zot for our guide, with the advantage of comparing Milton in English with Avitus in Latin, thus enabling both authors to appear to the best advantage; or where we translate the Bishop-a practice, by the way, to which we are not partial,-it shall be into high resounding verse, 'loud as a (penny) trumpet of a silver sound;' giving the Englishman the equal disadvantage of appearing in Trapp's Hexameters; and if our blank verse be not a closer resemblance to Milton's than Trapp's Dactylics are, either to Virgil's or Avitus, we shall be happy to give any twelve friends, who choose to accept the proffer-the pleasure of our company to a snug dinner at the Clarendon," etc. We cannot refrain from giving three specimens from St. Avitus, with the critic's illustrations. We pass over the first extract-the first portion of the description of Paradisewhich the writer tells us is equal to the loftiness of the subject, and can be brought into close parallel with the similar passages of the modern; only remarking, by the way, that Masenius has evidently borrowed much of his description from St. Avitus. Take, for instance, without mentioning others in the compass of the few lines before us, the following: Lilia perlucent, nullo flacentia sole, Nec tactus violat violas, roseumque ruborem We will first give our fellow critic's remarks here: * * "Their similes and illustrations are almost identical; and we are not sure, if it were not for the glorious music sounding from every line of the English poem, and half disqualifying one from attending to any thing else, that the general verdict would not be given in favor of the Bishop. In one particular, at all events, he shows a purer taste than his modern rival. He never mingles heathen mythology with Christian truth. * * With this advantage on the score of taste, he has also the advantage-if not in beauty of expression, at least in priority of invention-in the accessories he makes use of: for the view of Paradise reminds him no less than his rival of Sabean odors. He talks of od'rous trees dropping balm, and gives a learned account of 'the rivers large' 'that through Eden went.' We shall quote the rest of the description from Avitus: Hic quæ donari mentitur fama Sabæis * See in the first part of this article in the last number of this Review, the parallel in Masenius. Flatibus exiguis, lenique impulsa susurro, Here follow some specimens of Trapp's translation of a few of the corresponding passages culled from Milton: "Surrexit dulcis aquæ fons Emergens, scatebrisque rigavit pluribus hortum. tandem Quatuor in fluvios divisæ, multaque regna Diversæ cursu, fama celebrata pererrant Ac multum regionem; hic quas memorare necessum Sapphiri e fonte at tremuli crispantibus undis Gemmas per nitidas revoluti, atque auream arenam, Nectare fluxerunt rivi دو "Talis erat locus hic ruralis, grataque sedes Balsama et electra, arboresque e cortice gummi, Pendebant (hic Hesperidum sit fabula vera Si vera hic tantum,) et gustu gratissima poma." Bring the Latin Paradise Lost and the Latin Origo Mundi together, the critic remarks, and the former would be thought a miserable imitation. And he finds a closer resemblance between Milton and the Bishop, in the translation which he gives of Avitus, than between Trapp and Milton; with the exception of the lines on the Phoenix, which he tells us is "itself a Miltonic image, and very Miltonically treated." "Here Cinnamon (Sabean falsely call'd,) Grows wild, which by the wondrous bird is sought When in her burned nest, with birthful death Hence dropping odorous balm in copious flux, Which, scattered o'er the ground, their sweets dispense. To crystal. On the river's banks there shone Emeralds; and what the boasting world calls' gems, Are here but rocks; and give the fields fresh hues, From the smooth fountain-head drawn forth, a stream The noblest-for its fountain-head untraced- Par parenthese, the author of the article on Guizot and Milton might have exerted a little more care in his translation; and although we make no pretensions to more scholarship on our part, we venture to notice a defect or two in his version of the Bishop. It would have been as well to have given the word vivax its true and characteristic meaning, instead of translating it wondrous. Though dives governs the ablative case, the wood does not tremble rich in its leaves and flowers; but the rich wood trembles in its leaves and flowers, which, scattered o'er the ground, their sweets dispense. Tremit refers more properly than dives here to the ablative, (et corde et genibus tremit.