of ease.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Gnathon.</span> “What now! Timon, do you -strike me? Bear witness, Hercules! O me, O -me! But I will call you into the Areopagus for -this. <span class="smcap">Timon.</span> Stay a little only, and you may -bring me in guilty of murder.”<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> Francklin’s -<i>Lucian</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Gnathon.</span> “Confound him! what a blow he -has given me! What’s this for, old Touchwood? -Bear witness, Hercules, that he has struck me. -I warrant you, I shall make you repent of this -blow. I’ll indite you upon an action of the case, -and bring you <i>coram nobis</i> for an assault and -battery.” <span class="smcap">Timon.</span> “Do, thou confounded law-pimp, -do; but if thou stay’st one minute longer, -I’ll beat thee to pap. I’ll make thy bones rattle -in thee, like three blue beans in a blue bladder. -Go, stinkard, or else I shall make you alter your -action, and get me indicted for manslaughter.” -<i>Timon</i>, Trans. by Brown in Dryden’s <i>Lucian</i>.</p> - -<p>“On the whole, a most perfect character; we -shall see presently, with all his modesty, what a -bawling he will make.” Francklin’s <i>Lucian</i>, -<i>Timon</i>.<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> - -<p>“In fine, he’s a person that knows the world -better than any one, and is extremely well<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span> -acquainted with the whole Encyclopædia of -villany; a true elaborate finished rascal, and for -all he appears so demure now, that you’d think -butter would not melt in his mouth, yet I shall -soon make him open his pipes, and roar like a -persecuted bear.” Dryden’s <i>Lucian</i>, <i>Timon</i>.</p> - -<p>“He changes his name, and instead of Byrria, -Dromo, or Tibius, now takes the name of -Megacles, or Megabyzus, or Protarchus, leaving -the rest of the expectants gaping and looking -at one another in silent sorrow.” Francklin’s -<i>Lucian</i>, <i>Timon</i>.<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> - -<p>“Straight he changes his name, so that the -rascal, who the moment before had no other title -about the house, but, you son of a whore, you -bulk-begotten cur, you scoundrel, must now be -called his worship, his excellency, and the Lord -knows what. The best on’t is, that this mushroom -puts all these fellows noses out of joint,” -&c. Dryden’s <i>Lucian</i>, <i>Timon</i>.</p> - -<p>From these contrasted specimens we may -decide, that the one translation of Lucian errs -perhaps as much on the score of restraint, as -the other on that of licentiousness. The preceding -examples from Melmoth point out, in -my opinion, the just medium of free and spirited -translation, for the attainment of which the most -correct taste is requisite.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span></p> - -<p>If the order in which I have classed the three -general laws of translation is their just and -natural arrangement, which I think will hardly -be denied, it will follow, that in all cases where -a sacrifice is necessary to be made of one of -those laws to another, a due regard ought to be -paid to their rank and comparative importance. -The different genius of the languages of the -original and translation, will often make it -necessary to depart from the manner of the -original, in order to convey a faithful picture -of the sense; but it would be highly preposterous -to depart, in any case, from the sense, for the -sake of imitating the manner. Equally improper -would it be, to sacrifice either the sense or -manner of the original, if these can be preserved -consistently with purity of expression, to a -fancied ease or superior gracefulness of composition. -This last is the fault of the French -translations of D’Ablancourt, an author otherwise -of very high merit. His versions are admirable, -so long as we forbear to compare them with the -originals; they are models of ease, of elegance, -and perspicuity; but he has considered these -qualities as the primary requisites of translation, -and both the sense and manner of his -originals are sacrificed, without scruple, to their -attainment.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]<br /><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2> - -<p class="subhead">IT IS LESS DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN THE EASE OF -ORIGINAL COMPOSITION IN POETICAL, THAN -IN PROSE TRANSLATION.—LYRIC POETRY -ADMITS OF THE GREATEST LIBERTY OF -TRANSLATION.—EXAMPLES DISTINGUISHING -PARAPHRASE FROM TRANSLATION,—FROM -DRYDEN, LOWTH, FONTENELLE, -PRIOR, ANGUILLARA, HUGHES.</p> - -</div> - -<p>It may perhaps appear paradoxical to assert, -that it is less difficult to give to a poetical -translation all the ease of original composition, -than to give the same degree of ease to a prose -translation. Yet the truth of this assertion -will be readily admitted, if assent is given to that -observation, which I before endeavoured to illustrate, -viz. That a superior degree of liberty is -allowed to a poetical translator in amplifying, -retrenching from, and embellishing his original, -than to a prose translator. For without some -portion of this liberty, there can be no ease of -composition; and where the greatest liberty is -allowable, there that ease will be most apparent, -as it is less difficult to attain to it.</p> - -<p>For the same reason, among the different -species of poetical composition, the lyric is that -which allows of the greatest liberty in translation; -as a freedom both of thought and expression -is agreeable to its character. Yet even in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> -this, which is the freest of all species of translation, -we must guard against licentiousness; and -perhaps the more so, that we are apt to persuade -ourselves that the less caution is necessary. The -difficulty indeed is, where so much freedom is -allowed, to define what is to be accounted -licentiousness in poetical translation. A moderate -liberty of amplifying and retrenching the -ideas of the original, has been granted to the -translator of prose; but is it allowable, even to -the translator of a lyric poem, to add new -images and new thoughts to those of the original, -or to enforce the sentiments by illustrations -which are not in the original? As the limits -between free translation and paraphrase are -more easily perceived than they can be well -defined, instead of giving a general answer to -this question, I think it safer to give my opinion -upon particular examples.</p> - -<p>Dr. Lowth has adapted to the present times, -and addressed to his own countrymen, a very -noble imitation of the 6th ode of the third book -of Horace: <i>Delicta majorum immeritus lues</i>, &c. -The greatest part of this composition is of the -nature of parody; but in the version of the -following stanza there is perhaps but a slight -excess of that liberty which may be allowed to -the translator of a lyric poet:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Matura virgo, et fingitur artubus</i></div> - <div class="verse indent4"><i>Jam nunc, et incestos amores</i></div> - <div class="verse indent6"><i>De tenero meditatur ungui.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The ripening maid is vers’d in every dangerous art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That ill adorns the form, while it corrupts the heart;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Practis’d to dress, to dance, to play,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In wanton mask to lead the way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To move the pliant limbs, to roll the luring eye;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With Folly’s gayest partizans to vie</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In empty noise and vain expence;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To celebrate with flaunting air</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The midnight revels of the fair;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Studious of every praise, but virtue, truth, and sense.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Here the translator has superadded no new -images or illustrations; but he has, in two parts -of the stanza, given a moral application which is -not in the original: “That ill adorns the form, -while it corrupts the heart;” and “Studious of -every praise, but virtue, truth, and sense.” These -moral lines are unquestionably a very high -improvement of the original; but they seem to -me to transgress, though indeed very slightly, the -liberty allowed to a poetical translator.</p> - -<p>In that fine translation by Dryden, of the 29th -ode of the third book of Horace, which upon the -whole is paraphrastical, the version of the two -following stanzas has no more licence than what -is justifiable:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Fortuna sævo læto negotio, et</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent4"><i>Transmutat incertos honores,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent6"><i>Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Laudo manentem: si celeres quatit</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pennas, resigno quæ dedit: et mea</i></div> - <div class="verse indent4"><i>Virtute me involvo, probamque</i></div> - <div class="verse indent6"><i>Pauperiem sine dote quæro.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Fortune, who with malicious joy</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Does man, her slave, oppress,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Proud of her office to destroy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is seldom pleas’d to bless.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still various and inconstant still,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But with an inclination to be ill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Promotes, degrades, delights in strife,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And makes a lottery of life.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I can enjoy her while she’s kind;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But when she dances in the wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And shakes her wings, and will not stay,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I puff the prostitute away:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The little or the much she gave is quietly resign’d;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Content with poverty, my soul I arm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The celebrated verses of Adrian, addressed to -his Soul, have been translated and imitated by -many different writers.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Animula, vagula, blandula,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hospes, comesque corporis!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quæ nunc abibis in loca,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pallidula, frigida, nudula,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nec ut soles dabis joca?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center">By Casaubon.</p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ερασμιον ψυχαριον,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ξενη και εταιρη σωματος,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ποι νυν ταλαιν ελευσεαι,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Αμενης, γοερατε και σκια,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ουδ’ ὁια παρος τρυφησεαι;</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Except in the fourth line, where there is a slight -change of epithets, this may be termed a just -translation, exhibiting both the sense and manner -of the original.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center">By Fontenelle.</p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ma petite ame, ma mignonne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu t’en vas donc, ma fille, et Dieu sache ou tu vas.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu pars seulette, nue, et tremblotante, helas!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que deviendra ton humeur folichonne?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que deviendront tant de jolis ébats?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The French translation is still more faithful -to the original, and exhibits equally with the -former its spirit and manner.</p> - -<p>The following verses by Prior are certainly a -great improvement upon the original; by a most -judicious and happy amplification of the sentiments, -(which lose much of their effect in the -Latin, from their extreme compression); nor do -they, in my opinion, exceed the liberty of poetical -translation.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Poor little pretty flutt’ring thing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Must we no longer live together?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And do’st thou prune thy trembling wing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To take thy flight, thou know’st not whither?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The hum’rous vein, the pleasing folly,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lies all neglected, all forgot;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And pensive, wav’ring, melancholy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thou dread’st and hop’st thou know’st not what.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Mr. Pope’s <i>Dying Christian to his Soul</i>, -which is modelled on the verses of Adrian, -retains so little of the thoughts of the original, -and substitutes in their place a train of sentiments -so different, that it cannot even be called -a <i>paraphrase</i>, but falls rather under the description -of <i>imitation</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span></p> - -<p>The Italian version of <i>Ovid</i> in <i>ottava rima</i>, -by Anguillara, is a work of great poetical merit; -but is scarcely in any part to be regarded as a -translation of the original. It is almost entirely -paraphrastical. In the story of Pyramus and -Thisbe, the simple ideas announced in these two -lines,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Tempore crevit amor: tædæ quoque jure coïssent;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sed vetuere patres quod non potuere vetare,</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">are the subject of the following paraphrase, -which is as beautiful in its composition, as it is -unbounded in the licence of its amplification.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Era l’amor cresciuto à poco à poco</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Secondo erano in lor cresciuti gli anni:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E dove prima era trastullo, e gioco,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Scherzi, corrucci, e fanciulleschi inganni,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quando fur giunti a quella età di foco</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dove comincian gli amorosi affanni</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Che l’alma nostra ha si leggiadro il manto</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E che la Donna e’l huom s’amano tanto;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Era tanto l’amor, tanto il desire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tanta la fiamma, onde ciascun ardea:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Che l’uno e l’altro si vedea morire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Se pietoso Himeneo non gli giungea.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E tanto era maggior d’ambi il martire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quanto il voler de l’un l’altro scorge.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ben ambo de le nozze eran contenti,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ma no’l soffriro i loro empi parenti.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Eran fra i padri lor pochi anni avanti</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nata una troppo cruda inimicitia:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E quanto amore, e fè s’hebber gli amanti,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tanto regnò ne’ padri odiò e malitia.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Gli huomini della terra piu prestanti,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tentar pur di ridurli in amicitia;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E vi s’affaticar piu volte assai;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ma non vi sepper via ritrovar mai.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quei padri, che fra lor fur si infedeli</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vetaro à la fanciulla, e al giovinetto,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A due si belli amanti, e si fedeli</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Che non dier luogo al desiato affetto:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ahi padri irragionevoli e crudeli,<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Perche togliete lor tanto diletto;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">S’ogn’un di loro il suo desio corregge</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Con la terrena, e la celeste legge?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O sfortunati padri, ove tendete,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qual ve gli fa destin tener disgiunti?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Perche vetate, quel che non potete?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Che gli animi saran sempre congiunti?</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Ahi, che sara di voi, se gli vedrete</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Per lo vostro rigor restar defunti?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ahi, che co’ vostri non sani consigli</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Procurate la morte a’ vostri figli!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the following poem by Mr. Hughes, which -the author has intitled an imitation of the 16th ode -of the second book of Horace, the greatest part -of the composition is a just and excellent translation, -while the rest is a free paraphrase or commentary -on the original. I shall mark in Italics -all that I consider as paraphrastical: the rest -is a just translation, in which the writer has -assumed no more liberty, than was necessary -to give the poem the easy air of an original -composition.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">I</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Indulgent Quiet! <i>Pow’r serene,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Mother of Peace, and Joy, and Love,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>O say, thou calm, propitious Queen,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent4"><i>Say, in what solitary grove,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Within what hollow rock, or winding cell,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent6"><i>By human eyes unseen,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Like some retreated Druid dost thou dwell?</i></div> - <div class="verse indent6"><i>And why, illusive Goddess! why,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent6"><i>When we thy mansion would surround,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Why dost thou lead us through enchanted ground,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>To mock our vain research, and from our wishes fly.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">II</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The wand’ring sailors, pale with fear,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">For thee the gods implore,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When the tempestuous sea runs high</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when through all the dark, benighted sky</div> - <div class="verse indent2">No friendly moon or stars appear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To guide their steerage to the shore:</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span> - <div class="verse indent2">For thee the weary soldier prays,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Furious in fight the sons of Thrace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Medes, that wear majestic by their side</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A full-charg’d quiver’s decent pride,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gladly with thee would pass inglorious days,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Renounce the warrior’s tempting praise,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And buy thee, if thou might’st be sold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With gems, and purple vests, and stores of plunder’d gold.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">III</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But neither boundless wealth, nor guards that wait</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Around the Consul’s honour’d gate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor antichambers with attendants fill’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mind’s unhappy tumults can abate,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Or banish sullen cares, that fly</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Across the gilded rooms of state,</div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>And their foul nests like swallows build</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Close to the palace-roofs and towers that pierce the sky?</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2">Much less will Nature’s modest wants supply:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And happier lives the homely swain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who in some cottage, far from noise,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His few paternal goods enjoys;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor knows the sordid lust of gain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor with Fear’s tormenting pain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His hovering sleeps destroys.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">IV</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Vain man! that in a narrow space</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At endless game projects the darting spear!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For short is life’s uncertain race;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Then why, capricious mortal! why</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dost thou for happiness repair</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To distant climates and a foreign air?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fool! from thyself thou canst not fly,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thyself the source of all thy care:</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>So flies the wounded stag, provoked with pain,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Bounds o’er the spacious downs in vain;</i></div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>The feather’d torment sticks within his side,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>And from the smarting wound a purple tide</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Marks all his way with blood, and dies the grassy plain.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">V</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But swifter far is execrable Care</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Than stags, or winds, that through the skies</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thick-driving snows and gather’d tempests bear;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pursuing Care the sailing ship out-flies.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Climbs the tall vessel’s painted sides;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor leaves arm’d squadrons in the field,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But with the marching horseman rides,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dwells alike in courts and camps, and makes all places yield.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">VI</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Then, since no state’s completely blest,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Let’s learn the bitter to allay</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With gentle mirth, and, wisely gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Enjoy at least the present day,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And leave to Fate the rest.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor with vain fear of ills to come</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Anticipate th’ appointed doom.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Soon did Achilles quit the stage;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The hero fell by sudden death;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While Tithon to a tedious, wasting age</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Drew his protracted breath.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And thus, old partial Time, my friend,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Perhaps unask’d, to worthless me</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Those hours of lengthen’d life may lend,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Which he’ll refuse to thee.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">VII</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thee shining wealth, and plenteous joys surround,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And all thy fruitful fields around</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Unnumber’d herds of cattle stray;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy harness’d steeds with sprightly voice,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span> - <div class="verse indent2">Make neighbouring vales and hills rejoice,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While smoothly thy gay chariot flies o’er the swift-measur’d way.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To me the stars with less profusion kind,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">An humble fortune have assign’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And no untuneful Lyric vein,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But a sincere contented mind</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That can the vile, malignant crowd disdain.<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2> - -<p class="subhead">OF THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMATIC PHRASES.—EXAMPLES -FROM COTTON, ECHARD, -STERNE.—INJUDICIOUS USE OF IDIOMS IN -THE TRANSLATION, WHICH DO NOT CORRESPOND -WITH THE AGE OR COUNTRY OF THE -ORIGINAL.—IDIOMATIC PHRASES SOMETIMES -INCAPABLE OF TRANSLATION.</p> - -</div> - -<p>While a translator endeavours to give to his -work all the ease of original composition, the -chief difficulty he has to encounter will be found -in the translation of idioms, or those turns of -expression which do not belong to universal -grammar, but of which every language has its -own, that are exclusively proper to it. It will -be easily understood, that when I speak of the -difficulty of translating idioms, I do not mean -those general modes of arrangement or construction -which regulate a whole language, and -which may not be common to it with other -tongues: As, for example, the placing the adjective -always before the substantive in English, -which in French and in Latin is most commonly -placed after it; the use of the participle in -English, where the present tense is used in other -languages; as he is writing, <i>scribit</i>, <i>il écrit</i>; the -use of the preposition <i>to</i> before the infinitive in -English, where the French use the preposition<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> -<i>de</i> or <i>of</i>. These, which may be termed the -<i>general</i> idioms of a language, are soon understood, -and are exchanged for parallel idioms -with the utmost ease. With regard to these a -translator can never err, unless through affectation -or choice.<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> For example, in translating the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span> -French phrase, <i>Il profita d’un avis</i>, he may -choose fashionably to say, in violation of the -English construction, <i>he profited</i> of <i>an advice</i>; or, -under the sanction of poetical licence, he may -choose to engraft the idiom of one language -into another, as Mr. Macpherson has done, where -he says, “Him to <i>the strength of Hercules</i>, the -lovely Astyochea bore;” Ον τεκεν Αστυοχεια, βιη -Ηρακληειη· <i>Il.</i> lib. 2, l. 165. But it is not with -regard to such idiomatic constructions, that a -translator will ever find himself under any -difficulty. It is in the translation of those -particular idiomatic phrases of which every -language has its own collection; phrases which -are generally of a familiar nature, and which -occur most commonly in conversation, or in that -species of writing which approaches to the ease -of conversation.</p> - -<p>The translation is perfect, when the translator -finds in his own language an idiomatic phrase<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span> -corresponding to that of the original. Montaigne -(<i>Ess.</i> l. 1, c. 29) says of Gallio, “Lequel -ayant été envoyé en exil en l’isle de Lesbos, on -fut averti à Rome, <i>qu’il s’y donnoit du bon temps</i>, -et que ce qu’on lui avoit enjoint pour peine, lui -tournoit à commodité.” The difficulty of translating -this sentence lies in the idiomatic phrase, -“<i>qu’il s’y donnoit du bon temps</i>.” Cotton finding -a parallel idiom in English, has translated the -passage with becoming ease and spirit: “As it -happened to one Gallio, who having been sent -an exile to the isle of Lesbos, news was not long -after brought to Rome, that <i>he there lived as -merry as the day was long</i>; and that what had -been enjoined him for a penance, turned out to -his greatest pleasure and satisfaction.” Thus, -in another passage of the same author, (<i>Essais</i>, -l. 1, c. 29) “<i>Si j’eusse été chef de part</i>, j’eusse -prins autre voye plus naturelle.” “<i>Had I rul’d -the roast</i>, I should have taken another and more -natural course.” So likewise, (<i>Ess.</i> l. 1, c. 25) -“Mais d’y enfoncer plus avant, et de <i>m’être rongé -les ongles à l’étude d’Aristote</i>, monarche de la -doctrine moderne.” “But, to dive farther than -that, and to have <i>cudgell’d my brains in the study -of Aristotle</i>, the monarch of all modern learning.” -So, in the following passages from Terence, -translated by Echard: “<i>Credo manibus pedibusque -obnixè omnia facturum</i>,” Andr. act 1. “I -know he’ll be at it tooth and nail.” “<i>Herus, -quantum audio, uxore excidit</i>,” Andr. act 2.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span> -“For aught I perceive, my poor master may go -whistle for a wife.”</p> - -<p>In like manner, the following colloquial -phrases are capable of a perfect translation by -corresponding idioms. <i>Rem acu tetigisti</i>, “You -have hit the nail upon the head.” <i>Mihi isthic -nec seritur nec repitur</i>, Plaut. “That’s no bread -and butter of mine.” <i>Omnem jecit aleam</i>, “It -was neck or nothing with him.” Τι προς τ’ -αλφιτα; Aristoph. <i>Nub.</i> “Will that make the -pot boil?”</p> - -<p>It is not perhaps possible to produce a happier -instance of translation by corresponding idioms, -than Sterne has given in the translation of -<i>Slawkenbergius’s Tale</i>. “<i>Nihil me pœnitet hujus -nasi</i>, quoth Pamphagus; that is, My nose has -been the making of me.” “<i>Nec est cur pœniteat</i>; -that is, How the deuce should such a nose fail?” -<i>Tristram Shandy</i>, vol. 3, ch. 7. “<i>Miles peregrini -in faciem suspexit. Dî boni, nova forma nasi!