EPISTLE THE FIFTH.

TO THE

EARL OF ROSCOMMON,

ON HIS

EXCELLENT ESSAY

ON

TRANSLATED VERSE.

WHETHER the fruitful Nile, or Tyrian shore,

The feeds of arts and infant fcience bore,
"Tis fure the noble plant, translated first,
Advanc'd its head in Grecian gardens nurft.
The Grecians added verfe: their tuneful

tongue

5

Made nature first, and nature's God their fong. Nor ftopt tranflation here: for conqu❜ring Rome,

With Grecian spoils, brought Grecian numbers home;

Enrich'd by thofe Athenian mufes more,
Than all the vanquish'd world could yield be-

fore.

10

"Till barbarous nations, and more barbarous

times,

15

Debas'd the majesty of verse to rhimes;
Thofe rude at firft: a kind of hobbling profe,
That limp'd along, and tinkled in the close.
But Italy, reviving from the trance
Of Vandal, Goth, and Monkish ignorance,
With pauses, cadence, and well-vowell'd words,
And all the graces a good ear affords,
Made rhyme an art, and Dante's polish'd page
Reftor'd a filver, not a golden age.

20

Ver. 12. Debas'd the majefty of verfe to rhimes;] The advo cates for rhyme feem not to advert to what Servius fays, that rhyme was used in the time of the Saturnalia by the Roman populace in their rude fongs, and by the foldiers in their accla mations, and at their feafts in honour of their victorious generals. We may apply to rhyme what Seneca fays of the fubtleties of logic, "Comminuitur et debilitatur generofa indoles in iftas auguftias conjecta,”

JOHN WARTON.

Ver, 14. ← and tinkled in the clofe.] Dryden adopts the contemptuous defcription of rhyme from preceding authors, and thofe of no mean note. Thus in Ben Jonfon's Maík of The Fortunate Ifles, Skogan, the jefter, is reprefented as a writer "in rime, fine tinckling rime!" And Andrew Marvell, in his fpirited verfes to Milton on his Paradise Loft, thus exclaims: "Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure "With tinkling rhime, of thy own fenfe fecure."

TODD.

Ver. 19. --- Dante's polish'd page] There is a very ancient Italian poem, entitled, Afpramonte, containing an account of the war of King Guarnieri and Agolante against Rome

Then Petrarch follow'd, and in him we fee,
What rhyme improv'd in all its height can be:
At beft a pleasing found, and fair barbarity.
The French purfu'd their fteps; and Britain,
laft,

In manly sweetness all the reft furpafs'd.
The wit of Greece, the gravity of Rome,
Appear exalted in the British loom :
The Muses empire is reftor'd again,

25

30

In Charles his reign, and by Rofcommon's pen.
Yet modeftly he does his work furvey,
And calls a finish'd Poem an Effay ;
For all the needful rules are fcatter'd here;
Truth fmoothly told, and pleasantly severe;
So well is art difguis'd, for nature to appear.

and Charlemagne; which, from the circumftance of the style. being a mixture of the Tufcan with other Italian dialects, appears to be prior to Dante. There was an edition of it at Venice, 1615. It is become extremely rare, and is a great curiofity. It is mentioned by Quadrio in his Hiftory of Italian Poetry. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 21. Then Petrarch follow'd,] It was on the fixth of April, 1327, that Petrarch fell in love with Laura, in the twentythird year of his age. Paul Jovius reports, that it was a com mon faying in Italy, that Petrarch did not fucceed in writing profe, nor Boccacio in writing verfe. Few books are fo entertaining as the Abbé Sade's circumftantial Life of Petrarch, which contains alfo a curious picture of the manners and opinions of that age. It is pleasant to obferve, that Petrarch's Laura was allegorized to mean the Chriftian Religion by one commentator; the Soul by another; and the Virgin Mary by a third. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ibid. Then Petrarch follow'd,] No reafoning from the Italian language to the English about rhyme and blank verfe. One language (fays Johnfon) cannot communicate its rules to another. JOHN WARTON.

36

Nor need those rules to give translation light:
His own example is a flame fo bright;
That he who but arrives to copy well,
Unguided will advance, unknowing will excel.
Scarce his own Horace could fuch rules ordain,
Or his own Virgil fing a nobler strain.
How much in him may rifing Ireland boast,
How much in gaining him has Britain loft!
Their island in revenge has ours reclaim'd;
The more inftructed we, the more we ftill are
fham'd.

4,0

45

'Tis well for us his generous blood did flow,
Deriv'd from British channels long ago,
That here his conqu'ring ancestors were nurft;
And Ireland but tranflated England first:
By this reprifal we regain our right,

Elfe muft the two contending nations fight; 50
A nobler quarrel for his native earth,
Than what divided Greece for Homer's birth,
To what perfection will our tongue arrive,
How will invention and tranflation thrive,
When authors nobly born will bear their part, 55
And not disdain the inglorious praise of art!
Great generals thus, defcending from com-
mand,

With their own toil provoke the foldier's hand.
How will fweet Ovid's ghost be pleas'd to hear
His fame augmented by an English peer;

69

How he embellishes his Helen's loves,
Outdoes his foftness, and his fenfe improves ?
When these translate, and teach translators too,
Nor. firstling kid, nor any vulgar yow,
Should at Apollo's grateful altar fland :
Rofcommon writes: to that aufpicious hand,
Mufe, feed the bull that fpurns the yellow

fand.

65

Rofcommon, whom both court and camps com

mend,

True to his prince, and faithful to his friend;
Rofcommon, firft in fields of honour known,70
First in the peaceful triumphs of the
gown;
Who both Minervas juftly makes his own.
Now let the few belov'd by Jove, and they
Whom infus'd Titan form'd of better clay,
On equal terms with ancient wit engage,
Nor mighty Homer fear, nor facred Virgil's

page:

75

Our English palace opens wide in slate ;
And without ftooping they may pass the gate.

Ver. 67. Mufe, feed the bull]

Jam cornu petat, et pedibus qui fpargat arenam.

JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 74. Whom infus'd Titan]

E meliore lutu finxit præcordia Titan.

Juv.

JOHN WARTON."