If, after a careful examination of the volume, which is at prefent before our eyes, we are afked to exprefs our opinion of the fame in a few words, our answer is, that it contains a great many trifling particulars, fpecioufly decorated by the prolix ftyle of coniequential importance; feveral propofitions of a doubtful or controvertible nature; and fome useful articles, which deferve the attention of the fpeculative philofopher, as well as of the practical economist. ART. III. The Satires of Decimus Funius Juvenalis, tranf lated into English Verfe. By the Rev. William Marsh, A. M. 8vo. 7s. Weftley. 1804. OUR UR attention has been fo frequently called to Juvenal, fince the eflablishment of the British Critic, that we feel it unneceffary at prefent to enlarge on the character of his writings, or on the claims of the author to the respect and gratitude of mankind; and shall therefore enter upon the examination of the work before us without any preparatory obfervations. In a modeft and fenfible Dedication, this author (whom we believe to be a young man) briefly recapitulates the motives which led to his undertaking His early attempts in poetry were encouraged by the fmiles of his preceptor," till his Mufe, having made repeated trials of her ftrength, in various fhort excurfions, both of original compofition and tranflations from Horace, fhe at length terminated her career by an imitation of one of the molt finished Satires of Juvenal". P. vi. This imitation, which is loft, gave the author a relish for the beauties of the Roman fatirifi; and, on a perufal of the verfion which bears the name of Dryden, he was tempted to proceed from one Satire to another, till at length he completed the entire tranflation." Mr. Marth does not pretend to give the whole of Juvenal: though defirous to retain all that could be retained of so admirable a writer, there are fill fome exceptionabic paffages which he has entirely rejected; others that he has been obliged to foften; and a few of which he has, from a refpect to modefty, even ventured to alter the fenfe. P. viii. Of this laft ftep, we mut, in our quality of cenfors, declare our decided difapprobation: to reject or foften where the fubject requires it, is not only venial but laudable; but to alter the fenfe is a fpecies of deception injurious alike to the author and the reader. Whatever Mr. M. judged to be unfit for the public ear, he fhould fhould have omitted; but the character of the original it was his duty to hold facred, and on no account to invest it with qualities which must be foreign, and may be contradictory to it. With this exception, we agree with Mr. M. in what he ad vances. "In venturing to appear before the tribunal of the public, as a tranflator of Juvenal, in which character I have been fo recently anticipated, I judge it neceffary to ftate, that I had never feen the rival verfion of Mr. Gifford till my own was entirely completed. Truth requires of me this avowal, that the prefent publication may not be imputed to improper motives, by which I was never actuated. For though I have not the prefumption to fuppofe, that I have the power to injure an author of fuch etablished reputation, yet I would not unjustly be fufpected of this attempt; fince the intention is the fame, whether the hoftile fpear be launched with the firm vigour of Achilles, or feebly thrown by the palfied hand of Priam. I can have no with, nor is it expected from me, to enter into a comparifon of the refpective merits of thefe tranflations, any further than to ftate, that there appears (with the exception of a few accidental coincidences of no great importance) a fufficient difference in the general manner between Mr. Gifford's verfion and mine, to plead my excufe in hazarding the prefent publication. "No apology need, I truft, be made for fending this work into the world, unaccompanied with notes and illuftrations. Whatever particulars concerning Juvenal and his writings could be either known with certainty, or conjectured with any degree of probability, have been already fo copiously detailed by Mr. Gifford, and in fuch a pleafing ftyle, as to render any further refearches unneceffary. After this ela borate compilation, and ingenious difcuffion of a contemporary tranflator, nothing remains for me but the anxious wish to gratify the variety of poetical tafte, by publishing the prefent verfion in its fimpleft form." P. x. Notwithstanding thefe remarks, which do credit to the liberality of the tranflator, we cannot avoid regretting, for the fake of the mere English reader, that Mr. M. did not fubjoin at least a few short notes. There are many paffages which fuch readers will not now comprehend, and fill inore in which they will not be interefted, from this omiflion alone. Every book fhould be as complete as poffible in itself: it is of very little ufe to refer the purchafers of Mr. Marth's text to the notes of Mr. Gifford, fince few will choofe to purchase both. We proceed to the tranflation. "Still muft I only hear? and know no reft, With Codrus' Thefeid for whole days oppreft?" P. 1. This gives but an inadequate reprefentation of the opening lines of Juvenal: the fpirited exclamation, nunquamne repo B BRIT, CRIT, VOL. XXIV. JULY, 1804. nam? nam? is wholly omitted; nor is the remainder of this paffage given with much fuccefs. Et nos ergo manum", &c. is thus rendered, "By fuch examples fir'd, I too withdrew, Nor could my declamation more purfue". P. 2. Here Mr. M. as in many other places, is