Such were the strictures of Milbourne, who found few abettors; 308 and of whom it may be reasonably imagined that many who favoured his design were ashamed of his insolence. When admiration had subsided the translation was more 309 coolly examined, and found like all others to be sometimes erroneous and sometimes licentious. Those who could find faults thought they could avoid them; and Dr. Brady attempted in blank verse a translation of the Eneid, which, when dragged into the world, did not live long enough to cry. I have never seen it; but that such a version there is, or has been, perhaps some old catalogue informed me. With not much better success Trapp, when his Tragedy and 310 his Prelections had given him reputation, attempted another blank version of the Eneid; to which, notwithstanding the slight regard with which it was treated, he had afterwards perseverance enough to add the Eclogues and Georgicks. His book may continue its existence as long as it is the clandestine refuge of schoolboys 2. Since the English ear has been accustomed to the mellifluence 311 of Pope's numbers 3, and the diction of poetry has become more splendid, new attempts have been made to translate Virgil; and all his works have been attempted by men better qualified ''Dr. Nicholas Brady's Aeneids were published by subscription in 4 vols. 8vo, the last of which appeared in 1726. Biog. Brit. p. 961. The first vol. appeared in 1716. 2 Ante, DRYDEN, 179, 202. Joseph Trapp, a most ingenious, honest gentleman,' in 1708 was chosen the first Professor of Poetry in Oxford. Hearne's Remains, i. 141. His Prelections - Praelectiones Poeticaewere his lectures, delivered in Latin in accordance with the statutes. Lowth's 'incomparable Praelectiones on the poetry of the Hebrews' (Gibbon's Memoirs, p. 55) were delivered on the same foundation. Trapp's tragedy Abramule, or Love and Empire, was acted in 1704. Cibber's Lives, v. 158. Swift describes him as 'a sort of pretender to wit, a second-rate pamphleteer.' Swift's Works, ii. 140. I will own he has taught me, and, I believe, some other gentlemen who had lost their Latin, the true gram- The following epigram was made Is it not written, "Thou shalt do no Biog. Brit., Suppl., p. 174. We give Tate's Ovid, and thy Pope's Works (E. & C.), iv. 287. 312 to contend with Dryden'. I will not engage myself in an invidious comparison by opposing one passage to another: a work of which there would be no end, and which might be often offensive without use. It is not by comparing line with line that the merit of great works is to be estimated, but by their general effects and ultimate result. It is easy to note a weak line, and write one more vigorous in its place; to find a happiness of expression in the original, and transplant it by force into the version: but what is given to the parts may be subducted from the whole, and the reader may be weary though the critick may commend. Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain which the reader throws away. He only is the master who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day. 313 By his proportion of this predomination I will consent that Dryden should be tried: of this, which, in opposition to reason, makes Ariosto the darling and the pride of Italy; of this, which, in defiance of criticism, continues Shakespeare the sovereign of the drama. 314 His last work was his Fables 3, in which he gave us the first éxample of a mode of writing which the Italians call refacimento, a renovation of ancient writers, by modernizing their language. Thus the old poem of Boiardo has been new-dressed by Of these Pitt's Aeneid is included in Eng. Poets. Post, PITT, 8. Joseph Warton translated the Eclogues and Georgics. The Aeneid was translated in blank verse by Alexander Strahan, 1739-67, and by William Hawkins in 1764. Lowndes's Bibl. Man. p. 2784. For a criticism of these translations see Conington's Misc. Writings, 1872, i. 159. 2 Swift wrote in A Tale of a Tub, in the Epistle dedicatory to Posterity, dated Dec. 1697:—'I do therefore affirm, upon the word of a sincere man, that there is now actually in being a certain poet, called John Dryden, whose translation of Virgil was lately printed in a large folio, well bound, and, if diligent search were made, for aught I know, is yet to be seen.' Swift's Works, x. 47. 