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Letters Concerning Poetical Translations And Virgil's and Milton's Arts of Verse, &c. By: William Benson (1682-1754) |
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CONCERNING Poetical Translations, &c. (Price One Shilling.)
LETTERS CONCERNING Poetical Translations, AND VIRGIL'S and MILTON'S ARTS of VERSE, &c. LONDON :
Printed for J. ROBERTS, near the Oxford Arms
in Warwick Lane . MDCCXXXIX.
LETTER I.
SIR, I am now going to obey your Commands; but you must let me do it in my
own way, that is, write as much, or as little at a time as I may have
an Inclination to, and just as things offer themselves. After this
manner you may receive in a few Letters, all that I have said to you
about poetical Translations, and the resemblance there is between
Virgil's and Milton's Versification, and some other Matters of the
same nature. To begin with the Business of Translation. Whoever sits down to translate a Poet, ought in the first place to
consider his Author's peculiar Stile ; for without this, tho' the
Translation may be very good in all other respects, it will hardly
deserve the Name of a Translation. The two great Men amongst the Antients differ from each other as much
in this particular as in the Subjects they treat of. The Stile of
Homer , who sings the Anger or Rage of Achilles , is rapid . The
Stile of Virgil , who celebrates the Piety of Æneas , is
majestick . But it may be proper to explain in what this Difference
consists. The Stile is rapid , when several Relatives, each at the head of a
separate Sentence, are governed by one Antecedent, or several Verbs by
one Nominative Case, to the close of the Period. Thus in Homer : "Goddess, sing the pernicious Anger of Achilles , which brought
infinite Woes to the Grecians , and sent many valiant Souls of
Heroes to Hell, and gave their Bodies to the Dogs, and to the Fowls
of the Air." Here you see it is the Anger of Achilles , that does all that is
mentioned in three or four Lines. Now if the Translator does not
nicely observe Homer's Stile in this Passage, all the Fire of
Homer will be lost. For Example: "O Heavenly Goddess, sing the Wrath
of the Son of Peleus , the fatal Source of all the Woes of the
Grecians , that Wrath which sent the Souls of many Heroes to
Pluto's gloomy Empire, while their Bodies lay upon the Shore, and
were torn by devouring Dogs, and hungry Vultures." Here you see the Spirit of Homer evaporates; and in what immediately
follows, if the Stile of Homer is not nicely attended to, if any
great matter is added or left out, Homer will be fought for in vain
in the Translation. He always hurries on as fast as possible, as
Horace justly observes, semper ad eventum festinat ; and that is
the reason why he introduces his first Speech without any Connection,
by a sudden Transition; and why he so often brings in his [Greek: ton
d' apameibomenos]: He has not patience to stay to work his Speeches
artfully into the Subject. Here you see what is a rapid Stile. I will now shew you what is
quite the contrary, that is, a majestic one . To instance in
Virgil : "Arms and the Man I sing; the first who from the Shores of
Troy (the Fugitive of Heav'n) came to Italy and the Lavinian
Coast." Here you perceive the Subject matter is retarded by the
Inversion of the Phrase , and by that Parenthesis , the Fugitive of
Heaven all which occasions Delay ; and Delay (as a learned Writer
upon a Passage of this nature in Tasso observes) is the Property of
Majesty: For which Reason when Virgil represents Dido in her
greatest Pomp, it is, Reginam cunctantem ad limina primi
Poenorum expectant . For the same Reason he introduces the most solemn and most important
Speech in the Æneid , with three Monosyllables, which causes great
Delay in the Speaker, and gives great Majesty to the Speech. O Qui Res Hominumq; Deumq; These three Syllables occasion three short Pauses. O Qui Res How
slow and how stately is this Passage! But it happens that I can set the Beginning of the Æneid in a clear
Light for my purpose, by two Translations of that Passage, both by the
same Hand; one of which is exactly in the manner of Virgil , the
other in the manner of Homer : The two Translations are made by the
Reverend Mr... Continue reading book >>
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