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the emperor with his own daughter: for Auguftus was of a nature too vindicative, to have contented himself with fo fmall a revenge, or fo unsafe 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 historians given us any fight into fuch an action of this emperor: nor would he (the greatest politician of his time) in all probability, have managed his crimes with fo little fecrecy, as not to fhun the obfervation of any man. It feems 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 feen her in a bath: for the words

Sine vefte Dianam

agree better with Livia, who had the fame of chastity, than with either of the Julia's, who were both noted of incontinency. The firft verfes, which were made by him in his youth, and recited publicly, according to the custom, were, as he himself 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 Corinna did not occafion it: nay, he tells 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 notoriously known at Rome, though it be left so obscure to after

ages.

But to leave conjectures on a fubject fo uncertain, and to write fomewhat more authentic of this Poets that he frequented the court of Auguftus, and was well received in it, is moft undoubted: all his Poems bear the character of a court, and appear to be written, as the French call it, Cavalierement: add to this, that the titles of many of his Elegies, and more of his letters in his banishment, are addreffed to perfons well known to us, even at this distance, to have been confiderable in that court.

Nor

Nor was his acquaintance lefs with the famous Poets of his age, than with the noble men and ladies. He tells you himself, in a particular account of his own life, that Macer, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and many others of them, were his familiar friends, and that fome of them communicated 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 compared with ours, especially in the defcription of the paffions. And, to prove this, I shall 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 representation 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 those paffions, are generally fuch as naturally arife from those disorderly motions of our fpirits. Yet, not to speak too partially in his behalf, I will confefs, that the copioufnefs 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 paffion 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 falfe applaufe 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 ftand good against him;

3

Nefcivit

3

Nefcivit quod bene ceffit relinquere;

he never knew how to give over, when he had done
well, but continually varying the fame fenfe an hun-
dred ways, and taking up in another place, what he
had more than enough inculcated before, he fome-
times 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 allay of Ovid's writings, 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, be-
comes him; and, if fometimes he appears too gay,
yet there is a fecret gracefulness of youth, which ac-
companies his writings, though the ftaidnefs and fo-
briety of age be wanting. In the most material part,
which is the conduct, it is certain that he seldom has
mifcarried: for if his Elegies be compared with thofe
of Tibullus and Propertius, his cotemporaries, it will
be found, that those poets feldom defigned before
they writ: and though the language of Tibullus be
more polished, and the learning of Propertius, efpe-
cially in his fourth book, more set out to oftentation;
yet their common practice was to look no further be-
fore them than the next line; whence it will inevita-
bly 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:

Pupureus 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

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 fomewhat, at leaft in general, will be expected.

The title of them in our late editions is Epiftolæ Heroidum, The letters of the Heroines. But Heinfius has judged more truly, that the infcription of our author was barely, Epifties; 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 used 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 writ fome anfwers to Ovid's Letters.

(Quam celer è toto rediit meus orbe Sabinus.)

I remember not any of the Romans, who have treated on this fubject, fave only Propertius, and that but once, in his Epistle of Arethufa to Lycotas, which is written fo near the ftyle 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 the Epiftles, I fhall content myself to obferve these few particulars: first, that they are generally granted to be the moft perfect pieces of Ovid, and that the ftyle 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 enone and Hero, he has kept close to nature, in drawing his images after a country life, though, perhaps, he has roma

nized 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 fubjects which he has chofen; moft 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 moft 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 blush.

Thus much concerning the Poet: it remains that I fhould lay fomewhat of poetical tranflations in general, and give my opinion (with fubmiffion to better judgments) which way of verfions feems to be the molt 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 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 ftrictly followed as his fenfe; 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 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 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 first of thefe methods, our mafter Horace has given us this caution:

Nec

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