LETTERS
CONCERNING
Poetical Translations, &c.
(Price One Shilling.)
LETTERS
CONCERNING
Poetical Translations,
AND
Virgil's and Milton's
ARTS of VERSE, &c.
by
William Benson
LONDON:
Printed for J. Roberts, near the Oxford-Arms
in Warwick-Lane. Mdccxxxix.
[page 1]
LETTER I.
SIR,
am now going to obey your Commands;but you must let me doit in my own way, that is, writeas much, or as little at a time as Imay have an Inclination to, andjust as things offer themselves. Afterthis manner you may receive ina few Letters, all that I have said to you aboutpoetical Translations, and the resemblance there isbetween Virgil's and Milton's Versification, andsome other Matters of the same nature.
To begin with the Business of Translation.
Whoever sits down to translate a Poet, ought inthe first place to consider his Author's peculiar Stile;for without this, tho' the Translation may be verygood in all other respects, it will hardly deserve theName of a Translation.
The two great Men amongst the Antients differfrom each other as much in this particular as in theSubjects they treat of. The Stile of Homer, whosings the Anger or Rage of Achilles, is rapid.[page 2]The Stile of Virgil, who celebrates the Piety of Æneas,is majestick. But it may be proper to explainin what this Difference consists.
The Stile is rapid, when several Relatives, eachat the head of a separate Sentence, are governed byone Antecedent, or several Verbs by one NominativeCase, 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, thatdoes all that is mentioned in three or four Lines.Now if the Translator does not nicely observe Homer'sStile in this Passage, all the Fire of Homerwill be lost. For Example: "O Heavenly Goddess,sing the Wrath of the Son of Peleus, thefatal Source of all the Woes of the Grecians,that Wrath which sent the Souls of many Hero