</i> -The centinel look’d up into the stranger’s face.—Never -saw such a nose in his life!” <i>Ibid.</i></p> - -<p>As there is nothing which so much conduces -both to the ease and spirit of composition, as a -happy use of idiomatic phrases, there is nothing -which a translator, who has a moderate command -of his own language, is so apt to carry to -a licentious extreme. Echard, whose translations -of <i>Terence</i> and of <i>Plautus</i> have, upon the -whole, much merit, is extremely censurable for -his intemperate use of idiomatic phrases. In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> -the first act of the <i>Andria</i>, Davus thus speaks to -himself:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Enimvero, Dave, nihil loci est segnitiæ neque socordiæ.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quantum intellexi senis sententiam de nuptiis:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quæ si non astu providentur, me aut herum pessundabunt;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nec quid agam certum est, Pamphilumne adjutem an auscultem seni.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Terent.</span> <i>Andr.</i> act 1, sc. 3.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The translation of this passage by Echard, -exhibits a strain of vulgar petulance, which is -very opposite to the chastened simplicity of the -original.</p> - -<p>“Why, seriously, poor Davy, ’tis high time to -bestir thy stumps, and to leave off dozing; at -least, if a body may guess at the old man’s -meaning by his mumping. If these brains do -not help me out at a dead lift, to pot goes -Pilgarlick, or his master, for certain: and hang -me for a dog, if I know which side to take; -whether to help my young master, or make fair -with his father.”</p> - -<p>In the use of idiomatic phrases, a translator -frequently forgets both the country of his original -author, and the age in which he wrote; and -while he makes a Greek or a Roman speak -French or English, he unwittingly puts into his -mouth allusions to the manners of modern -France or England.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> This, to use a phrase<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span> -borrowed from painting, may be termed an -offence against the <i>costume</i>. The proverbial -expression, βατραχω ὑδωρ, in <i>Theocritus</i>, is of -similar import with the English proverb, <i>to carry -coals to Newcastle</i>; but it would be a gross -impropriety to use this expression in the translation -of an ancient classic. Cicero, in his oration -for Archias, says, “<i>Persona quæ propter otium et -studium minime in judiciis periculisque versata -est.</i>” M. Patru has translated this, “Un homme -que ses études et ses livres ont éloigné du -commerce du <i>Palais</i>.” The <i>Palais</i>, or the Old -Palace of the kings of France, it is true, is the -place where the parliament of Paris and the -chief courts of justice were assembled for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span> -the decision of causes; but it is just as absurd -to make Cicero talk of his haranguing in the -<i>Palais</i>, as it would be of his pleading in Westminster -Hall. In this respect, Echard is most -notoriously faulty: We find in every page of his -translations of <i>Terence</i> and <i>Plautus</i>, the most -incongruous jumble of ancient and of modern -manners. He talks of the “Lord Chief Justice -of Athens,” <i>Jam tu autem nobis Præturam geris?</i> -Pl. Epid. act 1, sc. 1, and says, “I will send him -to Bridewell with his skin stripped over his -ears,” <i>Hominem irrigatum plagis pistori dabo</i>, -Ibid. sc. 3. “I must expect to beat hemp in -Bridewell all the days of my life,” <i>Molendum -mihi est usque in pistrina</i>, Ter. Phormio, act 2. -“He looks as grave as an alderman,” <i>Tristis -severitas inest in vultû</i>, Ibid. Andria, act 5.—The -same author makes the ancient heathen -Romans and Greeks swear British and Christian -oaths; such as “Fore George, Blood and ounds, -Gadzookers, ’Sbuddikins, By the Lord Harry!” -They are likewise well read in the books both -of the Old and New Testament: “Good b’ye, -Sir Solomon,” says Gripus to Trachalion, <i>Salve, -Thales!</i> Pl. Rudens, act 4, sc. 3; and Sosia thus -vouches his own identity to Mercury, “By Jove -I am he, and ’tis as true as the gospel,” <i>Per -Jovem juro, med esse, neque me falsum dicere</i>, -Pl. Amphit. act 1, sc. 1.<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> The same ancients,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span> -in Mr. Echard’s translation, are familiarly acquainted -with the modern invention of gunpowder; -“Had we but a mortar now to play -upon them under the covert way, one bomb -would make them scamper,” <i>Fundam tibi nunc -nimis vellem dari, ut tu illos procul hinc ex oculto -cæderes, facerent fugam</i>, Ter. Eun. act 4. And -as their soldiers swear and fight, so they must -needs drink like the moderns: “This god can’t -afford one brandy-shop in all his dominions,” -<i>Ne thermopolium quidem ullum ille instruit</i>, Pl. -Rud. act 2, sc. 9. In the same comedy, Plautus, -who wrote 180 years before Christ, alludes to -the battle of La Hogue, fought <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1692. -“I’ll be as great as a king,” says Gripus, “I’ll -have a <i>Royal Sun</i><a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> for pleasure, like the king of -France, and sail about from port to port,” -<i>Navibus magnis mercaturam faciam</i>, Pl. Rud. -act 4, sc. 2.</p> - -<p>In the Latin poems of Pitcairne, we remark -an uncommon felicity in cloathing pictures of -modern manners in classical phraseology. In -familiar poetry, and in pieces of a witty or -humorous nature, this has often a very happy -effect, and exalts the ridicule of the sentiment, -or humour of the picture. But Pitcairne’s fondness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span> -for the language of Horace, Ovid, and -Lucretius, has led him sometimes into a gross -violation of propriety, and the laws of good taste. -In the translation of a Psalm, we are shocked -when we find the Almighty addressed by the -epithets of a heathen divinity, and his attributes -celebrated in the language and allusions proper -to the Pagan mythology. Thus, in the translation -of the 104th Psalm, every one must be -sensible of the glaring impropriety of the -following expressions:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Dexteram invictam canimus, Jovemque</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui triumphatis, hominum et Deorum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Præsidet regnis.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quam tuæ virtus tremefecit orbem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Juppiter dextræ.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Et manus ventis tua Dædaleas</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Assuit alas.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">facilesque leges</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rebus imponis, quibus antra parent</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Æoli.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Proluit siccam pluvialis æther</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Barbam, et arentes humeros Atlantis.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Que fovet tellus, fluviumque regnum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tethyos.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Juppiter carmen mihi semper.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Juppiter solus mihi rex.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the entire translation of the Psalms by -Johnston, we do not find a single instance of -similar impropriety. And in the admirable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span> -version by Buchanan, there are (to my knowledge) -only two passages which are censurable on that -account. The one is the beginning of the 4th -Psalm:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Pater, O hominum <i>Divûmque</i> æterna potestas!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">which is the first line of the speech of Venus to -Jupiter, in the 10th <i>Æneid</i>: and the other is the -beginning of Psalm lxxxii. where two entire -lines, with the change of one syllable, are -borrowed from Horace:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Regum timendorum in proprios greges,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reges in ipsos imperium est <i>Jovæ</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">In the latter example, the poet probably judged -that the change of <i>Jovis</i> into <i>Jovæ</i> removed all -objection; and Ruddiman has attempted to -vindicate the <i>Divûm</i> of the former passage, by -applying it to saints or angels: but allowing -there were sufficient apology for both those -words, the impropriety still remains; for the -associated ideas present themselves immediately -to the mind, and we are justly offended with the -literal adoption of an address to Jupiter in a -hymn to the Creator.</p> - -<p>If a translator is bound, in general, to adhere -with fidelity to the manners of the age and -country to which his original belongs, there are -some instances in which he will find it necessary -to make a slight sacrifice to the manners of his -modern readers. The ancients, in the expression -of resentment or contempt, made use of many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span> -epithets and appellations which sound extremely -shocking to our more polished ears, because we -never hear them employed but by the meanest -and most degraded of the populace. By similar -reasoning we must conclude, that those expressions -conveyed no such mean or shocking -ideas to the ancients, since we find them used -by the most dignified and exalted characters. -In the 19th book of the <i>Odyssey</i>, Melantho, one -of Penelope’s maids, having vented her spleen -against Ulysses, and treated him as a bold -beggar who had intruded himself into the palace -as a spy, is thus sharply reproved by the Queen:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Παντως θαρσαλεη κυον αδδεες, ουτι με ληθεις</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ερδουσα μεγα εργον, ὁ ση κεφαλη αναμαξεις.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>These opprobrious epithets, in a literal translation, -would sound extremely offensive from the -lips of the περιφρων Πηνελοπεια, whom the poet -has painted as a model of female dignity and -propriety. Such translation, therefore, as conveying -a picture different from what the poet -intended, would be in reality injurious to his -sense. Of this sort of refinement Mr. Hobbes -had no idea; and therefore he gives the epithets -in their genuine purity and simplicity:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Bold bitch, said she, I know what deeds you’ve done,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which thou shalt one day pay for with thy head.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>We cannot fail, however, to perceive, that Mr. -Pope has in fact been more faithful to the sense<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span> -of his original, by accommodating the expressions -of the speaker to that character which a -modern reader must conceive to belong to her:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Loquacious insolent, she cries, forbear!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy head shall pay the forfeit of thy tongue.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>A translator will often meet with idiomatic -phrases in the original author, to which no corresponding -idiom can be found in the language -of the translation. As a literal translation of -such phrases cannot be tolerated, the only resource -is, to express the sense in plain and easy -language. Cicero, in one of his letters to Papirius -Pætus, says, “<i>Veni igitur, si vires, et disce jam -προλεγομενας quas quæris; etsi sus Minervam</i>,” -Ep. ad Fam. 9, 18. The idiomatic phrase <i>si vires</i>, -is capable of a perfect translation by a corresponding -idiom; but that which occurs in the -latter part of the sentence, <i>etsi sus Minervam</i>, can -neither be translated by a corresponding idiom, -nor yet literally. Mr. Melmoth has thus happily -expressed the sense of the whole passage: “If -you have any spirit then, fly hither, and learn -from our elegant bills of fare how to refine your -own; though, to do your talents justice, this is -a sort of knowledge in which you are much -superior to your instructors.”—Pliny, in one -of his epistles to Calvisius, thus addresses him, -<i>Assem para, et accipe auream fabulam: fabulas -immo: nam me priorum nova admonuit</i>, lib. 2, ep. -20. To this expression, <i>assem para</i>, &c. which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span> -is a proverbial mode of speech, we have nothing -that corresponds in English. To translate the -phrase literally would have a poor effect: “Give -me a penny, and take a golden story, or a story -worth gold.” Mr. Melmoth has given the sense -in easy language: “Are you inclined to hear a -story? or, if you please, two or three? for one -brings to my mind another.”</p> - -<p>But this resource, of translating the idiomatic -phrase into easy language, must fail, where the -merit of the passage to be translated actually lies -in that expression which is idiomatical. This -will often occur in epigrams, many of which are -therefore incapable of translation: Thus, in the -following epigram, the point of wit lies in an -idiomatic phrase, and is lost in every other -language where the same precise idiom does not -occur:</p> - -<p class="center"><i>On the wretched imitations of the</i> Diable Boiteux <i>of -Le Sage</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Le Diable Boiteux est aimable;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le Sage y triomphe aujourdhui;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout ce qu’on a fait après lui</div> - <div class="verse indent2">N’a pas valu le Diable.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">We say in English, “’Tis not worth a fig,” or, -“’tis not worth a farthing;” but we cannot say, -as the French do, “’Tis not worth the devil;” -and therefore the epigram cannot be translated -into English.</p> - -<p>Somewhat of the same nature are the following<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span> -lines of Marot, in his <i>Epitre au Roi</i>, where -the merit lies in the ludicrous <i>naïveté</i> of the last -line, which is idiomatical, and has no strictly -corresponding expression in English:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">J’avois un jour un valet de Gascogne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gourmand, yvrogne, et assuré menteur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pipeur, larron, jureur, blasphémateur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sentant la hart de cent pas à la ronde:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Au demeurant le meilleur filz du monde.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Although we have idioms in English that are -nearly similar to this, we have none which -has the same <i>naïveté</i>, and therefore no justice -can be done to this passage by any English -translation.</p> - -<p>In like manner, it appears to me impossible -to convey, in any translation, the <i>naïveté</i> of the -following remark on the fanciful labours of -Etymologists: “Monsieur,—dans l’Etymologie -il faut compter les voyelles pour rien, et les -consonnes pour peu de chose.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2> - -<p class="subhead">DIFFICULTY OF TRANSLATING DON QUIXOTE, -FROM ITS IDIOMATIC PHRASEOLOGY.—OF -THE BEST TRANSLATIONS OF THAT ROMANCE.—COMPARISON -OF THE TRANSLATION -BY MOTTEUX WITH THAT BY SMOLLET.</p> - -</div> - -<p>There is perhaps no book to which it is -more difficult to do perfect justice in a translation -than the <i>Don Quixote</i> of Cervantes. This -difficulty arises from the extreme frequency of -its idiomatic phrases. As the Spanish language -is in itself highly idiomatical, even the narrative -part of the book is on that account difficult; -but the colloquial part is studiously filled with -idioms, as one of the principal characters continually -expresses himself in proverbs. Of this work -there have been many English translations, executed, -as may be supposed, with various degrees -of merit. The two best of these, in my opinion, -are the translations of Motteux and Smollet, -both of them writers eminently well qualified -for the task they undertook. It will not be -foreign to the purpose of this Essay, if I shall -here make a short comparative estimate of the -merit of these translations.<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span></p> - -<p>Smollet inherited from nature a strong sense -of ridicule, a great fund of original humour, and -a happy versatility of talent, by which he could -accommodate his style to almost every species -of writing. He could adopt alternately the -solemn, the lively, the sarcastic, the burlesque, -and the vulgar. To these qualifications he joined -an inventive genius, and a vigorous imagination. -As he possessed talents equal to the composition -of original works of the same species with -the romance of Cervantes; so it is not perhaps -possible to conceive a writer more completely -qualified to give a perfect translation of that -romance.</p> - -<p>Motteux, with no great abilities as an original -writer, appears to me to have been endowed with -a strong perception of the ridiculous in human -character; a just discernment of the weaknesses -and follies of mankind. He seems likewise to -have had a great command of the various styles -which are accommodated to the expression both -of grave burlesque, and of low humour. Inferior -to Smollet in inventive genius, he seems to have -equalled him in every quality which was essentially -requisite to a translator of <i>Don Quixote</i>. -It may therefore be supposed, that the contest -between them will be nearly equal, and the -question of preference very difficult to be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span> -decided. It would have been so, had Smollet -confided in his own strength, and bestowed on -his task that time and labour which the length -and difficulty of the work required: but Smollet -too often wrote in such circumstances, that dispatch -was his primary object. He found various -English translations at hand, which he judged -might save him the labour of a new composition. -Jarvis could give him faithfully the sense of his -author; and it was necessary, only to polish his -asperities, and lighten his heavy and aukward -phraseology. To contend with Motteux, Smollet -found it necessary to assume the armour of -Jarvis. This author had purposely avoided, -through the whole of his work, the smallest -coincidence of expression with Motteux, whom, -with equal presumption and injustice, he accuses -in his preface of having “taken his version -wholly from the French.”<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> We find, therefore,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span> -both in the translation of Jarvis and in that of -Smollet, which is little else than an improved -edition of the former, that there is a studied<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span> -rejection of the phraseology of Motteux. Now, -Motteux, though he has frequently assumed too -great a licence, both in adding to and retrenching -from the ideas of his original, has upon the -whole a very high degree of merit as a translator. -In the adoption of corresponding idioms -he has been eminently fortunate, and, as in these -there is no great latitude, he has in general preoccupied -the appropriated phrases; so that a -succeeding translator, who proceeded on the rule -of invariably rejecting his phraseology, must have, -in general, altered for the worse. Such, I have -said, was the rule laid down by Jarvis, and by -his copyist and improver, Smollet, who by thus -absurdly rejecting what his own judgement and -taste must have approved, has produced a composition -decidedly inferior, on the whole, to that -of Motteux. While I justify the opinion I have -now given, by comparing several passages of -both translations, I shall readily allow full credit -to the performance of Smollet, wherever I find -that there is a real superiority to the work of his -rival translator.</p> - -<p>After Don Quixote’s unfortunate encounter -with the Yanguesian carriers, in which the -Knight, Sancho, and Rozinante, were all most -grievously mauled, his faithful squire lays his -master across his ass, and conducts him to the -nearest inn, where a miserable bed is made up -for him in a cock-loft. Cervantes then proceeds -as follows:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span></p> - -<p><i>En esta maldita cama se accostó Don Quixote: -y luego la ventera y su hija le emplastáron de -arriba abaxo, alumbrandoles Maritornes: que asi -se llamaba la Asturiana. Y como al vizmalle, -viese la ventera tan acardenalado á partes á Don -Quixote, dixo que aquello mas parecian golpes que -caida. No fuéron golpes, dixo Sancho, sino que la -peña tenia muchos picos y tropezones, y que cada uno -habia hecho su cardinal, y tambien le dixo: haga -vuestra merced, señora, de manera que queden -algunas estopas, que no faltará quien las haya -menester, que tambien me duelen á mí un poco los -lomos. Desa manera, respondió la ventera, tambien -debistes vos de caer? No caí, dico Sancho -Panza, sino que del sobresalto que tome de ver -caer á mí amo, de tal manera me duele á mí -el cuerpo, que me parece que me han dado mil -palos.</i></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translation by Motteux</i></p> - -<p>“In this ungracious bed was the Knight laid -to rest his belaboured carcase; and presently the -hostess and her daughter anointed and plastered -him all over, while Maritornes (for that was the -name of the Asturian wench) held the candle. -The hostess, while she greased him, wondering -to see him so bruised all over, I fancy, said she, -those bumps look much more like a dry beating -than a fall. ’Twas no dry beating, mistress, I -promise you, quoth Sancho; but the rock had I -know not how many cragged ends and knobs,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span> -and every one of them gave my master a token -of its kindness. And by the way, forsooth, continued -he, I beseech you save a little of that -same tow and ointment for me too, for I don’t -know what’s the matter with my back, but I -fancy I stand mainly in want of a little greasing -too. What, I suppose you fell too, quoth the -landlady. Not I, quoth Sancho, but the very -fright that I took to see my master tumble -down the rock, has so wrought upon my body, -that I am as sore as if I had been sadly -mauled.”</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translation by Smollet</i></p> - -<p>“In this wretched bed Don Quixote having -laid himself down, was anointed from head to -foot by the good woman and her daughter, while -Maritornes (that was the Asturian’s name) stood -hard by, holding a light. The landlady, in the -course of her application, perceiving the Knight’s -whole body black and blue, observed, that those -marks seemed rather the effects of drubbing -than of a fall; but Sancho affirmed she was -mistaken, and that the marks in question were -occasioned by the knobs and corners of the -rocks among which he fell. And now, I think -of it, said he, pray, Madam, manage matters so -as to leave a little of your ointment, for it will -be needed, I’ll assure you: my own loins are -none of the soundest at present. What, did you -fall too, said she? I can’t say I did, answered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span> -the squire; but I was so infected by seeing my -master tumble, that my whole body akes, as -much as if I had been cudgelled without -mercy.”</p> - -<p>Of these two translations, it will hardly be -denied that Motteux’s is both easier in point of -style, and conveys more forcibly the humour of -the dialogue in the original. A few contrasted -phrases will shew clearly the superiority of the -former.</p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “In this ungracious bed was the -Knight laid to rest his belaboured carcase.”</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “In this wretched bed Don Quixote -having laid himself down.”</p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “While Maritornes (for that was -the name of the Asturian wench) held the -candle.”</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “While Maritornes (that was the -Asturian’s name) stood hard by, holding a -light.”</p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “The hostess, while she greased him.”</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “The landlady, in the course of her -application.”</p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “I fancy, said she, those bumps -look much more like a dry beating than a fall.”</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “Observed, that those marks seemed -rather the effect of drubbing than of a fall.”</p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “’Twas no dry beating, mistress, I -promise you, quoth Sancho.”</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “But Sancho affirmed she was in a -mistake.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span></p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “And, by the way, forsooth, continued -he, I beseech you save a little of that -same tow and ointment for me; for I don’t know -what’s the matter with my back, but I fancy I -stand mainly in need of a little greasing too.”</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “And now, I think of it, said he, -pray, Madam, manage matters so as to leave a -little of your ointment, for it will be needed, I’ll -assure you: my own loins are none of the -soundest at present.”</p> - -<p><i>Motteux.</i> “What, I suppose you fell too, -quoth the landlady? Not I, quoth Sancho, but -the very fright,” &c.</p> - -<p><i>Smollet.</i> “What, did you fall too, said she? -I can’t say I did, answered the squire; but I -was so infected,” &c.</p> - -<p>There is not only more ease of expression -and force of humour in Motteux’s translation -of the above passages than in Smollet’s, but -greater fidelity to the original. In one part, <i>no -fueron golpes</i>, Smollet has improperly changed -the first person for the third, or the colloquial -style for the narrative, which materially weakens -the spirit of the passage. <i>Cada uno habia hecho -su cardenal</i> is most happily translated by Motteux, -“every one of them gave him a token of -its kindness;” but in Smollet’s version, this -spirited clause of the sentence evaporates altogether.—<i>Algunas -estopas</i> is more faithfully -rendered by Motteux than by Smollet. In the -latter part of the passage, when the hostess<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span> -jeeringly says to Sancho, <i>Desa manera tambien -debistes vos de caer?</i> the squire, impatient to -wipe off that sly insinuation against the veracity -of his story, hastily answers, <i>No cai</i>. To this -Motteux has done ample justice, “Not I, quoth -Sancho.” But Smollet, instead of the arch -effrontery which the author meant to mark by -this answer, gives a tame apologetic air to the -squire’s reply, “I can’t say I did, answered the -squire.” <i>Don Quix.</i> par. 1, cap. 16.</p> - -<p>Don Quixote and Sancho, travelling in the -night through a desert valley, have their ears -assailed at once by a combination of the most -horrible sounds, the roaring of cataracts, clanking -of chains, and loud strokes repeated at -regular intervals; all which persuade the Knight, -that his courage is immediately to be tried in -a most perilous adventure. Under this impression, -he felicitates himself on the immortal -renown he is about to acquire, and brandishing -his lance, thus addresses Sancho, whose joints -are quaking with affright:</p> - -<p><i>Asi que aprieta un poco las cinchas a Rocinante, -y quédate a Dios, y asperame aqui hasta tres dias, -no mas, en los quales si no volviere, puedes tú -volverte á nuestra aldea, y desde allí, por hacerme -merced y buena obra, irás al Toboso, donde dirás -al incomparable señora mia Dulcinea, que su -cautivo caballero murió por acometer cosas, que le -hiciesen digno de poder llamarse suyo.</i> Don -Quix. par. 1, cap. 20.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translation by Motteux</i></p> - -<p>“Come, girth Rozinante straiter, and then -Providence protect thee: Thou may’st stay for -me here; but if I do not return in three days, -go back to our village, and from thence, for my -sake, to Toboso, where thou shalt say to my -incomparable lady Dulcinea, that her faithful -knight fell a sacrifice to love and honour, while -he attempted things that might have made him -worthy to be called her adorer.”</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translation by Smollet</i></p> - -<p>“Therefore straiten Rozinante’s girth, recommend -thyself to God, and wait for me in this -place, three days at farthest; within which time -if I come not back, thou mayest return to our -village, and, as the last favour and service done -to me, go from thence to Toboso, and inform my -incomparable mistress Dulcinea, that her captive -knight died in attempting things that might -render him worthy to be called her lover.”</p> - -<p>On comparing these two translations, that of -Smollet appears to me to have better preserved -the ludicrous solemnity of the original. This is -particularly observable in the beginning of the -sentence, where there is a most humorous association -of two counsels very opposite in their -nature, the recommending himself to God, and -girding Rozinante. In the request, “and as the -last favour and service done to me, go from -thence to Toboso;” the translations of Smollet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span> -and Motteux are, perhaps, nearly equal in -point of solemnity, but the simplicity of the -original is better preserved by Smollet.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> - -<p>Sancho, after endeavouring in vain to dissuade -his master from engaging in this perilous adventure, -takes advantage of the darkness to tie -Rozinante’s legs together, and thus to prevent him -from stirring from the spot; which being done, -to divert the Knight’s impatience under this -supposed enchantment, he proceeds to tell him, -in his usual strain of rustic buffoonery, a long -story of a cock and a bull, which thus begins: -“<i>Erase que se era, el bien que viniere para todos -sea, y el mal para quien lo fuere á buscar; y -advierta vuestra merced, señor mio, que el principio -que los antiguos dieron a sus consejas, no fue así -como quiera, que fue una sentencia de Caton Zonzorino -Romano que dice, y el mal para quien lo -fuere á buscar.</i>” Ibid.</p> - -<p>In this passage, the chief difficulties that occur -to the translator are, <i>first</i>, the beginning, which -seems to be a customary prologue to a nursery-tale<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span> -among the Spaniards, which must therefore -be translated by a corresponding phraseology in -English; and <i>secondly</i>, the blunder of <i>Caton -Zonzorino</i>. Both these are, I think, most happily -hit off by Motteux. “In the days of yore, -when it was as it was, good betide us all, and -evil to him that evil seeks. And here, Sir, you -are to take notice, that they of old did not begin -their tales in an ordinary way; for ’twas a -saying of a wise man, whom they call’d Cato -the Roman Tonsor, that said, Evil to him that -evil seeks.” Smollet thus translates the passage: -“There was, so there was; the good that shall -fall betide us all; and he that seeks evil may -meet with the devil. Your worship may take -notice, that the beginning of the ancient tales is -not just what came into the head of the teller: -no, they always began with some saying of Cato, -the censor of Rome, like this, of “He that seeks -evil may meet with the devil.”