when the Season's dry They with the changing Weather change their Sense And flying Clouds their Bosoms influence Hence thro the Fields we hear the chearful Quire The joyous Ravens croakes the Cattels freaks admire If from the rapid Sun your Rules you 'll take Or from the Moons sequacious Circles make To morrows Grey will ne'er delude your sight Nor the false Calmness of the sliding Night When first the Moon 's declining Beams renew If then her Horns obscure and gloomy shew Thick weighty Clouds are gathering in the Wind And all 's to wet by Sea and Land inclin'd But if her Cheeks a Virgin blush diffuse Winds stormy Winds the blushing Moon foreshews If four days old she brightly mounts the Skies The Farmer thence unfailing Signs descrys If bright and sharp her Silver Horns appear That and the following Days will all be clear No Winds no heavy Rains will clog the Sky But the expiring Months serenely die Then Sailors safe a shore their Vows shall pay And Offerings on the sacred Altars lay To Panope their grateful Sacrifice To Glaucus and to kind Palaemon rise Observe the Sun too watch his rising Signs And how he toward his watry Couch declines The Sun's Prognostics all are plain and clear Both when he mounts and when the Stars appear If with a spotted Limb he climbs the Skies Or Masques in Clouds or half his Beams denies Then look for Showers and for a Southern wind To Plants and Herds a moist unwholsom kind If when he rises first his languid Beams Break thro the gather'd Clouds with watry Gleams Or if the Morning leaves her Saffron Bed Her faded Cheeks with deadly paleness spread What ratling storms of Hail their looks attend What Leaves can then their tender Grapes defend Your Observations yet are surer far When down Heavens steep he drives his burning Carr His Brows oft change then with a various hue And Winds his Red and Rains his Black pursue If gloomy spots mix with his ruddy Flame All mighty Winds and mighty Rains proclaim With such a Sky I 'd never quit the shore Be drill'd to Sea or once my Boat unmoore But if his Rise unclouded Beams display And with unclouded Beams he close the Day Fear neither Rains nor Winds the North then moves Drives off the Clouds and rustles thro the Groves In short the Farmer by the Sun may know Whence Clouds will rise or gentle Gales will blow What Storms the Watry South designs to bring What Weather from the falling Night may spring For who 'd with false Prognostics charge the Sun He warns us oft of Mischiefs scarce begun Foreshows blind Insurrections unfledg'd Iarrs Fermenting Treacheries and brooding Wars He pity'd Rome when murder'd Caesar dy'd And to the World his chearful Beams deny'd Behind a gloomy Scurf obscur'd his light And Godless Men fear'd an Eternal Night 'T was then the Time when Seas and Air and Earth Contriv'd to give prodigious Monsters birth Dark Heaven on that Inhumane Action scowl'd And Dogs obscoene in every Quarter howl'd Ill-boding Schriech-Owls with their ominous Notes Scream'd thro the Day and stretch'd their fatefull Throats Hot Aetna burst his fiery bounds below And made Sicilia's Fields with Sulphur glow Made melted Rocks in livid Torrents roll And shot vast fiery Globes against the Pole Th' affrighted Germans heard the dismal sound Of clanking Arms which march'd the Welkin round The Snowy Alps with uncouth tremblings reel'd And silent Groves prodigious voices fill'd Pale meager Ghosts broke from the rending Tomb And glaring stalkt thro Nights obscurer gloom Brutes horrid strange with Humane Language spoke And staggering Earth her shattered Surface broke Swift Brooks a passage to their Streams deny'd And quite forgot the Seas attending Tide Big with their Tears the sacred Marbles stood And sweating Statues dropt a Sanguine Flood Po Prince of Streams with uncouth madness swell'd Bore down the Groves and Forests headlong fell'd At once drown'd all the Fields and Herds and Stalls Hurry'd with violent fury to his dreadfull falls Beasts Livers all with boding Lines were Vein'd And bloody Springs their Streams with Gore distain'd Th' unpeopled Streets were fill'd with hideous sounds And howling Wolves there took their Midnight rounds Lightnings n'ere shot so thick from Cloudless Skies Nor such portentous Comets plagu'd our Eyes Philippi then a griev'd Spectator stood And saw her Fields o'erflow'd with streams of Blood While Roman Troops in War with Romans clos'd And Friends their Friends with equal Arms oppos'd Heaven angry thought it worth it's while once more T' enrich the barren soils with Roman Gore To glut the wide Pharsalian Fields around And the large Plains by lofty Haemus crown'd The time shall come when as the toiling Swains With crooked Plows shall furrow up the Plains They 'll find our Spears with eating Rust consum'd And hollow Helmets long in Earth inhum'd And Pigmy Heirs shall with amazement see The mighty Bones of their Gigantic Ancestry Ye kindred Gods who o'er great Rome