exact in their Compositions, as the Modern French, because they wanted a Dictionary, of which the French are at last happily provided. If Demosthenes and Cicero had been so lucky as to have had a Dictionary, and such a Patron as Cardinal Richelieu, perhaps they might have aspir'd to the honour of Balzac's Legacy of Ten Pounds, Le prix de l'Eloquence.
On the contrary, I dare assert that there are hardly ten lines in either of those great Orators, or even in the Catalogue of Homer's Ships, which is not more harmonious, more truly Rythmical, than most of the French, or English Sonnets; and therefore they lose, at least, one half of their native Beauty by Translation.
I cannot but add one Remark on this occasion, that the French Verse is oftentimes not so much as Rhime, in the lowest Sense; for the Childish repetition of the same Note cannot be call'd Musick; such Instances are infinite, as in the forecited Poem.
|
'Epris Mepris |
Trophee Orphee |
caché; cherché. |
Mr. Boileau himself has a great deal of this μονολθνία, not by his own neglect, but purely by the faultiness and poverty of the French Tongue. Mr. F. at last goes into the excessive Paradoxes of Mr. Perrault, and boasts of the vast number of their Excellent Songs, preferring them to the Greek and Latin. But an
