SONNET XLIII. OF PETRARCH. Yon nightingale, whofe ftrain fo sweetly flows, Who could have thought that to dull earth would turn, Ah now what fortune wills I fee full fure, That loathing life, yet living I fhould fee How few its joys, how little they endure. We fhall add another, which will confpire to give the reader a favourable opinion of the contents of this little volome. SONNET XCVIII. That charming palenefs, that o'er clouding threw Each Angel look, each condefcending grace "Who from my fide my faithful friend would tear." We think the general fidelity of this verfion violated in the eighth line, "Ch altrove non m' affifo," which is tranflated, "Who ftill from her my being drew." The words of the original we fhould tranflate, "my attention being fixed only there," i. e. the beauty of fentiment alone, expreffed in her countenance, was feen by me, as my thoughts were fixed on that charm only; which Platonic declaration of love is conformable to the general tenor of Pe- trarch's trarch's amorous effufions, and naturally arifes from feeing the ghost of his miftrefs. The verfion of the words therefore is not only mistaken, but, if we do not refine too far in our comment, an appropriate and endearing fentiment is loft to the reader. Where the Tranflator has at any time ceafed ftrictly to copy the meaning of his author, and indulged himself in paraphrafe, we cannot always applaud the fuccefs of his amplifications. For instance, in the verfion of the lines from Taflo's Aminta, the concluding lines of the poet, "Cangia, cangia di Consiglio Ch' il pentirfi da fezzo nulla Giova are thus paraphrastically translated, "Then Oh thy purpose change coy froward maid, "Will be the pangs, which late repentance brings." We object to the imagery of "filken wings" in the fecond line (which is entirely the property of the Tranflator) for what idea of ftrength or rapidity does a filken wing fuggeft? To fit by, reminds the reader of the bats mode of flight, but unluckily he remembers that the bats wings are not filken.. In the first Sonnet from Zappi, the fidelity of the English verfion is in general preferved; but we think the fpirit of the original is far from being justly reprefented by the concluding weak lines of the Tranflator. We fhall here give the original also. DEL ZA P P 1. SONNETTO I. Quand' io men vò verfò l'Aferea Montagna Mi fi aggiunge l'invidia al lato manco, Con ambe andar rifolvo alla fuprema I BI D. As tow'rd th' Afcrean mount I take my way, She cheers my heart, forbids my heart to fail And fays "I too am here" her lips dead pale With both will I the mountain's topmost height The other fee't and fret, and burst with spite. It must furely be allowed that the last line of the Tranflation does but imperfectly reprefent the ardentia verba, “contorca and frema" of the original. Perhaps in the end of the 3d line we should read, instead of "forbids my heart to fail" forbids my feet to fail." The repetition of heart in the fame line, feems like an error of the prefs, efpecially as heart occurs again in line 8.-Two errors which we have obferved in the Italian text we fhall note in the margin.* Two original Sonnets by the Tranflator introduce the reft, of which the former has a good deal of poetical merit; the latter is founded on rather a quaint conceit, and does not produce a happy effect. On the whole we confider this little volume as the offfpring of an elegant and accomplished mind. ART. XVI. Wakefield's Horace. (Continued from page 58.) LIB. III. Ode III. V. 32. Mr. W. removes the comma at facerdos, fo that Marti may be joined with peperit, not with redonabo. Ode VI. V. 18. He puts a colon at "inquinavere," and would throw "et genus et domos" towards the close of *Sonnet 7, line 11. quadagno for Guadagno. Sonnet 28, line 8, dentio for dentro. the the fentence; and he juftly fays, that a prepofition is not neceffarily prefixed to the first fubitantive. But in the inftances which Mr. W. has produced, and in others which we recollect*, the cafes depending on the prepofition are in the fame line, whereas in the paffage of Horace, which he would correct, "Et genus et domos," ftand in the fecond, and "in patriam populumque" where the prepofition comes forward, are in the fourth line of an Alcaic ftanza; for this reafon we differ from Mr. W. The common punctuation fatisfies us; and were we to admit any change, we should prefer that which Mr. W. himself has propofed in his obfervations on Horace, published in 1776, when he fubftitutes in for et before genus. Ode XI. V. 18. For " ejus atque," where Bentley reads "ex eatque" Mr. W. propofes æftuetque. We obferve that Cunningham reads æftuatque having printed in his text manat in the fame ftanza. Ode XIV. V. 12. For "virum experta" Mr. W. would read virûm expertes. He refers to the first vol. of his Silva Critica, and adds, that when he made the fame emendation there, he did not know that he had been anticipated by Cunningham, whom he styles Cenfor afperrimus, Emendator peffimus. We by no means look upon Cunningham as equal in fagacity to Bentley; nor do we think fo lightly of his talent for conjecture, as Mr. W. feems to do. In V. 7. Ode XVI. He removes the comma from patens, to which he would join Deo in the dative. In the 32d verfe of this Ode he puts a colon at fallit, from which he feparates, " forte beatior," with a comma at beatior. We do not think the difficulty of the paffage lightened by this conjecture. Ode XVIII. V. 3. He removes the comma from incedas to abeafque, fo that lenis may belong to both verbs. We Thus we have in Horace : Quæ nemora aut quos agor in fpecus? and in the Cd. Tyran. of Sophocles: Ες ταυτὸ Δελφῶν κ ἀπὸ Δαυλίας ἄγει. In Pindar indeed we find the cafes depending upon the prepofition, not in the fame line, but in that which immediately follows: Ξεσὸν ὅταν δίφρον ἔνθ' άρματα πεισιχάλινα καταζει yvin olivos Elov, &c. &c. Pyth 2. Antistr. 1. But this paffage is not embarraffed as that in Horace would be by the intervention of a whole line-neither would we argue without fome qualification from a ftrophe in Pindar to a ftanza in Horace. adhere adhere to the common punétuation. In V. 32. Ode XXIV. He puts a comma between quærimus and invidi, in order to join the latter word a xos to odimus and quærimus. Ode XXV. V. penult. He puts a comma at Deum after fequi, and would refer cingentem to Horatium understood. But we are not convinced that the "concinnitas loci" is injured by the interpretation generally received. Ode XXVII. V. 26. He would alter et before scatentem into at. He had made the fame emendation before in p. 79 of his edition of the Georgics, and in p. 16 of the Silva Critica, Part II. He does not, in his notes on the prefent edition, fpecifically refer to either of the above-mentioned works; but fays, "Ita poft Bentleium ipfe corrigendum effe divina veram. en. Ode XXIX. V. 6. He reads en before femper udum, where fome critics contend for ut, and fome for neu, and others for ne. We agree with Mr. W. and Mr. Hardinge, in joining femper with udum, but we cannot approve of When Mr. W. quoted from the fecond book of the Georgics, en age fegnes, rumpe moras." And from Silius Italicus, Lib. X. V. 441, "Ocius en teftare Deos." He fhould have confidered that rumpe and teftare are in a different mood from contempleris in Horace. We are inclined to adopt at with Nicholas Hardinge. In the 23d verse of the fame Ode he puts a comma at futuri temporis, fo as to disjoin the two words from exitum, and to couple them with prudens. We adhere to the common reading, and we recollect no inftance in which exitum is to be found aws, i. e. where the fubject is not expreffed either in a genitive cafe, or in fome part of the context. Lib. IV. Ode IV. V. 29. " Fortibus et bonis." He puts a femicolon at fortibus, and refers bonis to æquis in the next line. Mr. W. fays that fome perfons difapproved of this reading. For our part, we long ago have adopted it. And in addition to the authority of Mr. Wakefield, we would obferve that it is found in the Princeps Veneta editio, and approved by H. Stephens and Xylander. In v. 53. of this Ode, he would join facra with jactata rather then gens," which he conneels with omnes fubftantivos periodi; and refers to what he had faid in his notes on the Georgics. In V. 7. Ode V. He puts a comma at affulfit and joins populo with gratior it dies, as had been done by other editors, and we add by himself too in his obfervations. Ode X. V. 2. He follows, as we do, Bentley's emendation, and gives this order to the fentence: Cum Bruma infperata fuperbiæ tuæ veniet. Ode |