maniere d'acquit, because I had obliged myself by articles to do somewhat of that kind. These scattering observations are rather guesses at my author's meaning in some passages, than proofs that so he meant. The unlearned may have recourse to any poetical Dictionary in English, for the names of persons, places, or fables, which the learned need not; but that little which I say, is either new or necessary: and the first of these qualifications never fails to invite a reader, if not to please him.

In our author's translation of Virgil, Mr. Spence observes, there is so much spirit, that it has the air rather of an original, than a translation. Hence it is read with so much pleasure, that the faults of it are scarcely perceived. However, faults it certainly has; but they are of such a kind as almost all our poets have been guilty of, and relate to things which had not then been considered so regularly as they ought to be. They are there. fore to be deemed the faults of the times, rather than the defects of Dryden; for exactness in things of this nature, when he wrote, had been little attended to.

In the first place, the personages, dress, and attributes, of the allegorical persons in Virgil, are sometimes misrepresented in the translation. Thus Bacchus is described as having a plump jovial face, instead of that fine beauty which was his characteristick among the ancients, (Virg. Geo. ii. v. 392. Dryd. 540); Proteus with grey hair (Geo. iv. v. 519. Dryd. v. 766); the Goddess of Peace with wings (Æn. iv. v. 520. Dryd. v. 762); the Minotaur with his lower parts brutal, and his upper parts human (Æn. vi. v. 25. Dryd. v. 37); Aurora with the

new attribute of a streamer in her hand (Æn. vii. v. 26. Dryd. v. 35), as the attendants of Bacchus carry flags in theirs (Æn. vii. v. 582. Dryd. v. 803): Cybele is drawn by Bacchus's tigers, instead of her own lions (Æn. x. v. 255. Dryd. v. 356); Neptune is equipped (like the figure of Julius Cæsar in the great church at Breda) with a Gothick mace (En. ii. v. 612. Dryd. v. 829); Janus with a bunch of keys (En. vii. v. 181. Dryd. v. 246; and compare Ovid's Fast. i. 99); and Priapus with a lathsword (Geo. iv. v. 111. Dryd. v. 168): all these, and many more without any authority from Virgil, and contrary to the representation of those beings in the works of the ancient artists that remain to us:

As Dryden in some places gives the deities attributes that do not belong to them, so he misrepresents their actions and attitudes in others. Thus, where the original speaks of Tisiphone, as sitting alone before the gates of Tartarus, the translation represents her as a ghost walking at the head of several others (En. vi. 575. Dryd. v.777). Instead of Juno's flying to our earth, Dryden makes her descend to hell (Æn. vii. v. 525. Dryd. v.450); and when Virgil speaks of Eridanus's directing some of his waters down towards the vales of Elysium, Dryden represents this river-god as making his stream first mount upward, and then as hiding his head under-ground (En. vi. v. 659. Dryd. v. 894). There is something of the same kind too, where the translation makes Somnus draw a trail of light after him, in his descent to Palinurus (En. v. v. 840. Dryd. v. 1092), whereas the original only mentions his cleaving the dark air, or perhaps causing a serenity in it, the better to deceive that pilot ;-and where it describes Sabinus as resting his head on a little pruning-hook (Æn. vii. v. 179. Dryd. v. 249); contrary to the original, and to the reason of the thing; for a painter or statuary would be reckoned to want judgment, who should represent any

figure as resting its head on a pruning-hook, and scarce any thing can be good in a poetical description, which would appear absurd, if represented in a statue or pic

ture.

Our best poets have been too apt to mix the natural and allegorical ways of speaking together: a mixture very blamable wherever it is introduced, but peculiarly so in a translator, who can have no right to represent his author as confused, where he is uniform and clear. Yet there are instances in this translation, of mixed allegories, where the original is quite free from any such mixture; and of other liberties scarce allowable in a translator; such as the introducing the allegorical style, where Virgil has not made use of it, and the omitting it where he has. Of the first kind, i. e. of mixed metaphor, where there is no such mixture in Virgil, (to give an instance or two out of many that might be produced,) is his idea of the morning-star, shaking dew from his hair (Æn. viii. v. 591. Dryd. v. 781; and see also Æn. v. 808. Dryd. v. 1056); of the second species of impropriety, (that of introducing allegory where Virgil is literal,) Deucalion's hurling his mother's entrails over the world, and Vulcan's riding with loosened reins, are instances (Geo. i. v. 62. Dryd. y. 94.-Æn. v. v. 663. Dryd. v. 865); of the third, (that of being literal, where Virgil is allegorical) the calmness of the Tiber in the eighth book of the ENEID, and the storm of hail in the ninth (Æn. viii. v. 89. Dryd. v. 123.-Æn. ix. v. 671. Dryd. v. 913).

