tutions, without which his boafted fuperiority is empty pretence. Wilder theories, abfurder conclufions, greater perverfity of manners, more pernicious mistakes in morals, and errors in legiflation, than have too frequently blotted the page of history, and difgraced the annals of mankind, feebler woman could fcarcely have effected :-While fhe contemplates their effects, and fuffers their confequences, a fentiment of melancholy indignation will at times diftend her heart, and efface from it the leffons fo affiduously inculcated of meek dependence and tame fubmiffion. Sept. 6, 1796. A WOMAN. P.S. Some circumstances having occafioned the editor of the Magazine to delay, till the prefent month, the infertion of the preceding remaks on the effay of C. D. the writer has had an opportunity of perufing the fecond letter of A. B. on the fame fruitful fubject, in which there is much affertion, but no new argument advanced. It may, perhaps, be obferved, that were the works of an equal, or far greater number of male, than female, writers, to be utterly loft to the republic of letters, the deprivation would be comparatively light, when weighed in the balance with the exquifite, philofophic poetry of Shakspeare. A. B. does not feem to understand the comprehenfive import of the word education: the impreffions received by formal tuition, bear no proportion to thofe forced upon us by civil and focial inftitution. Talents fpontaneouily fhoot forth, equal to "the fpur of the occafion." Νου. 3, 1796. For the Monthly Magazine. OBSERVATIONS ON MR. MICKLE's LUSIAD, WITH THE PORTUGUESE CRITICISM ON THAT TRANSLA TION. WH HEN we read an imitation, we expect a beautiful poem, becaufe the imitator may add beauties of his own to thofe of the firft author; but in a tranflation, we ought to find a faithful copy of the original. Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere, fidus is an admirable text for a title-page; but furely it is the duty of the tranflator to preferve the meaning of his original, while he adapts its idioms to another language. Luis de Camoens is entitled the Prince 787 of the Poets of Spain: I will not denounce the title. Mr. Mickle, however, is not contented with this; he has defended his faults, allegorized his abfurdities, hid the thread-bare texture of the Portuguese, with his own embroidery, and then raifes him to a proud equality with Homer, and Virgil, and Milton; but Camoens must not be lifted up fo high, neither muft Homer, and Virgil, and Milton, be degraded into fuch company: though Camoens may, perhaps, come the next to Tallo, he must be proximus, fed longo intervallo! For though in the choice of a fubject, and the unity of defign, he may have the advantage over Lucan, and Statius, and Ariofto, in the execution of it he is lamentably inferior: The English reader will be surprised to hear, that the language of the Lufiad is remarkably bald; but before I proceed to point out what poetical beauties belong to Camoens, and what to Mr. Mickle, it will be proper to give the Portuguefe review of the English verfion. I ufe the Lifbon edition of 1782, edited by Thomas Jofeph de Aquino, and the fecond of his editions: "In my first edition," fays he, "I informed my readers of a new and famous tranflation, publifhed at London, by the cele brated poet, William Julius Mickle. At that time I knew nothing more of the verfion, and contented myfelf with thus flightly noticing it; now, however, I have the pleature to give the public a a complete analyfis of all that the cele brated tranflator has written in his feveral differtations and tracts upon the fubject; for all this, I am obliged to the moft reverend father Michael Daly, a man, as all know, fignally accomplished in every kind of erudition, and more a Portuguefe in his affections, than many who are fo by birth. I could enlarge in well deferved encomiums upon this fage, did not my intimate knowledge of his modefty prevent me. This, however, I will always publish with a grateful mind, that in the general reformation of studies which took place in the reign of our lord the king, Don Jofeph the First; he it was who principally revived Greek literature, which had been for fo many years dead in Portugal; and he likewife it was, who, with an ardent and indefatigable zeal for religion, laboured in the re-establishment of the college, which the Irish have here, for the educating of miffionaries, and the prefervation of the Ca5 H tholic tholic religion in Ireland." He now gives in the words of Father Daly, an analyfis of all the tracts prefixed to the English Lufiad, with