</p> - -<p>The beginning of the story, thus translated, -has neither any meaning in itself, nor does it -resemble the usual preface of a foolish tale. -Instead of <i>Caton Zonzorino</i>, a blunder which -apologises for the mention of Cato by such an -ignorant clown as Sancho, we find the blunder -rectified by Smollet, and Cato distinguished by -his proper epithet of the Censor. This is a -manifest impropriety in the last translator, for -which no other cause can be assigned, than that -his predecessor had preoccupied the blunder of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span> -<i>Cato the Tonsor</i>, which, though not a translation -of <i>Zonzorino</i>, (the purblind), was yet a very -happy parallelism.</p> - -<p>In the course of the same cock-and-bull story, -Sancho thus proceeds: “<i>Asi que, yendo dias y -viniendo dias, el diablo que no duerme y que todo -lo añasca, hizo de manera, que el amor que el pastor -tenia á su pastora se volviese en omecillo y mala -voluntad, y la causa fué segun malas lenguas, una -cierta cantidad de zelillos que ella le dió, tales que -pasaban de la raya, y llegaban á lo vedado, y fue -tanto lo que el pastor la aborreció de alli adelante, -que por on verla se quiso ausentar de aquella -tierra, é irse donde sus ojos no la viesen jamas: la -Toralva, que se vió desdeñada del Lope, luego le -quiso bien mas que nunca le habla querido.</i>” Ibid.</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translation by Motteux</i></p> - -<p>“Well, but, as you know, days come and go, -and time and straw makes medlars ripe; so it -happened, that after several days coming and -going, the devil, who seldom lies dead in a -ditch, but will have a finger in every pye, so -brought it about, that the shepherd fell out with -his sweetheart, insomuch that the love he bore -her turned into dudgeon and ill-will; and the -cause was, by report of some mischievous tale-carriers, -that bore no good-will to either party, -for that the shepherd thought her no better than -she should be, a little loose i’ the hilts, &c.<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span> -Thereupon being grievous in the dumps about it, -and now bitterly hating her, he e’en resolved to -leave that country to get out of her sight: for -now, as every dog has his day, the wench perceiving -he came no longer a suitering to her, but -rather toss’d his nose at her and shunn’d her, she -began to love him, and doat upon him like any -thing.”</p> - -<p>I believe it will be allowed, that the above -translation not only conveys the complete sense -and spirit of the original, but that it greatly improves -upon its humour. When Smollet came -to translate this passage, he must have severely -felt the hardship of that law he had imposed on -himself, of invariably rejecting the expressions of -Motteux, who had in this instance been eminently -fortunate. It will not therefore surprise us, if -we find the new translator to have here failed as -remarkably as his predecessor has succeeded.</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translation by Smollet</i></p> - -<p>“And so, in process of time, the devil, who -never sleeps, but <i>wants to have a finger in every -pye</i>, managed matters in such a manner, that the -shepherd’s love for the shepherdess was turned -into malice and deadly hate: and the cause, -according to evil tongues, was a certain quantity -of small jealousies she gave him, exceeding all -bounds of measure. And such was the abhorrence -the shepherd conceived for her, that, in order to -avoid the sight of her, he resolved to absent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span> -himself from his own country, and go where he -should never set eyes on her again. Toralvo -finding herself despised by Lope, began to love -him more than ever.”</p> - -<p>Smollet, conscious that in the above passage -Motteux had given the best possible <i>free</i> translation, -and that he had supplanted him in the -choice of corresponding idioms, seems to have -piqued himself on a rigid adherence to the very -<i>letter</i> of his original. The only English idiom, -being a plagiarism from Motteux, “<i>wants to -have a finger in every pye</i>,” seems to have been -adopted from absolute necessity: the Spanish -phrase would not bear a literal version, and no -other idiom was to be found but that which -Motteux had preoccupied.</p> - -<p>From an inflexible adherence to the same -law, of invariably rejecting the phraseology of -Motteux, we find in every page of this new -translation numberless changes for the worse:</p> - -<p><i>Se que no mira de mal ojo á la mochacha.</i></p> - -<p>“I have observed he casts a sheep’s eye at the -wench.” <i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p>“I can perceive he has no dislike to the girl.” -<i>Smollet.</i></p> - -<p><i>Teresa me pusieron en el bautismo, nombre -mondo y escueto, sin anadiduras, ni cortopizas, ni -arrequives de Dones ni Donas.</i></p> - -<p>“I was christened plain Teresa, without any -fiddle-faddle, or addition of Madam, or Your -Ladyship.” <i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span></p> - -<p>“Teresa was I christened, a bare and simple -name, without the addition, garniture, and embroidery -of Don or Donna.” <i>Smollet.</i></p> - -<p><i>Sigue tu cuenta, Sancho.</i></p> - -<p>“Go on with thy story, Sancho.” <i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p>“Follow thy story, Sancho.” <i>Smollet.</i></p> - -<p><i>Yo confieso que he andado algo risueño en -demasía.</i></p> - -<p>“I confess I carried the jest too far.” <i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p>“I see I have exceeded a little in my -pleasantry.” <i>Smollet.</i></p> - -<p><i>De mis viñas vengo, no se nada, no soy amigo de -saber vidas agenas.</i></p> - -<p>“I never thrust my nose into other men’s -porridge; it’s no bread and butter of mine: -Every man for himself, and God for us all, say -I.” <i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p>“I prune my own vine, and I know nothing -about thine. I never meddle with other people’s -concerns.” <i>Smollet.</i></p> - -<p><i>Y advierta que ya tengo edad para dar consejos. -Quien bien tiene, y mal escoge, por bien que se enoja, -no se venga.</i><a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> - -<p>“Come, Master, I have hair enough in my -beard to make a counsellor: he that will not -when he may, when he will he shall have nay.” -<i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span></p> - -<p>“Take notice that I am of an age to give good -counsels. He that hath good in his view, and -yet will not evil eschew, his folly deserveth to -rue.” <i>Smollet.</i> Rather than adopt a corresponding -proverb, as Motteux has done, Smollet -chuses, in this instance, and in many others, to -make a proverb for himself, by giving a literal -version of the original in a sort of doggrel -rhime.</p> - -<p><i>Vive Roque, que es la señora nuestra amo mas -ligera que un alcotan, y que puede enseñar al mas -diestro Cordobes o Mexicano.</i></p> - -<p>“By the Lord Harry, quoth Sancho, our Lady -Mistress is as nimble as an eel. Let me be -hang’d, if I don’t think she might teach the best -Jockey in Cordova or Mexico to mount a-horseback.” -<i>Motteux.</i></p> - -<p>“By St. Roque, cried Sancho, my Lady -Mistress is as light as a hawk,<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> and can teach the -most dexterous horseman to ride.” <i>Smollet.</i></p> - -<p>The chapter which treats of the puppet-show, -is well translated both by Motteux and Smollet. -But the discourse of the boy who explains the -story of the piece, in Motteux’s translation, -appears somewhat more consonant to the phraseology -commonly used on such occasions: -“Now, gentlemen, in the next place, mark that -personage that peeps out there with a crown on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span> -his head, and a sceptre in his hand: That’s the -Emperor Charlemain.—Mind how the Emperor -turns his back upon him.—Don’t you see that -Moor;—hear what a smack he gives on her -sweet lips,—and see how she spits, and wipes her -mouth with her white smock-sleeve. See how -she takes on, and tears her hair for very madness, -as if it was to blame for this affront.—Now -mind what a din and hurly-burly there is.” -<i>Motteux.</i> This jargon appears to me to be -more characteristic of the speaker than the -following: “And that personage who now appears -with a crown on his head and a sceptre in -his hand, is the Emperor Charlemagne.—Behold -how the Emperor turns about and walks off.—Don’t -you see that Moor;—Now mind how he -prints a kiss in the very middle of her lips, and -with what eagerness she spits, and wipes them -with the sleeve of her shift, lamenting aloud, and -tearing for anger her beautiful hair, as if it had -been guilty of the transgression.”<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span></p> - -<p>In the same scene of the puppet-show, the -scraps of the old Moorish ballad are translated -by Motteux with a corresponding naïveté of expression, -which it seems to me impossible to -exceed:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Jugando está á las tablas Don Gayféros,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Que y a de Melisendra está olvidado.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now Gayferos the live-long day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, errant shame! at draughts doth play;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, as at court most husbands do,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forgets his lady fair and true. <i>Motteux.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now Gayferos at tables playing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Melisendra thinks no more. <i>Smollet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Caballero, si á Francia ides,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Por Gayféros preguntad.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quoth Melisendra, if perchance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sir Traveller, you go for France,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For pity’s sake, ask, when you’re there,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Gayferos, my husband dear. <i>Motteux.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sir Knight, if you to France do go,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Gayferos inquire. <i>Smollet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>How miserably does the new translator sink -in the above comparison! Yet Smollet was a -good poet, and most of the verse translations -interspersed through this work are executed -with ability. It is on this head that Motteux<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span> -has assumed to himself the greatest licence. -He has very presumptuously mutilated the -poetry of Cervantes, by leaving out many -entire stanzas from the larger compositions, -and suppressing some of the smaller altogether: -Yet the translation of those parts which he -has retained, is possessed of much poetical -merit; and in particular, those verses which are -of a graver cast, are, in my opinion, superior to -those of his rival. The song in the first volume, -which in the original is intitled <i>Cancion de -Grisōstomo</i>, and which Motteux has intitled, -<i>The Despairing Lover</i>, is greatly abridged by -the suppression of more than one half of the -stanzas in the original; but the translation, so -far as it goes, is highly poetical. The translation -of this song by Smollet, though inferior as a -poem, is, perhaps, more valuable on the whole, -because more complete. There is, however, only -a single passage in which he maintains with -Motteux a contest which is nearly equal:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O thou, whose cruelty and hate,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The tortures of my breast proclaim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Behold, how willingly to fate</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I offer this devoted frame.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If thou, when I am past all pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shouldst think my fall deserves a tear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let not one single drop distain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Those eyes, so killing and so clear.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No! rather let thy mirth display</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The joys that in thy bosom flow:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! need I bid that heart be gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which always triumph’d in my woe. <i>Smollet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span></p> - -<p>It will be allowed that there is much merit in -these lines, and that the last stanza in particular -is eminently beautiful and delicate. Yet there -is in my opinion an equal vein of poetry, and -more passion, in the corresponding verses of -Motteux:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O thou, by whose destructive hate</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I’m hurry’d to this doleful fate,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When I’m no more, thy pity spare!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I dread thy tears; oh, spare them then—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But, oh! I rave, I was too vain—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My death can never cost a tear! <i>Motteux.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the song of Cardenio, there is a happy -combination of tenderness of expression with -ingenious thought; the versification is likewise -of a peculiar structure, the second line forming -an echo to the first. This song has been -translated in a corresponding measure both by -Motteux and Smollet; but by the latter with -far inferior merit.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">CANCION de CARDENIO</span></p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">I</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quien menoscaba mis bienes?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Desdenes.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Y quien aumenta mis duelos?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Los Zelos.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Y quien prueba mi paciencia?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Ausencia.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De ese modo en mi dolencia,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ningun remedio se alcanza;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pues me matan la Esperanza,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Desdenes, Zelos, y Ausencia.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">II</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quien me causa este dolor?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Amor.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Y quien mi gloria repuna?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Fortuna.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Y quien consiente mi duelo?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">El Cielo.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De ese modo yo rezelo,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Morir deste mal extraño,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pues se aunan en mì daño</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amor, Fortuna, y el Cielo.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">III</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quien mejorará mi suerte?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">La Muerte.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Y el bien de amor, quien le alcanza?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Mudanza.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Y sus malos quien los cura?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Locura.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De ese modo no es cordura</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Querer curar la pasion;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quando los remedios son</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Muerte, Mudanza, y Locura.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center">CARDENIO’S SONG, by <span class="smcap">Motteux</span></p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">I</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What makes me languish and complain?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">O, ’tis <i>Disdain</i>!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What yet more fiercely tortures me?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">’Tis <i>Jealousy</i>.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How have I my patience lost?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">By <i>Absence</i> crost.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then Hope, farewell, there’s no relief;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I sink beneath oppressing grief;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor can a wretch, without despair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Scorn</i>, <i>Jealousy</i>, and <i>Absence</i>, bear.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">II</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What in my breast this anguish drove?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Intruding <i>Love</i>.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who could such mighty ills create?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Blind <i>Fortune’s</i> hate.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What cruel powers my fate approve?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">The <i>Powers</i> above.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then let me bear, and cease to moan;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis glorious thus to be undone:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When these invade, who dares oppose?</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Heaven</i>, <i>Love</i>, and <i>Fortune</i> are my foes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">III</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where shall I find a speedy cure?</div> - <div class="verse indent26">Oh! <i>Death</i> is sure.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No milder means to set me free?</div> - <div class="verse indent26"><i>Inconstancy.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Can nothing else my pains assuage?</div> - <div class="verse indent26"><i>Distracting Rage.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0">What, die or change? Lucinda lose?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O let me rather madness chuse!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But judge, ye gods, what we endure,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When <i>death</i> or <i>madness</i> are a cure!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the last four lines, Motteux has used more -liberty with the thought of the original than is -allowable for a translator. It must be owned, -however, that he has much improved it.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center">CARDENIO’S SONG, by <span class="smcap">Smollet</span></p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">I</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! what inspires my woful strain?</div> - <div class="verse indent18">Unkind Disdain!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! what augments my misery?</div> - <div class="verse indent18">Fell Jealousy!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or say what hath my patience worn?</div> - <div class="verse indent18">An absent lover’s scorn!</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">The torments then that I endure</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No mortal remedy can cure:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For every languid hope is slain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By Absence, Jealousy, Disdain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">II</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From Love, my unrelenting foe,</div> - <div class="verse indent18">These sorrows flow:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My infant glory’s overthrown</div> - <div class="verse indent18">By Fortune’s frown.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Confirm’d in this my wretched state</div> - <div class="verse indent18">By the decrees of Fate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In death alone I hope release</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From this compounded dire disease,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose cruel pangs to aggravate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fortune and Love conspire with Fate!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse new-stanza">III</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! what will mitigate my doom?</div> - <div class="verse indent18">The silent tomb.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! what retrieve departed joy?</div> - <div class="verse indent18">Inconstancy!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or say, can ought but frenzy bear</div> - <div class="verse indent18">This tempest of despair!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All other efforts then are vain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To cure this soul-tormenting pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That owns no other remedy</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than madness, death, inconstancy.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“The torments then that I endure—no <i>mortal</i> -remedy can cure.” Who ever heard of a <i>mortal</i> -remedy? or who could expect to be cured by -it? In the next line, the epithet of <i>languid</i> is -injudiciously given to Hope in this place; for a -<i>languid</i> or a <i>languishing</i> hope was already dying, -and needed not so powerful a host of murderers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span> -to <i>slay</i> it, as Absence, Jealousy, and Disdain.—In -short, the latter translation appears to me to -be on the whole of much inferior merit to the -former. I have remarked, that Motteux excels -his rival chiefly in the translation of those poems -that are of a graver cast. But perhaps he is -censurable for having thrown too much gravity -into the poems that are interspersed in this -work, as Smollet is blameable on the opposite -account, of having given them too much the air -of burlesque. In the song which Don Quixote -composed while he was doing penance in the -<i>Sierra-Morena</i>, beginning <i>Arboles, Yerbas y -Plantas</i>, every stanza of which ends with <i>Del -Toboso</i>, the author intended, that the composition -should be quite characteristic of its author, a -ludicrous compound of gravity and absurdity. -In the translation of Motteux there is perhaps -too much gravity; but Smollet has rendered -the composition altogether burlesque. The same -remark is applicable to the song of Antonio, -beginning <i>Yo sé, Olalla, que me adoras</i>, and to -many of the other poems.</p> - -<p>On the whole, I am inclined to think, that the -version of Motteux is by far the best we have -yet seen of the Romance of Cervantes; and that -if corrected in its licentious abbreviations and -enlargements, and in some other particulars -which I have noticed in the course of this comparison, -we should have nothing to desire -superior to it in the way of translation.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2> - -<p class="subhead">OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITION, -WHICH RENDER TRANSLATION DIFFICULT.—ANTIQUATED -TERMS—NEW TERMS—VERBA -ARDENTIA.—SIMPLICITY OF THOUGHT -AND EXPRESSION—IN PROSE—IN POETRY.—NAÏVETÉ -IN THE LATTER.—CHAULIEU—PARNELL—LA -FONTAINE.—SERIES OF -MINUTE DISTINCTIONS MARKED BY CHARACTERISTIC -TERMS.—STRADA.—FLORID -STYLE AND VAGUE EXPRESSION.—PLINY’S -NATURAL HISTORY.</p> - -</div> - -<p>In the two preceding chapters I have treated -pretty fully of what I have considered as a principal -difficulty in translation, the permutation of -idioms. I shall in this chapter touch upon -several other characteristics of composition, -which, in proportion as they are found in original -works, serve greatly to enhance the difficulty of -doing complete justice to them in a translation.</p> - -<p>1. The poets, in all languages, have a licence -peculiar to themselves, of employing a mode of -expression very remote from the diction of prose, -and still more from that of ordinary speech. -Under this licence, it is customary for them to -use antiquated terms, to invent new ones, and -to employ a glowing and rapturous phraseology, -or what Cicero terms <i>Verba ardentia</i>. To do<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span> -justice to these peculiarities in a translation, by -adopting similar terms and phrases, will be found -extremely difficult; yet, without such assimilation, -the translation presents no just copy of the -original. It would require no ordinary skill to -transfuse into another language the thoughts of -the following passages, in a similar species of -phraseology:</p> - -<p class="center">Antiquated Terms:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For Nature crescent doth not grow alone</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The inward service of the mind and soul</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves thee now,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The virtue of his will.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Shak.</span> <i>Hamlet</i>, act 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="center">New Terms:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">So over many a tract</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of heaven they march’d, and many a province wide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tenfold the length of this terrene: at last</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Far in th’ horizon to the north appear’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretcht</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In battailous aspect, and nearer view</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bristl’d with upright beams innumerable</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of rigid spears, and helmets throng’d, and shields</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Various with boastful argument pourtrayed.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Paradise Lost</i>, b. 6.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">All come to this? the hearts</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That spaniel’d me at heels, to whom I gave</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their wishes, do discandy.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Shak.</span> <i>Ant. & Cleop.</i> act 4, sc. 10.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span></p> - -<p class="center">Glowing Phraseology, or <i>Verba ardentia</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er ye are,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your loop’d and window’d raggedness defend you</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From seasons such as these? Oh, I have ta’en</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Too little care of this: Take physic, pomp!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That thou may’st shake the superflux to them,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And show the heavens more just.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Shak.</span> <i>K. Lear</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent16">Tremble, thou wretch,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That hast within thee undivulged crimes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unwhipt of justice! Hide thee, thou bloody hand;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou perjure, and thou simular of virtue,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That art incestuous! Caitiff, shake to pieces,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That under covert and convenient seeming</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hast practis’d on man’s life! Close pent up guilts,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rive your concealing continents, and ask</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Those dreadful summoners grace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Ibid.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Can any mortal mixture of Earth’s mould,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Breathe such divine, enchanting ravishment?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sure something holy lodges in that breast,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And with these raptures moves the vocal air</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To testify his hidden residence:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How sweetly did they float upon the wings</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At every fall smoothing the raven down</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of darkness till it smil’d: I have oft heard,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amidst the flow’ry-kirtled Naiades,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My mother Circe, with the Sirens three,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who, as they sung, would take the poison’d soul</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lap it in Elysium.——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But such a sacred, and home-felt delight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Such sober certainty of waking bliss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I never heard till now.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Milton’s</span> <i>Comus</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span></p> - -<p>2. There is nothing more difficult to imitate -successfully in a translation than that species of -composition which conveys just, simple, and -natural thoughts, in plain, unaffected, and perfectly -appropriate terms; and which rejects all -those <i>aucupia sermonis</i>, those <i>lenocinia verborum</i>, -which constitute what is properly termed <i>florid -writing</i>. It is much easier to imitate in a translation -that kind of composition (provided it be -at all intelligible),<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> which is brilliant and rhetorical, -which employs frequent antitheses, allusions, -similes, metaphors, than it is to give a perfect -copy of just, apposite, and natural sentiments, -which are clothed in pure and simple language: -For the former characters are strong and prominent, -and therefore easily caught; whereas the -latter have no striking attractions, their merit -eludes altogether the general observation, and -is discernible only to the most correct and -chastened taste.</p> - -<p>It would be difficult to approach to the beautiful -simplicity of expression of the following -passages, in any translation.</p> - -<p>“In those vernal seasons of the year, when -the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury -and sullenness against Nature, not to go out -to see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span> -with heaven and earth.” Milton’s <i>Tract of -Education</i>.</p> - -<p>“Can I be made capable of such great expectations, -which those animals know nothing -of, (happier by far in this regard than I am, if -we must die alike), only to be disappointed at -last? Thus placed, just upon the confines of -another, better world, and fed with hopes of -penetrating into it, and enjoying it, only to -make a short appearance here, and then to be -shut out and totally sunk? Must I then, when -I bid my last farewell to these walks, when I -close these lids, and yonder blue regions and all -this scene darken upon me and go out; must I -then only serve to furnish dust to be mingled -with the ashes of these herds and plants, or -with this dirt under my feet? Have I been set -so far above them in life, only to be levelled with -them at death?” Wollaston’s <i>Rel. of Nature</i>, -sect. ix.