Sages and chiefs, of other lineage born, By whom thy Rome fhall rule the conquer'd earth: Whom heaven will lend mankind on earth to reign, And late require the precious pledge again. My foul was cloth'd; and now rejoice to view anew, Rais'd by the fall; decreed by lofs to gain; Enlay'd but to be free, and conquer'd but to reign. 'Tis time my hard mouth'd courfers to control, Apt to run riot, and tranfgrefs the goal: And therefore I conclude, whatever lies In earth, or flits in earth, or fills the skies, All fuffer change; and we, that are of foul And body mix'd, are members of the whole. Then when our fires, or grandfires shall forfake The forms of men, and brutal figures take, Thus hous'd, fecurely let their spirits reft, Nor violate thy father in the beast, Thy friend, thy brother, any of thy kin; If none of thefe, yet there's a man within: O fpare to make a Thyeftean meal, T' inclofe his body, and his foul expel, Ill cuftoms by degrees to habits rife, Ill habits foon become exalted vice: What more advance can mortals make in fin So near perfection, who with blood begin? Deaf to the calf that lies beneath the knife, Looks up, and from her butcher begs her life: Deaf to the harmless kid, that ere he dies, breath, Then eats the poultry which before he fed ? Take not away the life you cannot give : Thefe precepts by the Samian fage were taught, 6 TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID'S EPISTLES. PREFACE CONCERNING OVID'S EPISTLES. The life of Ovid being already written in our language before the tranflation of his Metamorphofes, I will not prefume so far upon myself, to think I can add any thing to Mr. Sandy's undertaking. The English reader may there be fatis fied, that he flourished in the reign of Auguftus Cæfar; that he was extracted from an ancient family of Roman Knights; that he was born to the inheritance of a splendid fortune; that he was defigned to the ftudy of the law, and had made confiderable progrefs in it, before he quitted that profeffion, for this of poetry, to which he was more naturally formed. The caufe of his banishment is unknown; because he was himself unwilling further to provoke the emperor, by afcribing it to any other reafon than what was pretended by Auguftus, which was, the lafcivioufnefs of his Elegies, and his Art of Love. It is true, they are not to be excufed in the feverity of manners, as being able to corrupt a larger empire, if there were any, than that of Rome: yet this may be faid in behalf of Ovid, that no man has ever treated the paffion of love with fo much delicacy of thought and of expreffion, or fearched into the nature of it more philofophically than he. And the emperor, who condemned bim, had as little reafon as auother man to punish that fault with so much severity, if at least he were the author of a certain Epigram, which is afgribed to him, relating to the first civil war betwixt himself and Marc Anthony the triumvir, which is more fulfome than any paffage I have met with in our Poet. To país by the naked familiarity of his expreffions to Horace, which are cited in that author's life, I need only mention one notorious af of his, in taking Livia to his bed, when he was not only married, but with child by her husband then living. But deeds, it feems, may be justified by arbitrary power, when words are questioned in a Poet. There is another guefs of the grammarians, as far from truth as the first from reafon: they will have him banished for fome tavours, which, they fay, he received from Julia the daughter of Auguftus, whom they think he cele brates under the name of Corinna in his Elegics: but he who will obferve the verfes, which are made to that mistress, may gather from the whole contexture of them, that Corinna was not a wo man of the highest quality. If Julia were then married to Agrippa, why should our Poet make his petition to Ifis, for her fafe delivery, and afterwards condole her mifcarriage; which, for aught he knew, might be by her own husband' Or, indeed, how durft he be so bold to make the leaft discovery of fuch a crime, which was no lets than capital, especially committed against a perfua of Agrippa's rank? Or, if it were before her marriage, he would fure have been more difcreet, A han to have published an accident which muft | his familiar friends, and that fome of them com ave been fatal to them both. Eut what moft municated their writings to him; but that he had onfirms me against this opinion, is, that Ovid only feen Virgil. imfelf complains, that the true perfon of Corinua was found out by the fame of his verfes to her : which, if it had been Julia, he durft not have wned; and, befides, an immediate punishment uft have followed. He feems himself more truly to have touched at the caufe of his exile in thofe bfcure verfes: "Cur aliquid vidi, cur noxia luntina feci?" &c. Namely, that he had either feen, or was conscious to fomewhat, which had procured him his difgrace. But neither am I fati-fied, that this was the inceft of the emperor with his own daughter; for Augfus was of a nature too vindictive to have contented himfelf with fo fmall a revenge, or fo unafe to himfelf, as that of fimple banishment; but would certainly have fecured his crimes from public notice, by the death of him who was witnefs to them. Neither have hiftorians given us any £ght into fuch action of this emperor; nor would ke (the greatest politician of the time), in all probability, have managed his crimes with fo litk fecrecy, as not to fhun the obfervation of any man. It seems more probable, that Ovid was either the confident of fome other paffion, or that he had ftumbled by fome inadvertency upon the privacies of Livia, and seen her in a bath; for the words "Sine vefte Dianam" ree better with Livia, who had the fame of thairy, than with either of the Juta's, who were both noted of incontinency. The firit verles, which were made by him in his youth, and retited publicly according to the cufton, were, as te Limfelf affures us, to Corinna: his banishment happened not till the age of fifty : from which it may be