Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850

Various

Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850

NOTES

TRANSLATIONS OF JUVENAL—WORDSWORTH

Mr. Markland's ascertainment (Vol. i., p. 481.) of the origin of Johnson's "From China to Peru," where, however, I sincerely believe our great moralist intended not so much to borrow the phrase as to profit by its temporary notoriety and popularity, reminds me of a conversation, many years since, with the late William Wordsworth, at which I happened to be present, and which now derives an additional interest from the circumstance of his recent decease.

Some mention had been made of the opening lines of the tenth satire of Juvenal:

"Omnibus in terris, quae sunt a Gadibus usqueAuroram, et Gangem pauci dignoscere possuntVera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remotâErroris nebulâ."

"Johnson's translation of this," said Wordsworth, "is extremely bad:

"'Let Observation, with extensive view,Survey mankind from China to Peru.'

"And I do not know that Gifford's is at all better:

"'In every clime, from Ganges' distant stream,To Gades, gilded by the western beam,Few, from the clouds of mental error free,In its true light, or good or evil see.'

"But", he added, musing, "what is Dryden's? Ha! I have it:

"'Look round the habitable world, how fewKnow their own good, or, knowing it, pursue.'

"This is indeed the language of a poet; it is better than the original."

The great majority of your readers will without doubt, consider this compliment to Dryden well and justly bestowed, and his version, besides having the merit of classical expression, to be at once concise and poetical. And pity it is that one who could form so true an estimate of the excellences of other writers, and whose own powers, it will be acknowledged, were of a very high order, should so often have given us reason to regret his puerilities and absurdities. This language, perhaps, will sound like treason to many; but permit me to give an instance in which the late poet-laureate seems to have admitted (which he did not often do) that he was wrong.

In the first edition of the poem of Peter Bell (the genuine, and not the pseudo-Peter), London, 8vo. 1819, that personage sets to work to bang the poor ass, the result of which is this, p. 36.:

"Among the rocks and winding crags—Among the mountains far away—Once more the ass did lengthen outMore ruefully an endless shout,The long dry see-saw of his horrible bray."

After remarks on Peter's strange state of mind when saluted by this horrible music, and describing him as preparing to seize the ass by the neck, we are told his purpose was interrupted by something he just then saw in the water, which afterwards proves to be a corpse. The reader is, however, first excited and disposed to expect something horrible by the following startling conjectures:—

"Is it the moon's distorted face?The ghost-like image of a cloud?Is it a gallows these pourtrayed?Is Peter of himself afraid?Is it a coffin—or a shroud?"A grisly idol hewn in stone?Or imp from witch's lap let fall?Or a gay ring of shining fairies,Such as pursue their brisk vagariesIn sylvan bower or haunted hall?"Is it a fiend that to a stakeOf fire his desperate self is tethering?Or stubborn spirit doomed to yellIn solitary ward or cell,Ten thousand miles from all his brethren.""Is it a party in a parlour?Cramm'd just as they on earth revere cramm'd—Some sipping punch, some sipping tea,But, as you by their faces see,All silent and all damn'd!"A throbbing pulse the gazer hath," &c.Part i., pp. 33, 39.

This last stanza was omitted in subsequent editions. Indeed, it is not very easy to imagine what it could possibly mean, or how any stretch of imagination could connect it with the appearance presented by a body in the water.

To return, however, from this digression to the subject of translations. In the passage already quoted, the reader has been presented with a proof how well Dryden could compress the words, without losing the sense, of his author. In the following, he has done precisely the reverse.

"Lectus erat Codro Procula minor."—Juv. Sat. iii. 203."Codrus had but one bed, so short to boot,That his short wife's short legs hung dangling out!"