</p> - -<p>3. The union of just and delicate sentiments -with simplicity of expression, is more rarely -found in poetical composition than in prose; -because the enthusiasm of poetry prompts rather -to what is brilliant than what is just, and is -always led to clothe its conceptions in that -species of figurative language which is very -opposite to simplicity. It is natural, therefore, -to conclude, that in those few instances which -are to be found of a chastened simplicity of -thought and expression in poetry, the difficulty<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span> -of transfusing the same character into a translation -will be great, in proportion to the difficulty -of attaining it in the original. Of this -character are the following beautiful passages -from Chaulieu:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Fontenay, lieu délicieux</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Où je vis d’abord la lumiere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bientot au bout de ma carriere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Chez toi je joindrai mes ayeux.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Muses, qui dans ce lieu champêtre</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Avec soin me fites nourir,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beaux arbres, qui m’avez vu naitre,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bientot vous me verrez mourir.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Les louanges de la vie champêtre.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Je touche aux derniers instans</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De mes plus belles années,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et déja de mon printems</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toutes les fleurs sont fanées.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je ne vois, et n’envisage</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pour mon arriere saison,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que le malheur d’etre sage,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et l’inutile avantage</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De connoitre la raison.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Autrefois mon ignorance</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Me fournissoit des plaisirs;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Les erreurs de l’espérance</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Faisoient naitre mes désirs.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A present l’experience</div> - <div class="verse indent0">M’apprend que la jouissance</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De nos biens les plus parfaits</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne vaut pas l’impatience</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ni l’ardeur de nos souhaits.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La Fortune à ma jeunesse</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Offrit l’éclat des grandeurs;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Comme un autre avec souplesse</div> - <div class="verse indent0">J’aurois brigué ses faveurs.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais sur le peu de mérite</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De ceux qu’elle a bien traités,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">J’eus honte de la poursuite</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De ses aveugles bontés;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et je passai, quoique donne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’éclat, et pourpre, et couronne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Du mépris de la personne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Au mépris des dignités.<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Poesies diverses de Chaulieu</i>, p. 44.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span></p> - -<p>4. The foregoing examples exhibit a species -of composition, which uniting just and natural -sentiments with simplicity of expression, preserves -at the same time a considerable portion -of elevation and dignity. But there is another -species of composition, which, possessing the -same union of natural sentiments with simplicity -of expression, is essentially distinguished from -the former by its always partaking, in a considerable -degree, of comic humour. This is that -kind of writing which the French characterise -by the term <i>naif</i>, and for which we have no -perfectly corresponding expression in English. -“Le naif,” says Fontenelle, “est une nuance du -bas.”</p> - -<p>In the following fable of Phædrus, there is a -<i>naïveté</i>, which I think it is scarcely possible to -transfuse into any translation:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center"><i>Inops potentem dum vult imitari, perit.</i></p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In prato quædam rana conspexit bovem;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et tacta invidiâ tantæ magnitudinis</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rugosam inflavit pellem: tum natos suos</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Interrogavit, <i>an bove esset latior</i>.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Illi <i>negarunt</i>. Rursus intendit cutem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Majore nisu, et simili quæsivit modo</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quis major esset?</i> Illi dixerunt, <i>bovem</i>.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Novissimè indignata, dum vult validius</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inflare sese, rupto jacuit corpore.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It would be extremely difficult to attain, in -any translation, the laconic brevity with which -this story is told. There is not a single word -which can be termed superfluous; yet there is -nothing wanting to complete the effect of the -picture. The gravity, likewise, of the narrative -when applied to describe an action of the most -consummate absurdity; the self-important, but -anxious questions, and the mortifying dryness of -the answers, furnish an example of a delicate -species of humour, which cannot easily be -conveyed by corresponding terms in another -language. La Fontaine was better qualified -than any another for this attempt. He saw the -merits of the original, and has endeavoured -to rival them; but even La Fontaine has -failed.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Une Grenouille vit un boeuf</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui lui sembla de belle taille.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Elle, qui n’etoit pas grosse en tout comme un oeuf,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Envieuse s’étend, et s’enfle, et se travaille</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pour égaler l’animal en grosseur;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Disant, Regardez bien ma soeur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Est ce assez, dites moi, n’y suis-je pas encore?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nenni. M’y voila donc? Point du tout. M’y voila</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vous n’en approchez point. La chetive pecore</div> - <div class="verse indent2">S’enfla si bien qu’elle creva.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Le monde est plein de gens qui ne sont pas plus sages,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout bourgeois veut batir comme les grands seigneurs;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout prince a des ambassadeurs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout marquis veut avoir des pages.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But La Fontaine himself when original, is -equally inimitable. The source of that <i>naïveté</i> -which is the characteristic of his fables, has been -ingeniously developed by Marmontel: “Ce n’est -pas un poete qui imagine, ce n’est pas un conteur -qui plaisante; c’est un temoin present à l’action, -et qui veut vous rendre present vous-même. Il -met tout en oeuvre de la meilleure foi du monde -pour vous persuader; et ce sont tous ces efforts, -c’est le sérieux avec lequel il mêle les plus -grandes choses avec les plus petites; c’est l’importance -qu’il attache à des jeux d’enfans; c’est -l’interêt qu’il prend pour un lapin et une belette, -qui font qu’on est tenté de s’écrier a chaque -instant, <i>Le bon homme!</i> On le disoit de lui dans -la societé. Son caractere n’a fait que passer dans -ses fables. C’est du fond de ce caractere que -sont émanés ces tours si naturels, ces expressions -si naïves, ces images si fideles.”</p> - -<p>It would require most uncommon powers to -do justice in a translation to the natural and -easy humour which characterises the dialogue in -the following fable:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="center"><i>Les animaux malades de la Peste.</i></p> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Un mal qui répand la terreur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mal que le ciel en sa fureur</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Inventa pour punir les crimes de la terre,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La peste, (puis qu’il faut l’apeller par son nom),</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Capable d’enrichir en un jour L’Acheron,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Faisoit aux animaux la guerre.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ils ne mouroient pas tous, mais tous etoient frappés.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On n’en voyoit point d’occupés</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A chercher le soûtien d’une mourante vie;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nul mets n’excitoit leur envie.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ni loups ni renards n’épioient</div> - <div class="verse indent2">La douce et l’innocente proye.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Les tourterelles se fuyoient;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Plus d’amour, partant plus de joye.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le Lion tint conseil, et dit, Mes chers amis,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Je crois que le ciel a permis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pour nos pechés cette infortune:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Que le plus coupable de nous</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Se sacrifie aux traits du céleste courroux;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Peut-être il obtiendra la guérison commune.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">L’histoire nous apprend qu’en de tels accidents,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On fait de pareils dévoûements:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne nous flattons donc point, voions sans indulgence</div> - <div class="verse indent2">L’état de notre conscience.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pour moi, satisfaisant mes appetits gloutons</div> - <div class="verse indent2">J’ai dévoré force moutons;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Que m’avoient-ils fait? Nulle offense:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Même il m’est arrivé quelquefois de manger le Berger.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je me dévoûrai donc, s’il le faut; mais je pense</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’il est bon que chacun s’accuse ainsi que moi;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Car on doit souhaiter, selon toute justice,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Que le plus coupable périsse.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sire, dit le Renard, vous êtes trop bon roi;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vos scrupules font voir trop de délicatesse;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eh bien, manger moutons, canaille, sotte espece,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Est-ce un péchê? Non, non: Vous leur fites, seigneur,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">En les croquant beaucoup d’honneur:</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Et quant au Berger, l’on peut dire</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Qu’il etoit digne de tous maux,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Etant de ces gens-là qui sur les animaux</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span> - <div class="verse indent2">Se font un chimérique empire.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ainsi dit le Renard, et flatteurs d’applaudir.</div> - <div class="verse indent4">On n’osa trop approfondir</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Du Tigre, ni de l’Ours, ni des autres puissances</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Les moins pardonnables offenses.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tous les gens querelleurs, jusqu’aux simples mâtins</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Au dire de chacun, etoient de petits saints.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">L’âne vint à son tour, et dit, J’ai souvenance</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Qu’en un pré de moines passant,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La faim, l’occasion, l’herbe tendre, et je pense</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Quelque diable aussi me poussant,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je tondis de ce pré la largeur de ma langue:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je n’en avois nul droit, puisqu’il faut parler net.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">À ces mots on cria haro sur le baudet:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un loup quelque peu clerc prouva par sa harangue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’il falloit dévoüer ce maudit animal,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ce pelé, ce galeux, d’ou venoit tout leur mal.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sa peccadille fut jugee un cas pendable;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Manger l’herbe d’autrui, quel crime abominable!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Rien que la mort n’etoit capable</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’expier son forfait, on le lui fit bien voir.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Les jugements de cour vous rendront blanc ou noir.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>5. No compositions will be found more difficult -to be translated, than those descriptions, in -which a series of minute distinctions are marked -by characteristic terms, each peculiarly appropriated -to the thing to be designed, but many of -them so nearly synonymous, or so approaching -to each other, as to be clearly understood only -by those who possess the most critical knowledge -of the language of the original, and a very -competent skill in the subject treated of. I have -always regarded Strada’s <i>Contest of the Musician<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span> -and Nightingale</i>, as a composition which almost -bids defiance to the art of a translator. The -reader will easily perceive the extreme difficulty -of giving the full, distinct, and appropriate -meaning of those expressions marked in Italics.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Jam Sol a medio pronus deflexerat orbe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mitius e radiis vibrans crinalibus ignem:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cum fidicen propter Tiberina fluenta, sonanti</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lenibat plectro curas, æstumque levabat,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ilice defensus nigra, scenaque virenti.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Audiit hunc hospes sylvæ philomela propinquæ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Musa loci, nemoris Siren, innoxia Siren;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et prope succedens stetit abdita frondibus, altè</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Accipiens sonitum, secumque remurmurat, et quos</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ille modos variat digitis, hæc gutture reddit.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Sensit se fidicen philomela imitante referri,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et placuit ludum volucri dare; plenius ergo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Explorat citharam, tentamentumque futuræ</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Præbeat ut pugnæ, percurrit protinus omnes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Impulsu pernice fides. Nec segnius illa</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mille per excurrens variæ discrimina vocis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Venturi specimen præfert argutula cantûs.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Tunc fidicen per fila movens trepidantia dextram,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nunc contemnenti similis <i>diverberat ungue,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Depectitque pari chordas et simplice ductu:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nunc carptim replicat, digitisque micantibus urget,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Fila minutatim, celerique repercutit ictu.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mox silet. Illa modis totidem respondet, et artem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Arte refert. Nunc, ceu rudis aut incerta canendi,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Projicit in longum, <i>nulloque plicatile flexu,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Carmen init simili serie, jugique tenore</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Præbet iter liquidum labenti e pectore voci:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nunc <i>cæsim variat, modulisque canora minutis</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Delibrat vocem</i>, tremuloque reciprocat ore.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Miratur fidicen parvis è faucibus ire</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tam varium, tam dulce melos: majoraque tentans,</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Alternat mira arte fides</i>; dum <i>torquet acutas</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Inciditque, graves operoso verbere pulsat</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Permiscetque simul <i>certantia rauca sonoris</i>;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ceu resides in bella viros clangore lacessat.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hoc etiam philomela canit: dumque ore liquenti</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vibrat acuta sonum, modulisque interplicat æquis</i>;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ex inopinato gravis intonat, et <i>leve murmur</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Turbinat introrsus, alternantique sonore,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Clarat et infuscat</i>, ceu martia classica pulset.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Scilicet erubuit fidicen, iraque calente,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aut non hoc, inquit, referes, citharistia sylvæ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aut fractâ cedam citharâ. Nec plura locutus,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Non imitabilibus plectrum concentibus urget.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Namque manu per fila volat, simul hos, simul illos</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Explorat numeros, chordâque laborat in omni;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et <i>strepit et tinnit</i>, crescitque superbius, et se</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Multiplicat relegens, plenoque choreumate plaudit</i>.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tum stetit expectans si quid paret æmula contra.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Illa autem, quanquam vox dudum exercita fauces</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Asperat, impatiens vinci, simul advocat omnes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Necquicquam vires: nam dum discrimina tanta</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reddere tot fidium nativa et simplice tentat</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Voce, canaliculisque imitari grandia parvis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Impar magnanimis ausis, imparque dolori,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deficit, et vitam summo in certamine linquens,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Victoris cadit in plectrum, par nacta sepulchrum.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He that should attempt a translation of this -most artful composition, <i>dum tentat discrimina -tanta reddere</i>, would probably, like the nightingale, -find himself <i>impar magnanimis ausis</i>.<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span></p> - -<p>It must be here remarked, that Strada has not -the merit of originality in this characteristic -description of the song of the Nightingale. He -found it in Pliny, and with still greater amplitude, -and variety of discrimination. He seems -even to have taken from that author the hint of -his fable: “Digna miratu avis. Primum, tanta -vox tam parvo in corpusculo, tam pertinax -spiritus. Deinde in una perfecta musicæ scientia -modulatus editur sonus; et nunc continuo -spiritu trahitur in longum, nunc variatur inflexo, -nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto, promittitur -revocato, infuscatur ex inopinato: interdum -et secum ipse murmurat, plenus, gravis, -acutus, creber, extentus; ubi visum est vibrans, -summus, medius, imus. Breviterque omnia tam -parvulis in faucibus, quæ tot exquisitis tibiarum -tormentis ars hominum excogitavit.—Certant -inter se, palamque animosa contentio est. Victa -morte finit sæpe vitam, spiritu prius deficiente -quam cantu.” Plin. <i>Nat. Hist.</i> lib. 10, c. 29.</p> - -<p>It would perhaps be still more difficult to give -a perfect translation of this passage from Pliny, -than of the fable of Strada. The attempt, however, -has been made by an old English author,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span> -Philemon Holland; and it is curious to remark -the extraordinary shifts to which he has -been reduced in the search of corresponding -expressions:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Explorat numeros, chordaque laborat in omni.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Surely this bird is not to be set in the last -place of those that deserve admiration; for is it -not a wonder, that so loud and clear a voice -should come from so little a body? Is it not -as strange, that shee should hold her wind so -long, and continue with it as shee doth? Moreover, -shee alone in her song keepeth time and -measure truly, she riseth and falleth in her note -just with the rules of music, and perfect harmony; -for one while, in one entire breath she drawes out -her tune at length treatable; another while she -quavereth, and goeth away as fast in her running -points: sometimes she maketh stops and short -cuts in her notes; another time she gathereth in -her wind, and singeth descant between the plain -song: she fetcheth in her breath again, and then -you shall have her in her catches and divisions: -anon, all on a sudden, before a man would think -it, she drowneth her voice that one can scarce -heare her; now and then she seemeth to record -to herself, and then she breaketh out to sing -voluntarie. In sum, she varieth and altereth her -voice to all keies: one while full of her largs, -longs, briefs, semibriefs, and minims; another -while in her crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span> -double semiquavers: for at one time you shall -hear her voice full of loud, another time as low; -and anon shrill and on high; thick and short -when she list; drawn out at leisure again when -she is disposed; and then, (if she be so pleased), -shee riseth and mounteth up aloft, as it were with -a wind organ. Thus shee altereth from one to -another, and sings all parts, the treble, the mean, -and the base. To conclude, there is not a pipe -or instrument devised with all the art and cunning -of man, that can affoord more musick than this -pretty bird doth out of that little throat of hers.—They -strive who can do best, and one laboreth -to excel another in variety of song and long -continuance; yea, and evident it is that they -contend in good earnest with all their will and -power: for oftentimes she that hath the worse, -and is not able to hold out with another, dieth -for it, and sooner giveth she up her vitall breath, -than giveth over her song.”</p> - -<p>The consideration of the above passage in the -original, leads to the following remark.</p> - -<p>5. There is no species of writing so difficult to -be translated, as that where the character of the -style is florid, and the expression consequently -vague, and of indefinite meaning. The natural -history of Pliny furnishes innumerable examples -of this fault; and hence it will ever be found -one of the most difficult works to be translated. -A short chapter shall be here analyzed, as an -instructive specimen.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Lib.</i> 11, <i>Cap.</i> 2.</p> - -<p>In magnis siquidem corporibus, aut certe -majoribus, facilis officina sequaci materia fuit. -In his tam parvis atque tam nullis, quæ ratio, -quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio! Ubi -tot sensus collocavit in culice? Et sunt alia -dictu minora. Sed ubi visum in eo prætendit? -Ubi gustatum applicavit? Ubi odoratum inseruit? -Ubi vero truculentam illam et portione -maximam vocem ingeneravit? Qua subtilitate -pennas adnexuit? Prælongavit pedum crura? -disposuit jejunam caveam, uti alvum? Avidam -sanguinis et potissimum humani sitim accendit? -Telum vero perfodiendo tergori, quo spiculavit -ingenio? Atque ut in capaci, cum cerni non -possit exilitas, ita reciproca geminavit arte, ut -fodiendo acuminatum, pariter sorbendoque fistulosum -esset. Quos teredini ad perforanda robora -cum sono teste dentes affixit? Potissimumque -e ligno cibatum fecit? Sed turrigeros elephantorum -miramur humeros, taurorumque colla, et -truces in sublime jactus, tigrium rapinas, leonum -jubas; cùm rerum natura nusquam magis quam -in minimis tota sit. Quapropter quæso, ne hæc -legentes, quoniam ex his spernunt multa, etiam -relata fastidio damnent, cùm in contemplatione -naturæ, nihil possit videri supervacuum.</p> - -<p>Although, after the perusal of the whole of this -chapter, we are at no loss to understand its general<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span> -meaning, yet when it is taken to pieces, we shall -find it extremely difficult to give a precise interpretation, -much less an elegant translation of -its single sentences. The latter indeed may be -accounted impossible, without the exercise of -such liberties as will render the version rather -a paraphrase than a translation. <i>In magnis -siquidem corporibus, aut certe majoribus, facilis -officina sequaci materiæ fuit.</i> The sense of the -term magnus, which is in itself indefinite, becomes -in this sentence much more so, from its opposition -to <i>major</i>; and the reader is quite at a loss -to know, whether in those two classes of animals, -the <i>magni</i> and the <i>majores</i>, the largest animals -are signified by the former term, or by the latter. -Had the opposition been between <i>magnus</i> and -<i>maximus</i>, or <i>major</i> and <i>maximus</i>, there could -not have been the smallest ambiguity. <i>Facilis -officina sequaci materiæ fuit.</i> <i>Officina</i> is the -workhouse where an artist exercises his craft; -but no author, except Pliny himself, ever employed -it to signify the labour of the artist. -With a similar incorrectness of expression, which, -however, is justified by general use, the French -employ <i>cuisine</i> to signify both the place where -victuals are dressed, and the art of dressing -them. <i>Sequax materia</i> signifies pliable materials, -and therefore easily wrought; but the term -<i>sequax</i> cannot be applied with any propriety to -such materials as are easily wrought, on account -of their magnitude or abundance. <i>Tam parvis</i><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span> -is easily understood, but <i>tam nullis</i> has either no -meaning at all, or a very obscure one. <i>Inextricabilis -perfectio.</i> It is no perfection in anything -to be inextricable; for the meaning of -inextricable is, embroiled, perplexed, and confounded. -<i>Ubi tot sensus collocavit in culice?</i> -What is the meaning of the question <i>ubi</i>? -Does it mean, in what part of the body of the -gnat? I conceive it can mean nothing else: -And if so, the question is absurd; for all the -senses of a gnat are not placed in any <i>one</i> part -of its body, any more than the senses of a man. -<i>Dictu minora.</i> By these words the author intended -to convey the meaning of <i>alia etiam -minora possunt dici</i>; but the meaning which -he has actually conveyed is, <i>Sunt alia minora -quam quæ dici possunt</i>, which is false and hyperbolical; -for no insect is so small that words may -not be found to convey an idea of its size. <i>Portione -maximam vocem ingeneravit.</i> What is <i>portione -maximam</i>? It is only from the context that -we guess the author’s meaning to be, <i>maximam -ratione portionis</i>, i. e. <i>magnitudinis insecti</i>; for -neither use, nor the analogy of the language, -justify such an expression as <i>vocem maximam -portione</i>. If it is alledged, that <i>portio</i> is here -used to signify the power or intensity of the -voice, and is synonymous in this place to <i>vis</i>, -ενεργεια, we may safely assert, that this use of -the term is licentious, improper, and unwarranted -by custom. <i>Jejunam caveam uti alvum</i>; “a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span> -hungry cavity for a belly:” but is not the -stomach of all animals a hungry cavity, as well -as that of the gnat? <i>Capaci cum cernere non -potest exilitas.</i> <i>Capax</i> is improperly contrasted -with <i>exilis</i>, and cannot be otherwise translated -than in the sense of <i>magnus</i>. <i>Reciproca geminavit -arte</i> is incapable of any translation which -shall render the proper sense of the words, -“doubled with reciprocal art.” The author’s -meaning is, “fitted for a double function.” <i>Cum -sono teste</i> is guessed from the context to mean, -<i>uti sonus testatur</i>. <i>Cum rerum natura nusquam -magis quam in minimis tota sit.</i> This is a very -obscure expression of a plain sentiment, “The -wisdom and power of Providence, or of Nature, -is never more conspicuous than in the smallest -bodies.” Ex his <i>spernunt multa</i>. The meaning -of <i>ex his</i> is indefinite, and therefore obscure: -we can but conjecture that it means <i>ex rebus -hujusmodi</i>; and not <i>ex his quæ diximus</i>; for -that sense is reserved for <i>relata</i>.</p> - -<p>From this specimen, we may judge of the -difficulty of giving a <i>just translation</i> of Pliny’s -<i>Natural History</i>.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2> - -<p class="subhead">OF BURLESQUE TRANSLATION.—TRAVESTY -AND PARODY.—SCARRON’S VIRGILE TRAVESTI.—ANOTHER -SPECIES OF LUDICROUS -TRANSLATION.