Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

ces, for the fake of lashing the Priests; one where Cato fays Sortilegis egeant dubii and one in the Simile of the Hæmorbois-fatidici Sabai--He is fo errant a Whig, that he ftrains even bre yond his Author, in paffion for Liberty, and averfion to Tyranny; and, errs only in amplification. Lucan in initio 9ni, defcribing the feat of the Semidei manes, fays,

Quodque patet terras inter Lunæque meatus,
Semidei manes habitant-

Mr Rowe has this Line,

Then looking down on the Sun's feeble Ray.

Pray your opinion, if there be an Error-Sphæricus in this or no?

Your's, &c.

Nov. 11, 1710.

YOU miftake me very much in thinking the freedom you kindly us'd with my Loveverfes, gave me the firft opinion of your fincerity: I affure you it only did what every good-natur'd action of your's has done fince, confirm'd me more in that opinion. The Fable of the Nightingale in Philips's Paftoral, is taken from Famianus Strada's Latin Poem on the fame fubject, in his Prolufiones Academica; only the Tomb he erects at the end, is added from Virgil's conclufion of the Culex. I can't forbear giving you a paffage out of the Latin Poem I mention, by which you will find the English Poet is indebted to it.

Alternat mira arte fides, dum torquet acutas
Inciditque graves operofo verbere pulfat

Famque manu per fila volat; fimul hos, fimul illos
Explorat numeros, chordaque laborat in omni.-
Mox filet. Illa modis totidem refpondit, &artem

05

Arte

Arte refert; nunc ceu rudis, aut incerta canendi,
Præbet iter liquidum labenti e pectore voci,
Nunc cafim variat, modulifque canora minutis
Delibrat vocem, tremuloque reciprocat ore.

This Poem was many years fince imitated by Crashaw, out of whofe Verfes the following are very remarkable.

From this to that, from that to this, he flies,
Feels Mufic's Pulse in all it's Arteries ;
Caught in a Net which there Apollo Spreads,
His Fingers ftruggle with the vocal Threads.

I have (as I think I formerly told you) a very good opinion of Mr Rowe's 9th book of Lucan: Indeed he amplifies too much, as well as Brebeuf, the famous French Imitator. If I remember right, he fometimes takes the whole Comment into the Text of the Verfion, as particularly in line 808. Utque folet pariter totis fe effundere fignis Corycii preffura croci-And in the place you quote, he makes of those two lines in the Latin

Vidit quanta fub nocte jaceret

Noftra dies, rifitque fui ludibria trunci.

no less than eight in English.

What you obferve fure cannot be an Error Spharicus, ftrictly speaking, either according to their Ptolemaic, or our Copernican Syftem; Tycho Brahe himself will be on the Tranflator's fide. For Mr Rowe here fays no more, than that he look'd down on the Rays of the Sun, which Pompey might do, even tho' the Body of the Sun were above him.

You can't but have remark'd what a journey Lucan here makes Cate take for the fake of his fine Defcriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reafon than this:

Hæc eadem fua debat Hyems quæ clauferat æquor.

The

The Winter's effects on the Sea, it seems were more to be dreaded than all the Serpents, Whirlwinds, Sands, &c. by Land, which immediately after he paints out in his Speech to the Soldiers : Then he fetches a compass a vaft way round about to the Nafamones and Jupiter Ammon's Temple, purely to ridicule the Oracles: And Labienus muft pardon me, if I do not believe him when he fays -fors obtulit, & fortuna vie-either Labienus or the Map, is very much miftaken here, Thence he returns back to the Syrtes (which he might have taken first in his way to Utica) and fo to Leptis Minor, where our Author leaves him; who feems to have made Cato speak his own mind, when he tells his Army-Ire fat eft-no matter whither. I am, Your, &c.

Mr C..... to Mr POP E.

Nov. 20, 1710.

THE Syftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is novel) cou'd have no room here: Lucan, with the reft of the Latin Poets, feems to follow Plato; whofe order of the Spheres is clear in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The Seat of the Semidei manes is Platonic too, for Apuleius de Deo Socratis affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the Region of the Air for their intercourfe with Gods and Men; fo that I fancy Rowe mistook the Situation, and I can't be reconcil'd to, Look down on the Sun's Rays. I am glad you agree with me about the Latitude he takes ; and wish you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, cou'd licence his Invectives against Priefts? But I fuppofe you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your Protection. I agree with you in: Lucan's Errors, and the Caufe of 'em, his PoeticDefcriptions for the Romans then knew the Coaft

of Africa from Cyrene (to the South-eaft of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: But pray remember how your Homer nodded while Ulyfes flept, and waking knew not where he was, in the fhort Paffage from Corcyra to Ithaca. I like Trapp's Verfions for their juftnefs; his Pfalm is excellent, the Prodigies in the firft Georgic judicious (whence I conclude that 'tis eafier to turn Virgil justly in blank Verfe, than rhyme). The Eclogue of Gallus, and Fable of Phaeton pretty well; but he is very faulty in his Numbers; the Fate of Phaeton might run thus,

-The blafted Phaeton with blazing Hair,
Shot gliding thro' the vaft Abyss of Air,
And tumbled beadlong, like a falling Star.

I am,

Your, &c.

Mr. POPE's Anfwer.

Nov. 24, 1710. To O make ufe of that freedom and familiarity of Style which we have taken up in our Correfpondence, and which is more properly Talking upon Paper than Writing; I will tell you without any Preface, that I never took Tycho Brake for one of the Antients, or in the leaft an Acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, tis a mercy, on this occafion, that I do not give you an account of his Life and Converfation; as how he liv'd fome years like an inchanted Knight in a certain Island, with a tale of a King of Denmark's Miftrefs that fhall be nameless. -But I have compaffion on you, and wou'd not for the World you fhou'd stay any longer among the Genii, and Semidei Manes, you know where; for if once you get fo near the Moon, Sapho will want your prefence in the Clouds and inferior Regions; not

to

to mention the great lofs Drury-lane will fuftain, when Mr Cis in the Milky-Way. Thefe coeleftial Thoughts put me in mind of the Priests. you mention, who are a fort of Sortilegi in one fenfe, because in their Lottery there are more Blanks than Prizes; the Adventurers being at beft in an Uncertainty, whereas the Setters-up are fure of fomething. Priefts indeed in their Character, as they reprefent God, are facred; and fo are Conftables as they represent the King, but you will own a great many of 'em are very odd Fellows, and the devil a bit of likeness in 'em. Yet I can affure you I honour the good as much as I deteft the bad, and I think, that in condemning these, we praise those. I am so far from efteeming e'en the worft unworthy of my protection, that I have defended their Character (in Congreve's and Vanbrugh's Plays) ev'n against their own Brethren. And fo much for Priests in general; now for Trapp, in particular, whose Tranflations from Ovid I have not fo good an opinion of as you; not (I will affure you) from any fort of prejudice to him as a Prieft, but becaufe I think he has little of the main Characteristic of his Author, a graceful Eafinefs. For let the Sense be ever fo exactly render'd, u lefs an Author looks like himself, in his Air, Ha it, Manner, 'tis a Difguife and not a Tranflation. But as to the Pfalm, I think David is much more beholden to. him than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a few, fo he has made the Jew fpeak like a Ro-Your, &c.

man.

Mr C..... to Mr POPE.

Decemb. 5, 1710.

H-E fame Judgment we made on Rowe's 9th

THE

of Lucan will ferve for his part of the 6th, where I find this memorable line,

Pargi

« ПредишнаНапред »