-Hor. Ode 23 ;) trembling in the breeze, the leaves and flowers are scattered, etc. We have heard of an arrowy shower and of an arrowy stream; but do not think we ever heard of an arrowy Indian, though it might do, meaning an Indian as straight as an arrow, or one fastened to the stake in the chunk-yard, shot all over with arrows; and in the latter case, the Latin word sagitteferis would apply, perhaps, as well as to a porcupine, (pecus sagittefera ;) but not to the Indian or Parthian, armed with bow and arrow, could it be taken in such a sense, which is the one the translator adopts here. The commencement of the next line in the Latin is involved in some obscurity, which our translator has not attempted, as he should have done, to clear up, but seems to have taken for granted was purposely introduced in order to adapt the verse to the sense, and which beauty, if such it be, he has with great felicity improved upon; for what could more elegantly express to the imagination the untraced sources of the Nile, than the eloquent hiatus immediately followed by Nilus? Unfortunately, however, for the credit we might otherwise have given him for so brilliant a conceit, the misprint of the words indigeon latio admits of too easy an interpretation. We would suggest as the proper reading of the line: Tertius indigne latino qui nomine Nilus Dicitur. The extract above given, is from the poem called Origo Mundi. The writer thus comments on the next, from the Originali Peccato, where St. Avitus has drawn the character of Satan with those sublime traits, the conception of which has been looked upon as the grandest effort of Milton's genius: "The great triumph of Milton's genius consisted in investing Satan with a kind of moral grandeur, derived from indomitable resolution and depraved ambition; he preserves in him some traces of his original brightness, and shows us in the lost and guilty demon, no less than an archangel ruined. If we consider the ordinary and legendary stories that were current in the days of Avitus, of the enemy of mankind; of his cloven hoof, and horns, and tail; we shall look with more admiration on the intellectual power which could rise above these puerilities, and invest the character of Satan with the moral and sublime interest of a bold and cruel, yet suffering and repining Spirit. We do not maintain that the Satan of Avitus is equal in grandeur or power to the noble creation of Milton; yet we think the reader will not deny, that though the execution may be inferior, the conception of the character by the two poets is, in many respects, the same. In both, the arch-enemy is represented as feeling his own lot embittered by the sight of our first parents' happiness, and in both the horrid satisfaction resulting from their ruin alleviates the agonies of his own remorse and suffering: 'Videt ut Iste novos homines in sede quieta Lege sub accepta, domino famularier orbis Vicinus tunc forte fuit quo concidit alto Lapsus, et innexam traxit per prona catervam, Hoc redolens, casumque premens sub corde recentem, Pro dolor! hoc nobis subitum consurgere plasma, Me celsum virtus habuit; nunc ecce rejectus Regnat humus-nobisque perit translata potestas- His quæque claudentur; levius cecidisse putandum est Sit comes excidii! subeat consortia pænæ Et quos prævideo nobiscum dividat ignes !'"* * 'When he saw those new creatures leading a life of untroubled happiness in their quiet seat under the law which they had received, and serving the Lord of the Universe, and enjoying all things subjected to them amidst placid joys, a spark of jealousy raised a sudden vapor, and his burning bile increased the cruel fires. His fall was then recent, by which he was overthrown, and dragged downwards the multitudes attached to him. Grieving for this, and meditating his recent mishap, it vexed him more to have lost, because another was now in possession. Shame mingled with his wrath; and having thus lamented in his heart, he gives vent to his sighs in words like these: O grief! that this sudden creation should rise before us, and this hateful race be elevated on our ruins! In heaven I was virtuous; but lo! I am now rejected. Clay succeeds to angelic honor, and earth obtains heaven, clay, cast in vile mould, now reigns, and our power, given over to them, has perished. But not entirely has it perished; a great part yet remains, while we have the power to injure, Nor will I delay, but enter instantly on the pleasing contest, while their first safety and their inexperienced simplicity exposes them to my attacks; and they will be better deceived while yet alone, before they have given birth to an immortal offspring. Nothing immortal must be suffered to issue from the earth. The race must perish at its source, and the conquest of the chief will be the seed of death. Let the originator of life be the cause of the pains of death. Let all be struck in the person of one. Destroy the root, and the plant will die. This consolation remains to me in my fall, that, if heaven is unattainable |