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REMARKS ON ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE ROMAN POETS.

No. III.

Aut quid LUCRETII tibi prosunt carmina lecta ?

BEFORE

Propertius.

EFORE commenting on the translations of “ Lu"cretius de rerum naturâ," we cannot withhold a few remarks on the tendency of the poem. It is without the limits of these numbers to analyze any original production; but we should forfeit the virtue and purity of a christian character, were we not to call forth the best prejudices of our readers against the worst books.* The poem of Lucretius is a continued display of the atheistical tenets of EpicuThese tenets were in a considerable degree prevalent in the times of our poet, and his philosophy seems to have passed uncensured by the ancients.

rus.

It is unnecessary to guard the learned and intelligent against a poison, which is never concealed, and which, though offered freely, is offered without argument and without persuasion. Lucretius wrote, like a man, confident of the truth of his system, and with a boldness of assertion, which seemed to arise from contempt of laborious ratiocination. They, who believe revelation upon evidence, and erect truth on the foundation of inquiry, will smile at the temerity of his assertions, and be amused with the excess of his credulity.+

The merit of his poem was allowed by the learned, "while little was said either in praise or censure of his philosophy. Ovid, a contemporary, predicted the perennial glory of his

* A good antidote against the opinions of Lucretius may be found in a poem, called Anti Lucretius, by Cardinal Polignac ; or the translation of the same into French by M. de Bougainville.

† It is worthy of remark, that Lucretius wrote during the intervals of an intermittent madness. Perhaps his malady was in some measure habitual. See Fabricii bib. lat. tom. I, p. 49

Vol. II. No. 2.

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verse in language as strong, as the Roman character.* Quintilian allows him but a mixed kind of praise, and censures him for obscurity.† Virgil has been charged with copying from Lucretius not peculiar beauties only, but phrases and lines; and the believers in transmigration have been ready to think, that the soul of Lucretius had another period of improvement in the days, which Virgil survived him. Tacitus speaks of a class of men, who prefer Lucilius to Horace, and Lucretius to Virgil.§ There are few of this class in the present age; for we delight rather to follow Eneas. through his fabulous but instructive adventures, than to pursue a disciple of Epicurus through the wild and wearisome vagaries of a false and impious philosophy.

The only entire poetic version of Lucretius, with which we are acquainted, is that of Creech. It is for the most part a dull and lifeless performance, seldom rising above mediocrity, and generally falling below it. He does indeed preserve a likeness of Lucretius, yet it is a clumsy statue, or an awkward daubing. But what are we to expect from such a" crabbed subject," as Lucretius has chosen? Filled with the jargon of atomical absurdities, his poem defies the power of the English muse, and mocks the exercise of any intellect. What idea can a reader obtain from such a jumble of rhymes, as the following?

Nisi erit minimum parvissima quæquæ, &c.

* Carmina sublimis tum sunt peritura Lucretî,
Exitio terras cùm dabit una dies.

Lib. 1. 609.¶

Ovid. amorum.

Macer et Lucretius legendi quidem, sed non ut phrasin, id est corpus eloquentiæ faciant; elegantes in sua quisque materia, sed alter humilis, alter difficilis. Quint. a Rol. p. 292.

Dryden's miscellanies, preface to vol. II.

§ Neminem nominabo, genus hominum signasse contentus; qui Lucilium pro Horatio, et Lucretium pro Virgilio legunt.

The first edition was published in 1682.

Lucretius a Creech ed. 1717.

'Tac. de Orat.

Suppose no least, then seeds refined,

Too small for sense, nay, scarce perceived by mind,
Would still be full, still num'rous parts contain,
No end, no bound, but infinite the train;

And thus the greatest and the smallest frame

Would both be equal and their bounds the same.*

This is a fair specimen of the first book of Creech's Lucretius. The reader, who peruses it through, deserves the same kind of praise, though not in the same degree, as the laborer, who works faithfully at the machine, of whose mechanism he is ignorant.

It is but just to remark, that the example already furnished is above the usual standard of our author's metrical abilities. In those parts of the poem, which consist of the gross, and obscure, and dogmatical philosophy of Lucretius, he seldom makes poetry, that will conform to any rules of verse. But through this mist, if the reader have perseverance, he will sometimes discover a ray of imagination beaming on the translator, and transforming him into the semblance of a poet.