preside Quirinus too to all the Gods ally'd And Mother Vesta whose protecting Hand Makes Tiber flow and Rome triumphant stand O let this one this gallant Youth remain And the vast ruines of the World sustain Enough of Blood for Perjuries we 've paid To Woes by false Laomedon betray'd To us the Gods Great Caesar envy thee And all thy Triumphs here with Envy see They grudge to see a wretched Age opprest With Lawless Guilt by such a Guardian blest For all our lower World 's involv'd in Blood And horrid Sins with impious Art pursu'd The Plough lies rusting by the Soldiers scorn The Fields uncultivated wild forlorn New Swords of Scyth's the Martial Farmers make And arm'd their desolated Lands forsake Euphrates sounds with marching Troops from far And nearer Germany renews the War All Leagues are broke and Civil Wars divide Cities by all the nearest Bonds ally'd We see this All in dire confusions hurl'd And Tyrant Mars rage thro an Impious World The fiery Coursers rushing from the Stand Fly out and scorn the Charloteers command In vain he draws the Bit along the Plains The head-strong Horses scour and scorn the sounding Reins FINIS ERRATA PAge 6. line 20. for read p. 7. l. 15. after Davides l. 22. after his d p. 8. l. 4. d. the. l. 19. after for p. 19. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 13. l. 6. r. Sinâ—â—'s p. 15. l. 25. after say add to p. 20. l. 13. r. terrat l. 18. r. subintelligitur p. 22. l. 21. r. Racer p. 23. l. 23. r. Caesâ—ra p. 28. l. 25. r. Teueros p. 38. l. 24. r. abuses p. 54. l. ult r. Pipes p. 63. l. 13. r. Gallaeus p. 101. l. 17. r. Yâ—npuâ— l. 12. r. d. good p. 111. l. 13 r. The. l. 16. f. muâ—'d r. inur'd p. 113. l. 17. f. weed r. sand p. 125. l. 25. r. turns p. 134. l. 14. f. case r. câ—re p. 138. l. 1. â—f much r. surpriz'd p. 186. l. 30. f. Heath r. Hearth p. 219.
Aesop nor do any of his Contemporaries mention any thing of it Ovid Propertius Siliús Martial Statius Persius mention it the four last tho' later give it the Character of Divine and Excellent but none wishes He had lived to perfect it and the Story of his compleating those two Hemistics in the 6th Aeneid is as ridiculous but all those Shams are of the same Original nay what if we should stumble at Quem tibi jam Troja What if it was Peperit florente Creusa What if it was left so to express Andromache's Passion When she came to mention her dear native City Tears forbad her and a true Sense of Decency forbad the Poet to finish that Sentence and tho' she recovers her self to enquire of Iülus soon again yet again too at the lov'd Name of Hector she bursts into Tears and can go no farther This to me I must confess signifies more than Donatus's Legend and if Virgil's Half Verses are the Frogs and Serpents half kindled into Life always allowing Equivocal Generation which Mr. D. knows to a Tittle Mr. D.'s full-lin'd Translation is the Lump of unform'd unanimated Mud. The Leaders may be Heroes but the Multitude must consist of common Men. Mr. D. would be very kind to point out to us his leading Verses I make no doubt but they are Captains over Hundreds and Captains over Fifties and very few Companies double Officer'd His Talk about the Difficulty of finding Words is Stuff not worth regarding Our English is now little if at all inferiour to the Latin But Mr. D. wanted an Opportunity to let his Patron know he had some notice of the Public Difficulties about Money For I think it is not so Sacred as that not one Iota must be added nor diminished on pain of an Anathema Mr. D. then confesses that Virgil's Text is not Scripture but if it were his Church has such Guides as have more than once adventured upon that Anathema and he a true Republican Son of a Monarchical Church has imitated them having given his Author Procrustes's Law and crop'd and stretch'd him every where as he thought fit There is a Beauty of Sound in some Latin words which is wholly lost in the French I own it but not so much in the English our Language now can express Matters both with Majesty and softness and I make no doubt after all Mr. D's boast of his gift that way a Man with much less noise may Translate Virgil much more agreeably for Style and Sence than he has done But I must own it 's a more delicate Thought than ordinary that Virgil's mollis amaracus in a Grove on a Mountain top should make us think of Roses and Lilies but Thoughts are free Aude Hospes contemnere opes te quoque dignum Finge Deo What if thus Translated Dare noble Guest to scorn all Wealth below And as a God a God-like Virtue show Lay by Virgil I beseech your Lordship and all my better sort of Iudges when you take up my Version Is very reasonable Advice for nothing can provoke any tolerable Iudges Patience moâ—â— than to compare them together But why must this great Book be call'd Virgil then only to catch Gulls and make them believe they hug a Iuno when really they have no more than a Cloud or Shadow False Critics may think