VINCENT BOURNE. regretted in his death. Unless this XXV passage can be more clearly decyphered, and more supported than it is at present, it cannot be permitted, though its authenticity is indisputable, to cast the slightest soil upon the reputation of one who was perhaps at once the most learned, and most amiable, among the friends of Pope.* The other note in manuscript, which I find in my copy alluded to above, relates to Vincent Bourne himself: and may be considered as an authentic addition to his biography. This portrait is sketched by his own hand. It is as follows: -- "If any surviving friend will shew his love to my memory by a small tablet, I desire that this, and this only, may be the inscription : PIETATIS SINCERE SUMMÆQUE HUMILITATIS, NEC DEI USQUAM IMMEMOR NEC SUI, IN SILENTIUM QUOD AMAVIT DESCENDIT V. B. Of Bourne's poetical powers, and of the somewhat exaggerated praise bestowed on them by Cowper, in the passage which has been given * "I beg leave (says Dr. Beattie speaking of Arbuthnot,) to quote a few lines from an excellent poem, written by an author whose genius and virtue were an honour to his country, and to human nature."-Essay on Truth, Chap. ii. 3. above, Mr. W. S. Landor thus expresses himself:-" Novimus quem Tibullo ac Propertio prætulit bonus Cuperus. Mirum est, perperam, ne dicam stolidè judicavit, Poeta pœne inter summos nominandus. Vinnius autem, ita appellebant eum familiares, nihil admodum habet suum, et quum aliena quam Latina faceret, frigida est plerumque concinnitatis affectatio, Propertii contra sincera saltem sunt omnia, &c."* I now conclude with a few observations or rather notes on Bourne's poetry; which at least will serve to show, that I have endeavoured to read the author, whose works are recommended to the public taste, with the diligence and attention he may justly command. Perhaps in the first poem, "Corydon Querens," Vincent Bourne has not been able to attain to the simple ballad-strain of the original. "Lassatum salices sustinuere caput," is not a very happy or very classical translation of “A willow supported his head." Let us take the second stanza, and we shall see how unequal the Latin language was to the vernacular ease, and to the graceful, yet colloquial expression of the English. * See Idyllia Heroica decem, &c. edit. Sav. Landor, Pisa, 1820, p. 212. VINCENT BOURNE. Alas! silly swain that I was! Thus sadly complaining, he cried ; 'Twere better by far I had died: xxvii When she smiled, 'twas a pleasure too great: I listen'd, and cried, when she sung, Was nightingale ever so sweet! Ah! miserum Corydonem! et durum ante omnia fatum ! Nusquam tutus eram; Daphnæ mihi dulcis imago Seu caneret, blando captus modulamine, quando and not less in the first part of the next: How foolish was I to believe She could dote on so lowly a clown; Sæpe quidem dixi, miserebitur illa; sed unde In the eighth stanza of “ Gulielmus Susannæ Valedicens," (Sweet William's Farewell to Blackeyed Susan,) there is something ungraceful in the structure of the second line : No longer must she stay aboard : They kiss'd; she sigh'd; he hung his head. Dixit uterque, Vale; et lachrymis simul oscula miscens, Addidit hæc gemitus, ille recline caput. In the fifth stanza of Lucy and Colin, the expression of the Latin translation is too formal and redundant: Ah, Colin! give not her thy vows, Vows due to me alone. Vota mihi, Juvenis, soli mihi credita, nullâ P.5. "Quid prodest, molles numeros siquando movebam ;" and so in p. 123, 245. The last syllable of" siquando" is elided by Virgil, Eclog. ii. ver. 23, or made long. See Burman's note on Lotichii, Poem. Ecl. ii. 11. Ovid always makes it long. Propertius generally, and Tibullus, and Flaccus always, except in one instance, Lib. viii. 213. P. 13. "Dicere cur poteras? et ego, rudis, inscia Virgo." Here the last syllable of "ego" is made long against all good authority. See Voss. Art. Gram. ii. c. 27. Burman. ad Ped. Albinov. v. 193, ad Propert. viii. 31, and Drakenb. ad Sil. Ital. p. 865, 4to. see also my note on Gray's Poems, vol. i. p. 186, ed. 1836. (Sapphic Ode to Mr. West), v. 45.. P. 27. "Caseus esto tuus, Parma, corona dapum." Vincent Bourne has made the last syllable short in other places, as p 31, 35, 53, 61, 148, 155, 226, but its proper quantity is long though Juvenal has made it short, Sat. viii. 79: "Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus," &c. Bentley observes on Horace, (p. 395.) Serm. i. 3. v. 140: “Si quid peccavero stultus." VINCENT BOURNE. xxix "Perperam, neque enim O finale in verbis temere invenias correptum apud ejus Evi scriptores." P. 29. "Nec, canis ut caudam submittam et blandiar instar;" is not instar too far disjoined from its substantive canis? P. 55. "Quàm male persuades, experiendo scies." Vincent Bourne has shortened the gerund in do, also p. 194, 222, 224, 243. On this license, consult Burman. on Antholog. Lat. v. i. p. 298, 466, 693, v. 11, p. 722, ad Ovid, Ep. xi. 126. P. 57. The latter line in the translation of the following couplet is not neatly nor clearly turned: : He's dropsical, she is sore-eyed, Yet they're ever uneasy asunder. Blæsa illa est oculis, et crura hydropicus ille P. 99. "Quæ nullus æquat computus." This word, which has, I believe, no better authority than that of Firmicus, ought scarcely to have been used. P. 119. "Innocuos fluctus Britonum devolvet ab oris." There is no authority for shortening the first syllable in Britones,' though it is frequently done in modern Latin poetry. Juv. Sat. xv. v. 124, "Quam nec terribiles Cimbri, nec Britones unquam." |