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TRANSLATIONS, &c.

PREFACE

TO THE

DESTRUCTION OF TROY, &c.

THERE are fo few tranflations which deferve praise, that I scarce ever faw any which deferved pardon; those who travel in that kind being for the moft part fo unhappy as to rob others without enriching themselves, pulling down the fame of good authors without raising their own: neither hath any author been more hardly dealt withal than this our mafter; and the reafon is evident, for, what is most excellent is most inimitable; and if even the worst authors are yet made worse by their tranflators, how impoffible is it not to do great injury to the beft? And therefore I have not the vanity to think my copy equal to the original, nor (confequently) myfelf altogether guiltless of what I accufe others; but if I can do Virgil lefs injury than others have done, it will be in fome degree to do him right; and, indeed, the hope of doing him more right is the only scope of this effay, by opening a new way of tranflating this author to thofe whom youth, leifure, and better fortune, make fitter for fuch undertakings.

I conceive it is a vulgar error, in tranflating poets, to affect being fidus interpres; let that care be with them who deal in matters of fact, or matters of faith: but whofocver aims at it in poetry, as he attempts what is not required, fo he fhall never perform what he attempts; for it is not his

business alone to tranflate language into language, but poefy into pocfy; and poefy is of fo fubtile a fpirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new fpirit be not added in the transfufion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happineffes peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words; and whofoever offers at verbal tranflation, fhall have the misfortune of that young traveller who loft his own language abroad, and brought home no other instead of it: for the grace of the Latin will be loft by being turned into English words, and the grace of the English by being turned into the Latin phrafe. And as fpeech is the apparel of our thoughts, fo are there certain garbs and modes of fpeaking, which vary with the times, the fashion of our clothes being not more fubject to alteration than that of our speech and this I think Tacitus mcant by that which he calls fermonem temporis iftius auribus accommodatum; the delight of change being as due to the curiofity of the ear as of the eye; and therefore, if Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he fhould fpeak not only as man of this nation, but as a man of this age; and if this difguife I have put upon him (I wish I could give it a better name) fit not naturally and eafily

on fo grave a perfon, yet it may become him better than that fool's coat wherein the French and Italians have of late prefented him; at least, I hope it will not make him appear deformed, by making any part enormously bigger or less than the life; (I having made it my principal care to follow him, as he made it his to follow nature, in all his proportions) neither have I any where offered iuch violence to his fenfe, as to make it fem mine, and not his. Where my expreffions are not to full as his, either our language or my art was defective

(but I rather suspect myself); but where mine are fuller than his, they are but the impressions which the often reading of him hath left upon my thoughts; fo that if they are not his own conceptions, they are at least the refults of them; and if (being confcious of making him speak worse than he did almost in every line) I err in endeavouring fometimes to make him ípeak better, I hope it will be judged an error on the right hand, and fuch an one as may deferve pardon, if not imitation.

THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY,

AN ESSAY ON THE

SECOND BOOK OF VIRGIL's ENEIS.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1636.

THE ARGUMENT.

The first book fpeaks of Æneas's voyage by fea, and how, being caft by tempeft upon the coast of Carthage, he was received by Queen Dido, who, after the feaft, defires him to make the relation of the destruction of Troy; which is the Argument of this book.

WHILE all with filence and attention wait,
Thus fpeaks Æneas from the bed of state:
Madam, when you command us to review
Our fate, you make our old wounds bleed anew,
And all thofe forrows to my sense restore,
Whereof none faw fo much, none fuffer'd more.
Not the most cruel of our conq'ring foes
So unconcern'diy can relate our woes
As not to lend a tear; then how can I
Reprefs the horror of my thoughts, which fly
The fad remembrance? Now th' expiring night
And the declining stars to reft invite;
Yet, fince 'tis your command, what you so well
Are pleas'd to hear, I cannot grieve to tell,
By Fate repell'd, and with repulfes tir'd,
The Greeks, fo many lives and years expir'd,
A fabric like a moving mountain frame,
Pretending vows for their return: this Fame
Divulges; then within the beaft's vast womb
The choice and flower of all their troops entomb.
In view the ifle of Tenedos, once high
In fame and wealth, while Troy remain'd, doth lie;
(Now but an unfecure and open bay)
Thither, by ftealth, the Greeks their fleet convey.
We gave them gone, and to Mycenæ fail'd,
And Troy reviv'd, her mourning face unvail'd;
All through th' unguarded gates with joy refort
To fee the flighted camp, the vacant port.

Here lay Ulyffes, there Achilles; here

The battles join'd; the Grecian fleet rode there;
But the vast pile th' amazed vulgar views,
Till they their reafon in their wonder lofe.
And firit Thymatus moves (urg'd by the power
Of fate or fraud) to place it in the tower;
But Capys and the graver fort thought fit
The Greeks' fufpected prefent to commit
To feas or flames, at least to fearch and bore
The fides, and what that space contains t' explore.
The uncertain multitude with both engag'd
Divided ftands, till from the tower, enrag'd
Laocoon ran, whom all the crowd attends,
Crying, What defp'rate frenzy's this, (oh, friends!)
To think them gone? Judge rather their retreat
But a defign; their gift's but a deceit :

For our deftruction 'twas contriv'd no doubt,
Or from within by fraud, or from without
By force. Yet know ye not Ulyffes' fhifts?
Their fwords lefs danger carry than their gifts.
(This faid) against the horfe's fide his spear
He throws, which trembles with inclofed fear,
Whilft from the hollows of his womb proceed
Groans not his own; and had not Fate decreed
Our ruin, we had fiil'd with Grecian blood
The place; then Troy and Priam's throne had stood.
Mean-while a fetter'd pris'ner to the king
With joyful fhouts the Dardan fhepherds bring,
X x iiij

Who to betray us did himself betray,
At once the taker, and at once the prey;
Firmly prepar'd, of one event fecur'd,
Or of his death or his defign affur'd
The Trojan youth about the captive flock,
To wonder, or to pity, or to mock.