I Latinize too much And so may true Critics but Mr. D. takes care to fix an ill Character before hand on all who condemn him so that every one ventures on him at his Peril and I among the rest I carry not out the Treasure of the Nation which is never to Return A design'd Reflection on some of whom he would have it believed that they do so But what I bring from Italy I spend in England Now we English are somewhat Jealous of Italian ware we had so much of it a few Years since that we cannot yet be very fond of it especially when cook'd by ill Hands Every Man can't distinguish between Pedantry and Poetry every Man therefore is not fit to Innovate Mr. D. I hope is unexceptionable in the case he understands the Fundamentals of Parnassus and might with as good Right as his Holyness does in Religious Matters set up for Poetical Infallibility he abases and distorts Common Words and calls that Innovating and who may say to him What doest thou What I have observ'd of him is only endeavouring to taint our English with some Latin Idioms which I 'm afraid will die upon his Hands or sink like Irish Money and come to nothing The Poet must first be certain that the word he would introduce is beautiful in Latin Well it may be so yet very Foolish in English for instance one of the Reasons of Iuno's hate to the Trojans was Spretae injuria Formae where the Expression is pure and Intelligible Mr. D. Latinizes in his Version thus And her Form disdain'd Which is absurd improper and obscure but this it is for one who can't distinguish between Pedantry and Poetry to pretend to Innovate Mr. Congreve has done me the favour to Review the Aeneis and to Compare my Version with the Original This is to fix a Scandal upon Mr. Congreve that the World might think him as Dull and Inapprehensive as our Translator doubtless if he Read it he found many Faults in it but it seems he 's none of the dangerous Iudges if he might be permitted to make Comparisons and had he Read it as a Iudge he 'd scarce have found five Lines together in the whole which might have been call'd Virgil's I only say Virgil has avoided those Proprieties Some think quite otherwise and that he was extraordinary careful in that matter and tho such Words are not usual yet even Ladies may be sooner brought to understand things by them which require them than by other suppos'd plainer Words and if Virgil wrote for all in General Men of Art would have been apt to Censure him for Improprieties but I confess I believe Gassendus or Mercator in Astronomy Manesson or Vauban in Military Architecture Monsieur or Mr. Evelyn in Gardening and Worlidge or Markham in Husbandry may have some Cant Words as Mr. D. calls them which Virgil was unacquainted with but what he uses ought as far as may be to be so Translated I have omitted the four Preliminary Lines c. Here Mr. D. sets up again for a very great Critic And Ille ego c. must be flung away to the Dogs But why so angry good Mr. Translator If your old Friend Donatus be a credible Person they are Virgil's and pray how long have you known better what became Virgil to Write than he knew himself And much better Iudges have concluded them to be his and methinks the very Air of 'em is inimitable and extreamly suitable to the place they are in beginning as low as his Tityre tu patulae and rising by degrees in Style as the Works he refers to do till at last he mounts
would at the Church when Virgil's Damon had nothing to say to her And hooting Owls contend with Swans in Skill For Skill they 're much alike nay the Owl has the advantage as Practising most indeed those who have heard 'em both think the Swan may have somewhat the sweeter voice Or oh Let Nature cease and Chaos Reign And there 's Convenience before Sence again and a little Nonsence too unless Mr. D. reflects on an old Harmonious Gentleman whose Government Milton describes Book II. But I 'm perswaded Virgil who had never read Paradise lost knew nothing of him The Old Poets Chaos was quite another thing Farewel ye secret Woods and shady Groves Haunts of my Youth and Conscious of my Loves A prety Paraphrase on Vivite Sylvae but such as wherein Virgil's Character is entirely lost Rehearse his Friends Complaint and mighty Magic verse Complaint was to carry on his initial Mistake that the whole might be of a piece according to honest Horace's directions But what 's meant by Alphesibaeus's mighty Magic verse Is that the English of non omnia possumus omnes I can't think the Shepherd was a Conjurer but only Personated a Witch for a while without designing to bring any Mistress of his own over House tops and Woods and Seas to his own Arms on a Broom-staff 'T is done we want but verse Why Carmina signifies not verses here but a set Form of Words to be made use of by which all the Magic Operation might become effectual Mr. D. I know is acquainted with good Authors and perhaps may have met with Fulgurita sesquiamocca terincta leponta