In the year 1801 there was published at Oxford, in 12mo., a translation of the satires of Juvenal in verse, by Mr. William Rhodes, A.M., superior Bedell of Arts in that University, which he describes in his title-page as "nec verbum verbo." There are some prefatory remarks prefixed to the third satire in which he says:

"The reader, I hope, will neither contrast the following, nor the tenth satire, with the excellent imitation of a mighty genius; though similar, they are upon a different plan. I have not adhered rigidly to my author, compared with him; and if that were not the case, I am very sensible how little they are calculated to undergo so fiery an ordeal."

And speaking particularly of the third satire, he adds:

"This part has been altered, as already mentioned, to render it more applicable to London: nothing is to be looked for in it but the ill-humour of the emigrant."

The reader will perhaps recollect, that in the opening of the third satire, Juvenal represents himself about to take leave of his friends Umbritius, who is quitting Rome for Canæ: they meet on the road (the Via Appia), and turning aside, for greater freedom of conversation, into the Vallis Egeriæ, the sight of the fountain there, newly decorated with foreign marbles, leads to an expression of regret that it was no longer suffered to remain in the simplicity of the times of Numa:

"In valem Egeriæ descendimus, et speluncasDissimiles veris. Quanto præstantius essetNumen aquæ, viridi si margine clauderet undasHerba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum?" Sat. iii. 17.

In imitating this passage, Mr. Rhodes, finding no fons Egeriæ, no Numa, and perhaps no Muses in London, transfers his regrets from a rivulet to a navigable stream; and makes the whole ridiculous, by suggesting that the Thames would look infinitely better if it flowed through grass, as every ordinary brook would do.

"Next he departed to the river side,Crowded with buildings, tow'ring in their pride.How much, much better would this river look,Flowing 'twixt grass, like every other brook,If native sand its tedious course beguil'd,Nor any foreign ornament defil'd."W (1.)

DEDICATION TO MILTON BY ANTONIO MALATESTI

Dr. Todd, in his Life of Milton, ed. 1826, mentions the accidental discovery of a manuscript by Antonio Malatesti, bearing the following title:

"La Tina Equivoci Rusticali di Antonio Malatesti, c[=o]posti nella sua Villa di Taiano il Settembre dell' Anno 1637. Sonetti Cinqu[=a]nta. Dedicati al' III'mo Signore et Padrone Oss'mo Signor Giovanni Milton, Nobil' Inghilese."

It seems that this MS. had been presented, together with Milton's works, to the Academy della Crusca, by Mr. Brand Hollis, but had by some chance again found its way to England, and was sold by auction at Evans's some short time before Mr. Todd published this second edition of Milton's Life.

I know not if there has been any further notice of this MS., which is interesting as a monument of the respect and attention our great poet received from the most distinguished literary men of Italy at the time of his visit, and I should be glad if any of your correspondents can indicate its existence, and the place where it is now preserved. When it was on sale, I had permission to copy the title and a few of the sonnets, which were such as we could not imagine would have given pleasure to the chaste mind of Milton; each of them containing, as the title indicates, an équivoque, which would bear an obscene sense, yet very ingeniously wrapped up. The first sonnet opens thus:—

"Queste Sonnetti, o Tina, ch' i' hó composto,Me gl' há dettati una Musa buffona,Cantando d' improviso, alla Carlona,Sul suono, spinto dal oalor del Mosto."

The second may serve to show the nature of the équivoque:—

"Tina, I' so legger bene, e rilevatoLa Storia di Liombrune, e Josafatte,Se ben, per esser noto in queste fratteSotto il Maestro mai non sono stato."E il lere del dificio m' ha giurato,Quand' egli ha visto le Poesie ch' i' hó fatte,Ch' elle son belle, e i piedi in terra batte,E vuol ch' io mi sia in Pisa adottorato."Io canto, quand' io son ben ben satollo,Sul Chitarrin con voce si sottile,Ch'io ne disgrado insien Maestro Apollo."Vien un poco da me, Tina gentile,Che s' egli avvien che tu mi segga in collo,M' sentirai ben tosto alzar lo stile."

