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fhall be the conclufion of the First Book of the Georgics. As. the paffage is fhort, we shall give the translations of it fully.

DRYDEN.

"Ye home-born deities of mortal birth,
Thou father Romulus and mother earth,

Goddefs unmro'd, whofe guardian arms extend
O'er Tufcan Tiber's courfe, and Roman towers defend;
With youthful Cæfar your joint powers engage,
Nor hinder him to fave the finking age.
Oh! let the blood, already fpilt, atone

For the part crimes of curft Laomedon:

Heaven wants thee there, and long the Gods, we know,
Have grudg'd thee Cæfar to the world below;
Where fraud and rapine, right and wrong confound,
Where impious arms from every part refound,
And montrous crimes in every fhape are crown'd.
The peaceful peafant to the wars is preft,
The fields lie fallow in inglorious reft;
The plain no pafture to the flock affords,
The crooked fcythes are ftraightened into fwords;
And there Euphrates her foft offspring arms,
And here the Rhine rebellows with alarms.
The neigbouring cities range on feveral aides,
Perfidious Mars long plighted leagues divides,
And o'er the wafted world in triumph rides.
So four fierce courfers ftarting to the race,
Scour through the plain, and lengthen every pace;
Nor reins, nor curbs, nor threat'ning cries they fear,
But force along the trembling charioteer."

WARTON.

"Ye greater guardian Gods of Rome, our prayer,
And Romulus, and thou chalte Vetta, hear;
Ye who preferve with your propitious powers,
Etrurian Tiber, and the Roman towers;

At leaft permit this youth to fave the world,
(Our only refuge) in confufion hurl'd.
Let ftreams of blood, already fpilt, atone
For perjuries of falfe Laomedon.

The Gods, oh Cæfar! envy and complain,
That men and earthly cares thy steps detain,
Where facred order, fraud, and force confound,
Where impious wars, and tumults rage around,
And ev'ry various vice and crime is crown'd.
Dishonour'd lies the plough; the banish'd fwains
Are hurried from th' uncultivated plains;
The fickles into barb'rous fwords are beat,
Euphrates here, there war the Germans threat.
The neigbouring cities break faith's mutual bands,'
And ruthless Mars raves wild o'er all the lands;

N

ERIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII, FEB. 1801.

As

As when four furious courfers whirl away
The trembling driver, nor his cries obey;
With headlong hafte, fwift pouring o'er the plains,
The chariot bounds along, nor hears the reins."

66

DELILLE.

O père des Romains fils du Dieu des batailles!
Protectrice du Tibre, appui de nos murailles,
Velta! dieux paternels! ô dieux de mon pays!
Ah! du moins que Cefar raffemble nos débris!
Par ces revers fanglant dont elle fût la proie
Rome a bien effacé les parjures de Troie.
Helas! le ciel jaloux du bonheur des Romains,
Cefar te rédemande aux profanes humains!
Que d'horreurs en effet ont fouillé la nature,
Les villes font fans lois, les terres fans culture.
En des champs de carnage on change nos guérets,
Et Mars forge fes dards des armes de Ceres.
Ici le Rhine fe trouble, et la mugit l'Euphrate,
Partout la guerre tonne et la difcorde éclate,
Des auguftes traités le fer tranche les nœuds
Et Bellone en grondant fe déchaine en cent lieux.
Ainfi lorfqu'une fois clancés de la barriere,
D'impetucux courfiers volent dans la carrière.
Leur guide les rappelle et fe roidit en vain,
Le char n'écoute plus ni la voix ni le frein."

SOTHEBY.