'Compare Dryden with other translators, and it will be seen that while none of them have anything of Virgil's individuality, he alone has an individuality of his own of sufficient mark to interest and impress the reader. ... It is a splendid English epic, in which most of the thoughts are Virgil's and most of the language Dryden's.' CONINGTON, Misc. Writings, i. 169, 181. 4 Ante, DRYDEN, 149. Dryden, writing of 'the file of heroic poets,' says that 'Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto would cry out, Domenichi and Berni". The works of Chaucer, upon which this kind of rejuvenescence has been bestowed by Dryden, require little criticism. The tale of The Cock seems hardly worth revival3; and the story of Palamon and Arcite, containing an action unsuitable to the times in which it is placed, can hardly be suffered to pass without censure of the hyperbolical commendation which Dryder has given it in the general Preface, and in a poetical Dedication, a piece where his original fondness of remote conceits seems to have revived 5. Of the three pieces borrowed from Boccace Sigismunda' may 815 be defended by the celebrity of the story. Theodore and Honoria 8, though it contains not much moral, yet afforded opportunities of striking description. And Cymon was formerly a tale of such reputation that, at the revival of letters, it was translated into Latin by one of the Beroalds". Whatever subjects employed his pen he was still improving 316 our measures and embellishing our language ". "Make room for the Italian poets, the descendants of Virgil in a right line." Works, xiv. 143.. ""Away," said the priest, "with The Twelve Peers, with the faithful historiographer, Turpin. However, I am only for condemning them to perpetual banishment, because they contain some part of the invention of the renowned Mateo Boyardo; from whom the Christian poet, Ludovico Ariosto, spun his web."' Quixote, bk. i. ch. 6. Don Macaulay, in 1834, thought of writing an article on the romantic poetry of Italy, for which there is an excellent opportunity, Panizzi's reprint of Boiardo.' Macvey Napier Corres. p. 155. On Nov. 4, 1838, he wrote from Florence :-'I have not been able to read one-half of Boiardo's poem; and, in order to do what I propose, I must read Berni's rifacimento too.' lb. p. 282. Orlando Innamorato nuovamente riformato per L. D. [Lodovico Domenichi]. 1545. Brit. Mus. Cata. 2 Orlando Innamorato nuovamente composto da F. B. [Francesco Berni]. 1541. Ib. 'If Berni's Rifacimento was not stained with many immoralities it would be the most pleasing poetical thing in our language.' BARETTI, 3 The Cock and the Fox, Works, xi. 337. Horace Walpole (Letters, viii. 524) describes Dryden's poem as 'the standard of good sense, poetry, nature and ease.' 'The story is more pleasing than either the Ilias or the Aeneis, the manners as perfect, the diction as poetical, the learning as deep and various, and the disposition full as artful, only it includes a greater length of time.' Works, xi. 239; ante, DRYDEN, 202. 5 Ib. xi. 248. For his 'conceits ’ see ante, DRYDEN, 5, 236. "I think Dryden's translations from Boccace are the best, at least the most poetical, of his poems.' WORDSWORTH, Lockhart's Scott, ii. 289. 7 Sigismonda and Guiscardo, Works, xi. 425. Wordsworth, after pointing out its defects, continues : With all these defects, and they are 9 483. Cymon and Iphigenia, Ib. xi. To About the year 1495, by Philip Beroald the elder. Brit. Mus. Cata. "Absalom and Achitophel and 317 In this volume are interspersed some short original poems', which, with his prologues, epilogues, and songs, may be comprised in Congreve's remark, that even those, if he had written nothing else, would have entitled him to the praise of excellence in his kind'. 318 One composition must however be distinguished. The ode for St. Cecilia's Day3, perhaps the last effort of his poetry, has been always considered as exhibiting the highest flight of fancy and the exactest nicety of art. This is allowed to stand without a rival. If indeed there is any excellence beyond it in some other of Dryden's works that excellence must be found. Compared with the Ode on Killigrew it may be pronounced perhaps superior in the whole; but without any single part equal to the first stanza of the other. 