LETTER I. MY DEAR CHILD, I AM extremely pleased with your translation now it is writ over fair. It is very close to the sense of the original, and done, in many places, with much spirit, as well as the numbers not lame, or rough. However an attention to Mr. Pope's numbers will make you avoid some ill sounds, and hobbling of the verse, by only transposing a word or two, in many B instances. I have, upon reading the Eclogue over again, altered the third, fourth, and fifth lines, in order to bring them nearer to the Latin, as well as to render some beauty which is contained in the repetition of words in tender passages; for example, Nos Patriæ fines, et dulcia linquimis arva, Nos Patriam fugimus: Tu Tityre lentus in umbra Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida Sylvas. We leave our native land, these fields so sweet, Our country leave: At ease, in cool retreat, You Thyrsis bid the woods fair Daphne's name repeat. I will desire you to write over another copy with this alteration, and also to write smoaks in the plural number, in the last line but one. You give me great pleasure, my dear child, in the progress you have made. I will. recommend to Mr. Leech to carry you quite through Virgil's Eneid from beginning to ending. Pray shew him this letter, with my service to him, and thanks for his care of you. For English poetry, I recommend Pope's translation of Homer, and Dryden's Fables in particular. I am not sure, if they are not called Tales instead of Fables. Your cousin, whom I am sure you can overtake if you will, has read Virgil's Eneid quite through, and much of Horace's Epistles. Terence's plays I would also desire Mr. Leech to make you perfect master of. Your cousin has read them all. Go on, my dear, |