Letters Concerning Poetical Translations Part 10

"_First_ in these _Fields_ I try the _Sylvan Strains_, Nor _blush_ to sport on _Windsor's blissful_ Plains.

_Fair_ Thames _flow_ gently _from_ thy _Sacred Spring_, While on thy Banks _Sicilian_ Muses _Sing_; Let Vernal Airs _thro' tre_mbling Osiers play, And _Albion_'s Cliffs _resound_ the _rural_ Lay.

You, that too wise for _Pride_, too good for _Pow'r_ Enjoy the _Glory_ to be _great_ no more.

Mr. _Pitt_ has the following Lines in his 2d _aeneid_.

"So when an _aged Ash_, whose Honours rise From some _steep_ Mountain tow'ring to the _Skies_, With many _an Axe_ by _shouting Swains_ is ply'd, _Fierce_ they repeat the _Strokes from_ every _Side_; _The tall Tree trembling_, as the Blows go round, Bows the _high Head_, and nods to every Wound.

Sir _Philip Sidney_, who was very unhappy in Versification, seems to have despised this Beauty in Verse, and even to have thought it an Excellence to fix the Pause always in one Place, namely at the End of the second Foot: So that he must have had no more Ear for Poetry than Mr. _Cowley_. Not but that I am apt to think some Writers in Sir _Philip Sidney_'s time carried this matter to a ridiculous Extreme.

Others thought this Beauty a Deformity, and concluded it so from two or three silly _Latin_ Lines of _Ennius_ and _Tully,_ such as,

_O t.i.te, Tute, Tati_, &c.

And,

_O Fortunatam, natam_, &c.

without ever attending to _Virgil_ in the least.

_Spencer_ every where abounds in all his Works with _Alliterations_; I will produce but one, which is exceeding beautiful.

"The _Lilly, Lady_ of the _Flow'ry Field_.

Here is a double initial Alliteration, and a continual mix'd Alliteration of the liquid _L_, which makes the Verse so very musical that there are few such Lines in our, or any other Language.

_Fairfax_, who was one of the first curious Versifyers amongst us, embellishes his Lines continually with this Ornament.

In his Description of a Troop of fighting Monks, in his first Book of his Translation of _Ta.s.so_, are these Lines.

"Their jolly Notes, they _Chanted_ loud and _Clear_: And _horrid Helms high_ on their _Heads_ they bear.

Than which Verses nothing can be more truly poetical.

But to go farther back than either _Fairfax_ or _Spencer_, those celebrated Lines in our antient Translation of the _Psalms_ owe their greatest Beauty to their _Alliteration_.

"The Lord descended from above, And bow'd the _Heavens high_, And underneath his Feet he cast The Darkness of the Sky.

"On _Cherubs_ and on _Cherubims_ Full _royally_ he _rode_, And on the _Wings_ of mighty _Winds_ Came flying _all abroad_.

A Line of _Chaucer_'s just now offers itself to my Memory, which has almost all the Arts of Poetry in it.

"A _Sheffield_ Whittle bare _he_ in _his Hose_.

There is a fine Alliteration in the Conclusion of the Line, Bare _he_ in _his Hose_, and a mix'd one at the Beginning of it. The _h_ in the first Syllables of the second and third Words mixes the Sound very agreeably; and lastly, the Inversion of the Phrase (where the Nominative is put immediately after the Verb) is extremely poetical.

_Bare he._ _Chaucer_ seems (to me) by the help of a delicate Ear, and a curious Judgment, to have learnt all his Graces from _Virgil_. 1.

His Rhyme. 2. His Inversion of the Phrase: And 3. His Alliteratio. The Varying of the Pause he does not seem to have attended to. But to return to _Milton_.

Having spoken sufficiently of the _Initial_, I come now to the _mix'd Alliteration_. And this latter is almost as common as the former, and is to be found in all such Lines as these.

"--And now is come Into the _blissful Field_.--

Every Ear must perceive how the _f_ and the _l_ are mingled in the two last Words.

Again,

"--Th[r=]o' G[r=]oves of My[rr=]h.--

Here the rough _r_ predominates as much as the soft _l_ did in the first Part of the Verse.

Again,

"And _Flow'r_y O_dours_.--

Here the _Allusio Verborum_ is introduc'd. _Flow'r_ at the Beginning of the first Word, and _Dour_ at the End of the second, make a most agreeable Harmony. The Line concludes with what may be call'd the _a.s.sultus_, or the Attack upon the Ear.

"--_C[=a]ssi[=a], N[=a]rd [=a]nd B[=a]lm._--

These five _A_'s in four Words at the End of the Line must make themselves perceiv'd if Words can do it. 'Tis of the same kind as _Virgil_'s,

"--_Tumid[=a] aequor[=a] pl[=a]c[=a]t._

But it may be proper to add another Instance or two of the _Allusio Verborum_.

"So talk'd the _spirited sly Snake_, and _Eve_ Yet more amaz'd.--

Again,

"When from the _Boughs_ a savoury Odour _blown_.

Again,

"Immediately the Mountains huge appear Emergent, and their _broad bare Backs_ upheave Into the Clouds.--

Again,

"--Scarce from his Mould _Behemoth, biggest born_ of Earth, upheav'd His Vastness.--

Spirited sly Snake.--Boughs blown.--Broad bare Backs.--_Behemoth_ biggest born.

All these Pa.s.sages are in the same Stile of Sound as _Virgil_'s-- _Metuens_, _Molem_, _Montis_.

"_Hoc metuens, molemque & montis insuper altos Imposuit._--

Observe how the _molemque_ & _montis_ labour in the Verse exactly in the same manner as

Broad, bare Backs, and _Behemoth_ biggest born.

But here let me give you a few more Instances of the _Allusio Verborum_, or the mixing of Sounds of Words in rhym'd Verse.

"As o'er th'Aerial _Alps_ sublimely spread Some aged Oak uprears his reverend Head.