</p> - -</div> - -<p>In a preceding chapter, while treating of the -translation of idiomatic phrases, we censured the -use of such idioms in the translation as do not -correspond with the age or country of the -original. There is, however, one species of -translation, in which that violation of the <i>costume</i> -is not only blameless, but seems essential to the -nature of the composition: I mean burlesque -translation, or Travesty. This species of writing -partakes, in a great degree, of original composition; -and is therefore not to be measured by -the laws of serious translation. It conveys -neither a just picture of the sentiments, nor a -faithful representation of the style and manner of -the original; but pleases itself in exhibiting a -ludicrous caricatura of both. It displays an -overcharged and grotesque resemblance, and -excites our risible emotions by the incongruous -association of dignity and meanness, wisdom -and absurdity. This association forms equally -the basis of Travesty and of Ludicrous Parody, -from which it is no otherwise distinguished than -by its assuming a different language from the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span> -original. In order that the mimickry may be -understood, it is necessary that the writer choose, -for the exercise of his talents, a work that is -well known, and of great reputation. Whether -that reputation is deserved or unjust, the work -may be equally the subject of burlesque imitation. -If it has been the subject of general, but -undeserved praise, a Parody or a Travesty is -then a fair satire on the false taste of the original -author, and his admirers, and we are pleased to -see both become the objects of a just castigation. -The <i>Rehearsal</i>, <i>Tom Thumb</i>, and <i>Chrononhotonthologos</i>, -which exhibit ludicrous parodies of -passages from the favourite dramatic writers of -the times, convey a great deal of just and useful -criticism. If the original is a work of real excellence, -the Travesty or Parody detracts nothing -from its merit, nor robs the author of the smallest -portion of his just praise.<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> We laugh at the -association of dignity and meanness; but the -former remains the exclusive property of the -original, the latter belongs solely to the copy. -We give due praise to the mimical powers of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span> -imitator, and are delighted to see how ingeniously -he can elicit subject of mirth and ridicule -from what is grave, dignified, pathetic, or -sublime.</p> - -<p>In the description of the games in the 5th -<i>Æneid</i>, Virgil everywhere supports the dignity -of the Epic narration. His persons are heroes, -their actions are suitable to that character, and -we feel our passions seriously interested in the -issue of the several contests. The same scenes -travestied by Scarron are ludicrous in the extreme. -His heroes have the same names, they -are engaged in the same actions, they have even -a grotesque resemblance in character to their -prototypes; but they have all the meanness, -rudeness, and vulgarity of ordinary prize-fighters, -hackney coachmen, horse-jockeys, and water-men.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8"><i>Medio Gyas in gurgite victor</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Rectorem navis compellat voce Menœtem;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quo tantum mihi dexter abis? huc dirige cursum,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Littus ama, et lævas stringat sine palmula cautes;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Altum alii teneant. Dixit: sed cæca Menœtes</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Saxa timens, proram pelagi detorquet ad undas.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quo diversus abis? iterum pete saxa, Menœte,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cum clamore Gyas revocabat.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Gyas, qui croit que son pilote,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Comme un vieil fou qu’il est, radote,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De ce qu’en mer il s’elargit,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aussi fort qu’un lion rugit;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et s’ecrie, écumant de rage,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Serre, serre donc le rivage,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Fils de putain de Ménétus,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Serre, ou bien nous somme victus:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Serre donc, serre à la pareille:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ménétus fit la sourde oreille,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et s’éloigne toujours du bord,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et si pourtant il n’a pas tort:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Habile qu’il est, il redoute</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Certains rocs, ou l’on ne voit goute—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lors Gyas se met en furie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et de rechef crie et recrie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vieil coyon, pilote enragé,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mes ennemis t’ont ils gagé</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pour m’oter l’honneur de la sorte?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Serre, ou que le diable t’emporte,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Serre le bord, ame de chien:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais au diable, s’il en fait rien.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In Virgil, the prizes are suitable to the dignity -of the persons who contend for them:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Munera principio ante oculos, circoque locantur</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In medio: sacri tripodes, viridesque coronæ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et palmæ, pretium victoribus; armaque, et ostro</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Perfusæ vestes, argenti aurique talenta.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In Scarron, the prizes are accommodated to -the contending parties with equal propriety:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Maitre Eneas faisant le sage, &c.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fit apporter une marmitte,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">C’etoit un des prix destinés,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deux pourpoints fort bien galonnés</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Moitié filet et moitié soye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un sifflet contrefaisant l’oye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un engin pour casser des noix,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vingt et quatre assiettes de bois,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’Eneas allant au fourrage</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Avoit trouvé dans le bagage</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Du vénérable Agamemnon:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Certain auteur a dit que non,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Comptant la chose d’autre sorte,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais ici fort peu nous importe:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Une toque de velous gras,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un engin à prendre des rats,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ouvrage du grand Aristandre,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui savoit bien les rats prendre</div> - <div class="verse indent0">En plus de cinquante façons,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et meme en donnoit des leçons:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deux tasses d’etain émaillées,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deux pantoufles despareillées,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dont l’une fut au grand Hector,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toutes deux de peau de castor—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et plusieurs autres nippes rares, &c.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But this species of composition pleases only in -a short specimen. We cannot bear a lengthened -work in Travesty. The incongruous association -of dignity and meanness excites risibility chiefly -from its being unexpected. Cotton’s and Scarron’s -<i>Virgil</i> entertain but for a few pages: the -composition soon becomes tedious, and at length -disgusting. We laugh at a short exhibition of -buffoonery; but we cannot endure a man, who, -with good talents, is constantly playing the -fool.</p> - -<p>There is a species of ludicrous verse translation -which is not of the nature of Travesty, and -which seems to be regulated by all the laws of -serious translation. It is employed upon a -ludicrous original, and its purpose is not to -burlesque, but to represent it with the utmost -fidelity. For that purpose, even the metrical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span> -stanza is closely imitated. The ludicrous effect -is heightened, when the stanza is peculiar in its -structure, and is transferred from a modern to -an ancient language; as in Dr. Aldrich’s translation -of the well-known song,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A soldier and a sailor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A tinker and a tailor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once had a doubtful strife, Sir,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To make a maid a wife, Sir,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Whose name was buxom Joan, &c.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Miles et navigator,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sartor et ærator,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Jamdudum litigabant,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>De pulchra quam amabant,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent4"><i>Nomen cui est Joanna, &c.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Of the same species of translation is the facetious -composition intitled <i>Ebrii Barnabæ Itinerarium</i>, -or <i>Drunken Barnaby’s Journal</i>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>O Faustule, dic amico,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quo in loco, quo in vico,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sive campo, sive tecto,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sine linteo, sine lecto;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Propinasti queis tabernis,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>An in terris, an Avernis.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Little Fausty, tell thy true heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In what region, coast, or new part,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Field or fold, thou hast been bousing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Without linen, bedding, housing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In what tavern, pray thee, show us,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here on earth, or else below us:</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span></p> - -<p>And the whimsical, though serious translation -of Chevy-chace:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vivat Rex noster nobilis,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Omnis in tuto sit;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Venatus olim flebilis</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Chevino luco fit.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">God prosper long our noble King,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Our lives and safeties all:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A woful hunting once there did</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In Chevy-chace befal, &c.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2> - -<p class="subhead">THE GENIUS OF THE TRANSLATOR SHOULD -BE AKIN TO THAT OF THE ORIGINAL -AUTHOR.—THE BEST TRANSLATORS HAVE -SHONE IN ORIGINAL COMPOSITION OF THE -SAME SPECIES WITH THAT WHICH THEY -HAVE TRANSLATED.—OF VOLTAIRE’S -TRANSLATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE.—OF -THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE WIT -OF VOLTAIRE.—HIS TRANSLATION FROM -HUDIBRAS.—EXCELLENT ANONYMOUS -FRENCH TRANSLATION OF HUDIBRAS.—TRANSLATION -OF RABELAIS BY URQUHART -AND MOTTEUX.</p> - -</div> - -<p>From the consideration of those general rules -of translation which in the foregoing essay I have -endeavoured to illustrate, it will appear no unnatural -conclusion to assert, that he only is -perfectly accomplished for the duty of a translator -who possesses a genius akin to that of the -original author. I do not mean to carry this -proposition so far as to affirm, that in order to -give a perfect translation of the works of Cicero, -a man must actually be as great an orator, or -inherit the same extent of philosophical genius; -but he must have a mind capable of discerning -the full merits of his original, of attending with -an acute perception to the whole of his reasoning,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span> -and of entering with warmth and energy of -feeling into all the beauties of his composition. -Thus we shall observe invariably, that the best -translators have been those writers who have -composed original works of the same species with -those which they have translated. The mutilated -version which yet remains to us of the <i>Timæus</i> -of Plato translated by Cicero, is a masterly composition, -which, in the opinion of the best judges, -rivals the merit of the original. A similar commendation -cannot be bestowed on those fragments -of the <i>Phænomena</i> of Aratus translated -into verse by the same author; for Cicero’s -poetical talents were not remarkable: but who -can entertain a doubt, that had time spared to us -his versions of the orations of Demosthenes and -Æschines, we should have found them possessed -of the most transcendent merit?</p> - -<p>We have observed, in the preceding part of -this essay, that poetical translation is less subjected -to restraint than prose translation, and -allows more of the freedom of original composition. -It will hence follow, that to exercise this -freedom with propriety, a translator must have -the talent of original composition in poetry; and -therefore, that in this species of translation, the -possession of a genius akin to that of his author, -is more essentially necessary than in any other. -We know the remark of Denham, that the subtle -spirit of poesy evaporates entirely in the transfusion -from one language into another, and that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span> -unless a new, or an original spirit, is infused by -the translator himself, there will remain nothing -but a <i>caput mortuum</i>. The best translators of -poetry, therefore, have been those who have -approved their talents in original poetical composition. -Dryden, Pope, Addison, Rowe, Tickell, -Pitt, Warton, Mason, and Murphy, rank equally -high in the list of original poets, as in that of the -translators of poetry.</p> - -<p>But as poetical composition is various in its -kind, and the characters of the different species -of poetry are extremely distinct, and often -opposite in their nature, it is very evident that -the possession of talents adequate to one species -of translation, as to one species of original poetry, -will not infer the capacity of excelling in other -species of which the character is different. Still -further, it may be observed, that as there are -certain species of poetical composition, as, for -example, the dramatic, which, though of the -same general character in all nations, will take -a strong tincture of difference from the manners -of a country, or the peculiar genius of a people; -so it will be found, that a poet, eminent as an -original author in his own country, may fail -remarkably in attempting to convey, by a translation, -an idea of the merits of a foreign work -which is tinctured by the national genius of the -country which produced it. Of this we have a -striking example in those translations from -Shakespeare by Voltaire; in which the French<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span> -poet, eminent himself in dramatical composition, -intended to convey to his countrymen a just -idea of our most celebrated author in the same -department. But Shakespeare and Voltaire, -though perhaps akin to each other in some of -the great features of the mind, were widely -distinguished, even by nature, in the characters -of their poetical genius; and this natural distinction -was still more sensibly increased by -the general tone of manners, the <i>hue and fashion</i> -of thought of their respective countries. Voltaire, -in his essay <i>sur la Tragédie Angloise</i>, has chosen -the famous soliloquy in the tragedy of Hamlet, -“<i>To be, or not to be</i>,” as one of those striking -passages which best exemplify the genius of -Shakespeare, and which, in the words of the -French author, <i>demandent grace pour toutes ses -fautes</i>. It may therefore be presumed, that the -translator in this instance endeavoured, as far as -lay in his power, not only to adopt the spirit of -his author, but to represent him as favourably as -possible to his countrymen. Yet, how wonderfully -has he metamorphosed, how miserably disfigured -him! In the original, we have the -perfect picture of a mind deeply agitated, giving -vent to its feelings in broken starts of utterance, -and in language which plainly indicates, that the -speaker is reasoning solely with his own mind, -and not with any auditor. In the translation, -we have a formal and connected harangue, in -which it would appear, that the author, offended<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span> -with the abrupt manner of the original, and -judging those irregular starts of expression to -be unsuitable to that precision which is required -in abstract reasoning, has corrected, as he -thought, those defects of the original, and given -union, strength, and precision, to this philosophical -argument.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Demeure, il faut choisir, et passer à l’instant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De la vie à la mort, ou de l’être au néant.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dieux justes, s’il en est, éclairez mon courage.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Faut-il vieillir courbé sous la main qui m’outrage,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Supporter, ou finir mon malheur et mon sort?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que suis-je? qui m’arrête? et qu’est ce que la mort?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">C’est la fin de nos maux, c’est mon unique azile;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Apres de longs transports, c’est un sommeil tranquile.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On s’endort et tout meurt; mais un affreux reveil,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Doit succéder peut-être aux douceurs du sommeil.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On nous menace; on dit que cette courte vie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De tourmens éternels est aussitôt suivie.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O mort! moment fatale! affreuse éternité!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout cœur à ton seul nom se glace épouvanté.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Eh! qui pourrait sans toi supporter cette vie?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De nos prêtres menteurs bénir l’hypocrisie?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’une indigne maitresse encenser les erreurs?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ramper sous un ministre, adorer ses hauteurs?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et montrer les langueurs de son âme abattue,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A des amis ingrats qui detournent la vue?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La mort serait trop douce en ces extrémités.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais le scrupule parle, et nous crie, arrêtez.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Il defend à nos mains cet heureux homicide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et d’un héros guerrier, fait un Chrétien timide.<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span></p> - -<p>Besides the general fault already noticed, of -substituting formal and connected reasoning, to -the desultory range of thought and abrupt -transitions of the original, Voltaire has in this -passage, by the looseness of his paraphrase, -allowed some of the most striking beauties, both -of the thought and expression, entirely to escape; -while he has superadded, with unpardonable -licence, several ideas of his own, not only unconnected -with the original, but dissonant to -the general tenor of the speaker’s thoughts, and -foreign to his character. Adopting Voltaire’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span> -own style of criticism on the translations of the -Abbé des Fontaines, we may ask him, “Where -do we find, in this translation of Hamlet’s -soliloquy,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To take arms against a sea of troubles——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That flesh is heir to——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Perchance to dream; ay, there’s the rub——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The whips and scorns of time——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The law’s delay, the insolence of office——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The spurns—that patient merit from th’ unworthy takes——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That undiscover’d country, from whose bourne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No traveller returns——?”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Can Voltaire, who has omitted in this short -passage all the above striking peculiarities of -thought and expression, be said to have given -a translation from Shakespeare?</p> - -<p>But in return for what he has retrenched from -his author, he has made a liberal addition of -several new and original ideas of his own. -Hamlet, whose character in Shakespeare exhibits -the strongest impressions of religion, who feels -these impressions even to a degree of superstition, -which influences his conduct in the most important -exigences, and renders him weak and -irresolute, appears in Mr. Voltaire’s translation -a thorough sceptic and freethinker. In the -course of a few lines, he expresses his doubt of -the existence of a God; he treats the priests as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span> -liars and hypocrites, and the Christian religion -as a system which debases human nature, and -makes a coward of a hero:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Dieux justes! S’il en est——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De nos prêtres menteurs bénir l’hypocrisie——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et d’un héros guerrier, fait un Chrêtien timide——</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Now, who gave Mr. Voltaire a right thus to -transmute the pious and superstitious Hamlet -into a modern <i>philosophe</i> and <i>Esprit fort</i>? -Whether the French author meant by this -transmutation to convey to his countrymen a -favourable idea of our English bard, we cannot -pretend to say; but we may at least affirm, that -he has not conveyed a just one.<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> - -<p>But what has prevented the translator, who -professes that he wished to give a just idea of the -merits of his original, from accomplishing what -he wished? Not ignorance of the language; for -Voltaire, though no great critic in the English -tongue, had yet a competent knowledge of it; -and the change he has put upon the reader<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span> -was not involuntary, or the effect of ignorance. -Neither was it the want of genius, or of poetical -talents; for Voltaire is certainly one of the best -poets, and one of the greatest ornaments of the -drama. But it was the original difference of his -genius and that of Shakespeare, increased by the -general opposition of the national character of -the French and English. His mind, accustomed -to connect all ideas of dramatic sublimity or -beauty with regular design and perfect symmetry -of composition, could not comprehend this union -of the great and beautiful with irregularity of -structure and partial disproportion. He was -capable indeed of discerning some features of -majesty in this colossal statue; but the rudeness -of the parts, and the want of polish in the whole -figure, prevailed over the general impression -of its grandeur, and presented it altogether to -his eye as a monstrous production.</p> - -<p>The genius of Voltaire was more akin to -that of Dryden, of Waller, of Addison, and of -Pope, than to that of Shakespeare: he has therefore -succeeded much better in the translations -he has given of particular passages from these -poets, than in those he has attempted from our -great master of the drama.</p> - -<p>Voltaire possessed a large share of wit; but it -is of a species peculiar to himself, and which I -think has never yet been analysed. It appears -to me to be the result of acute philosophical -talents, a strong spirit of satire, and a most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span> -brilliant imagination. As all wit consists in -unexpected combinations, the singular union of -a philosophic thought with a lively fancy, which -is a very uncommon association, seems in -general to be the basis of the wit of Voltaire. -It is of a very different species from that wit -which is associated with humour, which is -exercised in presenting odd, extravagant, but -natural views of human character, and which -forms the essence of ludicrous composition. -The novels of Voltaire have no other scope than -to illustrate certain philosophical doctrines, or -to expose certain philosophical errors; they are -not pictures of life or of manners; and the -persons who figure in them are pure creatures -of the imagination, fictitious beings, who have -nothing of nature in their composition, and who -neither act nor reason like the ordinary race -of men. Voltaire, then, with a great deal of -wit, seems to have had no talent for humorous -composition. Now if such is the character of -his original genius, we may presume, that he -was not capable of justly estimating in the -compositions of others what he did not possess -himself. We may likewise fairly conclude, that -he should fail in attempting to convey by a -translation a just idea of the merits of a work, of -which one of the main ingredients is that quality -in which he was himself deficient. Of this I -proceed to give a strong example.</p> - -<p>In the poem of <i>Hudibras</i>, we have a remarkable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span> -combination of Wit with Humour; nor is it -easy to say which of these qualities chiefly predominates -in the composition. A proof that -humour forms a most capital ingredient is, that -the inimitable Hogarth has told the whole story -of the poem in a series of characteristic prints: -now painting is completely adequate to the -representation of humour, but can convey no -idea of wit. Of this singular poem, Voltaire has -attempted to give a specimen to his countrymen -by a translation; but in this experiment he says -he has found it necessary to concentrate the first -four hundred lines into little more than eighty -of the translation.<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> The truth is, that, either -insensible of that part of the merit of the original, -or conscious of his own inability to give a just -idea of it, he has left out all that constitutes the -humour of the painting, and attached himself -solely to the wit of the composition. In the -original, we have a description of the figure, -dress, and accoutrements of Sir Hudibras, which -is highly humorous, and which conveys to the -imagination as complete a picture as is given by -the characteristic etchings of Hogarth. In the -translation of Voltaire, all that we learn of those -particulars which <i>paint</i> the hero, is, that he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span> -wore mustachios, and rode with a pair of -pistols.</p> - -<p>Even the wit of the original, in passing through -the alembic of Voltaire, has changed in a great -measure its nature, and assimilated itself to that -which is peculiar to the translator. The wit of -Butler is more concentrated, more pointed, and -is announced in fewer words, than the wit of -Voltaire. The translator, therefore, though he -pretends to have abridged four hundred verses -into eighty, has in truth effected this by the -retrenchment of the wit of his original, and not -by the concentration of it: for when we compare -any particular passage or point, we find there is -more diffusion in the translation than in the -original. Thus, Butler says,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The difference was so small, his brain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Outweigh’d his rage but half a grain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which made some take him for a tool</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That knaves do work with, call’d a fool.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus amplified by Voltaire, and at the same -time imperfectly translated.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais malgré sa grande eloquence,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et son mérite, et sa prudence,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Il passa chez quelques savans</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pour être un de ces instrumens</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dont les fripons avec addresse</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Savent user sans dire mot,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et qu’ils tournent avec souplesse;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cet instrument s’appelle un sot.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus likewise the famous simile of Taliacotius,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span> -loses, by the amplification of the translator, a -great portion of its spirit.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">So learned Taliacotius from</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The brawny part of porter’s bum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cut supplemental noses, which</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Would last as long as parent breech;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But, when the date of nock was out,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Off dropt the sympathetic snout.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ainsi Taliacotius,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Grand Esculape d’Etrurie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Répara tous les nez perdus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par une nouvelle industrie:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Il vous prenoit adroitement</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un morceau du cul d’un pauvre homme,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">L’appliquoit au nez proprement;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Enfin il arrivait qu’en somme,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout juste à la mort du prêteur</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tombait le nez de l’emprunteur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et souvent dans la même bière,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par justice et par bon accord,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On remettait au gré du mort</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le nez auprès de son derriere.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It will be allowed, that notwithstanding the -supplemental witticism of the translator, contained -in the last four lines, the simile loses, upon -the whole, very greatly by its diffusion. The -following anonymous Latin version of this simile -is possessed of much higher merit, as, with equal -brevity of expression, it conveys the whole spirit -of the original.