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Sat. X. 1. &c.

"Omnibus in terris, quæ sunt a Gadibus usque
"Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt
"Vera bona, atque illis multimùm diversa, remotâ
"Erroris nebulâ ; quid enim ratione timemus,
"Aut cupimus? Quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te
"Conatus non pœniteat, votique peracti?

"Evertêre domos totas optantibus ipsis

"Dii faciles."

"In all the world, which between Cadiz lies
"And eastern Ganges, few there are so wise
"To know true good from feign'd, without all mist
"Of error.
For by reason's rule what is't

"We fear or wish? What is't we e'er begun
"With foot so right, but we disliked it done?
" Whole houses th' easie gods have overthrown
"At their fond prayers, that did the houses own."

It would be unpardonable to waste time in criticising such versification, as this. But the reader will indulge us in a few remarks on the passage, which will evince the futility of an attempt to make a translation from a poet in a dead language at once literal, and pleasing, and intelligible.

"Without all mist of error" is an unfortunate translation of " remota erroris nebula," and its meaning, if it have any, is very indeterminate. The figure might be retained with propriety by a translator, who would allow himself proper compass of expression. The next figure, “quid tam dextro pe"de concipis," rendered "what is't we e'er begun with foot so right," is barbarous. To do or wish a thing pede dextro or pede sinistro is a common metonymy to express the prosperity of an action, or the happy accomplishment of a desire, and the contrary. As Mr. Holyday would persist in such school-boy translations, it is pity he had not written with so right foot. To finish the puerile strictness of this translation Holyday renders "Dii faciles"—th' easie gods. Such a translation in the odes of Anacreon would at once remind us of the jolly revels of the powers above. grave satires of Juvenal it cannot but

But meeting it in the excite surprise.

Considering him merely as a "as for publishing poetry,

opinion in the last number of his Remarks &c. poet, it cannot but excite a smile when he says; ❝ it needs no defence, there being, if my Lord Verulam's judgment shall be

" admitted, a divine rapture in it!"

**

Stapylton has been acknowledged to have surpassed Holyday in the poetry of his version, and Holyday to have excelled Stapylton in judgment and accuracy, and critical acumen. The vanity of Stapylton in estimating the value of his annotations, which are not above the capacity of the meanest bookmaker or compiler, is truly amusing. In his preface to the reader he says, "if (with Plato) you confess "Juvenal to be a philosopher, I hope I shall prevail with you 66 to allow him to be a little obscure, at least in terms of art; 66 yet indeed, if he be not clear even in the most difficultest "places, you shall blame yourself for not perusing my anno"tations, to which you are directed."

If we deduct from Stapylton a sufficient, though sometimes a very unjustifiable fidelity to Juvenal, we leave little to commend. He has here and there a tolerable couplet,and then he stumbles, and falls, and with difficulty recovers. The following extract will exhibit his version much above its usual merit. It is a passage which immediately succeeds the description of a school, in which was taught the art of carving meat.

Nec frustum &c.

Sat. XI. 142 "To carve a goat, a capons wing to cut,

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My novice boy to school was never put;

"But always rudely bred, his carving work
"Was but to give his fellows bits of pork.

" Plebeian glasses for small prices sold

"Brings my rude boy, whose clothes defie the cold.
"On me no Phrygian youth, no Lycian waits,

"Bought of the Mango at excessive rates.

"All romans mine; when any thing you would,

66

Pray call, but call for't as a Roman should."

For a passage rendered so nearly literal, this is as good as could be expected from Stapylton. But as a translation into a vernacular language should be accommodated to the mere reader of that language, it is certainly improper to retain a word of the original, which is not naturalized in the language of the translation. The only definition of the English word mango is a species of fruit after it is pickled; but in the above passage of Juvenal, it means a person, who sold slaves in the market, particularly of the description, which he men* Gifford's essay on the Roman satirists, p. 25.

tions. There are other exceptionable things in this passage,

which we pass over.

The translation of Stapylton is not calculated to gain Juvenal any admirers; nor does it exhibit his true features. We are told by Horace, that Alexander forbad by an edict that any painter should take his likeness except Apelles, or any statuary, except Lysippus. But if Juvenal had foreseen Stapylton's metamorphosis of his true person, he would have considered it a harmless kind of effigy, which could not disgrace him among connoisseurs, while it was scarcely ludicrous enough to please the mob.

