Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

be dangerous. There are many animals, who, though far from being large, are yet capable of raifing ideas of the fublime, becaufe they are confidered as objects of terror; as ferpents and poifonous animals of almost all kinds. Even to things of great dimenfions, if we annex any adventitious idea of terxor, they become without comparifon greater. An even plain of a vast ex tent on land, is certainly no mean idea; the profpect of fuch a plain may be as extenfive as a profpect of the ocean; but can it ever fill the mind with any thing fo great as the ocean itfelf? This is owing to feveral caufes, but it is owing to none more than to this, that the ocean is an object of no fmall terBurke on the Sublime.

ror.

§ 97. Tragedy compared with Epic
Poetry.

To raife, and afterwards to calm the paffions; to purge the foul from pride, by the examples of human miferies which befal the greateft; in few words, to expel arrogance and introduce com. paffion, are the greateft effects of tra. gedy. Great, I must confefs, if they were altogether as lafting as they are pompous. But are habits to be introduced at three hours warning? Are radical difeafes fo fuddenly removed? A mountebank may promife fuch a cure, but a skilful phyfician will not undertake it. An epic poem is not fo much in hafte; it works leifurely; the changes which it makes are flow; but the cure is likely to be more perfe&t. The effects of tragedy, as I faid, are too violent to be lafting. If it be anfwered, that for this reafon tragedies are often to be feen, and the dofe to be repeated; this is tacitly to confefs, that there is more virtue in one heroic poem, than in many tragedies. A man is humbled one day, and his pride returns the next. Chymical medicines

are obferved to relieve oftener than to cure; for 'tis the nature of fpirits to make fwift impreffions, but not deep. Galenical decoctions, to which I may properly compare an epic poem, have more of body in them; they work by their fubftance and their weight. It is

one reafon of Ariftotle's to prove that tragedy is the more noble, because it turns in a fhorter compafs; the whole action being circumfcribed within the space of four-and-twenty hours. He might prove as well that a mushroom is to be preferred before a peach, because it fhoots up in the compafs of a night. A chariot may be driven round the pillar in lefs space than a large machine, because the bulk is not fo great. Is the moon a more noble planet than Saturn, because the makes her revolution in lefs than thirty days; and he in little lefs than thirty years? Both their orbs are in proportion to their feveral magnitudes; and, confequently, the quickness or flownefs of their motion, and the time of their circumvolutions, is no argument of the greater or lefs perfection. And befides, what virtue is there in a tragedy, which is not contained in an epic poem where pride is humbled, virtue rewarded, and vice punished; and thofe more amply treated, than the narrowness of the drama can admit? The fhining quality of an epic hero, his magnanimity, his conftancy, his patience, his piety, or whatever characteriftical virtue his poet gives him, raifes firft our admiration: we are naturally prone to imitate what we admire; and frequent acts produce a habit. If the hero's chief quality be vicious, as, for example, the choler and obftinate defire of vengeance in Achilles, yet the moral is inftructive: and befides, we are informed in the very propofition of the Iliad, that this anger was pernicious; that it brought a thousand ills on the Grecian camp. The courage of Achilles is propofed to imitation, not his pride and difobedience to his general, nor his brutal cruelty to his dead enemy, nor the felling his body to his father: we abhor thofe actions while we read them, and what we abhor we never imitate: the poet only fhews them, like rocks or quickfands, to be

fhunned.

[blocks in formation]

