I have (as I think I formerly told you) a very good opinion of Mr. Row's ixth book of Lucan: Indeed he amplifies too much, as well as Breboeuf, the famous French imitator. If I remember right, he fometimes takes the whole comment into the text of the verfion, as particularly in lin. 808. Utque folet pariter totis fe effundere fignis Corycii preffura croci.And in the place you quote, he makes of those two lines in the Latin, Vidit quanta fub nocte jaceret Noftra dies, rifitque fui ludibria trunci, no less than eight in English. What you obferve, fure, cannot be an Error-Sphæ ricus, ftrictly speaking, either Ptolemaic, or our Copernican fyftem; Tycho Brahe himself will be on the tranflator's fide. For Mr. Row here fays no more, than that he look'd down on the rays of the fun, which Pompey might do, even tho' the body of the fun were above him. You can't but have remarked what a journey Lucan here makes Cato take for the fake of his fine defcriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reafon than this; Hæc eadem fuadebat hiems, quæ clauferat æquor. The winter's effects on the fea, it seems, were more to be dreaded than all the ferpents, whirlwinds, fands, &c. by land, which immediately after he paints out in his fpeech to the foldiers: Then he fetches a compass a vaft way round about, to the Nafamones and Jupiter Ammon's temple, purely to ridicule the oracles: and Labienus muft pardon me, if I do not believe him when he fays-fors obtulit, & fortuna via-either Labienus or the map, is very .much mistaken here. Thence he returns back to the Syrtes (which he might have taken firft in his way to Utica) and fo to Leptis Minor, where our author leaves leaves him; who seems to have made Cato speak his Ire fat eft Your, &c. THE LETTER XXIII. From Mr. CROMWELL., Nov. 20, 1710. HE fyftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as as it is novel) could have no room here: Lucan with the rest of the Latin poets, feems to føllow Plato; whofe order of the fpheres is clear in Cicero, De natura Deorum, De fomnia Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The feat of the Semidei manes is Platonic too, for Apuleius De dea Socratis affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the region of the Air for their intercourfe with gods and men; fo that, I fancy, Row mistook the fituation, and I can't be reconcil'd to, Look down on the fun's rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes; and with you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, could license his invective against priests; but, I fuppofe, you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the caufe of them, his poetic defcriptions: for the Romans then knew the coaft of Africa from Cyrene (to the fouth-east of which lies Ammon to ward 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 firft Georgic judicious (whence I conclude that 'tis eafier to turn Virgil juftly in VOL. VII. H blank blank verse, than rhyme.) The eclogue of Gallus, and fable of Phaeton pretty well; but he is very faulty in his numbers; the fate of Phaeton might run thus, The blafted Phaeton with blazing hair Shot gliding thro' the vast abyss of air, } Your, &c. And tumbled headlong, like a falling ftar. I am LETTER XXIV. Nov. 24, 1710. O make ufe of that freedom and familiarity at Tityle, which we have taken up in our cor refpondence, 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 liv'd fome years like an inchanted knight in a certain ifland, with a tale of a King of Denmark's mistress that shall be nameless-But I have compaffion on you, and would not for the world you fhould ftay 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. Cis in the milky way. These celeftial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a fort of Sortilegi in one fenfe, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes; the adventurers being at best in an uncertainty, whereas the fettersup are fure of fomething. Priefts indeed in their character, 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 eafinefs. For let the fenfe be ever fo exactly render'd, unless an author looks like himself, in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a difguise, and not a translation. 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. Your, &c. TH LETTER XXV, From Mr. CROMWELL. Dec. 5, 1710. HE fame judgment we made on Row's ixth of Lucan will ferve for his part of the vith, where I find this memorable line, Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum For this he employs fix verses, among which is this, As if on Knightly terms in lifts they ran. Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronism? - Tickel in his verfion of the Phænix from Claudian, When nature ceafes, thou shalt ftill remain, Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final diffolution. 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 sentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practife the Profodia of your rules. Your poem fhews you to be, what you fay of Voiture with books well bred: the ftate of the fair, tho' fatirical, is touch'd with that delicacy, and gallantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lofe what I lately recover'd, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I must say, 'tis as faultlefs as the fair to whom 'tis addrefs'd, be the never fo perfect, The M. G. (who, it feems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcrib'd 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 less, I affure you, than a veneration for you. Your, &c. To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture.. P LET |