-But the cries of the fatherless mix with her praise, "Love led the wild hordes in his flower-woven bands, And the tears of the widow are shed The tenderest, the strongest of chains! on her bays! Love married our hearts, he united our hands, O Britain! dear Britain! the land of And mingled the blood in our veins ; my birth! our waves, The spears of the Romans we broke, -The world was great Cæsar's-but "For ages and ages, with barbarous foes, With new vigour,new life from each fall; One race we became :-on the mountains and plains Where the wounds of our country were closed, The Ark of Religion reposed, The unquenchable Altar of Liberty blazed, And the Temple of Justice in Mercy was raised. "Ark, Altar, and Temple we left with our breath, To our children, a sacred bequest! in death: A CARELESS, whistling Lad am I, The thrush and linnet in the vale, When all were mine,-among the rest, I'd choose the Lass I liked the best, 592 THE BOSTON REVIEW. NOVEMBER, 1806. Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, quz eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere vero assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari inerentur.—PLINY. ARTICLE 60. A new translation with notes, of the third Satire of Juvenal. which are added, miscellaneous poems, original and translated.― New-York, printed by S. Gould for Ezra Sargeant. 12mo. pp. 200. 1806. not think his apprehension, lest he should appear somewhat "hypercritical," altogether groundless. ToWe could say something inpraise of McFingal and the Vision of Columbus, were this the place to appear as their advocates. We could say much of the peculiar propriety of denouncing such per formances in a preliminary epistle to one of the humbler satires of Juvenal, and some smaller poems, not more in bulk, than a few col umns of an Ordinary newspaper would afford. We could say still more of the modesty of the author in admitting this rude and indiscriminate attack upon his prede cessors and superiours. But this modern Achilles is not rendered altogether invulnerable by the wa ters of adulation, in which, through paternal (we presume) rather than parental tenderness, he has been faithfully immersed. Nor has this process given him that confidence in his own prowess which it seems designed to have afforded. He has generally yielded the precedency to Mr.Gifford, and he has not been scrupulous in following his interpretations, and frequently borrow. ing his rhymes, and copying his verses with little variation of lan guage. From a very cursory comparison of the two translations we have selected a few, out of numerous examples, to evince the correctness of our assertions. THIS volume is introduced by brace we part ; Cherish my memory ever in your heart. GIF. 484. [No one will contend that these and numerous other resemblances of the same kind could be mere Up, up! those cushion'd benches, Lec- accidental coincidences. The tíus cries, Are not for such as you; arise. for shame! The chances of the town then all bewail, When all at fires with double hatred rail. same sentiment, circumscribed within the same limits, in similar language, and the same rhyming words, and admission even of the same peculiarities of expression, are sufficient proofs of our author's freedom with Mr, Gifford. There are other more trifling marks of imitation, on which we shall not dwell such as similar expletives, All join to wail the city's hapless fate, and exclamatory phrases in paral i And rail at fire with more than com Still flames the pile, when lo! the flat- And pour their riches to supply the mon hate, Lo! while it burns the obsequious courtiers haste lel passages; as, ye Gods! for Mr. G.'s heavens! both equally unauthorised by Juvenal; and a resemblance in a construction of the verses of the two authors in the translation of the same passages. The author of the translation before us has ascribed no particular character to his work; and indeed it is difficult to ascertain it very exactly. He is seldom scrupulously faithful to Juvenal, and generally loses those finer parts, which make the very spice of sat ire. He would seem quite unaspiring in his views; for he presumes not to enter the lists with Mr. Gifford. We cannot suspect him of such an intention. He is not He has a guide of whom he rarely sufficiently independent for a rival. loses sight; for he generally fol-lows where Gifford leads. His apology for publishing is one,which we have heard before, but wish never to hear again. It is, that the production is American. By admitting such an apology as this, we should concede that every literary man among us writes for a very inferiour order of readers.] We are of the number, who value a book according to its abstract merit; and have too much pride to listen with patience to writers, who, in the style of our author, undervalue their