port. This admiration of theirs must needs proceed from the author himself; for the translator has thrown him down as low as harsh numbers, improper English,' and a monstrous length of verse could carry him. What then would he appear in the harmonious version of one of the best writers, living in a much better age than was the last? I mean for versification, and the art of numbers; for in the drama we have not arrived to the pitch of Shakspeare and Ben Jonson. But here, my Lord, I am forced to break off abruptly, without endeavouring at a compliment in the close. This Miscellany is without dispute one of the best of the kind which has hitherto been extant in our tongue; at least, as Sir Samuel Tuke has said before me, a modest man may praise what is not his own. My fellows have no need of any protection; but I humbly recommend my part of it, as much as it deserves, to your patronage and acceptance, and all the rest to your forgiveness. I am, Your Lordship's most obedient servant, JOHN DRYDEN." 7 Chapman's English was the same as that of his contemporaries, who doubtless would have considered the English of Dryden and Pope just as improper as the lan guage of the age of Elizabeth is, without reason, always represented by them. Pope indeed carried the matter still farther; for whenever he found a word or phrase in the works of Shakspeare that was not the current language of his own day, he supposed the text to be corrupt, and modernized it accordingly. 8 The pieces written by our author, which appeared in this Miscellany, were-A translation of the first book of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES; Iphis and Ianthe from the ninth book, and Acis and Galatea from the fourteenth; Ode for St. Cecilia's day (1687); Verses to the Duchess of York (1682); Song to a Young Lady, (“ Ask not the cause, &c."); Verses to Lady Castlemaine (written long before); Prologue to the University of Oxford, (1681); another Prologue to some play exhibited between 1690 and 1693, the title of which I have not been able to discover ("Gallants, to-night," &c.); Veni, Creator Spiritus; Ode to the memory of Mrs. Anne Killegrew, first printed in 1686; Roundelay (" Chloe found Amyntas," &c.); Epitaphs on Lady Whitmore, and Sir Palmes Fairborne; and the Parting of Hector and Andromache, from the Iliad. To the FOURTH MISCELLANY, which was published in 1694, without a Dedication or Preface, the only pieces which our author contributed, were—a Translation of the third Georgick, and Verses addressed to Sir Godfrey Kneller. |
