Lives of the Poets Part 39

As it was by its nature a work of defiance, a composition which would naturally be examined with the utmost acrimony of criticism, it was probably laboured with uncommon attention; and there are, indeed, few negligencies in the subordinate parts. The original impropriety, and the subsequent unpopularity of the subject, added to the ridiculousness of its first elements, has sunk it into neglect; but it may be usefully studied, as an example of poetical ratiocination, in which the argument suffers little from the metre.

In the poem on the Birth of the Prince of Wales, nothing is very remarkable but the exorbitant adulation, and that insensibility of the precipice on which the king was then standing, which the laureate apparently shared with the rest of the courtiers. A few months cured him of controversy, dismissed him from court, and made him again a playwright and translator.

Of Juvenal there had been a translation by Stapylton, and another by Holiday; neither of them is very poetical. Stapylton is more smooth; and Holiday's is more esteemed for the learning of his notes. A new version was proposed to the poets of that time, and undertaken by them in conjunction. The main design was conducted by Dryden, whose reputation was such that no man was unwilling to serve the muses under him.

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. The peculiarity of Juvenal is a mixture of gaiety and stateliness, of pointed sentences and declamatory grandeur. His points have not been neglected; but his grandeur none of the band seemed to consider as necessary to be imitated, except Creech, who undertook the thirteenth satire. It is, therefore, perhaps, possible to give a better representation of that great satirist, even in those parts which Dryden himself has translated, some pa.s.sages excepted, which will never be excelled.

With Juvenal was published Persius, translated wholly by Dryden. This work, though like all the other productions of Dryden it may have s.h.i.+ning parts, seems to have been written merely for wages, in an uniform mediocrity without any eager endeavour after excellence, or laborious effort of the mind.

There wanders an opinion among the readers of poetry that one of these satires is an exercise of the school. Dryden says, that he once translated it at school; but not that he preserved or published the juvenile performance.

Not long afterwards he undertook, perhaps, the most arduous work of its kind, a translation of Virgil, for which he had shown how well he was qualified, by his version of the Pollio, and two episodes, one of Nisus and Euryalus, the other of Mezentius and Lausus.

In the comparison of Homer and Virgil, the discriminative excellence of Homer is elevation and comprehension of thought, and that of Virgil is grace and splendour of diction. The beauties of Homer are, therefore, difficult to be lost, and those of Virgil difficult to be retained. The ma.s.sy trunk of sentiment is safe by its solidity, but the blossoms of elocution easily drop away. The author, having the choice of his own images, selects those which he can best adorn; the translator must, at all hazards, follow his original, and express thoughts which, perhaps, he would not have chosen. When to this primary difficulty is added the inconvenience of a language so much inferiour in harmony to the Latin, it cannot be expected that they who read the Georgicks and the Aeneid should be much delighted with any version.

All these obstacles Dryden saw, and all these he determined to encounter.

The expectation of his work was undoubtedly great; the nation considered its honour as interested in the event. One gave him the different editions of his author, and another helped him in the subordinate parts.

The arguments of the several books were given him by Addison.

The hopes of the publick were riot disappointed. He produced, says Pope, "the most n.o.ble and spirited translation that I know in any language." It certainly excelled whatever had appeared in English, and appears to have satisfied his friends, and, for the most part, to have silenced his enemies. Milbourne, indeed, a clergyman, attacked it; but his outrages seem to be the ebullitions of a mind agitated by stronger resentment than bad poetry can excite, and previously resolved not to be pleased.

His criticism extends only to the Preface, Pastorals, and Georgicks; and, as he professes to give his antagonist an opportunity of reprisal, he has added his own version of the first and fourth Pastorals, and the first Georgick. The world has forgotten his book; but, since his attempt has given him a place in literary history, I will preserve a specimen of his criticism, by inserting his remarks on the invocation before the first Georgick, and of his poetry, by annexing his own version.

Ver. 1.