Antonio Malatesti was a man of mark in his time, being distinguished for his talent as an improvisatore. Among his friends were Galileo, Coltellini, and Valerio Chimentelli, who have all commendatory poems prefixed to Malatesti's "Sphinx," a collection of poetical enigmas, which has been frequently reprinted. Beside his poetical talent, he studied astronomy, probably under Galileo; and painting, in which he was a pupil of Lorenzo Lippi, author of the "Malmantile Raqquistato," who thus designates him under his academical name of Amostante Latoni (canto i. stanza 61.):—

"E General di tutta questa MandraAmostante Laton Poeta insigne.Canta improviso, come un Calandra:Stampa gli Enigmi, 'Strologia, e Dipigne."

Malatesti was a member of the Academy degli Apatisti, of which Milton's friends Coltellini and Carlo Dati had been the principal founders. The house of the latter was a court of the Muses, and it was at the evening parties there that all who were distinguished for science or literature assembled: "Era in Firenze la sua Casa la Magione de' Letterati, particolarmente Oltramontani, da lui ricevuti in essa, e trattati con ogni sorta di gentilezza."1 Heinsius, Menage, Chapelain, and other distinguished foreigners were members of this academy; and it is more than probable that, were its annals consulted, our poet's name would also be found there.

S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, July 15, 1850.

PULTENEY'S BALLAD OF "THE HONEST JURY."

On the application for a new trial, in the case of The King against William Davies Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph (1784), wherein was raised the important and interesting question, whether in libel cases the jury were judges of the law as well as the fact, Lord Mansfield, in giving judgment, remarked in reference to trials for libel, before Lord Raymond:

"I by accident (from memory only I speak now) recollect one where the Craftsman was acquitted; and I recollect it from a famous, witty, and ingenious ballad that was made at the time by Mr. Pulteney; and though it is a ballad, I will cite the stanza I remember from it, because it will show you the idea of the able men in opposition, and the leaders of the popular party in those days. They had not an idea of assuming that the jury put it upon another and much better ground. The stanza I allude to is this:—

"'For Sir Philip well knows,That his innuendosWill serve him no longer,In verse or in prose;For twelve honest men have decided the cause,Who are judges of fact, though not judges of laws.'

"It was the admission of the whole of that party; they put it right; they put it upon the meaning of the innuendos; upon that the jury acquitted the defendant; and they never put up a pretence of any other power, except when talking to the jury themselves."

In Howell's State Trials (xxi. 1038.) is a note on this passage. This note (stated to be from the Speeches of Hon. Thomas Erskine) is as follows:—

"It appears by a pamphlet printed in 1754, that Lord Mansfield is mistaken. The verse runs thus:—

"'Sir Philip well knows,That his innuendosWill serve him no longer in verse or in prose:For twelve honest men have determined the cause,Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws.'"

Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors (v. 25.) and Lives of the Lord Chief Justices (ii. 543.), and Mr. Harris, in his Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke (i. 221.), give the lines as quoted by Lord Mansfield, with the exception of the last and only important line, which they give, after the note to Erskine's speeches, as

"Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws."

And Lord Campbell (who refers to State Trials, xxi.) says that Lord Mansfield, in the Dean of St. Asaph's Case, misquoted the lines "to suit his purpose, or from lapse of memory."

I know not what is the pamphlet referred to as printed in 1754; but on consulting the song itself, as given in the 5th volume of the Craftsman, 337., and there entitled "The Honest Jury; or, Caleb Triumphant. To the tune of 'Packington's Pound,'" I find not only that Lord Mansfield's recollection of the stanza he referred to was substantially correct, but that the opinion in support of which he cited it is expressed in another stanza besides that which he quoted. The first verse of the song is as follows:

"Rejoice, ye good writers, your pens are set free;Your thoughts and the press are at full liberty;For your king and your country you safely may write,You may say black is black, and prove white is white;Let no pamphleteersBe concerned for their ears;For every man now shall be tried by his peers.Twelve good honest men shall decide in each cause,And be judges of fact, tho' not judges of laws."