infernonida Utribosca c. some Copies read it otherwise but this will do with a due Preparation if us'd in a cold Morning with one Stocking on the other off and wholly Fasting But whether those words make a verse or no I leave to Mr. D. to find out He seems more sensible in the very next words where he makes Carmina Charms tho the following Lines be but a very lame Version of Ducite ab urbe domum c. Pale Phoebe drawn by verse from Heaven descends I don't believe all the verses which Mr. Dryden ever made and he has in his time made a world of Thundering Lines could ever show us this Miracle Nay I don't believe that verse quà verse will do the Feat The very same Charms which chang'd Ulysses's Companions may do great-things But Charms are not necessary in verse as Mr. D. may find in Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy Verse breaks the Ground and penetrates the Brake Verse fires the frozen Veins Now could I almost Recant my precedent Talk this is certainly Conjuring Latet Anguis That penetrating the Brake is to me unintelligible and may be like Abracadabra for ought I know I can't tell what verse may fire the Frozen veins whether Mr. D's Translation of a Period in Lucretius which I remember I once saw such are a Hellish kind of Charms indeed and it's pity but the Conjurers should meet with his Lot who Congregating all the Serpents in a Country into one Ditch was by one of 'em drawn into the Ditch and devour'd among them Thrice bind about his thrice devoted Head Hence it 's plain that the Translator's a more through-pac'd Conjurer than his Master Crumble the Sacred Mole Is this Interpreting his Author or making him less Intelligible How much will an Ingenious Lady but not much acquainted with the old Methods of Witch-craft and Sacrificing Edifie by that Appellative the Sacred Mole The plain meaning Ogylby calls it a Cake and such it was tho of a particular Composition Thus Daphnis burn away This Laurel is his Fate But if Daphnis melted away as that burnt he 'd be quickly wasted to nothing and could only come to her as Almahide promis'd to come to her Spark Almanzor and Embrace her only with empty Arms as a great Author has it While I so scorn his Love How 's that As the Bull scorns the Heifer Virgil intimates no such thing but her seeking for one in vain And so the Enchanters would have Daphnis in Love so as she by playing at Bo-Peep with him may enflame him with the greater violence of Love which down right scorn would not be so likely to effect And from the Roots to tear the standing Corn Which whirl'd a loft to distant Fields is born Not to observe the word Negromancer for Necâ—â—mancer as one fit to Translate Homer would have call'd him if Mr. D. meant the same here as Virgil did it 's a very odd way of Expressing it The Romans who believ'd Magic could Transplant one Man's standing Corn into anothers Ground where the Corn should be shill standing and growing had a very ancient Law against such Practices Neve alienam Segetem pellexeris But that Law speaks as if the Magician had some wheadling Trick to perswade the Corn to remove to another Quarter as the Romans when they had a design on some Enemy-Cities Tutelar God but this whirling it aloft seems no very proper way to make it grow but lie on heaps in the designed Field Break out ye smother'd Fires and kindle smother'd Love What can Mr. D. mean by this Was throwing Ashes into the Brook the way to make 'em break out into a Flame It was the way to smother Fire indeed but hardly to kindle it It 's meer Riddle nor can the precedent or consequent Words explain it Mr. D. is here again at his God-like Verse but there being so much of Ceremony in Magical Operations the Gods were suppos'd concurrent willingly or by force with the Magicians design Now Daphnis is complained of as neither regarding the Gods themselves nor those Charms not those Verses in which their particular and extraordinary Influences are concern'd the Witch I conclude was no great Poet what e'er Mr. D. is The waking Ashes rise and round our Altars play No but the Ashes of themselves burst out into a trembling Flame which blaz'd round the Altar but these were not the Ashes thrown into the Brook but what continu'd about the Altar unremov'd Run to the Threshold Amaryllis hark Our Hylax opens and begins to bark Now Virgil's Witch sent Amaryllis on no such silly Errand but listn'd her self Hylax open'd i. e. he Bark'd and began to Bark which is very Emphatical May Lovers what they Wish believe Or Dream their Wishes and those Dreams deceive Is a very perplext Illustration of a plain Question An qui amant ipsi sibi somnia fingunt He comes he runs he leaps to my designing Arms. Doubtless he was wondrous fond of his old Lady but they say Those who are brought any whither by Magical Powers look more like Dogs who have burnt their Tails than such a brisk Fellow as Mr. D. here represents But he who to indulge a Lewd Thought Translates Parcite ab urbe venit jam parcite carmina Daphnis in