feveral extracts. "After thefe preliminary differtations," fays he, "comes the tranflation of the poem,which may be pronounced the most poetical that has yet appeared." The tranflation is accompanied with notes, hiftorical and critical, in which he difplays great knowledge of the hiftory of Portugal, and a found critical judgment. "Yet, though it be not our intention to criticise the English tranflator, who has done fo much honour and juftice to Camoens, we ought not to pais over in total filence, the various liberties which he has taken with the original, fome which he has confeffed, and others which he has not confeffed. Of those which he has not confessed, we will give two examples, leaving it to others to determine how far a tranflator is juftified in fo altering and foifting interpolations on his text, "In the fiction of Adamaftor, Camoens makes that giant relate his hiftory, and that of his amours, to Gama himself: the tranflator, however, takes another way; for he makes the spectre disappear after breathing out prophetical threats against the Portuguese, and the king of Melinda; then relates, that they had among them this tradition, that in the war of the giants, one had fallen upon their kingdom, whofe groans were nightly heard; that by the incantations of a holy man, the spectre had been obliged to declare who he was; and then the hiftory follows. The other place is in the be ginning of the ninth book :-According to Camoens, the Zamorim releases the Portuguefe goods, which in the 8th book had been landed; and he fimply relates in the ninth, that Gama, impatient to depart for Europe, commands his factors to embark with their goods, but he receives intelligence, that his factors are detained: Gama immediately orders fome merchants to be feized who had come on board his ship to fell precious ftones, and prepares to depart. The wives and children of the merchants who are thus feized on board the fhips, go to the Zamorim, and complain that their hufbands and fathers are loft. Moved by their cries, the Zamorim releases the Portuguese factors, and restores the goods, and Gaina departs from Calicut, But the tranflator relates all this differently according to his account, in the ninth book, Gama is a prifoner at the court of the Zamorim, who in an arrogant speech commands that commander to make his fhips draw nearer to the shore and to deliver up to him their fails. Gama refufes to confent, perceiving the evil intentions of the Zamorim. Immediately he makes a fignal for his fleet to attack the Portuguese fhips: a defcription of the engagement follows, and a tempeft arifes which totally deftroys the fleet of the Zamorim. The victorious armada now draws nearer to the fhore, and begins to thunder with its artillery upon the city. The terrified populace clamour around the palace, and demand the releafe of the factors; and their prince, alarmed by the deftruction of his fleet, the infurrection of his people, and the intrepidity of the Portuguefe, releafes Gama, and permits him to embark. This account occupies more than three hundred lines, to which not one correfponding line is to be found in the original. "I point out only thefe two inftances, for the fake of brevity: but the reader who is verfed in the English language, as well as in the Portuguefe, will find many others in which the tranflator has either fuppreffed paffages that are in the original, or inferted paffages that are not. "Mr. Mickle has, indeed, in his preli minary Differtation, confeffed, in general terms, that his intention was to give an English Lufiad in a free poetical fpirit; and he fays truly enough, that a "literal tranflation of poetry is in reality a folecifm. You may conftrue your author, indeed; but if with fome tranflators you boaft that you have left your author to speak for himself, that you have neither added nor diminished, you have, in reality, grofsly abufed him, and deceived yourself. Your literal tranflation can have no claim to the original felicities of expreffion, the energy, elegance, and fire of the original poetry. It may, indeed, bear a refemblance, but fuch a one as a corpfe in the fepulchre bears to the former man when he moved in the bloom and vigour of life, "Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere, fidus 1796.] Similes of Homer, Virgil, and Milton. 