Now hear the Grecian fraud, and from this one
Conjecture all the rest.

Difarm'd, diforder'd, cafting round his eyes

On all the troops that guarded him, he cries,
"What land, what fea, for me what fate attends?
Caught by my foes, condemned by my friends,
Incenfed Troy a wretched captive fecks
To facrifice; a fugitive the Greeks."
To pity this complaint cur former rage
Converts; we now inquire his parentage;
What of their counfels or affairs he knew?

Then fearless he replies, "Great King! to you
All truth I fhall relate: nor firft can I
Myfelf to be of Grecian birth deny;
And though my outward ftate misfortune hath
Deprefs'd thus low, it cannot reach my faith.
You may by chance have heard the famous name
Of Palamede, who from old Belus came,
Whom, but for voting peace, the Greeks pursue,
Accus'd unjustly, then unjustly flew,

Yet mourn'd his death. My father was his friend,
And me to his commands did recommend,
While laws and councils did his throne fupport;
I but a youth, yet fome efteem and port
We then did bear, till by Ulyffes' craft
(Things known I fpeak) he was of life bereft :
Since in dark forrow I my days did fpend,
Till now, difdaining his unworthy end,
1 could not filence my complaints, but vow'd
Revenge, if ever fate or chance allow'd

My wifh'd return to Greece: from hence his hate,
From thence my crimes, and all my ills. bear date :
Old guilt frefh malice gives, the people's ears
He fills with rumours, and their hearts with fears,
And then the prophet to his party drew.
But why do I thefe thankiefs truths purfue,
Or why defer your rage? on me for all
The Greeks let your revenging fury fall,
Ulyffes this, th' Atride this defire

[may'd

At any rate. We ftraight are fet on fire (Unpractis'd in fach mysteries) to inquire The manner and the caufe, which thus he told, With geflures humble, as his tale was bold. "Oft' have the Greeks (the fiege detefting) tir'd With tedious war, a ftol'n retreat defir'd, And would to Heav'n they 'ad gone; but still difBy feas or kics, unwillingly they flay'd. Chiefly when this ftupendous pile was rais'd Strange noifes fill'd the air; we, all amaz'd, Difpatch Eurypylus t' inquire our fates, Who thus the fentence of the gods relates; "A virgin's flat ghter did the form appease, When first t'wards Troy the Grecians took the "feas; "Their fafe retreat another Grecian's blood "Muft purchase." All at this confounded stood; Fach thinks himself the man, the fear en all O: what the mifchict but on one can fail ;

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Then Calchas (by Ulyffes firft infpir'd)

Was urg'd to name whom th' angry gods requir'd;
Yet was I warn'd (for many were as well
Infpir'd as he), and did my fate foretell.
Ten days the prophet in suspense remain'd,
Would no man's fate pronounce; at last constrain'd
By Ithacus, he folemnly defign'd

Me for the facrifice: the people join'd

In glad confent, and all their common fear
Determine in my fate. The day drew near,
The facred rites prepar'd, my temples crown'd
With holy wreaths; then I coufe I found
The means to my efcape: my bonds I brake,
Fied from my guards, and in a muddy lake
Amongst the fedges all the night lay hid,
Till they their fails had hoift, (if so they did.)
And now, alas! no hope remains for me
My home, my father, and my fons, to fee,
Whom they, enrag'd, will kill for my offence,
And punifh, for my guilt, their innocence.
Thefe gods who know the truths I now relate,
That faith which yet remains inviolate
By mortal men, by thefe I beg; redrefs
My caufelefs wrongs, and pity fuch diftrefs."
And now true pity in exchange he finds

For his falfe tears, his tongue his hands unbinds.
Then spoke the king, "Be ours, whoe'er thou art
Forget the Greeks. But firft the truth impart,
Why did they raife, or to what use intend,
This pile to a wariike or religious end?”
Skilful in fraud (his native art) his hands
T'ward heav'n he rais'd, deliver'd now from bands.
"Ye pure ethereal flames! ye pow's ador'd
By mortal men! ye altars, and the fword
I 'feap'd ye facred fillets that involv'd
My deftin'd head! grant I may ftand abfolv`d
From all their laws and rites renounce all name
Of faith or love, their fecret thoughts proclaim,
Only, O Troy! preferve thy faith to me,
If what I fhall relate preferveth thee.
From Pallas' favour all our hopes, and all
Counfels and actions, took original,
Till Diomed (for fuch attempts made fit
By dire conjunction with Ulyffes' wit)
Affails the facred tower; the guards they flay,
Defile with bloody hands, and thence convey
The fatal image: ftraight with our fuccefs
Our hopes fell back; whilft prodigies exprefs
Her juft difdain; her flaming eyes did throw
Flafnes of lightning; from each part did flow
A briny fweat; thrice brandifhing her fpear,
Her ftatue from the ground itself did rear:
Then that we should our facrilege restore,
And reconvey their gods from Argos' fhore,
Calchas perfuades till then we urge in vain
The fate of Troy. To measure back the main
They all confent, but to return again
When reinforc'd with aids of gods and men.
Thus Calchas; then inftead of that, this file
Te Pailas was defign'd, to reconcile

Th' offer.ded pow'r, and expiate our guilt;
To this vaft height and monftrous ftature built,
Left, through your gates receiv'd, it might renow
Tour vows to her, and her defence to you.

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