grateful Altars shine His Oracle that God-like Language spoke Feed on your Bullocks Lads your Oxen Yoke Me. Happy old Man you then your Farm may keep Lands large enough tho craggy part and steep And slimy Marrome all the Marshes spread Your Flocks may be in usual Pastures fed No scabby Neighbours shall disturb them there Nor they a taint from their Infection fear Happy old Man Cool gentle Breezes you Here by known Streams and Sacred Springs pursue You Sallow Hedge which parts the Neighbouring Field Will to your Bees abundant Pastures yield Drawn by whose pretty murmurs silent Sleep Oft o'er your weary Eyes will calmly creep From Bushy Rocks the Linet sweetly sing Whose Notes to you the Tuneful Air shall bring While your lov'd Cooing Stock-Doves round you groan And from the lofty Elm the sighing Turtles moan Ti. First then shall Stags along the Welkin feed Or flying Seas desert their scaly Breed The wandring Parthian first shall drink the Soan And Germany on Tigris Banks be shown Each Nation thro' the others Bounds shall fly E'er his lov'd Image in my Breast shall die Me. But we alas the World must wander o'er Some to the farthest Africk's thirsty Shore Or toward Inhospitable Scythia's Cold Or where Oaxis rapid Streams are roll'd Nay some quite thrust from all our civil World Must on the savage British Coasts be hurl'd Ah! Could I hope when tedious years are past To see my lov'd my Native Soil at last Once more my poor Thatch'd Cottage Roofs admire And ne'er to greater Royalties aspire Must barbarous Troops our labour'd Tilth employ Curst Souldiers all our hopeful Crops enjoy See what sad Fruits our Civil Discord yields For whose blest use we Till'd our fruitful Fields Go Wretch Ah could it be in artful Lines Go Graft thy Pears and Prune thy stragling Vines Be gone my once dear happy Flock be gone No more shall I in mossy Grotts alone Streak out at ease and see you clambring go Hang o'er the Rocks and crop the Shrubs below No more alass you 'll hear my Country Strains No more be fed by me along the Plains Nor shall I lead where Milkie Trefoil grows Nor where you'd on the bitter Sallows browze Ti. Yet here however Lodge with me to Night I can but to a Leavy Couch invite I 've mellow Fruit and downy Chesnuts here Green Cheese and such make up our Country Cheer And see yon Village Chimnies smoaking all And longer Shadows nor from lofty Mountains fall PASTORAL IV. Or Pollio A Poem rising somewhat above the Shepherd 's Strein and somewhat imitated in the Translation TAke now my Rustic Muse a Nobler flight All won't in Trees and lowly Shrubs delight If Woods we 'll sing those very Woods must be Advanc'd to suit a Consul's Dignity Now the Cumaean Prophecy's fullfill'd And rolling Years more happy Ages yield Now comes the Virgin whose soft Smiles presage Another Saturn's Reign a Golden Age. Now from kind Heaven descends a God-like Race May thy chast Hands the coming Infant grace In whose blest Times Hell 's stubborn Brood shall cease And Heavenly Virtue fill the World with Peace His Birth Lucina's greatest Work remains Be kind in him thy own Apollo Reigns Since Pollio thy auspicious Year came in The glorious Age the mighty Months begin If any taint of former Guilt remains Thy happy Hand shall Purge the Crimson Stains The World no more their black Effects shall fear When thou thy Standard in their Front shalt rear He 'll live a God and Saints and Angels see And he again their dearest Object be And with his Father's Might immensely Crown'd The World he 'll manage in a Peace profound To thee sweet Boy the Soil untill'd shall bring And at thy Feet her little Beauties fling Fox-Gloves and creeping Ivy every where And Niles gay Bean with smiling Iasmines bear Flocks scarce shall drag their weighty Vdders home And Herds unscar'd by Lions freely roam Thy Cradle shall with fragrant Blossoms spring The Poisonous Serpent loose her fatal Sting No Venome more shall Iuicy Plants disclose And every Hedge shall bear the Syrian Rose But as the Youth his mighty Fathers Deeds The Heroes praise and Virtues Nature reads The Self-sown Crop shall load the ripening Field And roughest Thorns their purple Clusters yield The hardest Oaks shall sweat with tastful Dew And Honey still the Golden Drops renew Yet shall some steps of ancient Frauds remain And some shall try the rolling Seas again Some shall their Towns with lofty Walls surround And some with Furrows break the harmless Ground Tiphys shall live and Argo float again And waft selected Heroes o'er the Main New Wars shall rise and great Achilles rage Once more against the Trojan Walls ingage But when firm Age thy Manly strength shall show The daring Sailor shall the Seas forego Merchants shall send abroad their Ships no more But every thing shall every Country store Untill'd the Corn unprun'd the Vines shall grow Rough Hinds discharge their Bullocks from the Plough No