zeal or curiofity had drawn together, to behold fuch an unusual fcene. The Queen, worn out with fatigue, covered with duft, and bedewed with tears, was exposed as a spectacle to her own fubjects, and led to the Provoft's house. Notwithstanding all her arguments and intreaties, the fame ftandard was carried before her, and the fame infults and reproaches repeated. A woman, young, beautiful, and in diftrefs, is naturally the object of compaffion. The comparison of their prefent mifery with their former fplendor, usually softens us in favour of illustrious fufferers. But the people beheld the deplorable fituation of their Sovereign with infenfibility; and fo ftrong was their perfuafion of her guilt, and fo great the violence of their indignation, that the fufferings of their Queen did not, in any degree, mitigate their refentment, or procure her that fympathy which is feldom denied to unfortunate Princes.' The enfuing part of this volume contains an account of the proceedings of the confederate Lords, who forced the Queen to refign her crown, and appointed Murray Regent, whofe election fhe was obliged to confirm. The manner of Mary's escape from her confinement, with her arrival in England, is particularly related. The deliberations of Elizabeth, and her council, concerning the manner of treating her, are amply fet forth, and the reasons of their refolution for detaining her prisoner in England, are ftated with great political acuteness: with Elizabeth and her counfellors,' fays he, the question was not, what was moft juft and generous, but what was most beneficial to herself and the English nation.' From this part of the history we learn, that Elizabeth refused to admit Mary, who demanded a perfonal interview, to her prefence, till fhe had cleared herfelf from the imputation of fo horrid a crime as the murder of her husband. Mary offering to clear her conduct, Elizabeth took advantage of her offer, by propofing to bring her to a public trial, and in the mean time refufed her audience. The grief and indignation which Mary expreffed at this conduct of her fifter, will beft appear from her own letter to Elizabeth. "In my prefent fituation, fays fhe, I neither will, nor can reply to the accufations of my fubjects. I am ready, of my own accord, and out of friendship to you, to fatisfy your fcruples, and to vindicate my own conduct. My fubjects are not my equals; nor will 1, by fubmitting my cause to a judicial trial, acknowlege them to be fo. I fled into your arms as into thofe of my nearest relation, and most perfect friend. I did you honour, as I imagined, in chufing you preferably to any other Prince, to be the reftorer of an injured Queen. Was it ever known that a Prince was blamed for hearing, in perfon, the complaints of thofe who appealed to his justice, against the falfe accufation of their their enemies? You admitted into your prefence my bastardbrother, who had been guilty of rebellion; and you deny me that honour! God forbid that I should be the occafion of bringing any stain upon your reputation. I expected that your manner of treating me would have added luftre to it. Suffer me either to implore the aid of other Princes, whofe delicacy on this head will be lefs, and their refentment of my wrongs greater; or let me receive from your hands that affistance which it becomes you, more than any other Prince, to grant; and by that benefit bind me to yourself in the indiffoluble ties of gratitude.' This letter difplays a dignity of mind, which might have done honour to a better character. However vicious Mary was, we cannot forbear condemning Elizabeth, who, out of policy as a Queen, and perhaps more out of jealoufy as a woman, treated her fifter with fuch unnatural rigour. Mary's intrigues against Elizabeth, by means of the Duke of Norfolk, and others, with the death of the Regent of Scotland, close the contents of this volume. The character of the Regent is delineated in strong and glowing colours; but as we have already trefpaffed beyond the prefcribed limits of an article, we muft refer the Reader to the work itfelf. Indeed we fupprefs extracts of this kind with lefs reluctance, becaufe, though we are fenfible that drawing characters is efteemed one of the moft difficult offices of hiftory, yet we are far from confidering it as the most noble, or most useful. This kind of writing is calculated to amuse those Readers, who are more curious about perfons than things. Men who read for information as well as entertainment, purfue the living character through every page; and judge, not from the decifion of the Hiftorian, but from the tranfactions recorded in the hiftory. They who are content to take characters as thus fummed up in the grofs, feldom form juft ideas of any for Writers of the greatest credit, are often, in the warmth of compofition, imperceptibly led from truth, by an eager attention to fome favourite climax, or partial fondness for some striking antithefis. Our worthy Hiftorian, though not altogether free from inaccuracies of this kind, is nevertheless, in general, extremely cautious and faithful in characterizing the perfonages of hiftory. Upon the whole, we may fafely recommend this work as the most compleat of all modern histories. It is not a dry jejune narrative of events, deftitute of ornament; nor is it a mere frothy relation, all glow and colouring. The Writer difcovers a fufficient ftore of imagination to engage the Reader's attention, with a due proportion of judgment to check the exuberance of fancy: his defcriptions are animated, and his reREV. Feb. 1759. N flections flections folid. His ftile is copious, nervous, and correct; though perhaps, in fome parts, there appears too great an affectation of the Salluftian manner. A fingularity in his punctuation may be likewife thought liable to objection: he very frequently begins a new sentence with the copulative And; which, in our judgment, ought never to appear after a full period. But thele trivial blemishes ferve as foils to the many confpicuous beauties in this work, and only prove, that no mortal performance can attain abfolute perfection. We are fatisfied, that the Writer has too much understanding to be offended at our animadverfions: where we have differed from him in fentiment, or difapproved of his manner, we would be underftood to urge our objections with all the candor and moderation which is due to his fingular merit. If any circumftance can add to the reputation of this work, it is the modefty with which it is introduced. The time I have