Letters Concerning Poetical Translations Part 11

_Pit_'s aeneid.

A Gentleman justly esteemed for his great Learning and excellent Skill in Criticism, but not of so delicate an Ear as Mr. _Pit_, would have had him writ, _As on th'Aerial Alps_.

But then the Verse would have wanted much of its Harmony, because _O'er_ mingles in Sound with _A'er_ which _On_ does not; and the same thing would have happen'd in the next Line, if it had stood thus-- _Some aged Oak uplifts his mighty Head_.--Because _uplifts_ and _mighty_ have no Resemblance in Sound to each other, or to _Aged_ and _Head_; but as the Line stands,

"Some aged Oak uprears his Reverend Head,

the Words all melt into one another, and the Musick dies along the Verse from the Beginning to the End. This is the greatest Delicacy of Poetry, neither are the other Graces wanting in this Verse. The Pause is properly varied, the first Line is entirely suspended. There is in it a double Alliteration, _Aerial Alps, sublimely spread_: And to conclude all, the Rhyme is as perfect as possible.

Octob. 11. 1736.

_I am_, SIR, _&c._

_P.S._

In looking over this Letter I observe a Pa.s.sage in _Milton_, which merits a very particular Consideration, and which I ought to have taken notice of before, when I was speaking of the Collocation of Words; the Pa.s.sage I mean is, _For since I first_, &c. The entire Pa.s.sage runs thus,

"_Eve, easily_ may Faith admit that all The Good which we enjoy, from Heav'n descends; _But_, that from _us_ ought should ascend to Heav'n So prevalent as to concern the Mind Of G.o.d high-blest, or to incline his Will, Hard to belief may seem; _yet_ this will Prayer, Or one short Sigh of human Breath, up born Ev'n to the Seat of G.o.d. For since I sought By Pray'r th' offended Deity to appease; _Kneel'd_ and before him humbled all my Heart, Methought I saw him placable and mild, Bending his Ear, _&c._

How extremely fine is the Poetry of this Pa.s.sage? How soft is the beginning, occasion'd by the a.s.sonance of the two first Words, _Eve_, _Easily_, and of the five next all alliterated with the same Vowel, _A_

"--_May Faith admit that all._

How solemn is the Pause at the 1st Syllable of the 3d Line! _But_--

And the Caesure upon the Monosyllable _Us_ that follows immediately,

"_But_--that from _us_--

And the same Energy is plainly perceiv'd at the End of the 6th Line, where the Caesure is plac'd upon the Monosyllable _yet_,

"_Yet_--this will Prayer, _&c._

But when we come to that Line,

"_Kneel'd_; and before Him humbled all my Heart,

such is the Force of the Word _kneel'd_ in that Situation, that we actually see _Adam_ upon his Knees before the offended Deity; and by the Conclusion of this Paragraph,--_Bending his Ear_, Infinite Goodness is visibly as it were represented to our Eyes as inclining to hearken to the Prayers of his penitent Creature.

LETTER VI.

_SIR,_

[Sidenote: XI.]

I am now to proceed to the _a.s.sonantia Syllabarum_ or _Rhyme_. I have shown under this Head how much _Virgil_ abounds in _Rhyme_; from whence I conclude, that it may be reasonably supposed _Rhyme_ had its Original from a n.o.bler Beginning than the Barbarity of _Druids_ and _Monks_. It is very probable that _Chaucer_, _Dante_, and _Petrarch_ learnt it from _Virgil_, and that other Nations follow'd the Example they had set them.

To say the _Bards_ rhym'd in the Times of grossest Ignorance, merely by their own Invention, only proves that Rhyme is naturally harmonious. We are told by the Learned that the _Hebrew_ Poetry is in _Rhyme_, and that where-ever any Footsteps of this Art are to be trac'd, _Rhyme_ is always found, whether in _Lapland_ or in _China_.

If it should be objected that the _Greek_ Tongue is an Exception to this general Rule; that Matter perhaps may be disputed, or a particular Answer might be given. But that the _Latin_ Language is a Friend to _Rhyme_ is clear beyond all doubt; and the same is as true of all the living Tongues that are distinguished in the learned World.