more lovely; for there the whole hero is to be imitated. This is the Eneas of Virgil this is that idea of perfection in an epic poem, which painters and ftatuaries have only in their minds, and which no hands are able to exprefs. Thefe are the beauties of a god in a human body. When the picture of Achilles is drawn in tragedy, he is taken with those warts and moles, and hard features, by thofe who reprefent him on the stage, or he is no more Achilles; for his creator Homer has fo defcribed him. Yet even thus he appears a perfect hero, though an imperfect character of virtue. Horace paints him after Homer, and delivers him to be copied on the stage with all thofe imperfections; therefore they are either not faults in an heroic poem, or faults common to the drama. After all, on the whole merits of the cafe, it must be acknowledged, that the epic poem is more for the manners, and tragedy for the paffions. The paffions, as I have faid, are violent; and acute diftempers require medicines of a strong and speedy operation. Ill habits of the mind and chronical difeafes are to be corrected by degrees, and cured by alteratives: wherein though purges are fometimes neceffary, yet diet, good air, and moderate exercife, have the greatest part. The matter being thus ftated, it will appear that both forts of poetry are of ufe for their proper ends. The flage is active, the epic poem works at greater leifure, yet is acted too, when need requires for dialogue is imitated by the drama, from the more active parts of it. One puts off a fit like the quinquina, and relieves us only for a time; the other roots out the diftemper, and gives a healthful habit. The fun enlightens and chears us, difpels fogs, and warms the ground with his daily beams; but the corn is fowed, increases, is ripened, and reaped for ufe, in process of time, and its proper season. I proceed from the greatnefs of the action to the dignity of the actors; I mean, to the perfons employed in both poems. There likewife tragedy will be feen to borrow from the epopee; and that which borrows is always of lefs dignity, becaufe it has not of its own. A fubject, 'tis

true, may lend to his fovereign; but the act of borrowing makes the king inferior, because he wants, and the fubject fupplies. And fuppofe the perfons of the drama wholly fabulous, or of the poet's invention, yet heroic poetry gave him the examples of that invention; because it was first, and Homer the common father of the stage. I know not of any one advantage which Tragedy can boast above heroic poetry, but that it is reprefented to the view, as well as read; and instructs in the clofet, as well as on the theatre. This is an uncontefted excellence, and a chief branch of its prerogative; yet I may be allowed to fay, without partiality, that herein the actors fhare the poet's praife. Your lord fhip knows fome modern tragedies which are beautiful on the ftage, and yet I am confident you would not read them. Tryphon the ftationer complains they are feldom asked for in his fhop. The poet who flourished in the fcene, is damned in the ruelle; nay more, he is not esteemed a good poet, by thofe who fee and hear his extravagancies with delight. They are a fort of stately fuftian and lofty childishness. Nothing but nature can give a fincere pleasure: where that is not imitated, 'tis grotefque painting; the fine woman ends in a fifh's tail. Dryden.

$ 98. Hiftory of Tranflations. Among the ftudies which have exercifed the ingenious and the learned for more than three centuries, none has been more diligently or more fuccefffully cultivated than the art of tranflation; by which the impediments which bar the way to fcience are, in fome meafure, removed, and the multiplicity of languages becomes lefs incommodious.

Of every other kind of writing the ancients have left us models which all fucceeding ages have laboured to imitate; but tranflation may justly be claimed by the moderns as their own. In the firft ages of the world inftruction was commonly oral, and learning traditional, and what was not written could not be tranflated. When alpha

betical

betical writing made the conveyance of opinions and the tranfmiffion of events more eafy and certain, literature did -not flourish in more than one country at once; for diftant nations had little commerce with each other, and thofe few whom curiofity fent abroad in queft of improvement, delivered their acquifitions in their own manner, defirous perhaps to be confidered as the inventors of that which they had learned from others.

The Greeks for a time travelled into Egypt, but they tranflated no books from the Egyptian language; and when the Macedonians had overthrown the empire of Perfia, the countries that became fubject to the Grecian dominion ftudied only the Grecian literature. The books of the conquered nations, if they had any among them, funk in oblivion; Greece confidered herself as the mistress, if not as the parent of arts, her language contained all that was fuppofed to be known, and, except the facred writings of the Old Teftament, I know not that the library of Alexandria adopted any thing from a foreign tongue.

The Romans confeffed themselves the scholars of the Greeks, and do not appear to have expected, what has fince happened, that the ignorance of fucceeding ages would prefer them to their teachers. Every man who in Rome afpired to the praife of literature, thought it neceffary to learn Greek, and had no need of verfions when they could ftudy the originals. Tranflation, however, was not wholly neglected. Dramatic poems could be understood by the people in no language but their own, and the Romans were fometimes entertained with the tragedies of Euripides and the comedies of Menander. Other works were fometimes attempted; in an old fcholiaft there is mention of a Latin Iliad, and we have not wholly loft Tully's verfion of the poem of Aratus; but it does not appear that any man grew eminent by interpreting another, and perhaps it was more frequent to tranflate for exercise or amufement than for fame.