The following detached lines, however well they might answer for prose, would hardly be suspected for verse.

"And can with safety trust her infant buds to the mild air."

"For nature thus would want fit seeds to work upon."

"But their contexture, or their motion disagrees."

"But if men would live up to reason's rules."

"They came, and brought with them additional flame."

The reader shall now be gratified with some of Creech's merry rhymes.

"Next let's examine with a curious eye

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Anaxagoras' philosophy

By copious Greece termed homœomery."

"Not animals alone, but heav'n, earth, seas
"Are placed in their own proper species."

"But grant the world eternal, grant it knew
"No infancy; and grant it never new."

* Compare this with the original, aided even by the labored text and learn ed notes of Gilbert Wakefield.

In the first book of our translator there is very little to commend. In the commencement of the second, where it would be inexcusable to translate badly, his version of a few lines may pass for tolerable poetry.

"Suave, mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis,

"E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem ;
"Non quia vexari quemquam est jucunda voluptas,
"Sed, quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est.
"Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri
"Per campos instructa, tuâ sine parte pericli;
"Sed nil dulcius est bene quam munità tenere
"Edita doctrina sapientum, templa serena.'

" "Tis pleasant, when the seas are rough, to stand
"And view another's danger, safe at land;
"Not 'cause he's troubled, but 'tis sweet to see
"Those cares and fears, from which ourselves are free.
""Tis also pleasant to behold from far

"How troops engage, secure ourselves from war;
"But above all 'tis pleasantest to get

"The top of high philosophy, and sit

"On the calm, peaceful, flourishing head of it."

Our author, even in these few lines, has discovered his imbecility; and this too when aiming to soar to the summit of philosophy. He was giddy with the prospect, and certainly never reached the intended height. He would have been far safer, if, with accustomed servility, he had followed his master rather, than attempted to soar with such feeble wings. But it is his ill fate seldom to be on the wing for three couplets, without falling into a flat, or unmeaning, or prosaic line.

* Dryden has been more successful, than Creech, in rendering these fortunate lines of Lucretius.

" "Tis pleasant safely to behold from shore

«The rolling ship, and hear the tempest roar ;

"Not that another's pain is our delight,
"But pains unfelt produce the pleasing sight.

""Tis pleasant also to behold from far

"The moving legions mingled in the war ;

"But much more sweet thy lab'ring steps to guide
"To virtue's heights, with wisdom well supplied,

“And all the magazines of learning fortified.”

}

In the fourth book Creech rises above the ordinary height of his verse; and yet the very first line is unworthy of a poet.

"I feel, I rising feel poetic heats."

Why should he interpolate this ridiculous stuff? We say interpolate, for Lucretius intimates no such rising heats.

In the description of the senses Creech has some passages with as much meaning, as those of his author, though in versification considerably inferior to the mellifluous lines of Dr. Darwin.

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Principio hoc dico, rerum simulacra vagari," &c.
Lib. iv. 728.

"First then thin images fill all the air,

"Thousands on every side, and wander there;
"These, as they meet, in various dance will twine,
"As threads of gold, or subtle spider's line;
"For they are thin, for they are subtler far,
« Than fairest things, that to the sight appear.
"These pass the limbs; no narrow pores control,
"They enter through, and strike the airy soul.
"Hence 'tis we think we see, and hence we dread
"Centaurs and Scyllas, Cerberus' monstrous head,
"And many empty shadows of the dead.”

}

At the close of the book, which treats of the nature of love, the translation before us evinces, that this part of Lucretius, to be well interpreted, requires all the genius, and delicacy, and art of a Gifford.

We should with pleasure give credit to Creech for a happy translation in the following beautiful lines; but the two first resemble Cowley so much more, than they do Lucretius, that we are in doubt, to which of them he is indebted.

"Pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur
"Imbribus, et ripas radentia flumina rodunt.”

Lib. v. 256.

"And gentle rivers too, with wanton play,
"That kiss their rocky banks, and glide away,
"Take somewhat still from the ungentle stone,
"Soften the parts, and make them like their own."

The stream with wanton play

"Kisses the smiling banks, and glides away."

Creech.

Cowley's Davideis,

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