"The stream, with wanton play, Kisses the smiling banks, and glides away. COWLEY'S DAVIDEIS. In describing the origin of musick, Creech seems to have felt some of its charms, and of a sudden attuned his loosestringed lyre. At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore. &c. The birds instructed man, V. 1378. And taught them songs, before their art began ; And whilst the tender flocks securely feed, The harmless shepherds tuned the pipes to love, Of these lines, which are far from being faithful to the original, the last is a translation, entirely gratuitous, from the following lines in the first Eclogue of Virgil: Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas. The plague of Athens, which forms an interesting and af fecting conclusion of the poem of Lucretius, Creech has translated more uniformly well, than any other part of his author.* But he is justly charged with imitating the Bishop of Rochester (Dr. Sprat) on the same subject; forsaking that close adherence to the original, for which he is sometimes distinguish * In his account of the plague at Athens, Lucretius appears to have followed with tolerable exactness the history of the same fatal and loathsome disease, given by Thucydides. The symptoms with which it was attended, and its effects on the morals of the people, differ in no material point in the description of the poet, from that which was previously given by the historian. Yet so wonderfully is the power of poetry combined with the accuracy of history, that we are presented with a picture more striking, and approaching nearer to a sensible exhibition of the real objects portrayed, than could possibly be exhibited by the most exact narration of the mere historian. The plague of Athens, as it is called, took place in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, and extended not only over the city of Athens, in which it first appeared, but also over the whole region of Attica. ed.* The following couplet is a palpable example in point, and has not the least foundation in Lucretius: The wind that bore the fate, went slowly on, CREECH. The loaded wind went slowly on, SPRAT. Such an interpolation as appears in the second of the following lines is unpardonable, and gives an air of burlesque to the description of the excessive heat and thirst, that accompanied the disease above referred to, that is strangely misplaced : In vain they drank; for when the water came Lucretius indeed uses a figure fully adequate to his purpose: Flagrabat stomacho flamma, ut fornacibus, intus; But the imagination of Creech has furnished an experiment, which never occurred to Lucretius. I have now done with Creech, and cannot think him deserving of those high commendations, that Duke and Dryden have so liberally bestowed on him.† Duke was a flatterer, and Dryden was willing to make even an aukward apology for any seeming interference as a translator. The praise of fidelity, in general, is due to Creech; though he has sometimes retrenched the original, and sometimes inserted matter of his own. His work, including as well his own annotations, as his version * See notes on the sixth book of Creech's Lucretius; Anderson's British Poets, vol. 13. The reader is here presented with this gross and unqualified panegyrick upon the translation of Creech from the pen of Duke. What laurels should be thine, what praise thy due ; Thy shining style does all its riches show; So clear the stream, that through it we descry All the bright gems, that at the bottom lie. Dryden calls him "the ingenious and learned translator of Lucre tius, whose reputation is already established in that poet." MISCEL. v. 2d. pref of the poem, evinces industry; but he was sometimes impatient and careless. His materials were hard, and difficult to mould, and after he had obtained a form, he imagined that his labour was at an end; for he knew not the art of polishing. There was an edition of Lucretius published in seventeen hundred and forty-three, in two volumes, octavo, with a free, prose, English version, by Guernier and others. To communicate the meaning of the more abstruse parts of Lucretius, a prose translation may be more competent than one in verse; but to those portions where his imagination takes wing, or where he exercises his happy powers of description, we should no doubt have occasion to apply the words of Roscommon: Degrading prose explains his meaning ill, And shows the stuff, but not the workman's skill. The translations of Creech and Guernier, except that of Mr. Good,* which has recently appeared, are the only versions of the whole of Lucretius, in our language. Parts of this author have been translated by Evelyn, Sprat, Dryden, Beattie, and Wakefield. Dryden, who left few of the ancient poets untouched, and never disgraced what he handled, rendered some parts of Lucretius in a manner very different from that of Creech.† He does not profess however to have given a strict translation of those fragments of his author that he selected; for it was his avowed design "to make him as pleasant as he could.” Indeed many of Dryden's versions, as they are called, may with great propriety be termed imitations ; but the portions he has drawn from Lucretius, may with greater justice be denominated paraphrase. The following example shows the sprightlines of Dryden's manner. Cerberus et Furiae jam vero, &c. L. III. 1024. * I shall make some remarks on this translation in my next number. See Dryden's Miscellanies, vol. 2. There are several translations in his miscellanies of this equivocal character; particularly those of the Idyllia of Theocritus; in one of which he makes Chloris say, I'll die as pure as Queen Elizabeth ; which the English reader may set down for a singular anachronism of Bryden, or a wonderful prophecy of the Grecian virgin. As for the dog, the furies, and their snakes, They neither are, nor were, nor e'er can be ; Stripes, hangmen, pitch, and suffocating smoke." Dryden selected the more poetical parts of Lucretius only. For translating the close of the fourth book, in which, like his author, he always speaks plainly, he offers no apology, that he expected would be received; but he must have the credit of rendering it into rich verse, and of imparting to those passages, that are in themselves decent, a high degree of delicacy and feeling. * Compare Creech, Book 3d, line 1015. ORIGINAL POETRY. FOR THE ANTHOLOGY. The following tributary lines conclude Mr. Head's anniversary Poem before the Society of B K, and are extracted from the copy deposited in the Library of the Institution. ALAS how frail all human pleasures glow! Where glory's laurel waves o'er Virgil's tomb, For us awoke his lyre's enchanting tone...... That matchless lyre has death's cold hand unstrung The fragrant lily and the purple flower, With mingled sweets to grace his timeless urn Whom Genius weeps and all the Virtues mourn: 300 310 Ver. 301. Winthrop Sargent, having twice visited Italy for the restoration of his health, was appointed to deliver the Anniversary Poem, in 1807. A few days before the celebration he waa attacked by a pulmonary disease, which terminated his life on the 10th. January, 1808. Ver. 305.......................... Manibus date lilia plenis ; His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani Virg. TRANSLATION OF ODE 17. BOOK 2. OF HORACE. Cur me querelis exanimas tuis, &c. WHY kill thy friend with grief and pain, Ah! why so mournfully complain? The gods can never so decree, That thou, Maecenas first shouldst fall The gods have heard, and witness now: |