It is no wonder that _Verse_ without _Rhyme_ has so many Advocates amongst the Dealers in Poetry, because of its Facility. _Rhym'd_ Verse, with all its Ornaments, especially the artful Way of varying the Pause, is exceeding difficult; and so are all the curious Productions of Art. Fine Painting, fine Musick or Sculpture, are all very hard to perform; it is the Difficulty that makes those Performances so deserving of Applause when they attain the highest Perfection. As to the Matter before us; _Rhyme_ (as Mr. _Dryden_ justly observes) never was _Milton_'s Talent: This appears from his juvenile Poems. And when he sate down to write the _Paradise lost_, his Imagination was too vigorous, too lofty to be shackled by _Rhyme_. It must be own'd that a thousand Beauties would have been lost, which now s.h.i.+ne with amazing Splendor in that Poem, if _Milton_ had writ in the most exquisite _Rhyme_. But then on the other hand, it is as certain that upon the whole it would have been a more agreeable Poem to the Generality of Readers than it is at present. Of this Opinion was the learned Foreigner mentioned in a former Letter, a judicious Critick both in the ancient and modern Languages.

"Quicquid tamen ejus sit, ostendunt Miltoni scripta virum vel in ipsa juventute: quae enim ille adolescens scripsit carmina Latina, una c.u.m Anglicis edita, aetatem illam longe superant, qua ille vir scripsit poemata Anglica, sed sine rythmis, quos, ut pestes carminum vernaculorum, abesse volebat, _quale illud decem libris constans, The Paradise Lost_, plena ingenii & ac.u.minis sunt, sed insuavia tamen videntur ob _rythmi_ defectum; quem ego abesse a tali carminum genere non posse existimo, quicquid etiam illi, & Italis nonnullis, & nuper Isaaco Vossio in libro _de Poematum cantu_, videatur."

_Polyhist._

However, we must take _Paradise Lost_ as it is, and rejoice that we have in it, one of the finest Works that ever the Wit of Man produc'd: But then the Imperfection of this Work must not be pleaded in favour of such other Works as have hardly any thing worthy of Observation in them. Placing _Milton_ with his blank Verse by himself (as indeed he ought to be in many other respects, for he certainly has no Companion) this Dispute about the Excellency of _blank_ Verse, and even the Preference of it to _rhym'd_ Verse, may be determined by comparing two Writers of Note, who have undertaken the same Subject; that is, _Virgil_'s aeneid.

Now I will take all the Pa.s.sages of that Poem mentioned in my Letters to you, and compare them in these two Translations: And if it shall appear by the Comparison that the _rhym'd_ Verses have not only more Harmony and Conciseness, but likewise that they express _Virgil_'s Sense more fully and more perspicuously than the _blank_ Verse, will it not be easy to determine which of these two Sorts ought to be preferr'd?

Octob. 22. 1736.

_I am_, SIR, _&c._

_P.S._

When I was taking notice of _Virgil_'s Arts of Versification, I should not have omitted his sudden varying the Tense of the Verb from the Preterperfect to the Present.

"_Non tua te n.o.bis, Genitrix pulcherrima talem_ Promisit, _Graiisque ideo bis_ vindicat _armis_.

This is very agreeable both as to the Verse and the Sense; for it makes the thing described more immediately present than it would be otherwise. I cannot just now recollect an Example in _Milton_ of this nature, but I remember one in _Fairfax_, in a Couplet already cited.

"Their jolly Notes they _chanted_ loud and clear, And horrid Helms high on their Heads they _bear_.

This is much more lively and peinturesque than if he had writ _bore_, and you will easily perceive it. It may be said, perhaps, that _Fairfax_ used _bear_ here for the sake of the Verse; let that be allow'd, but then it must be likewise granted, that _Virgil_ uses _vindicat_ instead of _vindicavit_, for the sake of his Verse, which he would not have done, if it had not been more beautiful than the common Prose way of writing: And as it is an Excellency in _Virgil_, so it is in _Fairfax_.

LETTER VII.

_SIR,_

I am now to collect the Pa.s.sages of the _aeneid_, mentioned in my former Letters, and bring them together with the _rhym'd_ and _blank_ Verse Translations.

The first Pa.s.sage is this (not to take notice of the very first Lines, which Mr. _Pit_ has translated in two different manners)

"_Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam Prospiciens genitor, coeloque invectus aperto Flect.i.t equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo._

Dr. _Trapp_,