The Arabs were the first nation who felt the ardour of translation : when

they had fubdued the eastern provinces of the Greek empire, they found their captives wifer than themselves, and made hafte to relieve their wants by imparted knowledge. They discovered that many might grow wife by the labour of a few, and that improvements might be made with speed, when they had the knowledge of former ages in their own language. They therefore made hafte to lay hold on medicine and philofophy, and turned their chief authors into Arabic. Whether they attempted the poets is not known; their literary zeal was vehement, but it was fhort, and probably expired before they had time to add the arts of elegance to thofe of neceffity.

The ftudy of ancient literature was interrupted in Europe by the irruption of the northern nations, who fub. verted the Roman empire, and erected new kingdoms with new languages. It is not ftrange, that fuch confusion should fufpend literary attention; those who loft, and those who gained dominion, had immediate difficulties to encounter and immediate miferies to redrefs, and had little leifure, amidst the violence of war, the trepidation of flight, the diftreffes of forced migration, or the tumults of unfettled conqueft, to enquire after fpeculative truth, to enjoy the amufement of imaginary adventures, to know the history of former ages, or ftudy the events of any other lives. But no fooner had this chaos of dominion funk into order, than learning began again to flourish in the calm of peace. When life and poffeffions were fecure, convenience and enjoyment were foon fought, learning was found the highest gratification of the mind, and tranflation became one of the means by which it was imparted.

At laft, by a concurrence of many caufes, the European world was roufed from its lethargy; thofe arts which had been long obfcurely ftudied in the gloom of monafteries became the general favourites of mankind; every nation vied with its neighbour for the prize of learning; the epidemical emulation fpread from fouth to north, and curiofity and tranflation found their way to Britain. He that reviews the progress of

English

English literature, will find that tranf lation was very early cultivated among us, but that fome principles, either wholly erroneous or too far extended, hindered our fuccefs from being always equal to our diligence.

Chaucer, who is generally confidered as the father of our poetry, has left a verfion of Boetius on the Comforts of Philofophy, the book which feems to have been the favourite of middle ages, which had been tranflated into Saxon by king Alfred, and illuftrated with a copious comment afcribed to Aquinas. It may be fuppofed that Chaucer would apply more than common attention to an author of fo much celebrity, yet he has attempted nothing higher than a 'verfion ftriatly literal, and has degraded the poetical parts to profe, that the conftraint of verfification might not ob'ftruct his zeal for fidelity.

Caxton taught us typography about the year 1490. The first book printed in English was a tranflation. Caxton was both the tranflator and printer of the Deftruccion of Troye, a book which, in that infancy of learning, was confidered as the beft account of the fabulous ages, and which, tho' now driven out of notice by authors of no greater ufe or value, ftill continued to be read in Caxton's English to the beginning of the prefent century.

Caxton proceeded as he began, and, except the poems of Gower and Chaucer, printed nothing but tranflations from the French, in which the original is fo fcrupuloufly followed, that they afford us little knowledge of our own language; though the words are English, the phrafe is foreign.

As learning advanced, new works were adopted into our language, but I think with little improvement of the art of tranflation, though foreign nations and other languages offered us models of a better method; till in the age of Elizabeth we began to find that greater liberty was neceffary to elegance, and that elegance was neceffary to general reception; fome effays were then made upon the Italian poets, which deferve the praife and gratitude of pofterity.

But the old practice was no fuddenly

forfaken; Holland filled the nation with literal tranflation, and, what is yet more ftrange, the fame exactness was obftinately practifed in the verfions of the poets. This abfurd labour of conftruing into rhyme was countenanced by Jonfon in his verfion of Horace; and, whether it be that more men have learning than genius, or that the endeavours of that time were more directed towards knowledge than delight, the accuracy of Jonfon found more imitators than the elegance of Fairfax; and May, Sandys, and Holiday, confined themselves to the toil of rendering line for line, not indeed with equal felicity, for May and Sandys were poets, and Holiday only a scholar and a critic.

Feltham appears to confider it as the established law of poetical translation, that the lines fhould be neither more nor fewer than thofe of the original; and fo long had this prejudice prevail ed, that Denham praifes Fanfhaw's verfion of Guarini as the example of a

new and noble way,' as the first attempt to break the boundaries of cuftom, and affert the natural freedom of the mufe.