In the third verse are the lines Lord Mansfield cited from memory:—

"For Sir Philip well knowsThat innuen-doesWill serve him no longer in verse or in prose;Since twelve honest men have decided the cause,And were judges of fact, tho' not judges of laws."

Lord Campbell and Mr. Harris both make another mistake with reference to this ballad which I may perhaps be excused if I notice. They say that it was composed on an unsuccessful prosecution of the Craftsman by Sir Philip Yorke, and that this unsuccessful prosecution was subsequent to the successful prosecution of that paper on December 3rd, 1731. This was not so: Sir Philip Yorke's unsuccessful prosecution, and to which of course Pulteney's ballad refers, was in 1729, when Francklin was tried for printing "The Alcayde of Seville's Speech," and, as the song indicates, acquitted.

C.H. COOPER.

Cambridge, July 29. 1850.

NOTES ON MILTON

(Continued from Vol. ii., p. 115)

Comus.

On l. 8. (G.):—

"After life's fitful fever he sleeps well."

Macbeth, iii. 2.

On l. 101. (M.):—

"The bridegroom Sunne, who late the Earth had spoused,Leaves his star-chamber; early in the EastHe shook his sparkling locks."

Fletcher's Purple Island C. ix. St. 1.

On l. 102. (M.):—

"And welcome him and his with joy and feast."Fairfax's Tasso, B. i. St. 77.

On l. 155. (D.):—

"For if the sun's bright beams do blear the sightOf such as fix'dly gaze against his light."

Sylvester's Du Bartas. Week i. Day 1.

On l. 162. (G.):—

"Such reasons seeming plausible."

Warners Albion's England, p. 155. ed. 1612.

On l. 166. (G.):—

"We are a few of those collected hereThat ruder tongues distinguish villager."

Beaumont and Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5.

On l. 215. (G.) "Unblemished" was originally (Trin. Coll. Cam. MSS.) written "unspotted," perhaps from Drayton:—

"Whose form unspotted chastity may take,"

On l. 254. (G.) Add to Mr. Warton's note, that after the creation of Sir Robert Dudley to be Earl of Leicester by Queen Elizabeth in 1564, "He sat at dinner in his kirtle." So says Stow in Annals, p. 658. edit. 1633.

On l. 290. (G.):—

"My wrinckl'd face,Grown smooth as Hebe's."

Randolph's Aristippus, p. 18. 4to. ed. 1630.

On l. 297. (G.):—

"Of frame more than celestial."

Fletcher's Purple Island, C. 6. S. 28. p. 71. ed. 1633.

On l. 331. (G.):—

"Night begins to muffle up the day."

Wither's Mistresse of Philarete.

On l. 335. (G.):—

"That whiles thick darkness blots the light,My thoughts may cast another night:In which double shade," &c.

Cartwright's Poems, p. 220. ed. 1651.

On l. 345. (G.):—

"Singing to the sounds of oaten reed."

Drummond, p. 128.

On l. 373. (G.):—

"Virtue gives herself light thro' darkness for to wade."

Spenser's F. Queene.

(D.) For what is here finely said, and again beautifully expressed (v. 381.), we may perhaps refer to Ariosto's description of the gems which form the walls of the castle of Logistilla, or Reason:—

"Che chi l'ha, ovunque sia, sempre che vuole,Febo (mal grado tuo) si può far giorno."

Orl. Fur. x. 60.

On l. 404. (G.):—

"Whiles a puft and rechlesse libertine,Himselfe the primrose path of dalliance treads,And reakes not his owne reed."

Hamlet> i. 3.

On l. 405. (G.):—

"Where death and danger dog the heels of worth."

All's Well that ends Well, iii. 4.

On l. 421. (M.):—

"Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just:And he but naked, though locked up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."

2 Henry IV., iii. 2.

On l. 424. (G.):—

"And now he treads th' infamous woods and downs."

Ph. Fletcher's Eclog., i. p. 4. ed. 1633.

On l. 494. (G.) The same sort of compliment occurs in Wither's Sheperd's Hunting. (See Gentleman's Mag. for December 1800, p. 1151.)