deduced, with probability enough, that the love of Corina did not occafion it; nay, he ells us plainly, that his offence was that of error only, not of wickednefs; and in the fame paper of verfes alfo, that the caufe was notorionfly nown at Rome, though it be left fo obfcure to her ages. If the imitation of nature be the bufinefs of a Poet, I know no other author, who can justly be compared with ours, efpecially in the defeription of the pallions. And, to prove this, I shall uced no other judges than the generality of his readers: for, all paflions being inborn with us, we are almost 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 refults of thefe pallions, are generally fuch as naturally arife from thofe diforderly motions of our fpirits. Yet, not to speak too partially in his behalf, I will confefs, that the copioufucfs of his wit was fuch, that he often writ too pointedly for his fubject, and made his perfons fpeak more eloquently than the violence of their pallion would admit; fo that he is frequently witty out of feafon; leaving the imitation of nature, and the cooler dictates of his judgment, for the false applaufe of fancy. Yet he seems to have found our this imperfection in his riper age; for why elle 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 fuppote, 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 spite of his Dutch friends the commentators, even of Julius Scaliger himself, that Seneca's cenfure will fland good against him : "Nefcivit quod bene ceffit relinquere ;" He never knew when to give over, when he had done well; but, continually varying the fame fenfe 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 nakedness of their father. This then is the aliay of Ovid's But to leave conje&tures on a fubject fo uncer- writings, which is fufficiently recompenced by his , and to write fomewhat more authentic of other excellencies: nay, this very fault is not this Poet: that be frequented the court, of Au- without its beauties; for the most fevere cenfor fies, and was well received in it, is most un- cannot but be pleased with the prodigality of his bubted: all his Poems bear the character of a wit, though at the fame time he could have wished ur, and appear to be written, as the French that the mafter of it had been a better manager. aliit, Cavalierement; add to this, that the titles Every thing, which he dees, becomes him; and, if many of his Elegies, and more of his letters in fometimes he appears too gay, yet there is a feis banishment, are addre ffed to perfons well known cret gracefulness of youth, which accompanies his Dus, even at this diflance, to have been confider-writings, though the ftaidnefs and fobriety of age ble in that court. Nor was his acquaintance lefs with the famous Poets of his age, than with the noblemen and ades. He tells you himself, in a particular acunt of his own life, that Macer, Horace, TibulPropertius, and many others of them, were 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 those 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 fubject to another, 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 verses 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 defign, 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 his Epiftles, of which somewhat, at least in general, will be expected. The title of them in our late editions is Epifulæ 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 masters of their learning) the Romans ufually did imita:e. | 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 used by Ovid in his Art of Love: "Jupiter ad verteres 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 writ fome anfwers to Ovid's Letters, (Quam celere è toto rediit mens orbe Sabinus)" I remember not any of the Romans, who have treated on this fubject; fave only Propertius, and that but once, in his Epiftle of Arethufa to Lycotas, which is written fo near the style of Ovid, that it feems to be but an imitation; and there. fore ought not to defraud our Poct of the glory of his invention. Concerning the Epiftles, I fhall content myself to obferve these few particulars; first, that they are generally granted to be the most perfect pieces of Ovid, and that the style of them is tenderly paffionate and courtly; two properties well agreeing with the perfons, which were the heroines and lovers. Yet, where the characters were lower, as in Oenone and Hero, he has kept clofe to nature, in drawing his images after a country life; though perhaps he has Romanized his Gresian dames too much, and made them fpeak, fometimes, as if they had been born in the city ¿ Rome, and under the empire of Auguftus. There feems to be no great variety in the particular fubjects which he has chofen; most of the Epifiles being written from ladies who were forlaken 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 womer, which is modefty, he has taken a most becoming care; for his amorous expreflions go no further than virtue may allow, and therefore may be read, as he intended them, by matrons without a blush. Thus much concerning the Poet: it remains that I should fay fomewhat of poetical translations in general, and give my opinion (with fubmiflion to better judgments) which way of version feems to be the most proper. All tranflation, I fuppofe, may be reduced to these three heads. First, that of Metaphrafe, or turning an author word by word, and line by line, from one language into another. Thus, or near this manner, was Horace's Art of Poetry tranflated by Ben Jonfon. The fecond way is that of Paraphrafe, or tranflation with latitude, where the author is kept in view by the tranflator, so as never to be loft, but his words are not fo strictly followed his fenfe; and that too is admitted to be amph fied, but not altered. Such is Mr. Waller's trans flation of Virgil's fourth Æneid. The third way is that of imitation, where the translator (if now he has not loft that name) affumes the liberty not only to vary from the words and fenfe, but to forfake them both as he fees occafion; and, taking only fome general hints from