artful Colours shall the Wool disguise But on the Rams a lovely Purple rise A deep laid Crimson all their Fleeces line And sucking Lambs with Native Scarlet shine May such blest Ages from our Distaff flow The Fates with one Consent determine so And cry'd So ever happy ever go Off-spring of Heaven great Iove's immortal Son It 's time to put thy destin'd Honours on See the vast World beneath its Pressures reel Seas Earth and Heaven the strong Convulsions feel Look yet again on Natures smiling Face How All with Ioys the rising Age embrace O might I live but long enough to raise Notes fit to sing thy Acts unbounded praise Then Thracian Orpheus Linus then shall yield And to my nobler Muse resign the Field Tho here the Mother there the lovely Sire Calliope and Phaebus raise the Fire And Orpheus she and he his Linus breast inspire Should Pan himself attempt my soaring Muse And for his Iudge his dear Arcadia chuse Pan in his lov'd Arcadia's sense should be And in his own inferior far to me Begin sweet Babe thy Sacred Birth to show And with soft smiles thy lovely Mother know For thee her Womb ten tedious Months before Ten tedious Months the Qualms of Breeding bore But where no Ioy the cloudy Parent shews That Child his Guest no favouring God will chuse And every Goddess will his luckless Bed refuse Notes on the Georgics VIrgil's Georgics are call'd by Mr. Dryden The best Poem of the best Poet. Of his own performance he says in this what 's true of all the rest I have too much injur'd my great Author I would have Translated him but fear according to the literal French and Italian Phrases I have traduced him and this Acknowledgment is true for never was Poet so abus'd nor Mankind so impos'd on by a Name before Virgil I know is not the easiest Author in the World to Interpret But Veteranes in Poetry at least should have sence enough to
rise And they who strein the formost toward the Prize Grow wet with Foam and Breath of those behind Such eager thirst of Praise enflames the meanest Mind To stop to fly the Rules of War to know To obey the Rider and to dare the Foe The Lapithae were fine Gentlemen and Mr. D. an excellent Panegyrist but these excellencies are wholly new Discoveries which Virgil not knowing of would sooner have ascrib'd to the Centaurs than the Lapithae The next four lines are strangely wide from the Text. For all 's too little for the craving kind is so lewd an illation and this whole Period is so scandalously Translated and beside his Author as might justly strike the Book out of every modest Hand For fear the rankness c. here Mr. D's mad after his old Lucretian Episode and what Virgil expresses with the greatest purity he vitiates and makes wholly obscaene and detestable when all Virgil's meaning is only that the Mare too rank fed especially with Grass won't take so well as one dry fed and in a lower Condition which every Horse-breeder knows Where Nature shall provide green Grass and fatning Clover this is somewhat extraordinary in Forests and what his Author forgot With holly green Virgil says ilicibus virentem Tanagrus hastens thence and leaves his Channels dry Risum teneatis Virgil says The roar of Cattle bitten by the Breez reaches the very Skies and makes the woods and dry banks of Tanagrus a Winter Torrent but dry in Summer Eccho again Mr. D. supposes the Brook runs away frighted at the noise which is extreamly Poetical Set him betimes to School and let him be Instructed in the Rules of Husbandry these and the following lines would put a Man beside all patience certainly Mr. D. wanted this care himself but if Calves must go to School while their Youth is flexible and green nor have seen the bad Examples of the World and the stubborn Children must begin to be broke early St. Francis for my Money Unless the Translator thinks he can do wonders in the Case Thy flattering Method on the Youth pursue Ioyn'd with his School-fellows by two and two E'er the Licentious Youth be thus restrain'd Or Moral Precepts on their Minds have gain'd all this of Calves still Sure Calves thus Educated would make excellent Poets I 'm sure some Poets for want of it have prov'd meer Brutes Who fill'd the Pail with Beestnings of the Cow Well remember'd again Mr. Bays this comes of not going to School to learn the Country Trade And let him clashing Whips in Stables hear is beyond question the meaning of Stabulo fraenos audire sonantes So again Et plausae sonitum cervicis amare Make him understand The loud applauses of his Master's Hand Is not this exquisite Interpreting To which may be added Inscius aevi very well explain'd Guiltless of Arms It 's an endless work to mark the Absurdities of this Translation yet who can forbear observing how Mr. D. Translates spumas aget ore cruentas Sustains the goring Spurs but who can guess why he Translates Belgica vel molli melius feret esseda collo Or bred to Belgian Waggons leads the way Untired at Night and chearful all the