III.

No longer now thy Altars blaze,
No Poet offers up his Lays;
Infpir'd with Energy divine,
To worship at thy facred Shrine.
Since TASTE with abfolute Domain,
Extending wide her leaden Reign,
Kills with her melancholy Shade,
The blooming Scyons of fair Fancy's Tree;
Which erft full wantonly have ftray'd,
In many a Wreath of richest Poesie.

For when the Oak denies her Stay,
The creeping Ivy winds her humble Way;

No more fhe twifts her Branches round,
But drags her feeble Stem along the barren Ground.
IV.

Where then fhall exil'd Genius go?
Since only those the Laurel claim,

And boaft them of the Poet's Name,

Whose fober Rimes in even Tenour flow; Who prey on Words, and all their Flowrets cull, Coldly correct, and regularly dull.

Why fleep the Sons of Genius now?

Why Wartons refts the Lyre unftrung?

And thou, bleft Bard! around whofe facred Great Pindar's delegated Wreath is hung; [Brow, Arife, and fnatch the Majefty of Song,

From Dullness' fervile Tribe, and Arts unhallow'd Throng.

*By TASTE, is here meant the modern Affectation of it. The fpirited and truly poetical Dr. Akenfide.

TRAN

TRANSLATION;

A

POEM.

UCH is our Pride, our Folly, or our Fate,
That few, but fuch who cannot write, tranf-

ST

late.'

;

So Denham fung, who well the Labour knew ;
And an Age paft has left the Maxim true.
Wit as of old, a proud imperious Lord,
Difdains the Plenty of another's Board
And haughty Genius feeks, like Philip's Son,
Paths never trod before, and Worlds unknown.
Unaw'd by thefe, whilft Hands impure dispense
The facred Streams of ancient Eloquence,
Pedants affume the Task for Scholars fit,
And Blockheads rife Interpreters of Wit.
In the fair Field th' vet'ran Armies ftand,
A firm, unconquer'd, formidable Band,
When lo! Tranflation comes and levels all;
By vulgar Hands the braveft Heroes fall.
On Eagle's Wings fee lofty Pindar foar ;
Cowley attacks, and Pindar is no more.

5

10

15

LINE 18. Cowley attacks, &c. Nothing can be more contemptible than the Tranflations and Imitations of Pindar done by Cowley, which yet have had their Admirers.

O'er Tibur's Swan the Mufes wept in vain,
And mourn'd their Bard by cruel Dunster slain.
By Ogilby and Trap great Maro fell,
And Homer dy'd by Chapman and Özell.

20

30

In bleft Arabia's Plains unfading blow Flow'rs ever fragant, Fruits immortal grow. To Northern Climes th' unwilling Guests convey, 25 The Fruit fhall wither, and the Flow'r decay; Ev'n fo when here the Sweets of Athens come, Or the fair Produce of imperial Rome, They pine and ficken in th' unfriendly Shade, Their Rofes droop, and all their Laurels fade. The modern Critic, whofe unletter'd Pride, Big with itself, contemns the World befide, If haply told that Terence once could charm, Each feeling Heart that Sophocles cou'd warm, Scours ev'ry Stall for Eachard's dirty Page, Or pores in Adams for th' Athenian Stage; With Joy he reads the fervile Mimics o'er, Pleas'd to discover what he guess'd before ;

35

LINE 20. See Horace's Epiftles, Satires, and Art of Poetry, done into English by S. Dunfter, D. D. Prebendary of Sarum.

LINE 21, 22. See their Tranflations of Homer and Virgil.

LINE 31. The modern Critic, &c. Les belles traductions (fays Boileau) font des preuves fans replique en faveur des anciens, qu'on leur donne les Racines pout interpretes, & ils fcauront plaire aujourdhui comme autrefois. Certain it is, that the Contempt, in which the Ancients are held by the illiterate Wits of the prefent Age, is in a great Measure owing to the Number of bad Tranflations. LINE 36. See Adams's Profe Tranflation of Sophocles.

Concludes

Concludes that Attic Wit's extremely low;
And gives up Greece to Wotton and Perrault.
Our fhallow Language, fhallow'r Judges fay,
Can ne'er the Force of ancient Senfe convey.

40

As well might Vanbrugh ev'ry Stone revile,
That fwells enormous Blenheim's awkward Pile ;
The guiltlefs Pen as well might Mauro blame, 45
For writing ill, and fullying Arthur's Fame;
Succefslefs Lovers blait the Maid they woo'd,
As thefe a Tongue they never understood;

That Tongue which gave immortal Shakespeare Fame,
Which boafts a Prior's, and a Thomfon's Name; 50
Graceful and chafte which flows in Addison,
With native Charms, and Vigour all its own;
In Bolinbroke and Swift, whofe Beauties fhine,
In Rowe's foft Numbers, Fonfon's nervous Line,
Dryden's free Vein, and Milton's Work divine.

But, fuch, alas! difdain to borrow Fame,
Or live like Dulness in another's Name;
And hence the Task for nobleft Souls defign'd,
Giv'n to the Weak, the Taftelefs, and the Blind;
To fome low Wretch, who, proftitute for Pay,
Lets out to Curll the Labours of the Day,
Careless who hurries o'er th' unblotted Line,
Impatient ftill to finish, and to dine;

}

55

60

LINE 39. Extremely low. A favourite Coffeehoufe Phrafe.

LINE 40. Wotton and Perrault. See Wotton's Difcourfe on ancient and modern Learning, and Perrault's Defence of his Siecle de Louis XIV.

LINE 46. Arthur's Fame. See Blackmore's King Arthur, an Heroic Poem.

LINE 60. To Curll, &c. Moft of the bad Translations, which we have of eminent Authors, were done by Garreteers under the Infpection of this Gentleman, who paid them by the Sheet for their hafty Performances.

Or

65

Or fome pale Pedant, whofe encumber'd Brain
O'er the dull Page hath toil'd for Years in vain,
Who writes at laft ambitioufly to fhew
How much a Fool may read, how little know;
Can these on Fancy's Wing with Plato foar?
Can these a Tully's active Mind explore?
Great Nature's fecret Springs can thefe reveal,.
Or paint thofe Paffions which they ne'er cou'd feel? 70
Yet will they dare the pond'rous Lance to wield,
Yet will they ftrive to lift the feven-fold Shield;
The Rock of Ajax ev'ry Child would throw,
And ev'ry Strippling bend Ulyffes' Bow.

There are, who timid Line by Line purfue, 75 Anxious to keep th' Original in View;

Who mark each Footstep where their Mafter trod, And after all their Pains have mifs'd the Road.

There are, an Author's Senfe who boldly quit, As if afham'd to own the Debt of Wit: Who leave their Fellow-trav'ller on the Shore, Launch in the Deep, and part to meet no more. Some from Reflection catch the weaken'd Ray, And scarce a Gleam of doubtful Senfe convey, Present a Picture's Picture to your View,.. Where not a Line is juft, or Feature true.

80

85

LINE 75, 79. There are, &c. The Reader will eafily recollect inftances to illuftrate each of thefe Remarks, more especially the laft; halfour Translations being done from Tranflations by fuch as were never able to confult the Original. One of these Gentlemen having Occafion in his Verfion to mention Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, not having the good Fortune to be acquainted with any fuch Writer, makes Ufe of the French Liberty of Curtailing, and without Scruple calls him Dennis of Halicarnaffus. Miitakes as grofs as this often occur, though perhaps not many altogether fo ridiculous.

VOL II.

A a

Thus