"Ye native Gods, ye tutelary powers,
Of Tufcan Tiber, and the Roman towers,
Thou Veita, and thou founder of our name,
Guide of our arms, and guardian of our fame.
Oh! let this youth a proftrate world reitore,
Save a wrecked age, and footh to peace once more.
Enough, enough of blood already fpilt,

Sates vengeful Gods, for Troy's perfidious guilt.
Aiready envious heav'ns thee Cæfar claim,
And deem the earth subdued below thy fame;
Where right and wrong in mad confufion hurl'd,
New crimes alarm, new battles thin the world,
None venerate the plough; waste earth deplores
Her fwains, to flaughter dragg'd on diftant fhores.
Far, far they fall from their uncultur'd lands,
And fcythes transform'd to falchions arm their hands
There mail'd Euphrates, there Germania bleeds,
Death neighb'ring towns to kindred flaughter leads,
Mars arms the globe. Thus fteed provoking steed,
Burts from the bars, and maddens in his fpeed:
The guide bent back, each wearied finew strains,
On flies th' infuriate car, and mocks the starting reis

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This paffage, for the fake of greater diftin&tnefs of comparifon, may be divided into four parts: the invocation to the Gods of Rome; the praife of Auguftus, which that invocation introduces; the picture of the itate of anarchy, which his government was to remedy; and the comparifop, by which the unbridled rage of that wretched ftate is reprefented to the fancy. The invocation is not only inelegantly, but unfaithfully tranflated by Dryden. The words which we have marked with italics in his firft couplet, are wholly unjustified by the original. The "Di patrii indigetes," undoubtedly meant only the native Gods of Rome, the local and national deities who more peculiarly prefided over the fortunes of the city. No Roman could have had an idea that they were "bome-born," ftill lefs that they were of mortal birth." Dryden, in the hafte of his tranflation, feems to have been led into this confufion by the mention of Romulus. But Romulus and Vefta are invoked, in addition to thefe national deities (whoever they were) and Romulus was himself confidered, not as" of mortal birth," but as the fon of Mars. In the fecond and third verfes, the language addrefled to Vefta is extremely unhappy. The imagination is diverted from the Goddess Vefta, to the earth itself. In other parts of poetry, it may fometimes be allowed to fubftitute the name of the deities who are fuppofed to prefide over certain objects, for the clafs of objects over which they prefide, as Mars for war, Bacchus for wine, &c. and the reverse. But this never can be tolerated in invocation, because prayer muft fuppofe the perfonal exiftence of thofe beings who are addreffed. The expreflions which we have marked in the fifth couplet are fo inelegant, not to fay vulgar, that they muft difpleafe and difguft even the mere English reader, whofe tafte does not receive the additional difpleasure, which arifes from a contraft of the meanness of these lines with the majesty of the original. But all the lines which follow are truly Drydenic. They are nervous and mufical, fpirited and lofty. They have that air of immediately flowing from the infpiration of genius, which diftinguishes their great author, and which no other English poet in rhyme. has been able to copy. The reader in this paffage, as in many others of Dryden, rifes from the perufal with mingled feelings of admiration and regret; he admires the powers which can produce fuch excellence, and he deplores the hafte which could fuffer fo many errors to escape. For the memory and talents of Dr. Warton, we have great refpect; but we can scarcely prevail on ourselves to doubt, that our readers must think his tranflation the worst of those which we have laid before them. The first and third couplets of his verfion, are made up of as N 2