"Thou wert wont to charm thy flocks;And among the massy rocksHast so cheered me with thy song,That I have forgot my wrong."

He adds:—

"Hath some churle done thee a spight?Dost thou miss a lamb to-night?"

Juvenilia, p. 417. ed. 12mo. 1633.

On l. 535. (M.):—

"Not powerful Circe with her Hecate rites."

Ph. Fletcher's Poetical Miscellanies, p. 65. ed. 1633.

On l. 544. (D.):—

"The soft sweet moss shall be thy bedWith crawling woodbine overspread."

Herrick's Hesperides, p. 223.

On l. 554 (G.):—

"And flattery to his sinne close curtain draws."

Ph. Fletcher's Purple Island, p. 112. ed. 1633.

On l. 635. (G.):—

"His clouted shoon were nailed for fear of wasting."

Ph. Fletcher's Purple Island, p. 113.

On l. 707. (G.) A passage in the Spanish Tragedy confirms Mr. Warton's reasoning—

"After them doth Hymen hie as fast,Clothed in sable and a saffron robe."

Old Plays, vol. iii. p. 214. ed. 1780.

On l. 734. (G.):—

"Saw you not a lady come this way on a sable horsestudded with stars of white?"

Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, Act iv.

On l. 752. (G.):—

"A sweet vermilian tincture stainedThe bride's fair cheek."

Quarles' Argalus and Parthenia, p. 118. ed. 1647.

On l. 812. (G.):—

"Bathed in worldly bliss."

Drayton, p. 586. ed. 1753.

"The fortunate who bathe in floods of joys."

E. of Sterline's Works, p. 251. ed. 1637.

On l. 834. (D.):—

"The lily-wristed morn."

The Country Life, Herrick's Hesperides, p. 269.

(G.):—

"Reacht him her ivory hand."

Ph. Fletcher's Purple Island, p. 117.

On l. 853. (G.) Compare this line of Drayton in his Baron's Warrs:—

"Of gloomy magicks and benumbing charms."

Vol. i. p. 110. ed. 1753.

On l. 861. (G.):—

"Through whose translucent sides much light is born."

Ph. Fletcher's Pur. Island, C. 5. St. 31. p. 54.

On l. 862. (M.):—

"All hundred nymphs, that in his rivers dwell,About him flock, with water-lilies crowned."

Ph. Fletcher's Poet. Miscell., p 67. ed. 1633.

On l. 863. (G.) The use of Ambergris, mentioned in Warton's note, appears from Drayton, v. ii. p. 483.:—

"Eat capons cooked at fifteen crowns apiece,With their fat bellies stuft with ambergrise."

On l. 886. (G.):—

"The wealth of Tarsus nor the rocks of pearl,That pave the court of Neptune, can weigh downThat virtue."

Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, Act iv.

On l. 894. (G.):—

"Beset at th' end with emeralds and turches."

Lingua iv. 4. Old Plays, v. 5. p. 202. ed. 1780.

On l. 924. (M.) Mr. Warton says this votive address was suggested by that of Amoret in the Faithful Shepherdess

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1

Salvino Salvini Fasti Consolari dell' Academia Fiorentina, 1717, p. 548. Milton's stay of two months at Florence must have been to him a period of pure enjoyment, and seems to have been always remembered with delight:—"Illa in urbe, quam prae ceteris propter elegantiam cum linguæ tum ingeniorum semper colui, ad duos circiter menses substiti; illie multorum et nobilium sanè et doctorum hominum familiaritatem statim contraxi; quorum etiam privatas academias (qui mos illie cum ad literas humaniores assiduè frequentavi). Tui enim Jacobe Gaddi, Carole Dati, Frescobalde, Cultelline, Bonmatthaei, Chimentille Francine, aliorumque plurium memoriam apud me semper gratam atque jucundam, nulla dies delebit."—Defensio Secunda, p. 96., ed. 1698.