HORACE OF THE ART OF POETRY.] This translation, which was probably among the earliest works of Jonson, was not given to the press till some time after his death, when it was published in 1640, with some other pieces in 12mo., by John Benson, with a dedication to lord Winsor, who, as the writer says, "rightly knew the worth and true esteem both of the author and his learning, being more conspicuous in the judgment of your lordship and other sublime spirits than my capacity can describe."

Many transcripts of this version got abroad; these differed considerably from one another, and all perhaps, from the original copy. In the three which have reached us, though all were published nearly at the same time, variations occur in almost every line. To notice them would be both tedious and unprofitable: suffice it to say that I have adopted the text of the folio 1640, as, upon the whole, the most correct, though exceptions may occasionally be met with in the smaller editions.

It was for this poem that our author compiled the vast body of notes which was destroyed in the conflagration of his study. After this, he seems to have lost all thoughts of the press-indeed age and disease were advancing fast upon him, if, as I conjecture, the fire took place about 1623, and left him as little heart as power to venture again before a public not, in general, too partial to his labours.

The small edition is prefaced by several commendatory poems, one of which only appears to be written on occasion of the present version. This is by the celebrated lord Herbert of Cherbury, and is addressed "to his friend master Ben Jonson, on his Translation."

""Twas not enough, Ben Jonson, to be thought
Of English poets best, but to have brought,
In greater state, to their acquaintance, one
Made equal to himself and thee; that none
Might be thy second: while thy glory is

To be the Horace of our times, and his."

Jonson was followed (at unequal periods) by three writers, who in the century succeeding his death (for I have neither leisure nor inclination to go lower,) published their respective versions of the Art of Poetry. It may amuse the reader, perhaps, to listen for a moment to what they say of our poet, and of one another. Roscommon begins

"I have kept as close as I could both to the meaning, and the words of the author, and done nothing but what I believe he would forgive me if he were alive; and I have often asked myself that question. I know this is a field,

Per quem magnus equos Aurunca flexit alumnus,

but with all respect due to the name of Ben Jonson, to which no man pays more veneration than I; it cannot be denied, that the constraint of rhyme, and a literal translation (to which Horace in his book declares himself an enemy) has made him want a comment in many places."

Oldham follows :

"I doubt not but the reader will think me guilty of an high presumption in venturing upon a translation of the Art of Poetry, after two such great hands as have gone before me in the same attempts: I need not acquaint him that I mean Ben Jonson, and the earl of Roscommon; the one being of so established an authority, that whatever he did is held as sacred, the other having lately performed it with such admirable success, as almost cuts off all hope in any after pretenders, of ever coming up to what he has done."

The last is Henry Ames :

""Tis certain my lord Roscommon has not only excelled in justness of version and elegance of style, but has given his poet all the natural beauties and genteel plainness of the English dress; but his lordship rid with a slack rein, and freed himself at once from all the incumbrance and perplexity of rhyme; and sure it must be confessed some difficulty to be circumscribed to syllables and sounds: Mr. Oldham, indeed, has very skillfully touched the Horatian lyre, and worked it into musical harmony; but so modernized the poem, and reduced it to the standard of his own time, that a peevish reader may not only be disgusted at want of the poetical history, but think himself privileged to except against all such freedoms in any one but Mr. Oldham.

"Ben Jonson, (with submission to his memory,) by transgressing a most useful precept, has widely differed from them both; and trod so close upon the heels of Horace, that he has not only crampt, but made him halt, in (almost) every line."

UMANO capiti cervicem pictor equinam Fungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas,

Undique collatis membris, ut turpitèr

atrum

Desinat in piscem mulier formosa supernè; Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici? Credite, Pisones, isti tabulæ fore librum Persimilem, cujus, velut ægri somnia, vana Fingentur species: ut nec pes, nec caput uni Reddatur forma. Pictoribus, atque poëtis lo Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aqua potestas. Scimus; et hanc veniam petimusque, damusque, vi

cissim:

Sed non ut placidis coëant immitia, non ut
Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.

F to a woman's head a painter would Set a horse-neck, and divers feathers fold

On every limb, ta'en from a several

creature,

Presenting upwards a fair female feature,
Which in some swarthy fish uncomely ends:
Admitted to the sight, although his friends,
Could you contain your laughter? Credit me,
This piece, my Pisos, and that book agree,
Whose shapes, like sick men's dreams, are feign'd so
vain,

As neither head, nor feet, one form retain.
But equal power to painter and to poet,

Of daring all, hath still been given; we know it:
And both do crave, and give again, this leave.
Yet, not as therefore wild and tame should cleave
Together; not that we should serpents see
With doves; or lambs with tigers coupled be.

1 We are not to look for grace and beauty in this translation: the poet's design being to give as close a version of the text, as the different genius of the two languages would admit. But Jonson will be found perfectly to understand his author, and to exhibit his meaning with his usual vigour and conciseness of style. WHAL.