Queen Anne, and by her grace and favour Viscount Bolingbroke. After more than thirty years' proscription, and after the immense losses I have sustained by unexpected events in the course of it; by the injustice and treachery of persons nearest to me; by the negligence of friends, and by the infidelity of servants; As my fortune is so reduced at this time, that it is impossible for me to make such disposition, and to give such ample legacies as I always intended, I content therefore to give as follows: My debts, and the expenses of my burial in a decent and private manner at Battersea, in the vault where my last wife lies, being first paid, I give to William Chetwynd of Stafford, Esq., and Joseph Taylor, of the Inner-Temple, London, Esq., my two assured friends, each of them one hundred guineas, to be laid out by them, as to each of them shall seem best, in some memorial, as the legacy of their departed friend; and I constitute them executors of this my will. An Answer to the Defence of the Inquiry into the Reasons of the Conduct of Great Britain. A final Answer to the Remarks on the Craftsman's Vindication. All which books or tracts have been printed and published; and I am also the author of Four Letters on History, &c. Which have been privately printed, and not All the rest and residue of my personal The diamond ring which I wear up on my finger, I give to my old and long approved friend, the Marquis of Matignon, and after his decease, to his son, the Count de Gace, that I may be kept in the remembrance of a family whom I love and honour above all others. Item, I give to my said executors the sum of four hundred pounds in trust, to place out the same in some of the public funds, or government securities, or any other securities, as they shall think proper, and to pay the interest or income thereof to Francis Arboneau, my valet-one de-chambre, and Ann his wife, and the survivor of them; and after the decease of the survivor of them, if their son John Arboneau shall be living, and under the age of eighteen years, to pay the said interest or income to him, until he shall attain his said age, and then to pay the principal money, or assign the securities for the same, to him; but if he shall not be living at the decease of his father and mother, or shall afterwards die before his said age of eighteen years, in either of the said cases the said principal sum of four hundred pounds, and the secu. rities for the same, shall sink into my personal estate, and be accounted part thereof. Item, I give to my two servants, Marianne Tribon, and Remi Charnet, commonly called Picard, each one hundred pounds; and to every other servant living with me at the time of my decease, and who shall have lived with me two years or longer, I give one year's wages more than what shall be due to them at my death. And whereas I am the author of the several books or tracts following, viz. Remarks on the History of England, from the Minutes of Humphrey Oldcastle. In twenty-four letters. A dissertation upon Parties. In nineteen letters to Caleb Danvers, Esq. The Occasional Writer. Numb. 1, 2, 3. An Answer to the London Journal of December 21, 1728, by John Trot. Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said testa- OLIVER PRICE. Proved at London the fifth day of March 1752, before the worshipful Robert Chapman, doctor of laws and surrogate, by the oaths of William Chetwynd and Joseph Taylor, Esquires, the executors named in the will to whom administration was granted, being first sworn duly to administer. March, In Dr Matty's Life of Lord Chesterfield, he mentions that he had seen Lord Bolingbroke for several months labouring under a cruel, and to appearance incurable disorder. A cancerous humour in his face made a daily progress; and the empirical treatment he submitted to not only hastened his end, but also exposed him to the most excruciating pain. He saw him, for the last time, the day before his tortures began. Though the unhappy patient, as well as his friend, did then expect that he should recover, and accordingly desired him not to come again till his cure was com- remedy has hastened his death, against which pleted, yet he still took leave of him in a manner there was no remedy, for his cancer was not which showed how much he was affected. He topical, but universal, and had so infected the embraced the Earl with tenderness, and said, whole mass of his blood, as to be incurable. "God, who placed me here, will do what he What I most lament is, that medicines put him pleases with me hereafter, and he knows best to exquisite pain; an evil I dread much more what to do. May he bless you." And in a than death, both for my friends and myself. I letter from Chesterfield to a lady of rank at lose a warm, an amiable, and instructive friend. Paris, he says, "I frequently see our friend I saw him a fortnight before his death, when Bolingbroke, but I see him with great concern. he depended upon a cure, and so did I; and A humour he has long had in his cheek proves he desired I would not come any more till he to be cancerous, and has made an alarming was quite well, which he expected would be progress of late. Hitherto it is not attended in ten or twelve days. The next day the with pain, which is all he wishes, for as to the great pains came on, and never left him till rest he is resigned. Truly, a mind like his, so within two days of his death, during which he far superior to the generality, would have well lay insensible. What a man! what extensive deserved that nature should have made an ef-knowledge! what a memory! what eloquence! fort in his favour as to the body, and given him an uncommon share of health and duration." The last scene is thus lamented, in a letter to the same lady:—“ Are you not greatly shocked, but I am sure you are, at the dreadful death of our friend Bolingbroke? The His passions, which were strong, were injurious to the delicacy of his sentiments; they were apt to be confounded together, and often wilfully. The world will do him more justice now than in his lifetime.” CRITICISM ON MASSEY'S TRANSLATION OF THE FASTI OF OVID. therewith, will find it an agreeable and instructive companion, well stored with recondite learning. I persuade myself also, that the notes which I have added to my version will be of advantage, not only to the mere English reader, but likewise to such as endeavour to improve themselves in the knowledge of the Roman language. "As the Latin proverb says, Jacta est alea: and my performance must take its chance, as those of other poetic adventurers have done before me. I am very sensible, that I have fallen in many places far below my original; and no wonder, as I had to copy after so fertile and polite a genius as Ovid's; who, as my Lord