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of mankind, if his aim, like that of too many others, whose works are read with delight, had been to render vice amiable, to fling his seducing colours over impurity, and inflame the passions by meretricious hints at what is only innoxious when exposed in native deformity but when I find that his views are to render depravity loathsome; that every thing which can alarm and disgust, is directed at her, in his terrible page, I forget the grossness of the execution in the excellence of the design; and pay my involuntary homage to that integrity, which fearlessly calling in strong description to the aid of virtue, attempts to purify the passions, at the hazard of wounding our delicacy, and offending our taste. This is due to Juvenal; in justice to myself, let me add, that I could have been better pleased to have had no occasion to speak at all on the subject.

Whether any considerations of this or a similar nature, deterred our literati from turning these Satires into English, I cannot say; but, though partial versions might be made, it was not until the beginning of the seventeenth century that a complete translation was thought of; when two men, of celebrity in their days, undertook it about the same time; these were Barten Holyday, and Sir Robert Stapylton. Who entered first upon the task, cannot well be told.

There appears

somewhat of a querulousness on both sides; a jealousy that their versions had been communicated in manuscript to each other: Stapylton's however, was first

published, though Holyday's seems to have been first finished.

Of this ingenious man it is not easy to speak with too much respect. His learning, industry, judgment, and taste are every where conspicuous: nor is he without a very considerable portion of shrewdness to season his observations. His poetry indeed, or rather his ill-measured prose, is intolerable: no human patience can toil through a single page of it; but his notes, though inelegantly written, will always be consulted with pleasure. His work has been of considerable use to the subsequent editors of Juvenal, both at home and abroad; and indeed, such is its general accuracy, that little excuse remains for any notorious deviation from the sense of the original.

Stapylton had equal industry, and more poetry; but he wanted his learning, his judgment, and his ingenuity. His notes, though numerous, are trite, and scarce beyond the reach of a school-boy. He is besides scandalously indecent on many occasions, where his excellent rival was innocently unfaithful, or silent.

With these translations, such as they were, the town was satisfied until the end of the seventeenth century, when the necessity of something more poetical becoming

With all my respect for the learning of this good old man, it is impossible, now and then, to suppress a smile at his simplicity. In apologizing for his translation, he says: "As for publishing poetry, it needs no defence; there being, if my Lord of Verulam's judgment shall be admitted, a divine rapture in it!"

apparent, the booksellers, as Johnson says, "proposed a new version to the poets of that time, which was undertaken by Dryden, whose reputation was such, that no man was unwilling to serve the muses under him."

Dryden's account of this translation, is given with such candour, in the exquisite dedication which precedes it, that I shall lay it before the reader in his own words. "The common way which we have taken, is not a literal translation, but a kind of paraphrase, or somewhat which is yet more loose, betwixt a paraphrase and a translation.

Thus much may be said for us, that if we give not the whole sense of Juvenal, yet we give the most considerable part of it: we give it, in general, so clearly, that few notes are sufficient to make us intelligible: we make our author at least appear in a poetic dress. We have actually made him more sounding, and more elegant, than he was before in English; and have endeavoured to make him speak that kind of English, which he would have spoken had he lived in England, and had written to this age. If sometimes any of us (and it is but seldom) makes him express the customs and manners of his native country, rather than of Rome, it is, either when there was some kind of analogy, betwixt their customs and ours; or when, to make him more easy to vulgar understandings, we gave him those manners which are familiar to us. But I defend not this innovation, it is enough if I can excuse it. For to speak sin

cerely, the manners of nations and ages are not to be confounded."

This is, surely, sufficiently modest. Johnson's description of it is somewhat more favourable, "the general character of this translation will be given when it is said to preserve the wit, but to want the dignity, of the original." Is this correct? Dryden frequently degrades the author into a jester; but Juvenal has few moments of levity. Wit, indeed, he possesses in an eminent degree, but it is tinctured with his peculiarities; raro jocos, as Lipsius well observes, sæpius acerbos sales miscet. Dignity is the predominant quality of his mind : he can, and does, relax with grace, but he never forgets himself; he smiles, indeed; but his smile is more terrible than his frown, for it is never excited, but when his indignation is mingled with contempt; ridet et odit! Where his dignity, therefore, is wanting, his wit will be imperfectly preserved.*

On the whole, there is nothing in this quotation to deter succeeding writers from attempting at least, to supply the deficiencies of Dryden, and his fellow labourers and, perhaps, I could point out several circumstances which might make it laudable, if not necessary-but this would be to trifle with the reader, who

• Yet Johnson knew him well. The peculiarity of Juvenal, he says, (Vol. IX. p. 424.) is a mixture of gaiety and stateliness, of pointed sentences, and declamatory grandeur. A good idea of it may be formed from his own beautiful imitation of the third Satire. His imitation of the tenth (still more beautiful as a poem) has scarce a trait of the author's manner.

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is already apprized that, as far as relates to myself, no motives but those of obedience, determined me to the task for which I now solicit the indulgence of the public.

When I first took up this author, I knew not of any other translator; nor was it until the scheme of publishing him was started, that I began to reflect seriously on the nature of what I had undertaken, to consider by what exertions I could render that useful which was originally meant for amusement, and justify, in some measure, the partiality of my benefactors.

My first object was to become as familiar as possible with my author, of whom I collected every edition that my own interest, or that of my friends could procure ; together with such translations as I could discover either here or abroad: from a careful examination of all these I formed the plan, to which, while I adapted my former labours, I anxiously strove to accommodate my succeeding ones.

Dryden had said "if we give not the whole, yet we give the most considerable part of it." My determination was to give the whole, and really make the work what it professed to be, a translation of Juvenal. I had seen enough of castrated editions, to observe that little was gained by them on the score of propriety; since, when the author was reduced to half his bulk, at the expense of his spirit and design, sufficient remained to alarm the delicacy for which the sacrifice had been made. Chaucer observes with great naiveté,

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