Lutrin/Account
SOME
ACCOUNT
OF
BOILEAU's Writings,
And this Translation.
To Mr ———
SIR,
F Criticising other People's Works, especially living and late Authors, were not a Task that I am by no Means inclin'd to, I should have sooner answer'd your Desire, and told you what I thought of Monsieur Boileau's Lutrin, and the Translation of it into English Verse, which you did me the Favour to send me in Writing.
M. Boileau and his Works, especially this of his Lutrin, are of so great a Name in the World, that I think it a pretty bold Attempt to endeavour to translate him; not but that I must confess I know but few Hands cou'd have succeeded better than this Gentleman has done. Amongst that Little that I have read of the French Poetry, M. Boileau seems to me without Comparison to have had the finest and the truest Taste of the best Authors of Antiquity; his violent Passion for 'em and famous Disputes in their behalf are too well known to be told over again now; it is very certain that he had 'em so perpetually in his Eye, that he form'd most of his Poetical Writings so closely after their Models, that in many of 'em especially his Satyrs, he can hardly pretend to the Honour of any thing more, than having barely translated them well; and I am apt to believe that if the Design of the Lutrin be entirely his own and Modern, it is because there was nothing in the ancient Poetry of this kind for him to draw after. However it is very plain that ev'n in this, Virgil has been of great Use to him, and supply'd him with some of his finest Images; to mention one Particular only, every Body may see, that his Fury who sets the good People at Paris together by the Ears, is a manifest Copy of Alecto in the seventh Æneid, or indeed is rather taken from Juno and Alecto together, as both contriving and executing the Mischief her Self. I won't pretend to give you a Critical Account of this Kind of Mock-Heroic Poetry, if it can be call'd a Kind, that is so new in the World, and of which we have had so few Instances. I call it new because I take La Secchia Rapita of Taffoni to be the first of this Sort that was ever written, or at least that ever I heard of: As for Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice, I take that only to be a Tale or Fable, like those of Æsop, amongst which it is to be found, and ought rather to be rank'd among the Writings of the Mythologists than those of the Poets. Whatever Name or Title the Criticks may be pleas'd to dignify or distinguish this Sort of Writing with, I am sure it has had the good Fortune to be very well receiv'd: The Reputation of the Lutrin in France, and the Dispensary in England, are two of the best Modern Instances of Success in Poetry that can be given.
And since I have mention'd those two Poems together, it may not be Improper to observe, that in the Latter of 'em, tho' writ upon a very different Subject, there are some Passages that are plainly Imitations, or indeed even Translations of the Former; Those who will take the Trouble to compare 'em, now they are both in one Language, will be best able to judge, how near the Translator of the Lutrin comes to the Beauties which all the World has so justly admir'd in Dr. Garth.
I won't venture to say this Translation is the most correct and finish'd Piece of its kind that we have, but I believe most People will allow, That the Author of it is perfectly Master of Boileau, and in some Places has even improv'd him, to mention that only of,
Dans le Reduit obscur, &c.
And so on for a Dozen Verses; where I think the English at least Equal, if not Superiour to the French.
The General Turn of his Verse is agreeable, his Diction Poetical, and very proper to the Subject, and that whatever Faults there may be, they are meerly verbal, and may very well be receiv'd under that good natur'd Allowance which Horace makes for those
——— Quas aut incuria fudit
Aut humana parum cavit Natara.
That which indeed to me seems most liable to an Exception, is, that the Gentleman has taken the Liberty in some Places to depart from his Author, and to substitute other Persons and Things in the Room of Those which he has left out or chang'd; and that while he still retains the original Story, and keeps the Scene at Paris, he makes use of the Names of Men and Books in England, 'unknown to and unthought of by Monsieur Boileau, and particularly in the Battle of the Books, where he makes use of some French and some English: I could have wish'd indeed they had all belong'd to one Nation; For tho' the Satyr upon our own Countrymen is very just and entertaining, yet I must always think the Poem would have look'd more of a Piece, if the Names had been all as they are in the Original, or that else removing the Action and Scene entirely into England, the Names of Persons, Places, &c. had been all English, and so the whole had been rather an Imitation than a Translation of M. Boileau.
After all I am sensible that it may be easily enough reply'd in Defence of the Translation, that as it is intended for English Readers, and more especially for those who don't understand French, so a long Bead-roll of dull French Authors who are grown into such Contempt, that they are hardly read, or even known in their own Country, would be but an odd Entertainment to People here, who never heard of 'em before; besides it must be allow'd, that one may very easily apprehend the Plaisantry of the Satyr in the Original, by the Translator's mustering up a Set of English Authors of equal Degree and like kind of Dulness with those mention'd by M. Boileau.
As for the Objection of his having chang'd the Persons, I believe a Subject of Great Britain may be very easily forgiven if the Love of his Country and the just Honour which he has for his Sovereign, led him to apply those handsome Complements to the Queen, which the Author makes to the King of France in some of the Canto's, and in others that of the Prince of Conde to the Duke of Marlborough.
It is not the first Time that Justice has divested that Monarch of Honours which he had long assum'd to himself, to place 'em more worthily upon Her Majesty: Nor is it now only that his Grace has been adorn'd with the Spoils of a French General. The Praise is, I am sure at least as highly deserv'd, and as justly given by the English as the French Poet. And indeed I think the whole Translation to be so well done in the main and so entertaining, that what little Faults are in it, if there are any, ought not to be taken Notice of, for the Sake of the Beauties. Nor had I taken the Liberty to say what I have said of it, if it had not been to give you a Proof of an exact Sincerity in every thing where you ask my real Opinion.
April the 24th.
1708.