The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 12. John Dryden

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1

"If the King's Majesty say but Ho! or give any other signal, then they who are within the lists, with the constable and marshal, throwing their lances between the appellant and defendant, so part them." —The Ancient Method of Duels before the King.

2

Published in 8vo, in 1680. This version was made by several hands. See introductory remarks on Dryden's Translations. Johnson gives the following account of the purpose of Dryden's preface:

"In 1680, the epistles of Ovid being translated by the poets of the time, it was necessary (says Dr Johnson) to introduce them by a preface; and Dryden, who on such occasions was regularly summoned, prefixed a discourse upon translation, which was then struggling for the liberty it now enjoys. Why it should find any difficulty in breaking the shackles of verbal interpretation, which must for ever debar it from elegance, it would be difficult to conjecture, were not the power of prejudice every day observed. The authority of Jonson, Sandys, and Holiday, had fixed the judgement of the nation; and it was not easily believed that a better way could be found than they had taken, though Fanshaw, Denham, Waller, and Cowley, had tried to give examples of a different practice."

3

George Sandys' Translation of Ovid was published in folio, in 1626.

4

Ovid was born in the year of Rome 711, and died in 771 of the same æra.

5

The poet himself plainly intimates as much in an epistle to Fabius Maximus, where he represents himself as accusing Love of being the cause of his exile:

O puer! exilii, decepto causa magistro.

The deity replies to this charge, by alluding to the secret cause of his banishment, for which the loosness of his verses furnished only an ostensible reason:

JuroNil nisi concessum nos te didicisse magistro,Artibus et nullum crimen inesse tuis,Utque hoc, sic utinam cetera defendere possis,Scis aliud quod te læserit esse magis.

6

Martial, lib. XI. epig. 21.

7

Causa meæ cunctis nimium quoque nota ruinæ,Indicio non est testificanda meo.

8

This curious and obscure subject is minutely investigated by Bayle, who quotes and confutes the various opinions of the learned concerning this point of secret history; and concludes, like Dryden, by leaving it very much where he found it. Were I to hazard a conjecture, I should rather think, with our poet, Ovid had made some imprudent, and perhaps fortuitous discovery relating to Livia.

9

Dryden speaks inaccurately, from a general recollection of the passage; for Ovid says distinctly, that the Fates did not give him time to cultivate the acquaintance of Tibullus, any more than of Virgil. The entire passage runs thus:

Temporis illius colui, fovique poetas:Quotque aderant vates, rebar adesse deos.Sæpe suas volucres legit mihi grandior ævo,Quæque nocet serpens, quæ juvat herba, Macer.Sæpe suos solitus recitare Propertius ignes,Jure sodalitii qui mihi junctus erat.Ponticus Heroo, Battus quoque clarus Iambo,Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei.Et tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius auresDum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyraVirgilium vidi tantum; nec avara TibulloTempus amicitiæ fata dedere meæ.Trist. Lib. IV. Eleg. 9.

10

Sir John Denham gives his opinion on this subject in the preface to "The Destruction of Troy;" which he does not venture to call a translation, but "an Essay on the second book of Virgil's Æneis." – "I conceive it is a vulgar error, in translating poets, to affect being fidus interpres; let that care be with them who deal in matters of fact, or matters of faith; but whosoever aims at it in poetry, as he attempts what is not required, so he shall never perform what he attempts: for it is not his business alone to translate language into language, but poesy into poesy; and poesy is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words; and whosoever offers at verbal translation, shall have the misfortune of that young traveller, who lost his own language abroad, and brought home no other instead of it; for the grace of the Latin will be lost by being turned into English words, and the grace of the English by being turned into the Latin phrase."

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