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sic adscititios nasos de clune torosi</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vectoris doctâ secuit Talicotius arte,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Qui potuere parent durando æquare parentem:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>At postquam fato clunis computruit, ipsum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Unâ sympathicum cœpit tabescere rostrum.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span></p> - -<p>With these translations may be compared the -following, which is taken from a complete version -of the poem of <i>Hudibras</i>, a very remarkable -work, with the merits of which (as the book is -less known than it deserves to be) I am glad to -have this opportunity of making the English -reader acquainted:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ainsi Talicot d’une fesse</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Savoit tailler avec addresse</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nez tous neufs, qui ne risquoient rien</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tant que le cul se portoit bien;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais si le cul perdoit la vie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Le nez tomboit par sympathie.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In one circumstance of this passage no translation -can come up to the original: it is in that -additional pleasantry which results from the structure -of the verses, the first line ending most unexpectedly -with a preposition, and the third with -a pronoun, both which are the rhyming syllables -in the two couplets:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">So learned Taliacotius <i>from</i>, &c.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cut supplemental noses, <i>which</i>, &c.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">It was perhaps impossible to imitate this in a -translation; but setting this circumstance aside, -the merit of the latter French version seems -to me to approach very near to that of the -original.</p> - -<p>The author of this translation of the poem of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span> -<i>Hudibras</i>, evidently a man of superior abilities,<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> -appears to have been endowed with an uncommon -share of modesty. He presents his work to -the public with the utmost diffidence; and, in a -short preface, humbly deprecates its censure for -the presumption that may be imputed to him in -attempting that which the celebrated Voltaire -had declared to be one of the most difficult of -tasks. Yet this task he has executed in a very -masterly manner. A few specimens will shew -the high merit of this work, and clearly evince, -that the translator possessed that essential -requisite for his undertaking, a kindred genius -with that of his great original.</p> - -<p>The religion of Hudibras is thus described:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For his religion, it was fit</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To match his learning and his wit:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twas Presbyterian true blue;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For he was of that stubborn crew</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of errant saints, whom all men grant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To be the true church-militant:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Such as do build their faith upon</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The holy text of pike and gun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Decide all controversies by</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Infallible artillery;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And prove their doctrine orthodox,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By apostolic blows and knocks.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Canto</i> 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sa réligion au genie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et sçavoir étoit assortie;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Il étoit franc Presbyterien,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et de sa secte le soutien,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Secte, qui justement se vante</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’être l’Eglise militante;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qui de sa foi vous rend raison</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par la bouche de son canon,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dont le boulet et feu terrible</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Montre bien qu’elle est infallible,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et sa doctrine prouve à tous</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Orthodoxe, à force de coups.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the following passage, the arch ratiocination -of the original is happily rivalled in the -translation:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For Hudibras wore but one spur,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As wisely knowing could he stir</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To active trot one side of’s horse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The other would not hang an a—se.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Car Hudibras avec raison</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne se chaussoit qu’un éperon,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ayant preuve démonstrative</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’un coté marchant, l’autre arrive.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The language of Sir Hudibras is described as -a strange jargon, compounded of English, Greek, -and Latin,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Which made some think when he did gabble</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They’d heard three labourers of Babel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or Cerberus himself pronounce</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A leash of languages at once.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It was difficult to do justice in the translation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span> -to the metaphor of Cerberus, by translating -<i>leash of languages</i>: This, however, is very -happily effected by a parallel witticism:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ce qui pouvoit bien faire accroire</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quand il parloit à l’auditoire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’entendre encore le bruit mortel</div> - <div class="verse indent0">De trois ouvriers de Babel,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ou Cerbere aux ames errantes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Japper trois langues différentes.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The wit of the following passage is completely -transfused, perhaps even heightened in the -translation:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For he by geometric scale</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could take the size of pots of ale;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Resolve by sines and tangents straight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If bread or butter wanted weight;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The clock does strike, by algebra.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">En géometre raffiné</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un pot de bierre il eut jaugé;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Par tangente et sinus sur l’heure</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Trouvé le poids de pain ou beurre,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et par algebre eut dit aussi</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A quelle heure il sonne midi.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The last specimen I shall give from this work, -is Hudibras’s consultation with the lawyer, -in which the Knight proposes to prosecute -Sidrophel in an action of battery:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quoth he, there is one Sidrophel</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whom I have cudgell’d—“Very well.”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And now he brags t’have beaten me.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Better and better still, quoth he.”—</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">And vows to stick me to the wall</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where’er he meets me—“Best of all.”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis true, the knave has taken’s oath</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That I robb’d him—“Well done, in troth.”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When h’ has confessed he stole my cloak,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And pick’d my fob, and what he took,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which was the cause that made me bang him</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And take my goods again—“Marry, hang him.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">——“Sir,” quoth the lawyer, “not to flatter ye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You have as good and fair a battery</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As heart can wish, and need not shame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The proudest man alive to claim:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For if they’ve us’d you as you say;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Marry, quoth I, God give you joy:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I would it were my case, I’d give</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More than I’ll say, or you believe.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Il est, dit-il, de par le monde</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Un Sidrophel, que Dieu confonde,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que j’ai rossé des mieux. “Fort bien”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et maintenant il dit, le chien,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’il m’a battu.—“Bien mieux encore.”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et jure, afin qu’on ne l’ignore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que s’il me trouve il me tuera—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Le meilleur de tout le voila”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Il est vrai que ce misérable</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A fait serment au préalable</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que moi je l’ai dévalisé—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“C’est fort bien fait, en vérité”—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tandis que lui-meme il confesse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’il m’a volé dans une presse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mon manteau, mon gousset vuidé;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et c’est pourquoi je l’ai rossé;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Puis mes effets j’ai sçu reprendre—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Oui da,” dit-il, “il faut le pendre.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">——Dit l’avocat, “sans flatterie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vous avez, Monsieur, batterie</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Aussi bonne qu’on puisse avoir;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vous devez vous en prévaloir.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">S’ils vous ont traité de la sorte,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Comme votre recit le porte,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je vous en fais mon compliment;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je voudrais pour bien de l’argent,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et plus que vous ne sauriez croire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’il m’arrivât pareille histoire.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>These specimens are sufficient to shew how -completely this translator has entered into the -spirit of his original, and has thus succeeded in -conveying a very perfect idea to his countrymen -of one of those works which are most -strongly tinctured with the peculiarities of -national character, and which therefore required -a singular coincidence of the talents of the -translator with those of the original author.</p> - -<p>If the English can boast of any parallel to -this, in a version from the French, where the -translator has given equal proof of a kindred -genius to that of his original, and has as -successfully accomplished a task of equal -difficulty, it is in the translation of Rabelais, -begun by Sir Thomas Urquhart, and finished -by Mr. Motteux, and lastly, revised and corrected -by Mr. Ozell. The difficulty of translating this -work, arises less from its obsolete style, than -from a phraseology peculiar to the author, which -he seems to have purposely rendered obscure, in -order to conceal that satire which he levels both -against the civil government and the ecclesiastical -policy of his country. Such is the studied<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span> -obscurity of this satire, that but a very few of -the most learned and acute among his own -countrymen have professed to understand -Rabelais in the original. The history of the -English translation of this work, is in itself a -proof of its very high merit. The three first -books were translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart, -but only two of them were published in his -lifetime. Mr. Motteux, a Frenchman by birth, -but whose long residence in England had given -him an equal command of both languages, -republished the work of Urquhart, and added -the remaining three books translated by himself. -In this publication he allows the excellence of -the work of his predecessor, whom he declares -to have been a complete master of the French -language, and to have possessed both learning -and fancy equal to the task he undertook. He -adds, that he has preserved in his translation “the -very style and air of his original;” and finally, -“that the English readers may now understand -that author better in their own tongue, than -many of the French can do in theirs.” The -work thus completed in English, was taken up -by Mr. Ozell, a person of considerable literary -abilities, and who possessed an uncommon knowledge -both of the ancient and modern languages. -Of the merits of the translation, none could be -a better judge, and to these he has given the -strongest testimony, by adopting it entirely in his -new edition, and limiting his own undertaking<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span> -solely to the correction of the text of Urquhart -and Motteux, to which he has added a translation -of the notes of M. Du Chat, who spent, as -Mr. Ozell informs us, forty years in composing -annotations on the original work. The English -version of Rabelais thus improved, may be -considered, in its present form, as one of the -most perfect specimens of the art of translation. -The best critics in both languages have borne -testimony to its faithful transfusion of the sense, -and happy imitation of the style of the original; -and every English reader will acknowledge, that -it possesses all the ease of original composition. -If I have forborne to illustrate any of the rules or -precepts of the preceding Essay from this work, -my reasons were, that obscurity I have already -noticed, which rendered it less fit for the purpose -of such illustration, and that strong tincture of -licentiousness which characterises the whole -work.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX</h2> - -</div> - -<h3 id="APPENDIX1">No. I</h3> - -<p class="center"><i><span class="smcap">Stanzas</span> from <span class="smcap">Tickell’s</span> Ballad of <span class="smcap">Colin and Lucy</span></i></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translated by <span class="smcap">Le Mierre</span></i></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Cheres compagnes, je vous laisse;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Une voix semble m’apeller,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Une main que je vois sans cesse</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Me fait signe de m’en aller.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">L’ingrat que j’avois cru sincere</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Me fait mourir, si jeune encor:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Une plus riche a sçu lui plaire:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Moi qui l’aimois, voila mon sort!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah Colin! ah! que vas tu faire?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Rends moi mon bien, rends-moi ta foi;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et toi que son cœur me préfère</div> - <div class="verse indent2">De ses baisers détourne toi.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Dès le matin en épousée</div> - <div class="verse indent2">À l’église il te conduira;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais homme faux, fille abusée,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Songez que Lucy sera là.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Filles, portez-moi vers ma fosse;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Que l’ingrat me rencontre alors,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lui, dans son bel habit de noce,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Et Lucy sous le drap des morts.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>I hear a voice you cannot hear,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Which says I must not stay;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>I see a hand you cannot see,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Which beckons me away.</i></div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>By a false heart, and broken vows,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>In early youth I die;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Am I to blame, because his bride</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Is thrice as rich as I?</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ah Colin, give not her thy vows,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Vows due to me alone;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Nor thou, fond maid, receive his kiss,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Nor think him all thy own.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>To-morrow in the church to wed,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Impatient both prepare,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>But know, fond maid, and know, false man,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>That Lucy will be there.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>There bear my corse, ye comrades, bear,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>The bridegroom blithe to meet;</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>He in his wedding-trim so gay,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>I in my winding-sheet.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3 id="APPENDIX2">No. II</h3> - -<p class="center"><i><span class="smcap">Ode V.</span> of the First Book of <span class="smcap">Horace</span></i></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translated by <span class="smcap">Milton</span></i></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Quis multa gracilis, &c.</i></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What slender youth, bedew’d with liquid odours,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave?</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Pyrrha, for whom bind’st thou</div> - <div class="verse indent4">In wreaths thy golden hair,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On faith and changed Gods complain, and seas</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Rough with black winds, and storms</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Unwonted, shall admire.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who always vacant, always amiable,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Hopes thee; of flattering gales</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Unmindful? Hapless they</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To whom thou untry’d seem’st fair. Me in my vow’d</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Picture the sacred wall declares t’have hung</div> - <div class="verse indent4">My dank and dropping weeds</div> - <div class="verse indent4">To the stern God of sea.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3 id="APPENDIX3">No. III</h3> - -<p class="center"><i>The beginning of the VIIIth Book of the <span class="smcap">Iliad</span></i></p> - -<p class="center"><i>Translated by <span class="smcap">T. Hobbes</span></i></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The morning now was quite display’d, and Jove</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upon Olympus’ highest top was set;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all the Gods and Goddesses above,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By his command, were there together met.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Jupiter unto them speaking, said,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">You Gods all, and you Goddesses, d’ye hear!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let none of you the Greeks or Trojans aid:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I cannot do my work for you: forbear!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For whomsoever I assisting see</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Argives or the Trojans, be it known,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He wounded shall return, and laught at be,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Or headlong into Tartarus be thrown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Into the deepest pit of Tartarus,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shut in with gates of brass, as much below</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The common hell, as ’tis from hell to us.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But if you will my power by trial know,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Put now into my hand a chain of gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And let one end thereof lie on the plain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And all you Gods and Goddesses take hold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">You shall not move me, howsoe’er you strain</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">At th’ other end, if I my strength put to ’t,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I’ll pull you Gods and Goddesses to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Do what you can, and earth and sea to boot,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And let you hang there till my power you see.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Gods were out of countenance at this,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And to such mighty words durst not reply, &c.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<h3 id="APPENDIX4">No. IV</h3> - -<p>A very learned and ingenious friend,<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> 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:</p> - -<p class="center">In Vit. Agr. cap. 39</p> - -<p>“<i>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.</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span> -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.’</p> - -<p>“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:</p> - -<p>“‘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.’</p> - -<p>“Domitian did not pretend to any skill in war; and -therefore the word ‘<i>alius</i>’ could never be intended -to express a competitor with him in it.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> 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 (<i>Quinctil. Inst. Orat.</i> l. 10, c. 5).</p> - -<p>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 (<i>Plin. Epist.</i> -l. 7, ep. 7).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> There remain of Cicero’s translations some fragments -of the <i>Œconomics</i> of Xenophon, the <i>Timæus</i> of -Plato, and part of a poetical version of the <i>Phenomena</i> of -Aratus.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> 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, <i>De optimo genere interpretandi</i>; of whose -doctrines, however, he has some knowledge, from a pretty -full extract of his work in the <i>Dictionnaire Encyclopédique -de Grammaire et Litterature</i>, article <i>Traduction</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That few, but such as cannot write, translate.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Denham to Sir R. Fanshaw.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent18">hands impure dispense</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sacred streams of ancient eloquence;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pedants assume the task for scholars fit,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And blockheads rise interpreters of wit.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Translation by Francklin.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> <i>Batteux de la Construction Oratoire</i>, par. 2, ch. 4. -Such likewise appears to be the opinion of M. Huet: -“<i>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</i>” (Huet de Interpretatione, lib. 1).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Dom Vincent Thuillier.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> <i>Mémoires militaires de M. Guischardt.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Dr. George Campbell, <i>Preliminary Dissertations to a -new Translation of the Gospels</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> <i>Cic. de Fin.</i> l. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> <i>Cic. Tusc. Quæst.</i> l. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> <i>Trans. of Royal Soc. of Edin.</i> vol. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> The excellent translation of Tacitus by Mr. Murphy -had not appeared when the first edition of this Essay was -published.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Mr. Gordon has translated the words <i>ad tempus</i>, “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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> 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 <a href="#APPENDIX1">Appendix, No. I</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> From the modern allusion, <i>barrieres du Louvre</i>, this -passage, strictly speaking, falls under the description of -imitation, rather than of translation. See <i>postea</i>, <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">ch. xi</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> 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 <i>Ode to Pyrrha</i>; -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 <a href="#APPENDIX2">Appendix, No. 2</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That servile path thou nobly dost decline,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of tracing word by word, and line by line.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A new and nobler way thou dost pursue,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To make translations and translators too:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">True to his sense, but truer to his fame.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Denham</span> to Sir <span class="smcap">R. Fanshaw</span>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> One of the best passages of Fanshaw’s translation of -the <i>Pastor Fido</i>, is the celebrated apostrophe to the -spring—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Spring, the year’s youth, fair mother of new flowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">New leaves, new loves, <i>drawn by the winged hours</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art return’d; but the felicity</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou brought’st me last is not return’d with thee.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art return’d; but nought returns with thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Save my lost joy’s regretful memory.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou art the self-same thing thou wert before,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As fair and jocund: but I am no more</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The thing I was, so gracious in her sight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Who is heaven’s masterpiece and earth’s delight</i>.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O bitter sweets of love! far worse it is</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lose than never to have tasted bliss.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Primavera gioventu del anno,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bella madre di fiori,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">D’herbe novelle, e di novelli amori:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu torni ben, ma teco,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Non tornano i sereni,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E fortunati dì de le mie gioie!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu torni ben, tu torni,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ma teco altro non torna</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Che del perduto mio caro tesoro</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La rimembranza misera e dolente.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tu quella se’ tu quella,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ch’eri pur dianzi vezzosa e bella.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ma non son io già quel ch’un tempo fui,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sì caro a gli occhi altrui.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O dolcezze amarissime d’amore!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quanto è più duro perdervi, che mai</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Non v’haver ò provate, ò possedute!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Pastor Fido</i>, act 3, sc. 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> 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 <i>Georgics</i> 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.” -<i>Delille Disc. Prelim. à la Trad. des Georgiques.</i> Of the -same opinion is the elegant author of the poem on -Translation.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Unless an author like a mistress warms,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How shall we <i>hide his faults</i>, or taste his charms?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How all his modest, latent beauties find;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How trace each lovelier feature of the mind;</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Soften each blemish</i>, and <i>each grace improve</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And treat him with the dignity of love?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Francklin.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Witness the attempt of a translator of no ordinary -ability.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pulchra mari, crocea surgens in veste, per omnes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fundebat sese terras Aurora: deorum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Summo concilium cœlo regnator habebat.