Day His Horns yet soar he tries against a Tree And Meditates his absent Enemy is ridiculous Nonsence and all this Battle of Bulls so impertinently vary'd from his admirable Author as if he design'd an abuse not a Translation of him and tho Virgil might say in Latin Signa movet meaning He marches forward could any Man of sence remember what he was speaking of and say A Bull single too moves his Camp It 's a wonderful Honour to our English Tongue to have a topping Author write thus The secret Ioys c. This and several following lines show how hard it is for an inveterate Debauchee to be modest and what care ought to be taken of such as pretend to Translate Latin Authors who it seems creep under the shelter of their Authors Names to instill Filthiness and Obscoenity into the Minds of such who can't command the Originals the Faults are too many to be noted The sleepy Leacher shuts his little Eyes About his churning Chops the frothy Bubbles rise Virgil has nothing like this and every word in it is ridiculous The Boar while he 's grinding and rooting can't be very sleepy Love commonly keeps the Lover awake Shuts his little Eyes that is for Sleeping or Meditation for why mayn't Boars have as good Morals as the best educated Calves in the World But the Chaps must churn in the Dream or else the Pigsnyes must be awake again and for the frothy bubbles they must rise from the Churn and must needs be extraordinary indications of violent Love The Sluces of the Sky were open spread is another very sensible Expression and much to Virgil's purpose But far above the rest c. here again our Translator runs at random indulging his own lewd Fancy and neglecting his Text. But when they seem exhausted swell the Pail Never certainly has any Man met with such Cows and she Goats as Mr. D. Their dugs are inexhaustible and the least of 'em would almost make a Chedder Cheese at a Meal But Camelots made of Goats hair is a Bull and neither private Centinels nor Marriners are much troubl'd with Camelot Cloaks In depth of Winter to defend the Snow is a particular way of speaking which Mr. D. much delights in and to defend the Snow is indeed to defend from the Snow which is a Phrase as clear as the Sun at Midnight Produce in open Air Both Flocks and send 'em to their Summer fare needs not to be reflected on but as the English to In saltus utrumque Gregem atque in pascua mittes Before the Sun while Hesperus appears what can that mean Hesperus appears presently after Sun-set but that can't be the Poets meaning but it 's Lucifer as Virgil calls him which appears before the Sun in the Morning and which follows in the rear of the departing Stars as Ovid and while he shines and before the Sun 's up the Dew lies in deed upon the Grass but it 's plain Mr. D. knows no difference between the Evening and the Morning Star When Linnets fill the Woods c. Mr. D. will defend himself here by his Friend Ruaeus and other Dutch Commentators yet Servius hints at the Nightingale and since the Poet is describing the Evening when Linnets are all hush'd Common Sence would have taught him that Virgil could mean no Bird but the Nightingale and this a judicious Translator would easily have observ'd The Ice an Hostry now for Waggons which if it answer Virgil's Hospita Plaustris is a very considerable Discovery and is somewhat beyond the Thames during Blanket Fair so again And thence By weight the solid Portions they dispence is not Virgil's Et totae solidam
Bitumen the wanton labour of the Bees with Hellebore and Squills deep rooted in the Seas Quaere who 's the better Leach and more intelligible Author Add to this The secret Vice is fed for alitur vitium as if vitium in Latine were of no larger a signification than vice in English and you have an excellent Doctor and Interpreter together Virgil for the Fever in Sheep advises Inter ima ferire pedis venam i. e. says Servius to Breath a vein on the top of the Foot or between the Nails Mr. D. advises to breath a vein underneath the Foot so he constru'd his Author but what part of the Hoof pray do the veins lie in in Horses Kine Goats or Sheep Revenge the Crime and take the Traytor 's Head but why is it a Crime for a Sheep to be sick Or how comes the sick Creature to be a Traytor Or why must he lose his Head These Questions I confess are to me unanswerable to kill one which is diseas'd to prevent Contagion is good but Shepherds very seldom turn Headsmen But this agrees well enough with the Nation of Sheep because Virgil calls 'em gentem which shows a deep reach and with the Shepherds happy Reigns for Regna Pastorum Dr. Busby would never have pardon'd such Construing The dumb Creation i. e. Trees unless they happen to be vocal Earth unless there be some Aetnaean Rupture in it Sea Sky Stars yet Virgil talks nothing of these but Birds and Beasts are not the dumb Creation unless every thing be so which can't speak with Humane voice Birds and Beasts have a Language