The want of a sufficient knowledge of the particular characters, rank, and dignity of the allegorical personages, makes Dryden sometimes vary from his original; and carries him in some measure so far, as quite to destroy the character he is speaking of. Virgil describes the face of Neptune as serene and undisturbed, at the very time that he strongly resents the liberty taken by Æolus, in raising a storm; but Dryden turns this serenity into anger

and rage (Æn. i. v. 127-131-141. Dryd. v. 89-202.) Hence he thinks it presumption in Minerva to throw the thunderbolts of Jupiter (Æn. i. v. 43. Dryd. v. 63); and makes Venus thunder, perhaps without authority from Virgil (Æn. viii. 529. Dryd. v. 699): hence he represents Iris as a mischievous goddess, with extraordinary terrours on her brow (En. v. v. 628-648. Dryd. v. 803-844); and Somnus, the most gentle and most pleasing of all the deities, as a traitor-god and a devil (Æn. v. v. 841-861. Dryd. v. 1097-1120).

Dryden is apt to fall into faults of this kind on many other occasions, as well as the last mentioned, from his not guarding sufficiently against vulgarisms. He wrote in general with as much spirit as any man; and in thiş work was pressed on by other causes to write with yet more rapidity than usual. This must have occasioned several negligencies; and among the rest some low expressions and mean lines, sometimes very unworthy of the subject he is treating. Hence he speaks of Bacchus's honest face (Geo. ii. v. 392. Dryd. v. 540), and of the jolly Autumn (Geo. ii. v. 5. Dryd. v. 9). It is hence that he calls Juno the buxom bride of Jupiter (Geo. ii. v. 327. Dryd. v. 443); and Cybele, the grandam-goddess (Æn. ix. v. 83. Dryd. v. 95). It is thus that he talks of Juno's sailing on the winds (Æn. xii. v. 160. Dryd. v. 243), and Apollo's bestriding the clouds (Æn. ix. v. 640. Dryd. v. 875). This made him fall into that slovenly description of Aurora (Geo. i. v. 447. Dryd. v. 596), and that strange one of Taurus (Geo. i. v. 218. Dryd. v. 308). This led him to use Bacchus with so much familiarity, as he does in the following couplet (Geo. ii. v. 8. Dryd. v. 12):

Come, strip with me, my God! come, drench all o'er Thy limbs in must of wine, and drink in every pore; and to insert those little particularities in his description of Typhoeus's surprize (Æn. ix. v. 716. Dryd. v. 968) :

Then trembles Prochyta, then Ischia roars :
Typhoeus, thrown beneath by Jove's command,
Astonish'd at the flaw that wakes the land,

Soon shakes his weary side; and scarce awake,

With wonder feels the weight press lighter on his back.

And this, in Juturna's flight (Æn. xii. v. 886. Dryd. v. 1283):

She drew a length of sighs; nor more she said,
But in her azure mantle wrapp'd her head;
Then plung'd into her stream with deep despair,
And her last sobs came bubbling up in air.

To his hurry and impetuosity in performing this work may be attributed his taking sometimes one person for another, and sometimes one thing for another. Thus Tellus is mentioned in the translation, instead of Vesta in the original (Geo. i. v. 499. Dryd. v. 670); Ate, instead of Tisiphone (Æn. x. v. 761. Dryd. v. 1080); Scorpion, instead of Piscis (Geo. iv. v. 235. Dryd. v. 343); Nereids, instead of Naiads (Æn. i. v. 172. Dryd. v. 236); and Nymphs of the waters, instead of Nymphs of the air (Æn. i. v. 77. Dryd. v. 111). Thus, where the original speaks of a mountain, the translation turns it into a rivergod (Geo. iii. v. 30. Dryd. v. 47); where the former mentions the three bodies of Geryon, the latter makes it three lives (Æn. viii. v. 205. Dryd. v. 268); and where Virgil speaks at most but of eighteen water-nymphs, Dryden has increased them to fifty (Geo. iv. v. 333. Dryd. v. 447)

The substance of the foregoing remarks may be found in POLYMETIS, p. 309-316.

"In the comparison of Homer and Virgil, (says our great English critick) the discriminative excellence of Homer is elevation and comprehension of thought, and that of Virgil is grace and splendour of diction. The beauties of Homer are therefore difficult to be lost, and