I wonder Ruæus faw not this, where he charges his author fo unjustly, for giving Turnus a fecond fword, to no purpofe. How could he fasten a blow, or make a thrust, when he was not suffered to approach?› Befides, the chief errand of the Dira was, to warn Juturna from the field, for fhe could have brought the chariot again, when she saw her brother worsted in the duel. Imight further add, that Eneas was fo eager in the fight, that he left the city, now ahmoft in his poffeffion, to decide his quarrel with Turnus by the fword: whereas Turnus had manifeftly declined the combat, and suffered his fifter to convey him as far from the reach of his enemy as the could. I fay, not only fuffered her, but confented to it; for it is plain. he knew her, by these words: O foror & dudum agnovi, cùm prima per artem I have dwelt fo long on this fubject, that I must contract what I have to fay, in reference to my translation unless I would fwell my preface into a volume, and make it formidable to your Lordship, when you fee so many pages yet behind. And indeed what I have already written, either in juftification or praise of Virgil, is against myself; for prefuming to copy, in my coarfe English, the thoughts and beautiful expreffions of this inimitable poet, who flourished in an age when his language was brought to its laft perfection, for which it was particularly owing to him and Horace, I will give your Lordship'my opinion, that thofe two friends had confulted each other's judgment, whercin they fhould endeavour to excel; and they feem to have pitched on propriety of thought, elegance of words, and harmony of numbers. According to this model, Horace writ his Odes and Epods: for his Satires and Epiftles, being intended wholly for inftruction, required another ftyle:: "Ornari res ipfa negat, contenta doceri." And therefore, as he himself profeffes, are “ fermoni “propriora,” nearer profe than verfe: But Virgil, who never attempted the lyric verse, is every where elegant, fweet, and flowing, in his hexameters. His words are not only chofen, but the places in which he ranks them for the found; he who removes them from the station wherein their mafter fet them, fpoils the harmony. What he fays of the Sibyl's prophecies, may be as properly applied to every word of his: they must be read, in order as they lie; the least breath difcomposes them, and somewhat of their divinity is loft. I cannot boaft that I have been thus exact in my verses, but I have endeavoured to follow the example of my master: and am the first Englishman, perhaps, who made it his design to copy him in his numbers, his choice of words, and his placing them for the fweetnefs of the found. On this laft confideration, I have fhunned the Cafura as much as poffibly I could. For wherever that is used, it gives a roughness to the verfe; of which we can have little need, in a language which › is over-stocked with confonants. Such is not the Latin, where the vowels and confonants are mixed in ...proportion to each other: yet Virgil judged the vowels to have somewhat of an over-balance, and therefore tempers their fweetnefs with Cafuras. Such difference there is in tongues, that the fame figure which roughens one, gives majefty to another: and that was it which Virgil studied in his verses. Ovid ufes it. but rarely; and hence it is that this verfification cannot fo properly be called fweer, as lufcious. The Italians are forced upon it, once or twice in every line, because they have a redundancy of vowels in their lan.guage. Their metal is fo foft, that it will not com without alloy to harden it. On the other fide, for the reafon already named, it is all we can do to give sufficient sweetness to our language: we must not only choose our words for elegance, but for found; to perform which, a mastery in the language is required, the poet must have a magazine of words, and have the art to manage his few vowels to the best advantage, that they may go the farther. He must also know the nature of the vowels, which are more fonorous, and which more soft and sweet; and so dispose them as his prefent occafions require: all which, and a thousand fecrets of verification befide, he may learn from Viɛgil, if he will take him for his guide. If he be above Virgil, and is refolved to follow his own verve (as the French call it), the proverb will fall heavily upon him: Who teaches himself, has a fool for his mafter. 1. Virgil Virgil employed eleven years upon his Æneis; yet he left it, as he thought himself, imperfect. Which when I feriously confider, I wish, that instead of three -years which I have fpent in the translation of his works, I had four years more allowed me to correct my errors, that I might make my verfion fomewhat more tolerable than it is: for a poet cannot have too great a reverence for his readers, if he expects his la'bours fhould furvive him. Yet 'I will neither plead my age nor fickness, in excuse of the faults which I have made that I wanted time, is all that I have to fay for fome of my fubfcribers grew fo clamorous, "that I could no longer defer the publication. I hope, 'from the candour of your Lordship, and your often experienced goodnefs to me, that, if the faults are not too many, you will make allowances with Horace : : "Si plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis 1 You may please alfo to obferve, that there is not, to the best of my remembrance, one vowel gaping on 'another for want of a Cæfura, in this whole poëm; but where a vowel ends a word, the next begins either with a confonant, or what is its equivalent; for our W and Hafpirate, and our diphthongs, are plainly fuch; the greatest latitude I take is in the letter Y, when it concludes a word, and the first syllable of the next begins with a vowel. Neither need I have called this a latitude, which is only an explanation of this general rule: that A that no vowel can be cut off before another, when we cannot fink the pronunciation of it; as He, She, Me, ·I, &c. Virgil thinks it fometimes a beauty to imitate the licence of the Greeks, and leave two vowels opening on each other, as in that verfe of the third' Pa-ftoral: "Et fuccus pecori, & lac fubducitur agnis.” But, nobis non licet effe tam difertis :" at least, if we study to refine our numbers. I have long had by me the materials of an English Profodia, containing all the mechanical rules of verfification, wherein I have treated with fome exactness of the feet, the quantities, and the paufes.. The French and the Italians know nothing of the two first; at least their best poets have not practised them. As for the paufes, Malherbe first brought them into France, within this last century; and we see how they adorn their Alexandrians.. But,, as Virgil propounds a riddle which he leaves unfolved, "Dic quibus in terris, infcripti nomina regum "Nafcantur flores, & Phyllida folus habeto," fo will I give your Lordship another, and leave the ex-pofition of it to your acute judgment. I am fure there are few who make verfes, have obferved the fweetness of thefe two lines in Cooper's-Hill; "Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;, "Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full." And there are yet fewer who can find the reason of that fweetness. I have given it to fome of my friends |