the original to rún divifion on the ground-work, as he pleales Such is Mr. Cowley's practice in turning twe Odes of Pindar, and one of Horace, into Engl Concerning the first of these methods, our t fter Horace has given us this caution : Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidat Nor word for word too faithfully tranflate, as the Earl of Rofcommon has excellently res dered it. Too faithfully is, indeed, pedantically it is a faith like that which proceeds from fupere ftition, blind and zealous. Take it in the expra fron of Sir John Denham to Sir Richard Fanba on his version of the Pastor Fido: That fervile path thou nobly doft decline, Of tracing word by word, and line by line. A new and nobler way thou dost pursue, To make tranflations and tranflators too: They but preferve the ashes, thou the flame, True to his fenfe, but truer to his fame. It is almost impoffible to tranflate verbally, well, at the fame time: for the Latin (a mo vere and compendious language) often express that in one word, which the barbarity, narrowness, of modern tongues cannot supp! ar th wore. It is frequent alfo that the conceit is couched in fome expreflion, which will be loft in English. Atque iidem venti vela fidemque ferent." What peet of our nation is so happy as to exprefs this thought literally in English, and to strike wit, or almost sense, out of it? In short, the verbal copier is incumbered with fo many difficulties at once, that he can never difintangle himself from all. He is to confider, at the fame time, the thought of his author and his words, and to find out the counterpart to each in another language: and, befides this, he is to confine himself to the compafs of numbers, and the flavery of rhyme. It is much like dancing on ropes with fettered legs: a man can fhun a fall, by using caution; but the gracefulness of motion is not to be expected; and when we have said the best of it, it is but a foolish task; for no fober man would put himself into a danger for the applaufe of efcaping without breaking his neck, We fee Ben Jonfon could not avoid obfcurity in his literal tranflation of Horace, attempted in the fame compafs of lines: nay Horace himself could karce have done it to a Greek Poet: So many towns, fuch change of manners faw. ROSCOMMON. But then the fufferings of Ulysses, which are a confiderable part of that fentence, are omitted ; [Ὃς μάλα πολλὰ πλάγχθη.] The confideration of these difficulties, in a fervile, literal tranflation, not long fince made two of our famous wits, Sir John Denham and Mr. Cowley, to contrive another way of turning authors into our tongue, called, by the latter of them, Imitation. As they were friends, I fuppofe they communicated their thoughts on this Subject to each other; and, therefore, their reaas for it are little different; though the practice of one is much more moderate. I take imitation of an author, in their sense, to be an endeavour of a later poet to write like one who has written before him on the fame fubject; that is, not to tranflate his words, or to be confined to his fenfe, but only to fet him as a patters, and to write as he supposes that author would have done, had he lived in our age, and in our country. Yet I dare not fay, that either of them have carried this libertine way of rendering authors (as Mr. Cowley calls it) fo far as my definition reaches: for, in the Pindaric Odes, the customs and ceremonies of ancient Greece are ftill preferved. But I know not what mifchief may arife hereafter from the example of fuch an innovation, when writers of unequal parts to him fhall imitate fo bold an undertaking. To add and to diminish what we please, which is the way avowed by him, ought only to be granted to Mr. Cowley, and that too only in his translation of Pindar; because he alone was able to make him amends, by giving him better of his own, whenever he refufed his author's thoughts. Pindar is generally known to be a dark writer, to want connexion (I mean as to our understanding), to foar out of fight, and leave his reader at a gaze. So wild and ungovernable a poet cannot be tranflated literally: his genius is too ftrong to bear a chain; and, Samfon-like, he fhakes it off. A genius fo elevated and unconfined as Mr. Cowley's was but necessary to make Pindar speak English; and that was to be performed by no other way than imitation. But if Virgil, or Ovid, or any regular, intelligible authors, be thus used, it is no longer to be called their work, when neither the thoughts nor words are drawn from the original; but inftead of them there is fomething new produced, which is almoft the creation of another hand. By this way, it is true, fomewhat that is excellent may be invented, perhaps more excellent than the firft defign; though Virgil must be ftill excepted, when that perhaps takes place. Yet he who is inquifitive to know an author's thoughts, will be difappointed in his expectation: and it is not always that a man will be contented to have a prefent made him, when he expects the payment of a debt. To ftate it fairly: imitation of an author is the most advantagaous way for a tranflator to fhew himself, but the greatest wrong which can be done to the memory and reputation of the dead. Sir John Denham (who advised more liberty than he took himself) gives his reason for his innovation, in his admirable preface before the tranflation of the second Æneid. "Poetry is of so sub"tle a spirit, that, in pouring out of one lan guage into another, it will all evaporate; and, "if a new fpirit be not added in the transfufion, "there will remain nothing but a Caput Mor tuum." I confefs this argument holds good against a literal tranflation; but who defends it? Imitation and verbal version are in my opinion the two extremes, which ought to be avoided; and therefore, when I have proposed the mean betwixt them, it will be seen how far his argu ment will reach. No man is capable of translating poetry, who, befides a genius to that art, is not a mafler both of his author's language and of his own: nor muft we understand the language only of the |