countrymen so much, as to tell them, in effect, the specimens we give you from our literary mines will doubtless be esteemed precious by you, but in England they would be ranked among the baser metals. The republick of letters, as it has been termed, especially as including nations, speaking a common language, is one and indivisible. There is an universality in its laws, which no minor portion of it has a right to violate; and it is absurd to affix different standards of good writing, where all have access to the same principles, and all are ultimately liable to be arraigned before the same tribunals.] Without presuming to guess what freedom the unknown translator proposed to himself in his undertaking, we shall first select one or two passages in which we find more of our author, than of Juvenal. According to Juvenal, Umbritius, after satirizing several vices prevalent at Rome, which he detested, and with which he was not himself conversant, adds, Quis nunc diligitur, nisi conscius, et cui fervens Astuat occultis animus, semperque ta But whilst the great my zeal and ser vice scorn, What virtues, say, the chosen friend adorn, times, Whose conscience pants with secret, nameless crimes. Ver. 75. The simple inquiry is, who is now in favour, except the man whose breast is tormented with secret crimes, which he never dares disclose? But our translator makes the virtuous and voluntary exile. complain of the contempt, which his zeal and services had met with, and talks of the holy league (of scoundrels) sealed by mutual guilt, &c.; all which freedom may answer very well for paraphrase, but is no property of a translation. Another selection which we make is the conclusion of a passage, which describes the venal state of Rome, and the universal power of bribery in the purchase of favour and security. Plena domus libis venalibus; accipe, et istud ference; but it is Juvenal whom we wish to hear, and not the loquacious, paraphrast, nor the acute logician. There are here and there passages, which the translator has seen fit to pass over unnoticed; sometimes probably to aid his metrical arrangement, and sometimes, perhaps, from a little embarrassment in obtaining the sense. Thus in the 14th line, quorum cophinus foenumque supellex, which Mr. Gifford translates, "Whose wealth is but a basket stuffed with hay," is entirely omitted. Again, ............domus interea secura patellas Jam lavat, et buccâ foculum excitat, et The slaves, with whom these are contrasted, were exposed to all the dangers of the streets of Rome, while they were safe under their master's roof, ministering to his wants and his pleasures. But what their services were, the reader, (if perchance he should not understand the original) will derive no information. All the particularity of Juvenal has fallen through the translator's sieve, and only the coarser and less valuable matter is left behind. That the slaves performed some tasks (not perhaps with fruitless haste) we are slightly informed; but nothing transpires relating to the nature of their services. We hear nothing of the washing of dishes, or, as Mr. Gifford is pleased to refine it, of the scouring of plate; nothing of their culinary vigilance, nor of their com plicated preparations for the luxury of the bath. It is a great excellence of a trans- cc lation to give to the mere reader of his vernacular tongue, as much of the author's account of manners, and customs, and employments, &c., as the genius of the modern language will admit; and, if possible, to preserve even the allusions in some degree of purity. We often mark a great failure in this respect in the translation before us. Indeed the examples of this defect are so numerous, that to select them would extend our review much beyond the limits to which it is entitled. We shall therefore cite but one instance inore. Juvenal tells us, that justice was so much corrupted at Rome, that the first question, in establishing the credibility of a witness, concerned his wealth. Quot pascit servos, quot possidit agri Jugera, quam muita magnaque paropside coenat. Ver. 141. Say what his slaves, his equipage, his land? Ver. 201. This timidity of our author, lest he should be too loquacious, is not natural to him. We do not relish this affectedly elliptical line; and equipage, the vague and feeble interpretation of the quam multa magnaque paropside coenat of Juvenal, is far from satisfactory. We have spent the more time on this performance, because it holds the most conspicuous place in the book, and is a species of composition, in which our country has afforded but few adventurers. It is not probable, that the author will long be willing to risque his fame upon this "exercise in the art of versification." It contains no passage eminently vigorous, and seldom approaches the manner of Juvenal. It is but just to add,that |