"What makes a plenteous harvest, when to turn The fruitful soil, and when to sow the corn.

"It's _unlucky_, they say, _to stumble at the threshold_: but what has a _plenteous harvest_ to do here? Virgil would not pretend to prescribe _rules_ for _that_ which depends not on the _husbandman's_ care, but the _disposition of heaven_ altogether. Indeed, the _plenteous crop_ depends somewhat on the _good method of tillage_; and where the _land'_s ill-manur'd, the _corn_, without a miracle, can be but _indifferent_; but the _harvest_ may be _good_, which is its _properest_ epithet, tho' the _husbandman's skill_ were never so _indifferent_. The next _sentence_ is _too literal_: and _when to plough_ had been _Virgil's_ meaning, and intelligible to every body; and _when to sow the corn_, is a needless _addition_.

Ver. 3.

"The care of sheep, of oxen, and of kine, And when to geld the lambs, and shear the swine,

"would as well have fallen under the _cura boum, qui cultus habendo sit pecori_, as Mr. D.'s _deduction_ of particulars.

Ver. 5

"The birth and genius of the frugal bee I sing, Maecenas, and I sing to thee.

"But where did _experientia_ ever signify _birth andgenius_? or what ground was there for such a _figure_ in this place? How much more manly is Mr. Ogylby's version?

"What makes rich grounds, in what celestial signs 'Tis good to plough, and marry elms with vines: What best fits cattle, what with sheep agrees, And several arts improving frugal bees; I sing, Maecenas.

"Which four lines, though faulty enough, are yet much more to the purpose than Mr. D.'s six.

Ver. 22.

"From fields and mountains to my song repair.

"For _patrium linquens nemus, saltusque Lycaei_--Very well explained!

Ver. 23, 24.

"Inventor Pallas, of the fatt'ning oil, Thou founder of the plough, and ploughman's toil!

"Written as if _these_ had been _Pallas's invention_. The _ploughman's toil's_ impertinent.

Ver. 25.

"The shroud-like cypress----

"Why _shroud-like_? Is a _cypress_ pulled up by the _roots_, which the _sculpture_ in the _last Eclogue_ fills _Silva.n.u.s's_ hand with, so very like a _shroud_? Or did not Mr. D. think of that kind of _cypress_ used often for _scarves and hatbands_, at funerals formerly, or for _widows'

veils_, &c. ? If so, 'twas a _deep, good thought_.

Ver. 26.

"That wear The royal honours, and increase the year.

"What's meant by _increasing the year_? Did the _G.o.ds_ or _G.o.ddesses_ add more _months_, or _days_, or _hours_, to it? Or how can _arva tueri_ signify to _wear rural honours_? Is this to _translate_, or _abuse_ an _author_? The next _couplet_ is borrowed from Ogylby, I suppose, because _less to the purpose_ than ordinary.

Ver. 33.

"The patron of the world, and Rome's peculiar guard.

"_Idle_, and none of Virgil's, no more than the sense of the _precedent couplet_; so again, _he interpolates Virgil_ with that and _the round circle of the year to guide powerful of blessings, which thou strew'st around_; a ridiculous _Latinism_, and an _impertinent addition_; indeed the whole _period_ is but one piece of _absurdity_ and _nonsense_, as those who lay it with the _original_ must find.

Ver. 42, 43.

"And Neptune shall resign the fasces of the sea.

"Was he _consul_ or _dictator_ there?

"And wat'ry virgins for thy bed shall strive.

"Both absurd _interpolations_."

Ver. 47, 48.

"Where in the void of heaven a place is free.

"_Ah, happy_ D----n, _were_ that place for _thee_!

"But where is _that void_? Or, what does our _translator_ mean by it? He knows what Ovid says G.o.d did to prevent such a void in heaven; perhaps this was then forgotten: but Virgil talks more sensibly.

Ver. 49.

"The scorpion ready to receive thy laws.

"No, he would not then have _gotten out of his way_ so fast.