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cuncta silent: Solio ex alto sic Jupiter orsus.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Huc aures cuncti, mentesque advertite vestras,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dîque Deæque, loquar dum quæ fert corde voluntas,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dicta probate omnes; neve hinc præcidere quisquam</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Speret posse aliquid, seu mas seu fœmina. Siquis</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Auxilio veniens, dura inter prælia, Troas</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Juverit, aut Danaos, fœde remeabit Olympum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Saucius: arreptumve obscura in Tartara longè</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Demittam ipse manu jaciens; immane barathrum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Altè ubi sub terram vasto descendit hiatu,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Orcum infra, quantum jacet infra sidera tellus:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ære solum, æterno ferri stant robore portæ.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quam cunctis melior sim Dîs, tum denique discet.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quin agite, atque meas jam nunc cognoscite vires,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ingentem heic auro e solido religate catenam,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deinde manus cuncti validas adhibete, trahentes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ad terram: non ulla fuat vis tanta, laborque,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cœlesti qui sede Jovem deducere possit.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ast ego vos, terramque et magni cœrula ponti</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stagna traham, dextra attollens, et vertice Olympi</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Suspendam: vacuo pendebunt aëre cuncta.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tantum supra homines mea vis, et numina supra est.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Ilias Lat. vers. express. a Raym. Cunighio</i>, <i>Rom.</i> 1776.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> See a translation of this passage by Hobbes, in the -true spirit of the <i>Bathos</i>. <a href="#APPENDIX3">Appendix, No. III.</a></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> 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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vis fieri liber? mentiris, Maxime, non vis:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Sed fieri si vis, hac ratione potes.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Liber eris, cœnare foris, si, Maxime, nolis:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Veientana tuam si domat uva sitim:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Si ridere potes miseri Chrysendeta Cinnæ:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Contentus nostrâ si potes esse togâ.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Si plebeia Venus gemino tibi vincitur asse:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Si tua non rectus tecta subire potes:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hæc tibi si vis est, si mentis tanta potestas,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Liberior Partho vivere rege potes.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Mart.</span> lib. 2, ep. 53.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Non, d’etre libre, cher Paulin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vous n’avez jamais eu l’envie;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Entre nous, votre train de vie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">N’en est point du tout le chemin.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Il vous faut grand’chere, bon vin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Grand jeu, nombreuse compagnie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Maitresse fringante et jolie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et robe du drap le plus fin.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Il faudrait aimer, au contraire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vin commun, petit ordinaire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Habit simple, un ou deux amis;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Jamais de jeu, point d’Amarante:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Voyez si le parti vous tente,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">La liberté n’est qu’à ce prix.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Fitzosborne’s <i>Letters</i>, l. 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Thus likewise translated with great beauty of poetry, -and sufficient fidelity to the original:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ut lunam circa fulgent cum lucida pulchro</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Astra choro, nusquam cœlo dum nubila, nusquam</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aerios turbant ventorum flamina campos;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Apparent speculæ, nemoroso et vertice montes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Frondiferi et saltus; late se fulgidus æther</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pandit in immensum, penitusque abstrusa remoto</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Signa polo produnt longe sese omnia; gaudet</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Visa tuens, hæretque immoto lumine pastor.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Ilias Lat. vers. a Raym. Cunighio</i>, <i>Rom.</i> 1776.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Dr. Beattie, <i>Dissertation on Poetry and Music</i>, p. 357. -4to. ed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> Fitzosborne’s <i>Letters</i>, 43.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> 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.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> <i>Third Preliminary Diss. to New Translation of the -Four Gospels.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> “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 <i>Prelim. Diss.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Dr. Campbell, 10th <i>Prel. Diss.</i> part 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> The language of that ludicrous work, <i>Epistolæ obscurorum -virorum</i>, is an imitation, and by no means an exaggerated -picture, of the style of <i>Arias Montanus’s</i> version -of the Scriptures. <i>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.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> <i>Lond.</i> 1691.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8"><i>Sectantem levia nervi</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Deficiunt animique: professus grandia turget:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellæ.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>In vitium ducit culpæ fuga</i>, si caret arte.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> <i>Ep. ad. Pis.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> The <i>Orations of M. T. Cicero</i> translated into English, -with notes historical and critical. Dublin, 1766.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> 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.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hor.</i> Donec gratus eram tibi,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nec quisquam potior brachia candidæ</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cervici juvenis dabat;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Persarum vigui rege beatior.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lyd.</i> Donec non aliam magis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloen;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Multi Lydia nominis</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Romanâ vigui clarior Iliâ.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hor.</i> Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dulceis docta modos, et citharæ sciens;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pro qua non metuam mori,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Si parcent animæ fata superstiti.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lyd.</i> Me torret face mutuâ</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thurini Calaïs filius Ornithi;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pro quo bis patiar mori,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Si parcent puero fata superstiti.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hor.</i> Quid, si prisca redit Venus,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Diductosque jugo cogit aheneo?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si flava excutitur Chloe,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Rejectæque patet janua Lydiæ?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lyd.</i> Quamquam sidere pulchrior</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ille est, tu levior cortice, et improbo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Iracundior Hadriâ;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> l. 3, Od. 9.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> Dr. Warton.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> <i>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.</i> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> 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 <i>The Ministrel</i> saw his <i>Edwin</i> realised.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> <i>Observer</i>, vol. 4, p. 115, and vol. 5, p. 145.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> The original of the fragment of Timocles:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ω ταν, ἂκουσον ην τι σοι μέλλω λέγειν.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ανθρωπός ἐστι ζῶον ἐπίπονον φύσει,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Καὶ πολλὰ λυπῆρ’ ὁ βίος ἐν ἑαυτω φέρει.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Παραψυχὰς ουν φροντίδων ανευρατον</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ταυτας· ὁ γὰρ νοῦς των ἰδίων λήθην λαβὼν</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πρὸς ἀλλοτριῳ τε ψυχαγωγηθεὶς πάθει,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Μεθ’ ἡδονῆς ἀπῆλθε παιδευθεὶς ἃμα.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τοὺς γὰρ τραγῳδοὺς πρῶτον εἰ βούλει σκόπει,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ὡς ὠφελοῦσί παντας· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ὤν πένης</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πτωχότερον αὑτου καταμαθὼν τὸν Τήλεφον</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Γενόμενον, ἤδη την πενίαν ῥᾶον φέρει.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ο νοσῶν δὲ μανικῶς, Αλκμαίων’ εσκεψατο.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Οφθαλμιᾶ τις; εἰσὶ Φινεῖδαι τυφλοί.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τέθνηκε τω παῖς; η Νιόβη κεκούφικε.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Χωλός τις ἐστι, τὸν Φιλοκτήτην ὁρᾷ.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Γέρων τὶς ἀτυχεῖ; κατέμαθε τὸν ΟΙνέα.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Απαντα γὰρ τὰ μείζον’ ἤ πέπονθέ τις</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ατυχήματ’ ἄλλοις γεγονότ’ ἐννοούμενος,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τὰς αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ συμφορὰς ῥᾷον φέρει.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus, in the literal version of Dalechampius:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hem amice, nunc ausculta quod dicturus sum tibi.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Animal naturâ laboriosum homo est.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Tristia vita secum affert plurima:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Itaque curarum hæc adinvenit solatia:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mentem enim suorum malorum oblitam,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Alienorum casuum reputatio consolatur,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Indéque fit ea læta, et erudita ad sapientiam.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Tragicos enim primùm, si libet, considera,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quàm prosint omnibus. Qui eget,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pauperiorem se fuisse Telephum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cùm intelligit, leniùs fert inopiam.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Insaniâ qui ægrotat, de Alcmeone is cogitet.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lippus est aliquis, Phinea cœcum is contempletur.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Obiit tibi filius, dolorem levabit exemplum Niobes.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Claudicat quispiam, Philocteten is respicito.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Miser est senex aliquis, in Oeneum is intuetor.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Omnia namque graviora quàm patiatur</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Infortunia quivis animadvertens in aliis cùm deprehenderit,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Suas calamitates luget minùs.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> The original of the fragment of Diphilus:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Τοιοῦτο νόμιμόν ἐστὶ βέλτιστ’ ενθαδε</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Κορίνθίοις, ἵν’ ἐαν τιν’ ὀψωνοῦντ’ ἀεὶ</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Λαμπρῶς ὁρωμεν, τοῦτον ἀνακρινείν πόθεν</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ζῇ, καὶ τί ποιῶν. κᾂν μεν οὐσίαν εχῃ</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ης αἱ προσοδοι λυουσι τ’ ἀναλώματὰ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εᾶν ἀπολαύειν. ἤδε τοῦτον τὸν βίον.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εαν δ’ ὑπέρ την οὐσίαν δαπανῶν τύχῃ,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Απεῖπον αὐτῶ τοῦτο μὴ ποιεῖν ἔτι.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ος ἂν δὲ μή πείθητ’, ἐπέβαλον ζημίαν.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εάν δὲ μηδε ὁτιοῦν ἔχων ζῇ πολυτελῶς,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τῷ δημιῳ παρέδωκαν αὐτον. Ηράκλεις.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">ΟΥκ ἐνδέχεται γὰρ ζῇν ἂνευ κακοῦ τινὸς</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τοῦτον. συνίης; ἀλλ’ ἀναγκαίως ἔχει</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ηλοποδυτεῖν τὰς νύκτας, ἢ τοιχωρυχεῖν,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Η τῶν ποιουντων ταῦτα κοινωνεῖν τισιν.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Η συκοφαντεῖν κατ’ ἀγορὰν, ἢ μαρτυρεῖν</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ψευδῆ, τοιοῦτων ἐκκαθαίρομεν γενος.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ορθῶς γε νὴ Δί’, ἀλλὰ δὴ τί τοῦτ’ ἐμοί;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ορῶμεν ὀψωνοῦνθ’ ἑκάστης ἡμέρας,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">ΟΥχι μετριως βέλτιστέ σ’, ἀλλ’ ὑπερηφάνως.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">ΟΥκ ἔστιν ἰχθυηρὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ μεταλαβεῖν.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Συνηκας ἡμῶν εἰς τὰ λάχανα την πόλιν,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Περὶ τῶν σελινων μαχόμεθ’ ὥσπερ Ισθμίοις.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Λαγώς τις εἰσελήλυθ’. ευθὺς ἥρπακας.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Πέρδικα δ’ ἢ κιχλην; καὶ νὴ Δί’ οὐκ ἔτι</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Εστιν δἰ ὑμᾶς οὐδὲ πετομενην ἰδεῖν,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Τὸν ξενικὸν οἶνον ἐπιτετίμηκας πολύ.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Thus in the version of Dalechampius:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A. <i>Talis istic lex est, ô vir optime,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Corinthiis: si quem obsonantem semper</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Splendidiùs aspexerint, illum ut interrogent</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Unde vivat, quidnam agat: quòd si facultates illi sunt</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Quarum ad eum sumptum reditus sufficiat,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Eo vitæ luxu permittunt frui:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sin amplius impendat quàm pro re sua,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ne id porrò faciat interdicitur.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Si non pareat, mulctâ quidem plectitur.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Si sumptuosè vivit qui nihil prorsus habet,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Traditur puniendus carnifici.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">B. <i>Proh Hercules.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A. <i>Quod enim scias, fieri minimè potest</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ut qui eo est ingenio, non vivat improbè: itaque necessum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vel noctu grassantem obvios spoliare, vel effractarium, parietem suffodere,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Vel his se furibus adjungere socium,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Aut delatorem et quadruplatorem esse in foro: aut falsum</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Testari: à talium hominum genere purgatur civitas.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">B. <i>Rectè, per Jovem: sed ad me quid hoc attinet?</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A. <i>Nos te videmus obsonantem quotidie</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Haud mediocriter, vir optime, sed fastuosè, et magnificè,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ne pisciculum quidem habere licet caussâ tuâ:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cives nostros commisisti, pugnaturos de oleribus:</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>De apio dimicamus tanquam in Isthmiis.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Si lepus accessit, eum extemplo rapis.</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Perdicem, ac turdum ne volantem quidem</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Propter vos, ita me Juppiter amet, nobis jam videre licet,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Peregrini multùm auxistis vini pretium.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> C’est en quoi consiste le grand art de la Poësie, de -dire figurément presque tout ce qu’elle dit. <i>Rapin. -Reflex. sur la Poëtique en général.</i> § 29.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> “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; -<i>quæ desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit</i>. 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?”—<i>Batteux de la construction Oratoire</i>, -par. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> 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. <i>Lucian</i>, -<i>Timon</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Και ὅλως πανσοφον τι χρημα, και πανταχοθεν ακριβες, -και ποικιλως εντελες· οιμωξεται τοιγαρουν ουκ εις μακραν -χρηστος ων. <i>Lucian</i>, <i>Timon</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Αντι του τεως Πυρριου, η Δρομωνος, η Τιβιου, Μεγακλης, -Μεγαβυζος, η Πρωταρχος μετονομασθεις, τους ματην κεχηνοτας -εκεινους εις αλληλους αποβλεποντας καταλιπων, &c. <i>Lucian</i>, -<i>Timon</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> 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.</p> - -<p>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, <i>parce que -l’Eloquence est une chose si delicate, qu’il ne faut quelquefois -qu’une syllabe pour la corrompre</i>. 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.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> A striking resemblance to this beautiful apostrophe -“Ahi padri irragionevoli,” is found in the beginning -of Moncrif’s <i>Romance d’Alexis et Alis</i>, a ballad which -the French justly consider as a model of tenderness and -elegant simplicity.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pourquoi rompre leur mariage,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mechans parens?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ils auroient fait si bon menage</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A tous momens!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Que sert d’avoir bagues et dentelle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pour se parer?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! la richesse la plus belle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Est de s’aimer.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quand on a commencé la vie</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Disant ainsi:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oui, vous serez toujours ma mie,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Vous mon ami:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quand l’age augmente encor l’envie</div> - <div class="verse indent2">De s’entreunir,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Qu’avec un autre on nous marie</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Vaut mieux mourir.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Otium divos rogat in patenti</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Prensus Ægeo, simul atra nubes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Condidit Lunam, neque certa fulgent</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Sidera nautis.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Otium bello furiosa Thrace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Otium Medi pharetrâ decori,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Grosphe, non gemmis, neque purpurâ ve-</div> - <div class="verse indent6">nale, nec auro.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Non enim gazæ, neque Consularis</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Summovet lictor miseros tumultus</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mentis, et curas laqueata circum</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Tecta volantes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Splendet in mensâ tenui salinum:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nec leves somnos Timor aut Cupido</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Sordidus aufert.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Quid brevi fortes jaculamur ævo</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Multa? quid terras alio calentes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sole mutamus? Patriæ quis exul,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Se quoque fugit?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Scandit æratas vitiosa naves</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cura, nec turmas equitum relinquit,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ocyor cervis, et agente nimbos</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Ocyor Euro.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Lætus in præsens animus, quod ultra est</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oderit curare; et amara lento</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Temperat risu. Nihil est ab omni</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Parte beatum.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Longa Tithonum minuit senectus:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et mihi forsan, tibi quod negârit,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Porriget hora.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Te greges centum, Siculæque circum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mugiunt vaccæ: tibi tollit hinnitum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Apta quadrigis equa: te bis Afro</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Murice tinctæ.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Vestiunt lanæ: mihi parva rura, et</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Spiritum Graiæ tenuem Camœnæ</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Parca non mendax dedit, et malignum</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Spernere vulgus.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> <i>Od. 2, 16.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> 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: <i>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.</i> -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 -<i>Xenophon</i>. 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; <i>ut -pictura poesis</i>; 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. “<i>This chapter -relates how</i> Lambert Simnel invades England, <i>how</i> -Perkin Warbeck is avowed by the Duchess of Burgundy,” -&c.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> 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 -<i>Æneid</i> 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 <i>Sermonem temporis istius auribus accommodatum</i>, -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 <i>as a man of this nation, but as a man of this -age</i>.” The translator’s opinion is exemplified in his -practice.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“<i>Madam</i>, when you command us to review</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Our fate, you make our old wounds bleed anew.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Of such translation it may with truth be said, in the -words of Francklin,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus Greece and Rome, in modern dress array’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is but antiquity in masquerade.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> The modern air of the following sentence is, however, -not displeasing: Antipho asks Cherea, where he has -bespoke supper; he answers, <i>Apud libertum Discum</i>, -“At Discus the freedman’s.” Echard, with a happy -familiarity, says, “At old Harry Platter’s.” <i>Ter. Eun.</i> -act 3, sc. 5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> Alluding to the French Admiral’s ship <i>Le Soleil -Royal</i>, beaten and disabled by Russell.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> The only French translation of <i>Don Quixote</i> 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 <i>ad aperturam -libri</i>; as, for example, the following:</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”—<span class="smcap">Motteux.</span></p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”—<span class="smcap">Motteux.</span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><i>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.</i></p> - -<p><i>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.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> Perhaps a parody was here intended of the famous -epitaph of Simonides, on the brave Spartans who fell at -Thermopylæ:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ω ξειν, αγγειλον Λακεδαιμονιοις, οτι τηδε</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Κειμεθα, τοις κεινων ρημασι πειθομενοι.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“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; <i>diras—que -su caballero murio por acometer cosas, que le hiciesen -digno de poder llamarse suyo</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> One expression is omitted which is a little too gross.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> 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: <i>del mal que le viene no se enoje</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> <i>Mas ligera que un alcotan</i> is more literally translated -by Smollet than by Motteux; but if Smollet piqued himself -on fidelity, why was <i>Cordobes o Mexicano</i> omitted?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> Smollet has here mistaken the sense of the original, -<i>como si ellos tuvieran la culpa del maleficio</i>: 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, “<i>para sacar una verdad en limpio menester son -muchas pruebas y repruebas</i>.” 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> 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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My change arrives; the change I meet</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Before I thought it nigh;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My spring, my years of pleasure fleet,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And all their beauties die.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In age I search, and only find</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A poor unfruitful gain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Grave wisdom stalking slow behind,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Oppress’d with loads of pain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My ignorance could once beguile,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And fancied joys inspire;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My errors cherish’d hope to smile</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On newly born desire.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But now experience shews the bliss</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For which I fondly sought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not worth the long impatient wish</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And ardour of the thought.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My youth met fortune fair array’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In all her pomp she shone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And might perhaps have well essay’d</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To make her gifts my own.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But when I saw the blessings show’r</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On some unworthy mind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I left the chace, and own’d the power</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Was justly painted blind.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I pass’d the glories which adorn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The splendid courts of kings,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And while the persons mov’d my scorn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I rose to scorn the things.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My errors cherish’d hope to smile</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On newly born desire.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> The attempt, however, has been made. In a little -volume, intitled <i>Prolusiones Poeticæ</i>, by the Reverend T. -Bancroft, printed at Chester 1788, is a version of the <i>Fidicinis -et Philomelæ certamen</i>, 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 <i>Epistle of Abelard to Eloisa</i>, is a fable, -intitled, the <i>Nightingale and Shepherd</i>, imitated from -Strada. But both these performances serve only to -convince us, that a just translation of that composition -is a thing almost impossible.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> 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 <i>Æneid</i>, which is among the few examples of -false taste in the chastest of the Latin Poets:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">——<i>Oculos telumque tetendit.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">——He cock’d his eye and gun.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">To be, or not to be, that is the question:—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whether ’tis better in the mind to suffer</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And by opposing end them? To die;—to sleep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No more?