In the general emulation of wit and genius which the feftivity of the Reftoration produced, the poets fhook off their constraint, and confidered translation as no longer confined to fervile clofenefs. But reformation is feldom the work of pure virtue or unaffisted reafon. Tranflation was improved more by accident than conviction. The writers of the foregoing age had at least learning equal to their genius, and, being often more able to explain the fentiments or illuftrate the allufions of the ancients, than to exhibit their graces and transfufe their fpirit, were perhaps willing fometimes to conceal their want of poetry by profufion of literature, and therefore tranflated literally, that their fidelity might fhelter their infipidity or harshness. The wits of Charles's time had feldom more than flight and fuperficial views, and their care was to hide their want of learning behind the colours of a gay imagination; they therefor tranflated always with freedom, fometimes with licentiousness,

licentioufnefs, and perhaps expected that their readers fhould accept fprightlinefs for knowledge, and confider ignorance and mistake as the impatience and negligence of a mind too rapid to ftop at difficulties, and too elevated to defcend to minuteness.

Thus was tranflation made more eafy to the writer, and more delightful to the -reader; and there is no wonder if ease and pleasure have found their advocates. The paraphraftic liberties have been almost univerfally admitted; and Sherbourn, whofe learning was emi-nent, and who had no need of any excafe to pass flightly over obfcurities, is -the only writer who, in later times, has attempted to justify or revive the ancient feverity.

There is undoubtedly a mean to be obferved. Dryden faw very early that -clofenefs beft preferved an author's fenfe, and that freedom beft exhibited - his fpirit; he therefore will deferve the -highest praise who can give a reprefentation at once faithful and pleafing, who can convey the fame thoughts with the fame graces, and who, when he tranflates, changes nothing but the language. Idler.

$99. What Talents are requifite to form

a good Tranflator.

After all, a tranflator is to make his author appear as charming as poffibly he can, provided he maintains his character, and makes him not unlike himfelf. Tranflation is a kind of draw ing after the life; where every one will acknowledge there is a double fort of likeness, a good one and a bad. 'Tis one thing to draw the outlines true, the features like, the proportions exact, the colouring itfelf perhaps tolerable; and another thing to make all thefe graceful, by the pofture, the fhadowings, and chiefly by the fpirit which animates the whole. I cannot without fome indignation look on an ill copy of an excellent original; much lefs can I behold with patience Virgil, Homer, and fome others, whofe beauties I have been endeavouring all my life to imitate, fo abufed, as I may fay, to their faces, by a botching interpreter. What English readers, unacquainted with

Greek or Latin, will believe me, or any other man, when we commend thofe authors, and confefs we derive all that is pardonable in us from their fountains, if they take thofe to be the fame poets whom our Ogilbys have tranflated? But I dare affure them, that a good poet is no more like himself, in a dull tranflation, than a carcafe would be to his living body. There are many who understand Greek and Latin, and yet are ignorant of their mother-tongue. The proprieties and delicacies of the English are known to few: 'tis impoffible even for a good wit to understand and practife them, without the help of a liberal education, long reading, and digefting of thofe few good authors we have amongst us; the knowledge of men and manners; the freedom of habitudes and converfation with the best of company of both fexes; and, in fhort, without wearing off the ruft which he contracted, while he was laying in a ftock of learning. Thus difficult it is to understand the purity of English, and critically to difcern not only good writers from bad, and proper ftyle from a corrupt, but alfo to diftinguish that which is pure in a good author, from that which is vicious and corrupt in him. And for want of all these requifites, or the greatest part of them, most of our ingenious young men take up fome cry'd-up English poet for their model, adore him, and imitate him, as they think, without knowing wherein he is defective, where he is boyish and trifling, wherein either his thoughts are improper to his fubject, or his expreffions unworthy of his thoughts, or the turn of both is unharmonious. Thus it appears neceffary, that a man fhould be a nice critic in his mother-tongue, before he attempts to tranflate a foreign language. Neither is it fufficient that he be able to judge of words and style; but he must be a master of them too: he muft perfectly understand his author's tongue, and abfolutely command his own: fo that, to be a thorough tranflator, he must be a thorough poet. Neither is it enough to give his au thor's fenfe in good English, in poetical expreffions, and in mufical numbers: for, though all thofe are exceed

« ZurückWeiter »