319 It is said to have cost Dryden a fortnight's labour; but it does not want its negligences: some of the lines are without corre Theodore and Honoria stood in the Among them the Epistle to John 2 'What he has done in any one 3 The second ode-Alexander's Feast. It was not 'the last effort of Dryden's poetry,' for it was written nearly three years before his death. Ante, DRYDEN, 150n. His last efforts were the Prologue and Epilogue to Vanbrugh's revised version of Fletcher's comedy, The Pilgrim. These were written, according to Malone (i. 335), 'not above three weeks before his death.' To it also he supplied a song and a Secular Masque. Works, viii. 481, 489, 502. I am glad to hear from all hands,' wrote Dryden, 'that my Ode is esteemed the best of all my poetry by all the town. I thought so myself when I writ it; but being old, I mistrusted my own judgment.' Works, xviii. 139. The Irish Chief Justice Marlay (father of Bishop Marlay, Boswell's Johnson, iv. 73), frequenting Will's as a Templar, congratulated Dryden on having produced the noblest Ode that had ever been written in any language. "You are right, young gentleman," he replied; " a nobler Ode never was produced, nor ever will." Malone's Dryden, i. 476. 'It 'This Ode has been more applauded perhaps than it has been felt.' GOLDSMITH, Works, iii. 436. is said that he wrote it with a view to its being set by Purcell, but that Purcell declined the task, as thinking it beyond the power of music.' Purcell had died nearly two years earlier. Hawkins's Hist. of Music, iv. 522. Hawkins adds that Dryden knew little about music.' Ib. i. 167 n. Perhaps his authority was the line of a ballad addressed to Bayes, quoted by Malone (i. 517) :'Though thy dull ear be to music un true.' : spondent rhymes: a defect, which I never detected but after an acquaintance of many years, and which the enthusiasm of the writer might hinder him from perceiving. His last stanza has less emotion than the former; but is not 320 less elegant in the diction. The conclusion is vicious; the musick of Timotheus, which raised a mortal to the skies,' had only a metaphorical power; that of Cecilia, which 'drew an angel down,' had a real effect; the crown therefore could not reasonably be divided 2. IN a general survey of Dryden's labours 3 he appears to have 321 had a mind very comprehensive by nature, and much enriched with acquired knowledge. His compositions are the effects of a vigorous genius operating upon large materials. The power that predominated in his intellectual operations was 322 rather strong reason than quick sensibility. Upon all occasions that were presented he studied rather than felt, and produced sentiments not such as Nature enforces, but meditation supplies. With the simple and elemental passions, as they spring separate in the mind, he seems not much acquainted, and seldom describes them but as they are complicated by the various relations of society and confused in the tumults and agitations of life *. ' Johnson refers to such lines as (11. 12-19) Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair.' See also 11. 75-9, 116-20. A writer in N. & Q. 4 S. i. 239 maintains that in these cases, though the words are repeated thrice, they are in reality only the first half of the line. Just as well might the members of a congregation complain that in the well-known "Oh my poor pol, Oh my poor polluted soul!" there was no rhyme to "pol."' There are too many faulty rhymes, -' son ' and 'throne,' 'Jove' and 'above,' 'God' and 'rode,' 'good' and blood,' 'need' and 'fed,'' move' and 'love,' 'rear' and 'hair,' 'high' and 'joy,'' abodes' and 'gods.' 2 Ante, DRYDEN, 280. Johnson finds the same fault in Pope's Ode. Post, POPE, 326. In reviewing Warton's Essay on Pope, he writes:'The author observes very justly that the Odes, both of Dryden and Pope, conclude unsuitably and unnaturally with epigram.' Johnson's Works, vi. 41. See Warton's Essay, i. 60. 'St. Cecilia's music-book is interlined with epigrams, and Alexander's Feast smells of gin at second-hand, with true Briton fiddlers full of native talent in the orchestra.' LANDOR, Imag. Conv. iv. 275. 3In drawing Dryden's character, Johnson has given, though I suppose unintentionally, some touches of his own.' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 45. See also ante, DRYDEN, 211; post, POPE, 310. 'Ses ouvrages sont pleins de détails naturels à la fois, et brillans, animés, vigoureux, hardis, passionnés, mérite qu'aucun poète de sa nation |