barbarous executioners of the Mufes, whom I was just now speaking of. It often happens, that guilty Poets, like other guilty Criminals, when once they are known and proclaimed, deliver themselves into the hands of justice, only to prevent others from doing it more to their disadvantage, and not out of any ambition to spread their fame, by being executed in the face of the world, which is a fame but of short continuance. That Poet were a happy man who could but obtain a grant to preferve his for ninety-nine years; for those names very rarely laft fo many days, which are planted either in Jacob Tonfon's, or the Ordinary of Newgate's Mifcellanies. I have an hundred things to fay to you, which fhall be deferred till I have the happiness of seeing you in town, for the feafon now draws on, that invites every body thither. Some of them I had communicated to you by letters before this, if I had not been uncertain where you passed your time the last feafon So much fine weather, I doubt not, has given, you all the pleafure you could defire from the country, and your own thoughts the best company in it. But nothing could allure Mr. Wycherley to our foreft; he continued (as you told me long fince he would) an obftinate lover of the town, in fpite of friendship and fair weather. Therefore henceforward, to all thofe confiderable qualities I know you poffeffed of, I fhall add that of Prophecy. But I ftill believe Mr. Wycherley's intentions were good, and am fatif fied that he promises nothing, but with a real design to perform it: How much foever his other excellent qualities are above my imitation, his fincerity, I hope, is not; and it is with the utmost that I am, Sir, etc. LETTER V. Jan. 22, 1708-9. I HAD fent you the inclofed papers before this time, but that I intended to have brought them myself, and afterwards could find no opportunity of fending them without fufpicion of their mifcarrying; not that they are of the least value, but for fear somebody might be foolish enough to imagine them fo, and inquifitive enough to discover those faults which I (by your help) would correct. I therefore beg the favour of you to let them go no farther than your chamber, and to be very free of your remarks in the margins, not only in regard to the accuracy, but to the fidelity of the tranflation; which I have not had time to compare with its original. And I defire you to be the more fevere, às it is much more criminal for me to make another fpeak nonfenfe, than to do it in my own This was a tranflation of the first book of Statius, done when the Author was but fourteen years old, as appears by an advertisement before the first edition of it in a miscellany published by B. Lintot, 8vo. 1711. POPE. d better help in compar own proper person. For your better help ing, it may be fit to tell you, that this is not an entire verfion of the first book. There is an omiffion from the 168th line-Jam murmura ferpunt Plebis Agenorea to the 312th-Interea patriis olim vagus exul ab oris (between these two Statius has a description of the council of the Gods, and a fpeech of Jupiter; which contain a peculiar beauty and majesty, and were left out for no other reason, but because the confequence of this machine appears not till the fecond book.) The tranflation goes on from thence to the words Hic vero ambobus rabiem fortuna cruentam, where there is an odd account of a battle at fifty-cuffs between the two Princes on a very flight occafion, and at a time when, one would think, the fatigue of their journey, in fo tempeftuous a night, might have ren dered them very unfit for fuch a fcuffle. This I had actually translated, but was very ill fatisfied with it, even in my own words, to which an author cannot but be partial enough of confcience; it was therefore omitted in this copy, which goes on above eighty lines farther, at the words-Hic primum luftrare oculis, etc. to the end of the book. You will find, I doubt not, that Statius * was none of the discreetest Poets, though he was the best versi fier These he fince tranflated, and they are extant in the printed verfion. POPE. * Statius is one inftance among a thousand, that a man may poffefs genius and imagination, and at the fame time want tafte and fier next Virgil: In the very beginning he unluckily betrays his ignorance in the rules of Poetry (which Horace had already taught the Romans) when he afks his Muse where to begin his Thebaid, and seems to doubt whether it fhould not be ab ovo Ledao. When he comes to the scene of his Poem, and the prize in dispute between the brothers, he gives us a very mean opinion of it-Pugna eft de paupere regno -Very different from the conduct of his master Virgil, who at the entrance of his poem informs his reader of the greatness of its fubjects-Tanta molis erat Romanam condere gentem. [Boffu on Epic Poetry.] There are innumerable little faults in him, among which I cannot but take notice of one in this book, where, fpeaking of the implacable hatred of the brothers, he fays, The whole world would be too fmall a prize to repay so much impiety. Quid fi peteretur crimine tanto Limes uterque poli, quem Sol emiffus Eoo Cardine, quem porta vergens profpectat Ibera? This was pretty well, one would think, already; but he goes on: Quafque procul terras obliquo fydere tangit After and judgment. Claudian is a far better writer, though his verses have more monotony than the numbers of Statius. It is remarkable that Gray's first attempt in English verse, was a translation of a paffage in Statius, 1736. See Memoirs, p. 9. 4to. A translation of Statius, by feveral hands, was intended to be published. Harte tranflated the fixth book, and Pitt the third. WARTON. After all this, what could a Poet think of but Heaven I do not remember to have met with so great a fall in any ancient author whatsoever. I fhould not have infifted so much on the faults of this Poet*, if I did not hope you would take the fame freedom with, and revenge it upon his Tranflator. I fhall be extremely glad if the reading this can be any amusement to you, the rather because I had the diffatisfaction to hear you have been confined to your chamber by an illnefs, which, I fear, was as troublesome a companion as I have sometimes been in the fame place; where, if ever you found any pleasure in my company, it muft furely have been that which most men take in obferving the faults and follies of another; a pleasure, which, you fee, I take care to give you even in my abfence. If you will oblige me at your leifure with the confirmation of your recovery, under your own hand, it. will be extremely grateful to me, for next to the pleasure of feeing my friends, is that I take in hearing from them; and in this particular I am beyond all acknowledgments obliged to our friend Mr. Wycher ley. His wild and gigantic images, and pompous diction, fo much resembled the old romances, that he was the favourite poet of the middle ages. WARTON. |