bad

bad lines, as are perhaps to be found in the works of any verfifier of reputation; fince Pope has taught correctness to verfifiers, and faftidioufnefs to the public. The fubfequent lines are a clofe and feeble imitation of Dryden, with the exception of one improvement." Difponoured lies the plough" reprefents a triking idea of the original which Dryden had omitted, probably more from indolence and hurry, than from want of talte. But this phrafe, though not unhappy, is much inferior to the correfponding expreffions of Mr. Sotheby. The first lines of the Abbé Delille's verfion feem to us to be as exact a reprefentation of the fober majefty and finished elegance of the original, as it is poffible to give. In the fourth line, indeed, fome part of the ideas of Virgil are wanting; but the fifth couplet is perhaps one of the moft fortunate fpecimens of tranflation which literature can boaft. The fequel is not always laboured with equal fuccefs. The line which we have marked, is an example of a fimple and interefting circumftance being weakened by the common places of mythology. The merits of Mr. Sotheby's verfion may be, in a great meafore, cftimated by a review of the faults of his predeceffors, which he has judiciously and happily avoided. To compare him to Warton would be injuftice; and we will prefume to fay, that, without danger to his reputation, he may be compared with Dryden. In the invocation and panegyric he is fuperior; and though, in the defcription which follows, Dryden gave the reins to his natural genius for vigourous invective, yet the prefent verfion, without being weak, is more Virgilian than that of Dryden. There is one line of Mr. Sotheby, at which a reader of taste will perhaps paufe. It is the fourth in this paffage. The idea is not in the original, and the expreffion and cadence are better fuited to the antithetic poignancy, and balanced measure of Pope, than to the general style of Virgil, or to the fimple majesty and pious fervour of a patriotic prayer. The words are antithetically placed, without any oppofition in the ideas; and, on the whole, it must be owned to be a line which adds more to the found and pomp, than to the force or beauty of the paffage. Yet this criticifm implies, perhaps, the greatest commendation that can be bestowed on Mr. Sotheby. A paffage, of which fuch a line is the chief blemith, must approach very near indeed to perfection. Dryden calls the Georgics, in his admirable Dedication," the belt poem of the best poet." There is nothing which entitles it more to this diftin&tion, than the confummate art with which the poet has varied the ftyle, which, though always perfectly elegant, and never deformed by thofe rugged lines, which fo much abound in his model Lucretius, is yet extremely various. The kind

of

of ornament is varied with every variation of the fubject. The defcriptions are enriched by all the artifices of poetical language. But the clearness of ftatement is never obfcured by profane ornament. Even the fimplicity is not uniform. In pathetic paffages it is a foft fimplicity. In precepts it is a fevere fimplicity, fuitable to that character of gravity and authority, which becomes thofe who inftruct or command. Perhaps there may be fome critics fo faftidious as to complain, that in Mr. Sotheby's verfion there is more uniformity and prodigality of adorned language, than the variety of Virgil admits. Whether this complaint be well or ill founded, the reader will judge from the following paffages of the original, and the tranflation. They are paffages of mere ftatement, in which Virgil feems ftudiously to have employed great frugality of ornament, or rather to have abftained from ornament altogether.

Principio arboribus varia eft natura creandis ;
Namque aliæ, nullis hominum cogentibus, ipfæ
Sponte fuâ veniunt, campofque et flumina late
Curva tenent."

Georg. lib. ii. v. 9—12..

"At first, by various ways, o'er hill and plain,
Spontaneous woods clothed Nature's wild domain:
Some rife at will, and with uncultur'd hade
Fringe the wild ftreams, and darken all the glade."

"Nec verò terræ ferre omnes omnia poffunt
Fluminibus Salices, craffifque paludibus alni
Nascuntur, fteriles faxofis montibus orni;
Littora myrtetis lætiflima; denique apertos
Bacchus amat colles, aquilonem et frigora taxi."

SOTHEBY.

Georg. lib. ii. v. 109-113.

"Not every foil each varying race fupplies,
Willows by ftreams, in marshes alders rise;
Wild afhes wave bleak promontories o'er,
Gay myrtles bloffem on the fea-beat fore;
Along the funny uplands vineyards glow,

And yews afcend 'mid tempefts wing'd with fnow." SOTHEBY. The lines which are marked in the tranflation are indeed harmonious and poetical; but they are perhaps mifplaced. They have more of the luxuriancy of a defcription of Thomfon than of the fobriety even of a Virgilian defcription; not to speak of the fevere fimplicity of a Virgilian statement. The happy effect of an occafional abftinence from ornament is** very remarkable in the laft of thefe two paffages. It is immediately followed by one of the moft fplendid parts of Vir

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