Betwixt them Lawns or Level-Downs and Flocks
Grazing the tender Herb, were interpos'd,
Or palmy Hillock, or the flowry Lap
Of Jome irriguous Valley, Spread her Store,
Flow'rs of all Hue, and without Thorn the Rofe.
Another Side umbrageous Grots and Caves
Of cool Recefs, o'er which the mantling Vine
Lays forth her purple Grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant. Mean while murmuring Waters fall
Down the flope Hills difpers'd, or in a Lake,
That to the fringed Bank with Myrtle crown'd.
Her Chryftal Mirrour holds, unite their Streams.
The Birds their Choir apply, Airs, Vernal Airs
Breathing the Smell of Field and Grove attune
The trembling Leafs; while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in Dance,
Led on the Eternal Spring.

I chose this moft beautiful Image, as well to fhew the little need there is of Rhime in the foftest Descriptions as the wonderful Eafiness of the Poet amidst fo much Dignity and Elevation.

And here let us pause a little to take Pleafure in this Triumph of Modern English Poefy over the Ancient, over even the Greek and the Latin. Let the Learned produce a Paffage in all the Idyls and Eclogues of Antiquity in any Meafure comparable to

While univerfal Pan

Knit with the Graces and the Hours in Dance,
Led on th' Eternal Spring.

My Lord Rofcommon's Verfion of Horace de Arte Poetica in Blank Verfe is easy and unaffected; and yet as he was giving the Law to Poets, he might have given his Diction all the Grandeur that our Language and the Subject were capable of, and it would have been decent and natural, but he chose to preserve the Epiftolary Manner, and to imitate Milton only in rejecting Rhime.

The Great Lord Somers, equally eminent as a Statesman, a Judge, a Lawyer, a Scholar, a Poet and Orator, in his Verfion of Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades has these Blank Verses out of the Greek.

His Father he will imitate in all,

Like one diffolv'd in Eafe and Luxury,

His long loofe Robe he feems to draw with Pain,
Carelessly leans his Head, and in his Talk

Affects to lifp.

We do not in this Tranflation nor in that of the Art of Poetry, find any of those Flatus's and Swellings which are mistaken for Milton's Sublime, and often made ufe

of

of mal a propos and very unnaturally. In Philips's Burlefque Poem, The Splendid Shilling the Miltonick Manner fucceeded, because the Tumidity or falfe Pomp of the Verse increased the Ridiculum, which was the Subject of the Poem; but in ferious Pieces fuch Affectation does really produce the Ridiculum, where the Sublime was intended.

I am better pleas'd with this one Line of Spencer for its Simplicity and Painting after Life,

And therein fate an Old Old Man hálf-blind,

than with all the forc'd Greatness and founding Expreffions of the False Sublime.

I kept close to my Author thro' all his Poem, and, if there is any Merit in fuch Exactness, I may affirm that no Tranflation of Poetry is more literal than This. One cannot well err if the Rules laid down in the Effay on Tranflated Verse be observed, as I hope they are here.

The genuine Senfe intelligibly told

Shews a Tranflator both discreet and bold.
Excurfions are inexpiably bad,

And 'tis much fafer to leave out than add.
Your Author always will the best advife,
Fall where he falls, and where he rifes, rise.
B 2

Dr.

Dr. Felton teaches us that Tranflation is more difficult than Writing. He had certainly been righter ftill if he had faid, 'tis lefs pleasant and agreeable.

I can by no Means approve the Licentioufnefs of certain Tranflators, who give themfelves the Liberty not only to vary from their Originals, but even to be the very Reverse of them. Is it not monftrous to read in a Verfion of one of Boileau's Poems,

Or Gallia's perjur'd Monarch.

Yet Mr. Rowe in his Account of that Verfion fays, I know but few Hands could have fucceeded better than this.

The fame Mr. Rowe confeffes, he has alter'd Lucan in fome Places, a Liberty not to be taken but with the greatest Caution, and much lefs that of making the Tranflation speak directly contrary to what the Author intended in the Original. It is to make him a Lyar, and to profane the Ashes of the Dead, if he happens to be fo. What bad enough can we fay of Nalfon the Historian, in his Tranflation of the Life of Demetrius in Plutarch, where he thus fhamefully abuses both Plutarch and his Readers ?

The

The Paffage as render'd by Sir Thomas North, is thus: "Demachares being accus'd " and condemn'd upon these Words, he was "banish'd Athens. See the Athenians how "they us'd themselves, who feem'd to be "delivered from the Garrison, they had be"fore, and to be restored to their former Liberty and Freedom. From thence De"metrius went into Peloponnefus.

Nalfon, the fame who wrote the History of the Troubles in England after the Year 1640, tranflated it thus;

But Demachares paid dearly for his Wit, for being accus'd for it before the Criminal Judges, the People, who must needs be where they govern, were not able to endure any thing lefs frantick than themselves, they adjudged that honeft Man to perpetual Banishment for being in his Senfes, and making an unfeafonable ufe of his Wit and Reafon.

This was the natural Refult of their new regain'd Liberty, and the true Character of the Temper of a popular State, which is only a Liberty for all Perfons to be Slaves to the wild, arbitrary, extravagant Humours of a giddy, rash, and unconftant Multitude of Fools, managed by a Set of mercenary Knaves. After this De

metrius