PREFACE

T has been customary for Authors to recommend their Writings, by telling us on what Occafion it was written, as during Confinement by bad Weather, or bad Constitution, Want of other Bufiness, and not knowing what else to do; so they thought of obliging their Readers with their wafte Time at the Expence of wafting their own. But I can truly fay, that this Tranflation was the Effect of a very agreeable Leisure last Summer in the Country, where having not the Temptation of Books to keep me in a Closet, I whil'd away the pleasant Hours in Walks and Shades, which have ever been the Haunts of the Mufes; and no wonder if I fancy'd at least

the Infection had feiz'd me, and a Fit of

verfifying enfu'd.

Gaudentes rure Camœnæ.

The Mufes gladden in the Shades.

But being loath to venture upon my own Strength, I took to my Affiftance a late Performance of a French Poet, Monfieur de VOLTAIRE, whofe Poem, the HENRIADE, was in good Efteem, before fome other Performances of his gave Offence to thofe who had before esteem'd him.

The HENRIADE, with all its Faults, is the beft Heroick Poem in the French Tongue; and I was willing my Countrymen, who do not understand it, fhould fee what the French are capable of in Epick Poetry, which will appear to be very little to thofe that are acquainted with Milton; and who is there in England that can read, and is not acquainted with him, or will dare own it? Dryden affirms, that the French Genius and Language are not capable of Heroick Poetry. The French, fays he, have fet up Purity for the Standard of their Language, and a Masculine Vigour is that of ours. Like their Tongue is

the

the Genius of their Poets, light and trifling in Comparison of the English, more proper for Sonnets, Madrigals and Elegies, than Heroick Poetry. And in another Place of his Dedication of the Æneis, I faid before, and I repeat it, that the affected Purity of the French has unfinew'd their Language.

These Criticisms of his are as just as most of his other Criticisms, that is, they must be understood in a limited Sense: For there are Inftances of Diction in Corneille and Segrais, where the Language does not want Sinews, and it may well be objected to me, that if the French Genius and Tongue are incapable of Epick Poetry, it ought to have difcourag'd me from undertaking this Verfion; but Dryden had not feen the HENRIADE when he wrote what we have cited out of his Epiftle to the Lord Normanby; and it must be own'd, that Mr.VOLTAIRE's Poem has Beauties in it, which are well worth reading. We hope they are not all loft in the Translation. I chose to render it in Blank Verfe to have the more Liberty in rendring it: For confining myfelf to the Author's Senfe, and pretty much to his Words, I fhould have

been

been too much fetter'd to have been confin'd alfo to Rhyme, of which Milton fays, Rhyme is no neceffary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verfe in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age to fet off wretched Matter and lame Meeter, grac'd indeed fince by the Use of fome famous Modern Poets carried away by Custom, but much to their own Vexation, Hindrance and Constraint to express many Things otherwife, and for the moft Part worse than elfe they would have express'd them, &c.

The greatest Poets and most celebrated Rhymesters are Proofs of this. I have observ'd elsewhere, that Dryden turns Phalaris's Bull into a Cow, purely for the fake of a Rhyme to Low; and the French, whofe Poetry depends in a great Measure on the Jingle, are frequently fubject to the like Inconveniencies. St. Amand, one of their Academy, writing in Praise of a great Friend of his, Mr. Faret, a Member alfo of the Academy, a learned, virtuous, fober Man, made him a Sot and a Debauchée meerly because his Name, Faret, rhym'd to Gabaret, a Tvern, according to the French Way of rhyming, as,

venu

venu clareté Z inconnus puretés

and

ferv'd
deferv'd

In English Rhyme, if not easy and exact, is abominable, as thefe Rhymes of our best

Kalendar Arm, &c.

In the Tranflation of Ovid's Epiftles by

Dryden and others. Others in the Efay

LoversS

on Criticism, tho' the Rhymes in that Poem are as well chofen as in any Poem in our Tongue; and what is said here is not to depreciate the Merit of any of the Poets, whose Rhymes are mention'd, but to fhew the Neceffity they are often under to give bald Rhymes rather than none.

I am fenfible 'tis invidious and dangerous to fay any thing but Praise of Authors, and efpecially of Poets, who are as jealous of their Fame as Lovers are of their Miftreffes, and would quarrel with the very Wind that

blows