Dryden was an artist of a higher rank, and readily complied with the wish of the London booksellers to deliver Juvenal from the frigid literality, the obsolete phraseology, and the lame versification of his former English translators. Dryden engaged in this work the most distinguished poets of his time; for, says Johnson, his "reputation was such, that no "man was unwilling to serve the muses under him." The "general character of this translation," he adds, "will be given, when it is said to preserve the wit but to want the dig"nity of the original." It is certainly difficult to decide the general character of this work, for it is as various, as the number of translators,

The first, third, sixth, tenth, and sixteenth satires were translated by Mr. Dryden. They are stamped with the same peculiarities, which mark his translation of Persius. We are sometimes doubtful whether to be pleased with the genius of the man, or offended at the licentiousness of the translator. We are sometimes compelled to sneer, as critics, and to laugh, as goodhumored men.

The following are a few out of numerous examples of his freedom with Juvenal.

In describing Codrus' bed, which was to be sure somewhat outré, Juvenal says,

"Lectus erat Codro Procula minor,"

Codrus had a bed shorter than (his wife) Procula. But Dryden finding so good an opportunity for ridiculing poor Codrus, and his wife, and his bed, thus translates these five latin words;

"Codrus had but one bed, so short to boot,

"That his short wife's short legs hung dangling out."

Juvenal delivers the following aphorism;

"Intolerabilius nihil est quam fœmina dives. Sat, VI. 459.

But Dryden, thinking that a wife at any rate was somewhat difficult to be tolerated, renders the line;

"When poor she's scarce a tolerable evil,

"But rich and fine a wife's a very devil.”

One example more we select from the tenth satire. Juvenal, after describing the ambition and the misfortunes of Xerxes, adds;

“Has toties optata exegit gloria pœnas. Sat. X. 187.

The meaning of which is, so often did the glory which he earnestly desired terminate in pain. But Dryden renders it, "For fame he prayed, but let the event declare,

"He had no mighty penn'worth of his prayer.”

Thus prayer is the price of a favor, and if a petition is answered, and terminates unhappily, the bargain is a bad one.

But not

We observe the same general defects in Dryden's Juvenal, which are noticed in his Persius. He is often diffuse, where Juvenal is compressed, and merry, when he is grave. False rhymes, and false measure occur in every page. withstanding he is so often found tripping, and trifling with his author, we are compelled on comparing him with his associates in the same task to regret, that he had not performed the whole.

In his introduction to the sixth satire of Juvenal, Dryden *apologizes for translating it. This apology is more, than we had a right to expect. He seems to have thought it a favorable opportunity to say some flattering things of the fair sex, and to exculpate himself from the charge of coinciding with Juvenal in his indiscriminate attack on the morals of the defenceless. But having overcome his diffidence, and begun the enterprise, he was harrassed by no fears and checked by no obstacles. He seldom suffered his author to outstrip him in the hideousness of his scenes, and sometimes pressed him to the utmost excess of indelicacy and sarcasm.

There are passages however in the translation of this satire, which indicate a wonderful talent. The following is an ex

ample of sprightliness, together with a good transfusion of the sense.

". . . . . Illa tamen gravior" &c. Sat. VI. 433-
"But of all plagues, the greatest is untold,
"The booklearn'd wife in Greek and Latin bold;
"The critic dame who at her table sits,

"Homer and Virgil quotes, and weighs their wits,
" And pities Dido's agonizing fits.

"She has so far the ascendant of the board,
"The prating pedant puts not in one word.
« The man of law is nonplust in his sute,
"Nay, every other female tongue is mute.
"Hammers and beating anvils you would swear,
"And Vulcan with his whole militia there."

}

Dryden has not been remarkably fortunate in his version of the tenth, which he calls a "divine satire."

times found dozing;

"Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum."

He is some

In the translation of the second satire, Mr. Tate does not refine on his author, but leaves the grosser parts of the poem in their full deformity. In the fifteenth, he is more polished, and has given an interest to what has sometimes been deemed one of the more dull parts of Juvenal.

The following lines bear a good degree of resemblance to Juvenal, in the description of the gods of Egypt.

- hic piscem fluminis" &c. Sat. XV. 7.

"Fish-gods you'l meet, with fins and scales o'ergrown,
"Diana's dogs ador'd in every town ;

"Her dogs have temples, but the goddess none !

" "Tis mortal sin an onion to devour,

"Each clove of garlic is a sacred power!

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Religious nations sure, and blest abodes,

"Where every orchard is o'errun with gods!

"To kill is murder, sacrilege to eat

"A kid or lamb ;-man's flesh is lawful meat!"

Duke, in his translation of the fourth satire, has manifested little of the spirit or the wit of Dryden.

The version of the fifth satire by Rev. William Bowles is distinguished by no peculiarity. It does not disgrace the work; but is very much wanting in the spice of satire.

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