employed,' (fays our Author in his preface) and the pains I have taken to render this book worthy of the public approbation, it is perhaps prudent to conceal, till it be known whether that approbation fhall ever be beftowed upon it.' As he is, doubtlefs, by this time happily acquainted with the public opinion in his favour, we fincerely congratulate him on the agreeable difcovery: and we heartily hope, that his success may prove equal to his wifhes, and his deferts. Conclufion of the Account of Dr. Grainger's Tranflation of Tibullus. See Review for January laft. TTAVING confined our laft month's review of this article chiefly to the life of Tibullus, as compiled by the prefent Tranflator, we are now to confider his poetical verfion of that elegant and tender elegiac Poet: and here it is easy to obferve, even on a curfory perufal, that Dr. Grainger has omitted nothing in his power to render it correspondent to the beautiful original. Whenever he varies profeffedly from Tibullus, he does it either from the most decent and commendable motives, as in the fourth and tenth elegies of the firft book; or with a defign to give the tranflation, as he fays, a more fpirited air, as in the fixth elegy of the third book; which being a conteft between the powers of love and wine, he has tranflated in form of dialogue, between Tibullus, as a lover, and one of his focial friends, as a votary to Bacchus. The Doctor's having entertained himself with tranflating the whole when he was ftill younger, and in the the army, were no improper circumftances for the transfusion of a gallant and foft love-poet: and the years fince occurring have probably allowed him the Horatian term for retouching and perfecting his verfion. His extraordinary care to render the whole very intelligible, appears in the number and extent of his notes; many of which, however, are certainly unneceffary to a majority of his Readers: who may apprehend that he might have contented himself with fuch only as were fufficient, on fo obvious and natural a fubject, to render it quite intelligible to the fair fex, for whom he habitually profeffes fuch a juft and polite regard. It is certain, that by this means we should indeed, have been deprived of many quotations, not only in Italian, Greek, and Latin, with which the ladies are generally unacquainted, and with which they diflike to be oppreffed; but of many English ones too, which are feldom without their merit: whence our Tranflator might have fuppofed them already familiar even to his Readers in general. In truth there feems fome indelicacy in fwelling the notes of a tranflation, on no obfcure fubject, fo very unproportionably to the text. The most elegant Writers and Tranflators feem to avoid it, fuppofing them not to write to ftriplings; whence too, they escape the imputation of writing about and about a fubject, till it be explained into doubt; and run no hazard of being reckoned among thofe, of whom the witty Satyrift pleafantly remarks, Some on the leaves of antient Authors dote, It is confeffed at the fame time, that a few notes were really ne❤ ceffary; and therefore a fuperabundance may be deemed more pardonable than a total omiffion of any and as it is but just to hear what our Author fays on this point, we fhall give him his revenge on thefe ftrictures, by annexing his own words on the occafion, Preface, page 11. As Tibullus wrote love-poems like a Roman, any translation of them without notes, would have been extremely obscure to an English Reader: most of his commentators are mere Philologers, or at beft they have only difplayed their crudition in the hiftory of a Heathen god, or the topography of a river. From this cenfure, however, Broekhufius, his Dutch Editor, and Vulpius, his Italian Commentator, may, in part, be exempted: they have, indeed, fometimes entered into the propriety of our Poet's thoughts; yet even their chief excellence confifts N 2 in in arranging the text, in feleding the most approved readings; and in giving those pallages, which they fuppoled Tibullus either borrowed from his predeceffors, or the moderats copied from him. The defign of the Trandator is very different, he has commented on his Author as a Roman Poet, and as a Roman Lover; and although he owns him enamoured of his beauties as who can draw a pleating refemblance of a face which difgufts him?) be hopes he has not been blind to his imperfections. Thefe, indeed, he has touched upon with the tendernefs of a friend, not the acrimony of a critic. Yet as most of the Commentators were confulted, the Tranflator has taken from each of them fuch notes, as he imagined would be most ferviceable to an English Reader, always afcribing them, however, to the Author who furnished them. Thus, befide Broekhufius and Vulpius, the name of Mr. Dart will fometimes be found at the bottom of an obfervation. Nor muft it be forgotten, that the Tranilator has been obliged to that Gentleman for ten or twelve lines in his version.' Dr. Grainger immediately after this gives his reafon for printing the Latin text in oppofite pages; and a very fufficient one it is, admitting what he afferts, That the English prefs had afforded no one accurate edition of Tibullus, and that even the best of those printed abroad were not exempted from material errors.' As to his general manner and scheme in this Tranflation, he profeffes to have chofen the medium between a verbal and a paraphraftical one, which is, very probably, the moft judicious. But we prefer his own explicit terms on this material topic. Verbal tranflations are always inelegant, becaufe always deftitute of beauty of idiom and language; for by their fidelity to an Author's words, they become treacherous to his reputation: on the other hand, a too wanton departure from the letter, often varies the fenfe, and always alters the manner.* The Tranflator chose the middle way, and meant neither to tread on the heels of Tibullus, nor yet to lofe fight of him. He had not the vanity to think he could improve on his Poet: and though he has fometimes endeavoured to give a more modern polifh to his fentiments, he has feldom attempted to change them. To preferve the fenfe of his original was his firft care; his next was, to clothe it in as elegant and becoming a drefs as poffible. Yet he must confefs, that he has now and then taken the liberty to tranfpofe, and fometimes paraphraftically to enlarge the thoughts. Where a fentiment was too much contracted by the clofeness of the Latin idiom, to be unfolded in a correfpon dent |