Orrery, somewhere in Dean Swift's Life, humorously observes, could make an instructive song out of an old almanack.' Ir was no bad remark of a celebrated French | and that those who become better acquainted lady, that a bad translator was like an ignorant footman, whose blundering messages disgraced his master by the awkwardness of the delivery, and frequently turned compliment into abuse, and politeness into rusticity. We cannot indeed see an ancient elegant writer mangled and misrepresented by the doers into English, without some degree of indignation; and are heartily sorry that our poor friend Ovid should send his sacred kalendar to us by the hands of Mr William Massey, who, like the valet, seems to have entirely forgot his master's message, and substituted another in its room very unlike it. Mr Massey observes in his preface, with great truth, that it is strange that this most elaborate and learned of all Ovid's works should be so much neglected by our English translators; and that it should be so little read or regarded, whilst his Tristia, Epistles, and Metamorphoses, are in almost every school-boy's hands. "All the critics, in general," says he, "speak of this part of Ovid's writings with a particular applause; yet I know not by what unhappy fate there has not been that use made thereof, which would be more beneficial in many respects, to young students of the Latin tongue, than any other of this poet's works. For though Pantheons, and other books that treat of the Roman mythology, may be usefully put into the hand of young proficients in the Latin tongue, yet the richest fund of that sort of learning is here to be found in the Fasti. I am not without hopes, therefore, that by thus making this book more familiar and easy, in this dress, to English readers, it will the more readily gain admittance into our public schools; Mad. la Fayette. "That my translation is more diffuse, and not brought within the same number of verses contained in my original, is owing to two reasons; firstly, because of the concise and expressive nature of the Latin tongue, which it is very difficult (at least I find it so) to keep to strictly, in our language; and secondly, I took the liberty sometimes to expatiate a little upon my subject, rather than leave it in obscurity, or unintelligible to my English readers, being indifferent whether they may call it translation or paraphrase; for, in short, I had this one design most particularly in view, that these Roman Fasti might have a way opened for their entrance into our grammar schools." What use this translation may be of to grammar schools, we cannot pretend to guess, unless, by way of foil, to give the boys a higher opinion of the beauty of the original by the deformity of so bad a copy. But let our readers judge of Mr Massey's performance by the fol lowing specimen. For the better determination of its merit, we shall subjoin the original of every quotation. "The calends of each month throughout the year, Are under Juno's kind peculiar care; Vindicat Ausonias Junonis cura kalendas: “Say. Janus, say, why we begin the year care; Mayn't this be call'd renewing of the year? Replied the god; that business may be done, Dic, age, frigoribus quare novus incipit annus, Prodit et in summum seminis herba solum : Contulit in versus sic sua verba duos. Bruma novi prima est, veterisque novissima solis : Principium capiunt Phoebus et annus idem. Post ea inirabar, cur non sine litibus esset Prima dies. Causam percipe, Janus ait. Tempora commisi nascentia rebus agendis; Totus ab auspicio ne foret annus iners. Quisque suas artes ob idem delibat agendo : Nec plus quam solitum testificatur opus. Why wine and incense first to thee are given? Mox ego; cur, quamvis aliorum numina placem, 1 Is there a possibility that any thing can be more different from Ovid in Latin that this Ovid in English? Quam sibi dispar! The translation is beneath all criticism. But let us see what Mr Massey can do with the sublime and more animated parts of the perform ance, where the subject might have given him room to show his skill, and the example of his author stirred up the fire of poetry in his breast, if he had any in it. Towards the end of the Fasti, Ovid has introduced the most tender and interesting story of Lucretia. The original is inimitable. Let us see what Mr Massey has made of it in his translation. After he bas described Tarquin returning from the sight of the beautiful Lucretia, he proceeds thus: "The near approach of day the cock declar'd By his shrill voice, when they again repair'd Jam dederat cantum lucis prænuncius ales; Back to the camp; but Sextus there could find i TRANSLATION OF OVID'S FASTI. Unruly lust from hence began to rise, And o'er a cheerful glass regaled her guest Carpitur attonitos absentis imagine sensus ulle; recordanti plura magisque placent. Sic sedit: sic culte fuit: sic stamina nevit: Neglecta collo sic jacuere comæ : Hos habuit vultus: hæc illi verba fuere : He decor, hæc facies, hic color oris erat. Ut solet a magno fluctus languescere flatu; Sed tamen a vento, qui fuit ante, tumet: Sic, quamvis aberat placitæ præsentia formæ, Quem dederat praesens forma, manebat amor. Ardet; et injusti stimulis agitatus amoris Comparat indigno vimque dolumque toro. Exitus in dubio est: audebimus uitima, dixit: Viderit, audentis forsne deusne juvet. Cepimus audendo Gabios quoque. Talia fatus Ease latus cingit: tergaque pressit equi. All dark, about the dead of night he rose, And softly to Lucretia's chamber goes; His naked sword he carried in his hand, That what he could not win he might com mand; With rapture on her bed himself he threw, What can she do? resistance would be vain, But neither prayers, rewards, nor threats she hears; Will you not yield? he cries; then know my will When these my warm desires have had their fill, 351 Her mind the fears of blemished fame control, Accipit ærata juvenem Collatia porta : Functus erat dapibus: poscunt sua tempora somni. Et venit in thalamos, nupta pudica, tuos. Illa nihil: neque enim vocem viresque loquendi, Nunc primum externa pectora tacta manu. n; But of thy conquest, Tarquin, never boast, Instat amans hostis precibus, pretioque, minisque : Our readers will easily perceive by this short specimen, how very unequal Mr Massey is to a translation of Ovid. In many places he has deviated entirely from the sense, and in every part fallen infinitely below the strength, elegance and spirit of the original. We must beg leave, therefore, to remind him of the old Italian * proverb, and hope he will never for the future traduce and injure any of those poor ancients who never injured him, by thus pestering the world with such translations as even his own school-boys ought to be whipped for. * il tradatores tradatore. |