789. rendering word by word, as is evidently a work of this nature no place could have proved by the various verfions of Homer and Virgil in the European languages, and particularly in the English. They preferve the fpirit of the original, without fuppreffing or interpolating entire paffages. Nor can the tranflator avail himself of the authority of Horace; for it clearly appears from the context, that this precept is entirely for imitators, and not for tranflators; and certainly there is a wide difference between an imitation and a tranflation. A tranflation, in which fuch great liberties are taken, may very eafily deceive the reader.-Let us fuppofe, for instance, that fome future Voltaire, without knowing the Portuguese language, fhould wish to form fome idea of the poem of Camoens, by means of Mr. Mickle's verfion: if he fhould imagine that the defcription of the battle and tempeft in the ninth book is in a very inflated ftyle, and abounds with falfe fublime, he would naturally attribute all thefe faults to the original, notwithftanding not a trace of this defcription is to be difcovered there. Thus would he be deceived, as Voltaire himself was, by imputing to Camoens the abfurdities of Fanfhaw. "We have thus, with all poffible brevi. ty, made the Portuguefe reader acquainted with the diligence which Mr. Mickle has bestowed upon the poem of Camoens, and the language and hiftory of Portugal; and we have given him fome idea of the labour he has taken to compile fo many illuftrations of his author, and to defend him from the infolent criticifin of Rapin and Voltaire, and other critics, who were equally ignorant of Portuguefe literature: in all this the tranflator has fhown vaft erudition, and an accurate judgment. "After allowing this, we muft not pafs over fome grofs errors of Mr. Mickle, though it is with reluctance that we remark them. In many places he treats the Portuguefe nation with great incivility, and particularly in a note to the life of Camoens, where he inveighs against our lord cardinal king Henry, for the punishment which he justly inflicted upon the Scotch Buchanan, from which he draws an inference very injurious to the Portuguese nation, and very unworthy as well of the gentleman as of the philofopher; for, in the nature of things, the character which he gives of the Portuguese cannot poffibly be true of any civilized people. "It might have been hoped, too, that in been found for introducing controverfies upon religion; but he has taken care to fhow his hatred and averfion for the Catholic faith. He repeats over and over again, the old and almost forgotten calum nies of idolatry, and other fimilar charges which have been fo completely refuted a thousand and a thousand times, and of which now all fenfible Proteftants are themselves afhamed. He falfifies facts and makes ridiculous and abfurd allufions, which prove nothing except the malignity of the author. This he does, no doubt, to accommodate his book to the taste of his countrymen, and increase its fale." Having prefented you with this tranflation from the Portuguese Review, I fhall referve fome additional obfervations of my own till your next publication. T. Y The fimile here is perfectly juft, and anfwers in more than one particular. Thus, the oaks and pines may well reprefent the warriors of note who fall before the hero; while the torrent loaded with mud expreffes the general rout of the Trojan troops. This is a purfuit: but when Diomed makes his at tack on the Trojans, as yet drawn up in a body to oppofe him, though breaking at the firft onfet, the very fame fimile is judiciously varied in fome of its circumftances: 5 H 2 He He rush'd along; as the full torrent rolls, comes, Nor can the bulwark'd bridge, når turfy mound That guards the cultur'd farm, its rage withftand, But down the fmiling works of man are dafh'd: So from Tydides' arm the Trojan bands, With all their numbers, fhrink, nor wait the fhock. IL. v. 87. Here the bridges, bulwarks, and mounds, which are principal objects in the landscape, correfpond with the grofs battalions of the Trojans, which formed a feeming, though ineffectual, barrier against the affailant. Virgil, defcribing the Greeks bursting into Priam's palace, after the demolition of the gates and barricades, ufes the fame fimile: Non fic, aggeribus ruptis cum fpumeus amnis Thro' hollow channels, mix their foaming ftreams In fome mid valley, while their echoing roar The figure of the fhepherd in this piece is merely an ornamental addition; but in the following of Virgil, which is obviously taken from it, this circumstance is effential to the fimilitude. Æneas is defcribing the alarm by which he was roufed on the fatal night of Troy. He afcends the roof of his houfe, and liftens to the confufed founds, which he compares first, to that of fire in a field of corn, and