ART. V: A Tranflation of the Scots Paftoral Comedy, of the Gentle Shepberd, into English, from Allan Ramfay's original. By W. Ward. 8vo. 25. G. G. J. and J. Robinfon. London. 1785. A Tranflator fhould undoubtedly understand the language of his original; to be acquainted with his own, is no lefs requifite; and if his performance be in verfe, he fhould have fome idea of measure and of rhyme. He should likewife poffefs tafte and judgment; that he may be able both to difcern and to exprefs the beauties of the work he tranflates. Mr. Ward has not the moft diftant pretenfions to any one of the above qualifications. Wherever we turn we can plainly difcover that he does not understand the work he has attempted to translate. The nervous provincial expreffion of the original, which paints fo well the naiveté of paffion, has no reprefentative in the tranflation: the fenfe is either totally perverted, or, if at any time preferved, becomes flat, ridiculous or difgufting by the language in which it is conveyed. The heliconian liquor, when poured from the golden vafe of Ramfay into Mr. Ward's earthen pitcher, is converted into a vapid puddle. By comparing one or two paffages of the original and tranflation, the public will be able to decide as to the juftice of our animadverfions. The Roger of Allan Ramfay, fpeaking of his Jenny, fays, "I wish I cou'd na love her-but in vain ; I ftill maun* do't, and tholet her proud disdain; My Bauty is a cur I dearly like; E'en while he fawn'd, fhe ftrake the poor dum tike; If I had filled a nook within her breast, She wad ha'e shawn mair kindness to my beast." The Roger travesty of Mr. Ward thus expreffes himself, "In vain I wish I cou'd not feek her love, But yet I muft, my mind can never rove ; She ftruck my dog of late-hard hearted log! If the lov'd me, fhe'd furely love my dog. If one fmall fpark had ever fill'd her breaft, She might have shewn more kindness to my beaft !" Ramfay prefents us with every little circumftance which can add truth and expreffion to the defcription; his fhepherd' gives us the name of his dog, informs us he loves him dearly, and tells us that his mistress ftruck him, even while the animal careffed her; from all which he infers that he must have a rooted averfion to the mafter. Thefe heightening circumftances escape the difcernment of the tranflator. He has in-deed added an expreffion of his own "hard-hearted log!" * must. +fuffer. the name of his dog. Eng. Rev. Vol. V. Mar. 1785. which might have fuited a Dutch boor, but which by no means agrees with the character of Roger. It may be obferved too that the thought in the two laft lines is only a repetition of the fentiment in the preceding one. How he has murdered the exquifite defcription of rural coquetry, blended with innocence and paffion, given by Patie in the ft fcene, muft aftonish every one who will take the trouble of comparing the fpeech in Ramfay's original, beginning "Daft Gowk," with the tranflation, which commences with "Silly fool." p. 18. 1. 5. To give an extract of both, and enter into a minute criticifm would take up more room than we can afford to fo unimportant a publication. We shall only take notice of two grofs blunders in the fpeech alluded to. Franknefs and gayety, with the utmoft confidence in her lover, are the conflituents of Peggy's. character, as given us by the Scotch bard, while the at the fame time preferves all the innate delicacy of the fex, Inftead of this "femireducta Venus," the tranflator presents us with a St. Giles's ftreet-walker. In the Scotch poem, when, after he had pretended to flight her, fhe returns under cover of demanding his affiftance, and that of his dog to bring back three theep which had strayed from the flock, Patie fays that he fmiled at her embarraffment, and fae did fhe." Mr. Ward has thought proper to render this " I kifs'd and laughed, and fo did the:" i. e. fhe not only laughed but returned my kies. Nothing of the kind is to be found in the original on the contrary, Patic reprefents himself as ufing that gentle force which female delicacy requires; and fays that the fcolded him between every kifs. The other thing we shall notice is the translator's total omiffion of that happy line in the original, fo trongly, expreffive of the feelings of a lover, encircling a beloved miftrefs in his arms; 66 My very faul came louping to my lips." Inftead of which we are treated with the following couplet, "While in my arms I held the charming fair To tell thofe joys would banish ev'ry care." Perhaps this is one of the beauties which he infinuates in his preface he has added to the original. To Peggy's propofal of bathing themselves, Jenny, in the Scotch poem, objects, left perhaps their fwains might come upon them unexpectedly, and fee them naked. Mr. W. goes more roundly to work, and puts the following line into the mouth of the young thepherdefs, "And fee what always we would wish to hide!" Ramfay's Jenny, among other objections to matrimony, has the following. "A difh A difh of married love right foon grows cauld, And dozens down to nane as fowk grow auld." Dozened, fignifies having loft our feeling by cold: the metaphor is therefore equally beautiful and expreffive. We do not recollect that we have any where met with a more energetic delineation of the gradual decline of the amorous paffion. The tranflator, who excels in tranfmutation of the debasing kind, thus expreffes the fame thought, In youth we all the marriage pleafure enjoy, Old age comes on, and all thofe pleafures cloy." The firft line, befides having a fyllable too much, conveys all the groffness of the tranflator's own ideas; while he has moft adroitly contrived to tranfubftantiate every excellence of the fecond into his own unparalelled powder of poft. But we have done with animadverting on his failures in taste.