—And by a sleep, to say we end</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That flesh is heir to;—’tis a consummation</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Devoutly to be wish’d. To die;—to sleep;—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To sleep! perchance to dream;—ay, there’s the rub;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Must give us pause: There’s the respect,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That makes calamity of so long life:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The insolence of office, and the spurns</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That patient merit of the unworthy takes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When he himself might his quietus make</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To groan and sweat under a weary life;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But that the dread of something after death—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That undiscover’d country, from whose bourne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No traveller returns—puzzles the will;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And makes us rather bear those ills we have,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than fly to others that we know not of?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, &c.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><i>Hamlet</i>, act 3, sc. 1.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> Other ideas superadded by the translator, are,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Que suis-je——Qui m’arrête?——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On nous menace, on dit que cette courte vie, &c.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">——Affreuse éternité!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tout cœur à ton seul nom se glace épouvanté——</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A des amis ingrats qui detournent la vue——</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the <i>Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare</i>, -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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> 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 <i>Butler</i> ne finit jamais. -J’ai donc réduit à environ quatre-vingt vers les quatre cent -premiers vers d’Hudibras, pour éviter la prolixité. <i>Mel. -Philos. par Voltaire, Oeuv. tom. 15. Ed. de Genève.</i> 4to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> James Edgar, Esq., Commissioner of the Customs, -Edinburgh.</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX</h2> - -</div> - -<ul> - -<li class="ifrst">A</li> - -<li class="indx" id="Ablancourt">Ablancourt, his translations excellent, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, his just observations on translation, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Adrian, his <i>Address to his Soul</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Alembert">Alembert, D’, quoted, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, his translations from Tacitus, <a href="#Page_15">15 <i>et seq.</i></a> <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Alis et Alexis</i>, romance, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Aldrich, Dr., his translation of a humorous song, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ambiguous expressions, how to be translated, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ancient translation, few specimens of, existing at present, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Anguillara">Anguillara, beautiful passage from his translation of Ovid’s <i>Metamorphoses</i>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Anthologia</i>, translation of an epigram from, by Webb, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Aratus, <i>Phenomena</i> of, translated by Cicero, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Arias_Montanus">Arias Montanus, his version of the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Atterbury, his translation of Horace’s dialogue with Lydia, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">B</li> - -<li class="indx">Barnaby, <i>Ebrii Barnabæ Itinerarium</i>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Batteux, Abbé, remarks on the art of translation, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beattie, Dr., his remark on a passage of Dryden, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his remark on Castalio, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beattie, J. H., his translation of Pope’s <i>Messiah</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bible, translations of, <a href="#Page_64">64 <i>et seq.</i></a> <i>See</i> <a href="#Castalio">Castalio</a>, <a href="#Arias_Montanus">Arias Montanus</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bourne, Vincent, his translation of <i>Colin and Lucy</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">of <i>William and Margaret</i>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">of <i>Chloe hunting</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brown, Thomas, his translations from Lucian, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Buchanan, his version of the Psalms, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burlesque translation, <a href="#Page_197">197 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">Butler. <i>See</i> <a href="#Hudibras"><i>Hudibras</i></a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">C</li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span>Campbell, Dr., preliminary dissertation to a new translation of the Gospels, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, cited <a href="#Page_64">64 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">Casaubon, his translation of Adrian’s <i>Address to his Soul</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Castalio">Castalio, his version of the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cervantes. <i>See</i> <a href="#Don_Quixote"><i>Don Quixote</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chaulieu, his beautiful <i>Ode on Fontenai</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chevy-chace, whimsical translation of, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cicero had cultivated the art of translation, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translated Plato’s <i>Timæus</i>, Xenophon’s <i>Œconomics</i>, and the <i>Phenomena</i> of Aratus, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, epistles of, translated by Melmoth, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Claudian, translation from, by Hughes, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Colin and Lucy</i>, translated by Bourne, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">by Le Mierre, <i>see</i> <a href="#APPENDIX1">Appendix, No. 1</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Colloquial phrases, <a href="#Page_135">135 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Congreve">Congreve, translation from Horace cited, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cotton, his translation of Montaigne cited, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his Virgil travesty, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cowley, translation from Horace cited, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cumberland, Mr., his excellent translations of fragments of the ancient Greek dramatists, <a href="#Page_90">90 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Cunighius">Cunighius, his translation of the <i>Iliad</i> cited, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">D</li> - -<li class="indx">Definition or description of a good translation, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Delille">Delille, or De Lille, his opinion as to the liberty allowed in poetical translation, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of the <i>Georgics</i> cited, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Denham, his opinion of the liberty allowed in translating poetry, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his compliment to Fanshaw, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Descriptions, containing a series of minute distinctions, extremely difficult to be translated, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Diphilus, fragment of, translated by Mr. Cumberland, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Don_Quixote"><i>Don Quixote</i>, difficulty of translating that romance, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">comparison of the translations of, by Motteux and Smollet, <a href="#Page_151">151 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Dryden">Dryden improved poetical translation, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Lucian’s dialogues, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Virgil cited, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Du Fresnoy on painting, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translations from Horace, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Tacitus, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translation from Ovid’s <i>Metamorphoses</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>Duclos, a just observation of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Du_Fresnoy">Du Fresnoy’s <i>Art of Painting</i> admirably translated by Mr. Mason, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translation of, by Dryden, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">E</li> - -<li class="indx" id="Echard">Echard, his translation of Plautus cited, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, his translation of Terence cited, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ellipsis more freely admitted in Latin than in English, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Epigrams sometimes incapable of translation, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Epigram from Martial well translated, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Epistolæ obscurorum virorum</i>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Epithets used by Homer, sometimes mere expletives, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">F</li> - -<li class="indx">Fanshaw praised as a translator by Denham, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of <i>Pastor Fido</i> cited, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fenelon’s <i>Telemachus</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Festus <i>de verborum significatione</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Florid writing, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Folard, his commentary on Polybius erroneous from his ignorance of the Greek language, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fontaine, La, his character as a fabulist drawn by Marmontel, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, his fables cited, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Fontaines">Fontaines, Abbé des, his translation of Virgil, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fontenelle, his translation of Adrian’s <i>Address to his Soul</i>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fresnoy. <i>See</i> <a href="#Du_Fresnoy">Du Fresnoy</a>.</li> - -<li class="ifrst">G</li> - -<li class="indx">Girard, <i>Synonymes François</i>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Gordon">Gordon’s Tacitus cited, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his injudicious imitation of the Latin construction, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Greek language admits of inversions which are inconsistent with the genius of the English, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Guischardt has demonstrated the errors in Folard’s commentary on Polybius, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">H</li> - -<li class="indx" id="Hobbes">Hobbes, his translation of Homer cited, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Hogaeus">Hogæus, <i>Paradisus Amissus Miltoni</i> cited, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holland’s translation of Pliny cited, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>Homer, his epithets frequently mere expletives, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Homer">Homer, characteristics of his style, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, Pope’s translation of the <i>Iliad</i> cited, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46 <i>et seq.</i></a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> (<i>see</i> <a href="#Cunighius">Cunighius</a>, <a href="#Hobbes">Hobbes</a>);</li> -<li class="isub1">Mr. Pope departs sometimes from the character of Homer’s style, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translation of the <i>Odyssey</i> cited, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Macpherson’s Homer cited, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Horace, translations from, cited. <i>Vide</i> <a href="#Jonson">Jonson</a>, <a href="#Roscommon">Roscommon</a>, <a href="#Dryden">Dryden</a>, <a href="#Congreve">Congreve</a>, <a href="#Nivernois">Nivernois</a>, <a href="#Hughes">Hughes</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Hudibras"><i>Hudibras</i>, remarkable combination of wit and humour in that poem, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Voltaire has attempted to translate some passages of that poem, <a href="#Page_214">214 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">excellent French translation of that poem cited, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Hughes">Hughes’s translation from Claudian cited, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">ditto from Horace, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">I</li> - -<li class="indx">Ideas superadded to the original by the translator—examples of, from Bourne, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Pope’s <i>Homer</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from his imitations of Horace, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Johnston’s version of the Psalms, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Mason’s <i>Du Fresnoy on Painting</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Malherbe, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Melmoth’s <i>Cicero’s Epistles</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Dryden’s <i>Lucian</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ideas retrenched from the original by the translator—examples of, from Dryden’s <i>Virgil</i>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Pope’s <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">from Melmoth’s <i>Cicero’s Epistles</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> - -<li class="indx">The liberty of adding to or retrenching from the ideas of the original, is more allowable in poetical than in prose translation, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">and in lyric poetry more than any other, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Idiomatic phrases, how to be translated, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">the translation is perfect, when corresponding idioms are employed, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">examples from Cotton’s translation of Montaigne, from Echard, Sterne, <a href="#Page_138">138 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">licentiousness in the translation of idioms, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">examples, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translator’s resource when no corresponding idioms are to be found, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Iliad.</i> <i>See</i> <a href="#Homer">Homer</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Isidorus Hispalensis, <i>Origines</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">J</li> - -<li class="indx" id="Jonson">Jonson, Ben, translation from Horace, <a href="#Page_36">36 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>Johnston, Arthur, his translation of the Psalms, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jortin, Dr., translation from Simonides, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Juvenal, translation of, by Holiday cited, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">L</li> - -<li class="indx">Latin language admits of a brevity of expression which cannot be successfully imitated in English, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">it admits of inversions, which are inconsistent with the genius of the English, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">admits of ellipsis more freely than the English, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="LEstrange">L’Estrange, his translations from Seneca cited, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lowth, Dr., his imitation of an ode of Horace, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lucan. <i>See</i> <a href="#May">May</a>, <a href="#Rowe">Rowe</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Lucian</i>, Francklin’s translation of, cited, <a href="#Page_118">118 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Dryden’s, Brown’s, &c., <a href="#Page_117">117 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">M</li> - -<li class="indx">Macpherson’s translation of the <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Malherbe cited, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Markham, Dr., his imitation of Simonides, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mason’s translation of Du Fresnoy’s <i>Art of Painting</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="May">May, his translation of Lucan, <a href="#Page_39">39 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">compared with Rowe’s, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Melmoth">Melmoth, one of the best of the English translators, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Cicero’s <i>Epistles</i> cited, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Pliny’s <i>Epistles</i> cited, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his unjust censure of a passage in Mr. Pope’s version of the <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Milton, his translation of Horace’s <i>Ode to Pyrrha</i>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#APPENDIX2">App. No. 2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, a passage from his tractate on education difficult to be translated with corresponding simplicity, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his <i>Paradise Lost</i> cited, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> (<i>see</i> <a href="#Hogaeus">Hogæus</a>);</li> -<li class="isub1">his <i>Comus</i> cited, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Moncrif, his ballad of <i>Alexis et Alis</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Montaigne, Cotton’s translation of, cited, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Motteux, his translation of <i>Don Quixote</i> compared with that of Smollet, <a href="#Page_151">151 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Rabelais, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Murphy"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>Murphy, his translation of Tacitus cited, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">N</li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Naïveté</i>, in what it consists, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">the fables of Phædrus are remarkable for this character, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">as are those of La Fontaine, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1"><i>naïveté</i> of particular phrases very difficult to be imitated in a translation, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Nivernois">Nivernois, Duc de, his translation of Horace’s dialogue with Lydia, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nonius, <i>de Proprietate Sermonum</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">O</li> - -<li class="indx">Ovid. <i>See</i> <a href="#Sandys">Sandys</a>, <a href="#Dryden">Dryden</a>, <a href="#Anguillara">Anguillara</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ozell, his edition of Urquhart and Motteux translation of Rabelais, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">P</li> - -<li class="indx">Paraphrase, examples of, as distinguished from translation, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">Parnell, his translation of Chaulieu’s verses on Fontenai, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Phædrus, his fables cited, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pitcairne, Dr., his Latin poetry characterised, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pitt, eminent as a translator, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Plautus. <i>See</i> <a href="#Echard">Echard</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pliny the Elder, his description of the Nightingale, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">analysis of a chapter of his <i>Natural History</i>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pliny the Younger, his <i>Epistles</i>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Melmoth">Melmoth</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Poem, whether it can be well translated into prose, ch. <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Poetical translation, liberty allowed to it, <a href="#Page_35">35 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">——, progress of poetical translation in England, <a href="#Page_36">36 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="indx">Poetry, characteristics essential to it, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">didactic poetry is the most capable of a prose translation, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">lyric poetry incapable of a prose translation, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">lyric poetry admits of the greatest liberty in translation, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Polybius erroneously understood by Folard, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pope. <i>See</i> <a href="#Homer">Homer</a>.</li> -<li class="isub1">His translation of Sappho’s <i>Epistle to Phaon</i> cited, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his <i>Dying Christian to his Soul</i>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Popma, Ausonius, <i>de Differentiis Verborum</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>Prior, his <i>Chloe Hunting</i> translated by Bourne, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Q</li> - -<li class="indx">Quinctilian recommends the practice of translation, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Quixote, Don</i>, comparison of Motteux’s translation of, with Smollet’s, <a href="#Page_151">151 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">R</li> - -<li class="indx">Rabelais admirably translated by Urquhart and Motteux, ch. <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Roscommon">Roscommon’s Essay on translated verse, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">a precept of his, with regard to poetical translation, controverted, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translation from Horace cited, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Rousseau">Rousseau, <i>Devin de Village</i> cited, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translations from Tacitus cited, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Rowe">Rowe’s Lucan cited, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">S</li> - -<li class="indx" id="Sandys">Sandys, his character as a translator of poetry, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translation of Ovid cited, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scarron’s burlesque translation of Virgil cited, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Seneca. <i>See</i> <a href="#LEstrange">L’Estrange</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shakespeare, translations from, by Voltaire, <a href="#Page_209">209 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his phraseology difficult to be imitated in a translation, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Simonides, fragment of, translated by Jortin, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">imitated by Dr. Markham, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Simplicity of thought and expression difficult to be imitated in a translation, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smart’s prose translation of Horace, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spelman’s <i>Xenophon</i> cited, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sterne’s <i>Slawkenbergius’s Tale</i> cited, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Strada’s <i>Contest of the Musician and Nightingale</i>, extreme difficulty of translating it, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Style and manner of the original to be imitated in the translation, <a href="#Page_63">63 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">a just taste requisite for the discernment of those characters, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">limitations of the rule regarding the imitation of style, <a href="#Page_96">96 <i>et seq.</i></a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">T</li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span>Tacitus. <i>See</i> <a href="#Ablancourt">D’Ablancourt</a>, <a href="#Alembert">D’Alembert</a>, <a href="#Gordon">Gordon</a>, <a href="#Murphy">Murphy</a>, <a href="#Dryden">Dryden</a>, <a href="#Rousseau">Rousseau</a>.</li> -<li class="isub1">Difficulty of translating that author, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>Telemachus</i>, a poem in prose, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Terence. <i>See</i> <a href="#Echard">Echard</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tickell’s ballad of <i>Lucy and Colin</i>, translated by Bourne, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">translated by Le Mierre, <a href="#APPENDIX1">Appendix, No. 1</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Timocles, fragment of, translated by Cumberland, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Townley, Colonel, his translation of <i>Hudibras</i>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Translation, art of, very little cultivated, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">ancient translations, few specimens of, existing, <a href="#Page_2">2 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">reasons why the art is at a low ebb among the moderns, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">description or definition of a good translation, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">laws of translation, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">first general law, “That the translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work,” <a href="#Page_10">10 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">second general law, “The style and manner of writing in a translation should be of the same character with that of the original,” <a href="#Page_63">63 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">specimens of good poetical translations, <a href="#Page_80">80 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">third general rule, “A translation should have all the ease of original composition,” <a href="#Page_112">112 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">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, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">licentious translation, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">the best translators have shone in original composition of the same species, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Travesty or burlesque translation, <a href="#Page_197">197 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Scarron’s and Cotton’s Virgil Travesty, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">U</li> - -<li class="indx">Urquhart, Sir Thomas, his excellent translation of Rabelais, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">V</li> - -<li class="indx">Varro, <i>de Lingua Latina</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Virgil. <i>See</i> <a href="#Dryden">Dryden</a>, <a href="#Delille">Delille</a>, <a href="#Fontaines">Fontaines</a>.</li> - <li class="isub1">Example of false taste in a passage of Virgil, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Voltaire, his remark on the Abbé des Fontaines’s translation of Virgil, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">his translations from Shakespeare very faulty, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">character of the wit of Voltaire, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">he had no talent for humorous composition, <a href="#Page_213">213 <i>et seq.</i></a>;</li> -<li class="isub1"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>character of his novels, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">W</li> - -<li class="indx">Warton, eminent as a poetical translator, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wollaston’s <i>Religion of Nature</i>, passage from, difficult to be translated, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">X</li> - -<li class="indx">Xenophon’s <i>Œconomics</i> translated by Cicero, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Spelman’s Xenophon cited, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -</ul> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smcap">Richard Clay & Sons, Limited</span>,<br /> -BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND<br /> -BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/dent.jpg" width="200" height="200" alt="" /> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. -</div> - -<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> -<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person -or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the -Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when -you share it without charge with others. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work -on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the -phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: -</div> - -<blockquote> - <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most - other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions - whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms - of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online - at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you - are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws - of the country where you are located before using this eBook. - </div> -</blockquote> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg™ License. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format -other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain -Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -provided that: -</div> - -<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation.” - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ - works. - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. - </div> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right -of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread -public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state -visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. -</div> - -</div> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/64890-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/64890-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f2597d1..0000000 --- a/old/64890-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64890-h/images/deco.jpg b/old/64890-h/images/deco.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c130e39..0000000 --- a/old/64890-h/images/deco.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64890-h/images/dent.jpg b/old/64890-h/images/dent.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index dd3f5b9..0000000 --- a/old/64890-h/images/dent.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64890-h/images/epi.jpg b/old/64890-h/images/epi.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f29de0a..0000000 --- a/old/64890-h/images/epi.jpg +++ /dev/null |