of their own which they mutually understand and are as noisie and as rational too as some Men. Again whence comes that difference between tame Cattel and the Beasts of Nature Are tame Cattel monsters or unnatural Products But this is the Iauntee way of writing Converting into Bane the kindly juice Ordain'd by Nature for a better use is the exact sence of Omniaque in se ossa minutatim morbo collopsa trahebat By the holy Butcher This becomes Mr. D. and doubtless is the true English of such a sacerdos as he would have made had he been admitted but in it he shows his respect not to Pagan Priests whom prehaps in many cases it might be proper enough to ridicule but to all for with him the Priests of all Religions are the same Or the black Poison stain'd the sandy Floor not to take notice of Mr. D's ignorance in Heathen Sacred Rites it 's plain he takes Iejunâ sanie to signifie black Poison and he 's the first and I hope will be the last who understands it so And render their sweet Souls Dulces Animas well Constru'd again These doubtless were some of those well educated moral Calves of whom Mr. D. gave us so fine an account before And rugged are his Hairs never was any thing more insipid than this Noble part of the III. Georgic as Mr. D. has given it us among the rest he says rugged are his Hairs Virgil says his skin grows hard which is a very different thing But it seems this Distemper sublimes the brutal Nature of the Horse so as he comes to groan with Manly moans I suppose he means moans of such Men as were Originated from Deucalion's Mother's Bowels which I have shown before must make 'em of a very soft temper Which timely taken ope'd his closing Iaws But if too late the Patients death did cause Virgil's sence is that When this Pestilence first began a Drench of Wine prov'd very good for the sick Beast But the Pest spreading the Disease was alter'd and what had been Physick before now became the grand incentives of the Distemper adding fury to the inward flame but he thought nothing of giving the Dose sooner or later for that made no difference I wish too Mr. D. would give us some application of l 768 9. Ye Gods to better Fate good Men dispose And turn that impious Error on our Foes I doubt not but it will be very diverting The Steer studious of Tillage and the crooked Plough this too must have come of those Calves of liberal Education mention'd before The Clown who cursing Providence repines Must every one then who 's sad repine and curse Providence It becomes a Republican Atheist well enough or one who has lost the Bays to do so but Virgil's Farmers had better Manners His Eyes are settled in a stupid Peace A dull Nonsensical way of saying A heavy dulness hangs upon his Eyes Thus have I gone thro this III. Book noting a few of almost numberless Faults in English in sence in his Authors meaning and in propriety of Expression and can't but wonder that any Man who could not but he Conscious of his own unfitness for it should go to amuze the learned World with such an undertaking A Man ought to value his Reputation more than his Money and not to hope that those who can read for themselves will be impos'd upon meerly by a Partially and unseasonably celebrated Name BOOK IV. Of the GEORGICS THis again is one of Mr. D's labour'd Pieces and which he values himself upon where if I meet with fewer blunders I shall be very glad for his and for the Readers and for my own sake for I know but of one thing more Nauseous to a wise Man than to find fault and that is to meet with any one who has so many to find But to the Book it self Before the busie Shop Mr. D. resembles the Bees-hive to as many things as the famous Preacher did Meditation Here in a few lines it 's their Station their City their place of Trade their Mansion their Shop and doubtless it 's resembl'd to many more things afterwards but with such a Copia as Virgil would have been no ways pleas'd with As the cold Congeals into a lump of liquid Gold who 'd think this liquid Gold were meer Honey Or where 's any Author whoever call'd it by that Name Virgil's our Text and it 's best keeping to him The niceness of their Nose false Grammar for Noses Such another incoherent verse is that And doubled Images of voice rebound Which if any one can make sence of with the precedent or subsequent Lines they 'll oblige me The winged Nation wanders thro the Skies This supposes Bees very high flyers which really they are not and therefore Virgil says nothing like it Drunk with secret Ioy for Nescio quâ dulcedine laetae and for Progeniem nidosque fovent the Paraphrase is wonderful Their young Succession all their cares imploy They breed they brood Instruct and educate And make Provision for the future State These Bees then are brought up at the same Academy where the Calves were in the former Book under Tutor D n but I 'm afraid in the issue they 'll prove Anti-Republicans Then Milfoil beat and Hony-suckles pound this is