-It ungenerous to war with total imbecility. is Let us next examine if he has any claims to the most common qualifications of a rhymfter. Can he count his fingers? Has he any ear? Or does he understand grammar? As to the first, after having premised that the heroic verfe of ten fyllables is the meafure he has adopted, or rather meant to adopt, it will be a fufficient proof of his incapacity to point out the four following blunders in the three first pages. "O Patie I am born to an ill-natur'd fate, To ftrive with hardships fad and great. But ftop a little Roger, you have not a heart. Indeed Mr. W. is as great a latitudinarian in measure as the moft violent pindaric writer we have ever met with; for we have lines from eight fyllables up to fifteen. e. g.. "Now Cromwell's dead, and gone to Nick. Why do fo, Roger?-ill-luck will fometimes happen to the beft. The following lift of rhymes, which we have collected from the ift and 2d acts, will be a very fatisfactory answer to our fecond question. "Bottle, hill; ftream, remain; fend, "find; decline, crime; refufe, nofe; lawn, adorn; wife, "thrive; thaws, ews; cheese, flies; home, blame; bleft, "blaft; again, own; bring, clean; malt, fat; hear, here; "clever, difcover; alone, throng; embrace, faft; lot, laft σε bloody, sturdy;" &c. &c. Yet we have difcovered that he has not failed in this part of his work from any antipathy to rhyme; for he has placed Maufe in the room of Madge, p. 72. merely because he wifhed to end the fucceeding line with " caufe" we at least, can affign no other reafon for the qui pro quo. By this manoeuvre the fenfe of the paffage is entirely inarred: but Mr. W. is fo accustomed to have neither N 2 neither rhyme nor reason, that we should be contented when one of them is preferved. As to our laft queftion, there is not a page of the work which does not fpeak loudly against his grammatical qua lifications. From the enormous mass of folecifms we fhall fele& a few. "There's other things that doth my reft oppofe. • Which foon flies round'.-P. 31. That with each rainy blaft decaying falls. p. 46. • Those once ample walls are now to ruin fell. p. 47. And he delights in books, he reads, and fpeaks With thofe that know them, Latin words and Gṛeeks." p. 64. Thefe examples might be confiderably enlarged; but the reader we dare fay, is fatisfied, and we haften to get quit of this article. Our refpect for the old Scotch bard has led us to examine with fome minutenefs what perhaps ought to have been difmiffed with a fingle fentence: but we were afraid that the mere English reader might have been led to form a judgement of the northern paftoral from the prefent distorted caricature. ART. VI. Creation: a Poem. By the Rev. Samuel Hayes, M. A. of Trinity College Cambridge, and Ufher of Weltminfter School. Cambridge printed. Sold in London 4to. Is: Dodfley: 1784 THE Setonian prize has produced no very confpicuous ex ertions of genius; we recollect none of the fuccessful poems that have rifen above mediocrity. The "Creation" of Mr. Hayes does not appear entitled to any degree of preeminence above the reft. It difplays the wifdom, power and goodness of God in the works of creation, and arraigns man for his ingratitude to his bountiful Creator, with a tritenes which can afford little pleasure to the man of tafte. The fubject itself will ever be acceptable to the ferious mind; but when common place-alone is to be difcovered in the difcuffion of it, a languor approaching to difguft is unavoidable. We are fenfible that it is beftowing no very high commendation on a poem when we fay that it is a tolerable sermon in verfe; impartiality however obliges us not to advance a fstep further in praife of this publication. So clofely indeed does Mr. H. adhere to the pulpit form, that, in imitation of many preachers, he has in p. 22. given us a recapitulation of his fubject, which we fhall prefent to the public as a fpecimen of the poem. "Thou * Thou God of Goodness hear thy fuppliant's pray'r! Could minifter delight, herb, flow'r and fruit, The diction and verification are in general correct; it would have been aftonishing if they were not, as the author has been long a teacher in a great fchool where much attention, perhaps too much, is paid to poetry, One or two.exceptions however we fhall beg leave to mention. "Whither can the eye ftretch and not behold” is not verfe, it becomes fo if Stretch be thus tranfpofed. Whither can stretch the eye and not behold. The following line is alfo liable to the fame objection, unlefs perfumed be accented on the first syllable, "Ábundant fmiles here from the perfum'd thores, p. 18." When this line is read, "Nor yet with froward charge deem nature vain, p. 1o." -who does not think that we are advised not to accufe dame nature of vanity, whereas Mr. Hayes intention is only to warn |