mifled by Dryden. "Provok'd by thefe incorrigible fools, I left declaiming in the public fchools". We meet with a fingular expreffion in the fame page; "and Mævia hunts the boar, "Her fex's grand distinction priz'd no more”. As Portia fays, "What a phrafe is this, If one were near a lewd interpreter!" "Nullus jam parafitus erit! fed quis ferat iftos is but faintly given in this couplet: "He will not e'en a parasite afford; But who can bear fo infamous a board?" P. 9. nor can the English reader poffibly difcover the author's meaning in it. There is a prettinefs (we will not fay a want of tafte) in the defcription of Lucilius, for which the awful language of the original gives no warrant. "But when Lucilius, with impetuous zeal, Strikes the loud lyre, and bares th' avenging steel". P. 11. We can find no meaning in the following lines; fure we are that they do not exprefs the fenfe of Juvenal. "Yet let not all that Tagus can unfold Rob thee of reft, thro' envy of the knave, Who lives a great man's penfioner and flave." P. 26. Again: "Should winter's rig'rous blafts complaint provoke, Or, if a fever fire each throbbing vein, In filk they flutter, and of heat complain." P. 28. "And fo might we, or fo might any man"! But what fays the original? If their patron calls for a little fire, they put on their cloak; if he fays, I am warm, they fweat! "Nonne vides quanto celebratur fportula fumo?" Mr. Mr. M. renders, "What can exceed the fupper's cofly ftate?" P. 37. but he overlooks the fenfe of celebratur, which alludes only to the tumultuous croud that furrounded the doors of the patron: the coftly fupper here, and the fcant off'ring, p. 7, are the fame thing; and expreffed, in the original, by the tame word. We do not know how Mr. M. understood this paffage; "Sanguinis in facie non hæret gutta, morantur Pauci ridiculum et fugientem ex urbe Pudorem"; Sat. xi. but it is tranflated in a way that gives no idea of it to an Englifh reader. They never blush, but modefty despise, While each, dishonour'd, from the city flies." P. 167. A defect of tafte, or fhall we fay of judgment, is frequently vifible. Of the obfequies of Priam, Mr. M. fays; "Trojan dames Had fung the mournful dirge, and funeral games In Juvenal the defcription is appropriate and particular, and should by no means have been generalized. "Roma parentem, Roma patrem patriæ Ciceronem libera dixit", is thus given; "Rome freed, nor more by defp'rate plots affail'd, P. 128. Did Juvenal then think that Rome was "affailed no more by defperate plots"? O, no: there was one which, in his mind, far furpaffed that of Catiline in atrocity; it was that of Auguftus himself. How little does the tranflator here enter into his feelings! But he was probably misled by Dryden, whose verfion, as we have already observed, clings, perhaps unconfcioufly, to his memory. "Sejanus, who appear'd A mighty God, as fecond was rever'd, Thro' the wide world!" P. 145. This unfortunately comes fomewhat too near that far-famed couplet,> "And thou Dalhoufie, the great God of war, Lieutenant Colonel to the Earl of Mar"! In our review of Mr. Gifford's Juvenal, we quoted his verfion of "Eft aliquid quocunque loco quocunque receffa "And fure,-in any corner we can get, To call one lizard our's, is fomething yet"! This we thought, and ftill think, fingularly happy; we cannot therefore be greatly pleafed with the rival attempt of Mr. M. "Such in all ranks is human nature known, We long for fomething that we call our own." P. 36. This trite moralizing is neither Juvenal, nor any thing like Juvenal: the writer alfo means, that we may call", for we cannot long for what we do call our own"; but our objection is folely to the departure from the appofite language of the original. We muft here make an obfervation, which has frequently preffed itself on our minds during our review of this Article. We have no doubt that Mr. M. understands the language of Juvenal; and we are perfuaded, that he has rendered it in general with accuracy; but he does not appear to have entered into the mind, or rather into the feelings of his author. This praife we think is fill peculiar to the preceding translator, in whom we find befides, a thoufand minute, but interefting circumftances of the original, which we mifs in the prefent. It is not fufficient to read Juvenal as a scholar (that was done by Holyday); but his expreffions must be weighed, his drift explored with folicitude, and his meaning collected from a comprehenfive view of collateral circumflances. Speaking of the flight of debtors from Rome, Mr. M. fays; "No greater fhame purfues this vile retreat Than when, to fhun the town's oppreffive heat, We feek the cooling fhades, and rural feat." P. 166. The concluding line perverts the drift of the author. The young fquanderers, of whom he fpeaks, were fo loft to fhame, that they thought as little of running away from the city for debt, as of walking, in the dog-days, from the Saburra (the Thames-Street of Rome) to the Efquilian hill, which lay juft above it. Mr. M. obferves, in his Preface, that "he had never feen the rival verfion of Mr. Gifford till his own was entirely completed". P. xi. We cannot doubt this affertion; at the fame time, it is impoffible not to fee, that he has made a very confiderable ufe of it fince. We do not mention this as a reproach: on the contrary, we fhould not have been displeased if he had profited ftil more by it, at leaft, as far as relates to the fenfe of the tranflation. "Whether |