45

“ Filly Foal," quoth he,
“ My bride thou shalt be ;
“ And how this is lawful learn all :

IX. ~ For if no respect

of

persons “ Be due ’mongst sons of Adam, “ In a large extent

Thereby may be meant
“ That a mare's as good as a madam."

X.
Then without more ceremony,
Not bonnet vaild, nor kiss d her,
But took her by force,
For better for worse,
And us'd her like a sister.

XI.
Now when in such a saddle
A saint will needs be riding,
Tho' we dare not say
"Tis a falling away,
May there not be some backsliding?

XII.
“ No, surely," quoth James Naylor,
“'Twas but an insurrection
66 Of the carnal part,
« For a Quaker in heart
“ Can never lose perfection.

50

55 65

70

XIII. For (as our masters * teach us) 66 The intent being well directed, 6 Tho' the devil trepan

The Adamical man,
“ The saint stands uninfected.”

XIV.
But, alas ! a Pagan jury
Ne’er judges what's intended ;
Then say what we can
Brother Green's outward man
I fear will be suspended.

XV.
And our adopted sister
Will find no better quarter ;
But when him we enroll
For a saint, Filly Foal
Shall
pass
herself for a martyr.

XVI.
Rome, that spiritual Sodom,
No longer is thy debtor,
O Colchester! now
Who's Sodom but thou,
Even according to the letter ?

* The Jesuits.

75

80

A SONG

I.
Morpheus! the humble god that dwells
In cottages and smoky cells,
Hates gilded roofs and beds of down,
And tho'he fears no prince's frown
Flies from the circle of a crown:

II.
Come, I say, thou pow'rful god,
And thy leaden charming rod,
Dipp'd in the Lethean lake,
O'er his wakeful temples shake,
Lest he should sleep, and never wake.

III.
Nature, (alas !) why art thou so
Obliged to thy greatest foe?
Sleep that is thy best repast,
Yet of death it bears a taste,
And both are the same thing at last,

15

TRANSLATIONS, &c.

PREFACE

TO THE

DESTRUCTION OF TROY, &c.

There

HERE are so few translations which deserve praise, that I scarce ever saw any which deserved pardon ; those who travel in that kind being for the most part so unhappy as to rob others without enriching themselves, pulling down the fame of good authors without raising their own : neither hath any author been more hardly dealt withal than this our master ; and the reason is evident, for, what is most excellent is most inimitable ; and if even the worst authors are yet made worse by their translators, how impossible is it not to do great injury to the best? And therefore I have not the vanity to think my copy equal to the original, nor (consequently) myself altogether guiltless of what I accuse others; but if I can do Virgil less injury than others have done, it will be in some degree to do him right; and, indeed, the hope of doing him more right is the only

H

а

scope of this essay, by opening a new way of translating this author to those whom youth, leisure, and better fortune, make fitter for such

undertakings. I conceive it is a vulgar error in translating poets,

to affect being fidus interpres; let that care be with thein who deal in matters of fact, or matters of faith : but whosoever aims at it in poetry, as he attempts what is not required, so he shall never perform what he attempts : for it is not his bu, siness alone to translate language into language but poesy into poesy; and poesy is of so subtle a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another it will all evaporate ; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words; and whosoever offers at verbal translation shall have the misfortune of that young traveller who lost his own language abroad, and brought home no other instead of it : for the grace of the Latin will be lost by being turned into English words, and the grace of the English by being turned into the Latin phrase. And as speech is the apparel of our thoughts, so are there certain garbs and modes of speaking which vary with the times, the fashion of our clothes being not more sub

: