Language, than hope an advancement of it in the prefent Age. I am still speaking to you, my Lord: tho' in all probability, you are already out of hearing. Nothing which my Meannefs can produce, is worthy of this long attention. But I am come to the lat Petition of Abraham; If there be Ten Righteous Lines, in this vaft Preface, fpare it for their fake; and alfo fpare the next City, because it is but a little one. I wou'd excufe the Performance of this Tranf lation, if it were all my own; but the better, tho' not the greater part being the Work of fome Gentlemen, who have fucceeded very happily in their Undertaking; let their Excellencies atone for my Imperfections, and those of my Sons. I have perus'd fome of the Satyrs, which are done by other Hands; and they feem to me as perfect in their kind, as any thing I have feen in English Verfe. The common way which we have taken, is not a literal Tranflation, but a kind of Paraphrafe; or fomewhat which is yet more loofe, betwixt a Paraphrafe and Imitation. It was not poffible for us, or any Men, to have made it pleasant any other way. If rendring the exact Senfe of thefe Authors, almoft Line for Line, had been our Bufinefs, Barten Holiday had done it already to our hands: And, by the help of his Learned Notes and Illuftrations, not only Juvenal and Perfius, but what yet is more obfcure, his own Verfes, might be understood. But he wrote for Fame, and wrote to Scholars: We write only for the Pleafure and Entertainment of thofe Gentlemen and Ladies, who tho' they are not Scholars, are not Ignorant: Perfons of Understanding and good Senfe; who not having been converfant in the Original, or at least not having made made Latin Verfe fo much their Bufinefs, as to be Critiques in it, wou'd be glad to find, if the Wit of our two great Authors be answerable to their Fame and Reputation in the World. We have therefore endeavour'd to give the Publick all the Satisfaction we are able in this kind. And if we are not altogether fo faithful to our Author, as our Predeceffors Holiday and Stapylton; yet we may challenge to our felves this Praise, That we shall be far more pleafing to our Readers. We have follow'd our Authors at greater Distance, tho' not Step by Step, as they have done. For oftentimes they have gone fo clofe, that they have trod on the Heels of Juvenal and Perfius, and hurt them by their too near Approach. A noble Author wou'd not be purfu'd too close by a Tranflator. We lofe his Spirit, when we think to take his Body. The groffer Part remains with us, but the Soul is flown away, in fome Noble Expreffion, or fome delicate Turn of Words, or Thought. Thus Holiday, who made this way his Choice, feiz'd the Meaning of Juvenal; but the Poetry has always 'cap'd him. They who will not grant me, that Pleafure is one of the Ends of Poetry, but that it is only a Means of compaffing the only End, which is Inftruction; muft yet allow, that without the Means of Pleasure, the Inftruction is but a bare and dry Philofophy; a crude Preparation of Morals, which we may have from Ariftotle and Epictetus, with more Profit than from any Poet. Neither Holiday nor Stapylton have imitated Juvenal, in the Poetical Part of him, his Diction and his Elocution. Nor had they been Poets, as neither of them were; yet in the way they took, it was impoffible for them to have fucceeded in the Poetique Part. The The English Verfe, which we call Heroique, confifts of no more than Ten Syllables; the Latin Hexameter fometimes rifes to Seventeen; as for Example, this Verse in Virgil: Pulverulenta putrem fonitu quatit ungula Campum. Here is the difference of no lefs than Seven Syllables in a Line, betwixt the English and the Latin. Now the Medium of thefe, is about Fourteen Syllables; because the Dactyle is a more frequent Foot in Hexameters than the Spondee. But Holiday, without confidering that he writ with the disadvantage of Four Syllables lefs in every Verfe, endeavours to make one of his Lines to comprehend the Senfe of one of Juvenal's. Accor ding to the Falfity of the Propofition, was the Succefs. He was forc'd to crowd his Verfe with illfounding Monofyllables, of which our barbarous Language affords him a wild Plenty: And by that means he arriv'd at his pedantick End, which was to make a literal Translation: His Verfes have nothing of Verfe in them, but only the worst part of it the Rhime; and that, into the Bargain, is far from good. But, which is more intolerable, by cramming his ill-chofen, and worse-founding Mo nofyllables fo close together; the very Senfe which he endeavours to explain, is become more obfcure than that of his Author. So that Holiday himself cannot be understood, without as large a Commentary, as that which he makes on his two Authors. For my own Part, I can make a shift to find the Meaning of Juvenal without his Notes: But his Tranflation is more difficult than his Au thor. And I find Beauties in the Latin to recompence my Pains; but in Holiday and Stapylton, my Ears, Ears, in the firft Place, are mortally offended; and then their Senfe is fo perplex'd, that I return to the Original, as the more pleafing Task, as well as the more eafie. This must be faid for our Tranflation, that if we give not the whole Senfe of Juvenal, yet we give the most confiderable Part of it: We give it, in General, fo clearly, that few Notes are fufficient to make us Intelligible. We make our Author at least appear in a Poetique Drefs. We have actually made him more Sounding, and more Elegant, than he was before in English: And have endeavour'd to make him fpeak that kind of English, which he wou'd have spoken had he liv'd in England, and had written to this Age. If fometimes any of us (and 'tis but feldom) make him exprefs the Customs and Manners of our Native Country, rather than of Rome; 'tis, either when there was fome kind of Analogy, betwixt their Cuftoms and ours; or when, to make him more eafie to Vulgar Undertandings, we give him thofe Manners which are familiar to us. But I defend not this Innovation, 'tis enough if I can excufe it. For to speak fincerely, the Manners of Nations and Ages are not to be confounded: We fhou'd either make them English, or leave them Roman. If this can neither be defended, nor excus'd, let it be pardon'd, at leaft, because it is acknowledg'd; and fo much the more eafily, as being a Fault which is never committed without fome Pleasure to the Reader. Thus, my Lord, having troubled you with a tedious Vifit, the best Manners will be fhewn in the leaft Ceremony. I will flip away while your Back is turn'd, and while you are otherwife employ'd: With great Confufion, for having entertain'd you so long with this Difcourfe; and for having no 7 other |