then to the roar of a torrent: Aut rapidus montano flumine torrens Sternit agros, fternit fata læta boumque labores, Præcipitefque trahit fylvas: ftupet infcius alte Accipiens fonitum faxi de vertice paftor. *ÆN. ii. 305. Or fome big torrent from a mountain's brow, Burfis, pours, and thunders down the vale below; O'erwhelms the fields, lays waste the golden grain, And headlong fweeps the forefts to the main ; Stun'd at the din, the fwain, with lift'ning ears, From fome steep rock the founding ruin hears. PITT. The pealant is here the counter-part of Eneas himself; and therefore the epithet infcius, implying his ignorance of the caufe, fhould not have been dropt in the translation. In the preceding fimiles from Homer under this head, the application is as eafy and accurate as the pictures are lively and natural; whence it will appear more extraordinary, that in the one next to be produced, where the defcription is wrought with peculiar ftrength and exactnefs, the point of refemblance fhould be As when the whole dark earth in Autumn swims fcarcely difcernible : Beneath the rufhing ftorm, when angry Jove Pours down his heaviest rains, enrag'd with men, Who from the judgment-feat give falfe decrees, Expelling right by force, and fet at nought The vengeance of the Gods; each river now Swells to the brink; the torrents burft away, And tearing thro' the flopes, ruth headlong on Down from the hills, and feek the azure main, Deep murmuring, while the works of human toil Groan'd deeply, as they ran. Lie vll'd thus the Trojan fteeds in flight IL. xvi. 384 The rout of the Trojans by Patroclus, and the difgraceful flight of Hector in his chariot across the fofs, is the fubject of the poet's defcription. Euftathius, the great champion Similes of Homer, Virgil, and Milton. 1795.] champion of Homer, acknowledges that the only point of resemblance, in this minutely detailed fimile, is the panting, or rather groaning of the Trojan horfes, compared to the noife of the torrents. Mr. Pope, in his tranflation, artfully varies and extends the circumftance of fimilitude in these lines: Not with lefs noife, with lefs impetuous force, The tide of Trojans urge their defperate course, Than when, &c. And he entirely furpaffes the incident of the groaning feeds. In a note, roo, on the paffage, he is filent with respect to the fimile, as fuch; but prompts the reader's admiration of the moral ftrokes obliquely introduced into the paffage; which, indeed, are valuable, as conveying a picture of carly manners and fenti Thus of their charge the legates made report; Beats on the banks; and, with a fullen found, There remain two fimiles in Homer derived from the fame fource with those already quoted, but different in their application. The first is introduced where Hector, accompanied by the god Mars himself, advanced to check the progrefs of the victorious Diomed: As when th' unknowing trav'ller in his merch Crofs the wide plain, ftops fudden on the bank Of fome swift river rufhing to the main ; And as he fees it foam, and murm'ring rage, Leaps backward: fo Tydides quick withdrew. IL. v. 597. The picture here is uncommonly lively; nor can any thing be objected to the juftnefs of comparifon, except that the furprife of the traveller, at the view of fuch an obftacle, would fcarcely be attended with an alarm, or fenfe of danger, like that of the warrior on being actively oppofed by fuch formidable antagonists. The other paffage refers to the combat about the dead body of Patroclus, where the two Ajaxes repel the whole onset of 791 As ftretch'd across the length'ning plain, a mound Virgil has three fimiles derived from rivers, of a different kind from those hitherto quoted. The first relates to that common-place topic of the tendency of every thing terreftrial to degeneracy and decline; which he illuftrates by the comparifon of a boat rowed against the stream: -fic omnia fatis In pejus ruere, ac retro fublapfa referri. Remigiis fubigit; fi brachia forte remifit, For fuch the changeful lot of things below, If once his vigour ceafe, or arms grow flack, him back. This is a juft fimile when applied to a melioration and improvement of nature, as in this inftance of agriculture. The expreffion of labour in the original, by adverfo, vix, fubigit, is wrought with ail the exactness peculiar to this writer, and is imitated by the translator. In the other paffage, Virgil describes the combined army under Turnus marching in a column to attack the Trojan camp, under the following image: Ceu feptem furgens fedatis amnibus altus So mighty Ganges leads with awful pride |