against priests; but, I suppose, you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the cause of them, his poetic defcriptions; for the Romans then knew the coaft of Africa from Cyrene (to the fouth-east of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica : but, pray, remember how your Homer nodded, while Ulyffes flept, and waking knew not where he was, in the fhort paffage from Corcyra to Ithaca. I like Trapp's verfions for their juftnefs; his Pfalm is excellent, the prodigies in the first Georgic judicious (whence I conclude that 'tis easier to turn Virgil justly in blank verfe, than rhyme). The eclogue of Gallus, and fable of Phaëton, pretty well; but he is very faulty in his numbers; the fate of Phaeton might run thus, The blafted Phaeton with blazing hair, } *Of all the parts of Trapp's tranflation of Virgil, that of his Georgics is moft blameable and profaic. The Author of the Prelections loft himself much in this tranflation of Virgil; yet many of his notes fhew that he understood and felt his author: and his Prelections may be read with advantage by young scholars. His Latin tranflation of Milton was a woful performance. WARTON. The diftich on Trapp is well known: LETTER XXIV. Nov. 24, 1710. Το make use of that freedom and familiarity of ftyle, which we have taken up in our corre fpondence, and which is more properly talking upon paper, than writing; I will tell you without any preface, That I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the ancients, or in the leaft an acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, 'tis a mercy on this occafion that I do not give you an account of his life and converfation; as how he lived fome years like an inchanted knight in a certain island, with a tale of a King of Denmark's miftrefs that shall be nameless-But I have compaffion on you, and would not for the world you should stay any longer among the Genii and Semidei Manes, you know where; for if once you get fo near the moon, Sappho will want your prefence in the clouds and inferior regions; not to mention the great lofs Drury. lane will fuftain, when Mr. C is in the milkyway. These celeftial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a fort of fortilegi in one fense, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes; the adventurers being at first in an uncertainty, * Mrs. Thomas, of whom the reader will fee a more particular account in the Appendix to this Volume. certainty, whereas the fetters-up are fure of fomething. Priests indeed in their character, as they reprefent God, are facred; and fo are conftables, as they represent the King; but you will own a great many of them are very odd fellows, and the devil of any likeness in them. Yet I can affure you, I honour the good as much as I deteft the bad, and I think, that in condemning these, we praise those. The tranflations from Ovid I have not fo good an opinion of as you; because I think they have little of the main characteristic of this author, a graceful eafiness. For let the fenfe be ever fo exactly rendered, unless an author looks like himself, in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a difguife, and not tranflation. But as to the Pfalm, I think David is much more beholden to the tranflator than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a Jew, fo he has made the Jew speak like a Roman. LETTER XXV. FROM MR. CROMWELL. Your, etc. Dec. 5, 1710. HE fame judgment we made on Rowe's ixth of THE Lucan will ferve for his part of the vith, where I find this memorable line, Parque Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum For this he employs fix verses, among which is this, Pray can you trace chivalry* up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronism ?-Tickel in his verfion of the Phoenix from Claudian, When nature ceases, thou fhalt still remain, Claudian thus, Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion, and the conflagration of Phaëton; not to the final diffo. lution. Your thought of the Priests lottery is very fine you play the wit, and not the critic, upon the errors of your brother. Your obfervations are all very juft: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his fentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practise the Profodia of your rules. Your poem fhews you to be, what t you Nothing furely can be fo totally abhorrent from all the ideas of antiquity as chivalry, the rife and genius of which is no where fo amply and accurately investigated as by that curious antiquary M. De la Curne de Sainte-Palaye, in a Memoir first published in the 20th volume of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, and afterwards enlarged and published in two volumes at Paris, 1759. WARTON. . To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. POPE. you fay of Voiture-with books well bred: the state of the fair, though fatirical, is touched with that delicacy and gallantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lofe what I lately recovered, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I muft fay, 'tis as faultlefs as the fair to whom it is addreffed, be she never so perfect. The M. G. (who, it feems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcribed it by lucubration: From fome difcourfe of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion call learning) pedantry; but now, he says, he has no lefs, I affure you, than a veneration for you. Your, etc. LETTER XXVI. December 17, 1710. IT T feems that my late mention of Crashaw, and my quotation from him, has moved your curiofity. I therefore fend you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for fome years; in which time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whofe works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman that is, at leisure hours, and more to keep out of idleness, than to establish a reputation; fo that nothing regular or *Like a gentleman! he might have faid as well that Dante wrote like a gentleman! |