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municated their Writings to him, but that he had only feen Virgil.

If the Imitation of Nature be the Bufinefs of a Poet; I know no Author who can juftly be com'pared with ours, especially in the Defcription of the Paffions. And to prove this, I fhall need no other Judges than the Generality of his Readers; for all Paffions being inborn with us, we are almoft equally Judges when we are concerned in the Reprefentation of them: Now I will Appeal to any Man who has read this Poet, whether he finds not the natural Emotion of the fame Paffion in himself, which the Poet defcribes in his feigned Perfons? His Thoughts, which are the Pictures and Results of those Paffions, are generally fuch as naturally arife from thofe diforderly Motions of our Spirits. Yet, not to speak too partially in his behalf, I will confefs that the Copiousness of his Wit was fuch, that he often writ too pointedly for his Subject, and made his Perfons fpeak more Eloquently than the Violence of their Paffion would admit: So that he is frequently witty out of Season ; leaving the Imitation of Nature, and the cooler Dictates of his Judgment, for the falle Applause of Fancy. Yet he feems to have found out this Imperfection in his riper Age: For why elfe fhould he complain that his Metamorphofes was left unfinished? Nothing fure can be added to the Wit of that Poem, or of the reft: But many Things ought to have been retrenched; which I fuppofe would have been the Bufinefs of his Age, if his Misfortunes had not come too faft upon him. But take him uncorrected as he is tranfmitted to us, and it must be acknowledged, in fpite of his Dutch Friends, the Commentators,

even of Julius Scaliger himself, that Seneca's Cenfure will stand good against him,

Nefcivit quod bene ceffit relinquere ;

he never knew how to give over, when he had done well, but continually varying the fame Sense an hundred ways, and taking up in another Place, what he had more than enough inculcated before, he fometimes cloys his Readers inftead of fatisfying them: And gives occafion to his Tranflators, who dare not cover him, to blush at the Nakednefs of their Father. This then is the Allay of Ovid's Writing, which is fufficiently recompenfed by his other Excellencies; nay this very Fault is not without its Beauties; for the most severe Cenfor cannot but be pleased with the Prodigality of his Wit, though at the fame time he could have wifhed, that the Mafter of it had been a better Manager. Every thing which he does, becomes him, and if sometimes he appear too gay, yet there is a fecret Gracefulness of Youth, which accompanies his Writings, though the Staidne fs and Sobriety of Age be wanting. In the moft material Part, which is the Conduct, it is certain that he feldom has mifcarried; for if his Elegies be compared with thofe of Tibullus and Propertius, his Contemporaries, it will be found that thofe Poets feldom defigned before they writ: And though the Language of Tibullus be more polifhed, and the Learning of Propertius, especially in his Fourth Book, more fet out to Oftentation; yet their common Practice was to look no further before them than the next Line; whence it will inevitably follow, that they can drive to no certain Point, but ramble from one Subject to another,

and

and conclude with fomewhat which is not of a piece with their Beginning:

Purpureus latè qui fplendeat; unus & alter
Affuitur pannus:

As Horace fays, though the Verfes are Golden, they are but patched into the Garment. But our Poet has always the Goal in his Eye, which directs him in his Race; fome beautiful Design, which he first establishes, and then contrives the Means, which will naturally conduct him to his End. This will be evident to judicious Readers in this Work of his Epiftles, of which fomewhat, at least, in general, will be expected.

The Title of them in our late Editions is Epiftola Heroidum, The Letters of the Heroines. But Heinfius has judged more truly, that the Infcription of our Author was barely, Epiftles; which he concludes from his cited Verfes, where Ovid afferts this Work as his own Invention, and not borrowed from the Greeks, whom (as the Mafters of their Learning), the Romans ufually did imitate. But it appears not from their Writings, that any of the Grecians ever touched upon this way, which our Poet therefore juftly has vindicated to himself. I quarrel not at the Word Heroidum, because it is ufed by Ovid in his Art of Love:

Jupiter ad veteres fupplex Heroidas ibat.

But fure he could not be guilty of fuch an Overfight, to call his Work by the Name of Heroines, when there are divers Men or Heroes, as namely Paris, Leander, and Acontius, joined in it. Except Sabinus who wrote fome Answers to Ovid's Letters,

(Quam

(Quam celer è toto rediit meus orbe Sabinus.) I remember not any of the Romans who have treated on this Subject, fave only Propertius, and that but once, in his Epiftle of Arethufa to Lycotas, which is written fo near the Stile of Ovid, that it feems to be but an Imitation, and therefore ought not to defraud our Poet of the Glory of his Invention.

Concerning this Work of the Epiftles, I fhall content myself to obferve thefe few Particulars. First, that they are generally granted to be the moft perfect Piece of Ovid, and that the Stile of them is tenderly Paffionate and Courtly, two Properties well agreeing with the Perfons, which were Heroines, and Lovers. Yet where the Characters were lower, as in OEnone, and Hero, he has kept close to Nature in drawing his Images after a Country Life, though perhaps he has Romaniz'd his Grecian Dames too much, and made them fpeak fometimes as if they had been born in the City of Rome, and under the Empire of Auguftus. There feems to be no great Variety in the particular Subjects which he has chofen; Most of the Epiftles being written from Ladies who were forfaken by their Lovers: Which is the Reafon that many of the fame Thoughts come back upon us in divers Letters: But of the general Character of Women, which is Modefty, he has taken a most becoming Care: for his amorous Expreffions go no further than Virtue may allow, and therefore may be read, as he intended them, by Matrons without a Blufh.

Thus much concerning the Poet: Whom you find tranflated by divers Hands, that you may at least have that Variety in the English, which the

Subjec

Subject denied to the Author of the Latin. It remains that I fhould fay fomewhat of Poetical Tranflations in general, and give my Opinion (with Submiffion to better Judgments) which way of Verfion feems to me moft proper.

All Tranflation, I fuppofe, may be reduced to thefe three Heads :

First, That of Metaphrase, or turning an Author Word by Word, and Line by Line, from one Language into another, Thus, or near this Manner, was Horace his Art of Poetry tranflated by Ben Johnfon. The fecond Way is that of Paraphrafe, or Tranflation with Latitude, where the Author is kept in View by the Tranflator, fo as never to be loft, but his Words are not fo strictly followed as his Senfe, and that too is admitted to be amplified, but not altered. Such is Mr. Waller's Tranflation of Virgil's Fourth Æneid. The third Way is that of Imitation, where the Tranflator (if now he has not loft that Name) affumes the Liberty not only to vary from the Words and Senfe, but to forfake them both as he sees Occafion: and taking only fome general Hints from the Original, to run Divifion on the Ground-work, as he pleafes. Such is Mr. Cowley's Practice in turning two Odes of Pindar, and one of Horace, into English.

Concerning the firft of thefe Methods, our Mafter Horace has given us this Caution,

Nec verbum verba curabis reddere fidus
Interpres

Nor Word for Word too faithfully Tranflate,

As the Earl of Rofcommon has excellently rendered it. Too faithfully is indeed pedantically: It is a Faith like that which proceeds from Superftition, Blind

and

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