་ "and usefulness; which, in other words, is to "confess no less a vanity than to pretend that I "have, at least in fome places, made examples to "his rules." This declaration of Dryden will, I am afraid, be found little more than one of thofe curfory civilities which one author pays to another; for when the fum of lord Rofcommon's precepts is collected, it will not be easy to discover how they can qualify their reader for a better performance of tranflation than might have been attained by his own reflections. He that can abftract his mind from the elegance of the poetry, and confine it to the fenfe of the precepts, will find no other direction than that the author fhould be fuitable to the tranflator's genius; that he fhould be fuch as may deserve a tranflation; that he, who intends to tranflate him, fhould endeavour to understand him; that perfpicuity should be studied, and unusual and uncouth names fparingly inferted; and that the style of the original should be copied in its elevation and depreffion. These are the rules that are celebrated as fo definite and important; and for the delivery of which to mankind fo much honour has been paid. Rofcommon has indeed deferved his praises, had they been given with dif cernment, and beftowed not on the rules themselves, but the art with which they are introduced, and the decorations with which they are adorned. The Effay, though generally excellent, is not without its faults. The ftory of the Quack, borrowed from Boileau, was not worth the importation; he has confounded the British and Saxon mythology: I grant I grant that from fome moffy idol oak, In double rhymes, our Thor and Woden fpoke. The oak, as I think Gildon has obferved, belonged to the British Druids, and Thor and Woden were Saxon deities. Of the double rhymes, which he fo liberally fuppofes, he certainly had no knowledge. His interpofition of a long paragraph of blank verfes is unwarrantably licentious. Latin poets might as well have introduced a feries of iambicks among their heroicks. His next work is the tranflation of the Art of Poetry; which has received, in my opinion, not lefs praife than it deferves. Blank verfe, left merely to its numbers, has little operation either on the ear or mind it can hardly fupport, itself without bold figures and striking images. A poem frigidly didactick, without rhyme, is fo near to profe, that the reader only fcorns it for pretending to be verse. Having difentangled himself from the difficulties of rhyme, he may justly be expected to give the fense of Horace with great exactnefs, and to fupprefs no fubtilty of fentiment for the difficulty of expreffing it. This demand, however, his tranflation will not fatisfy; what he found obfcure, I do not know that he has ever cleared. Among his fmaller works, the Eclogue of Virgil and the Dies Ira are well tranflated; though the best line in the Dies Ira is borrowed from Dryden. In return, fucceeding poets have borrowed from Rof common. In the verses on the Lap-dog, the pronouns thou and you are offenfively confounded; and the turn at the end is from Waller. His verfions of the two odes of Horace are made with great liberty, which is not recompenfed by much elegance or vigour. His political verfes are sprightly, and when they were written muft have been very popular. Of the scene of Guarini, and the prologue of Pompey, Mrs. Philips, in her letters to Sir Charles Cotterel, has given the hiftory. "Lord Rofcommon," fays the, "is certainly one "of the most promifing young noblemen in Ireland. "He has paraphrafed a Pfalm admirably; and a "fcene of Paftor Fido very finely, in fome places "much better than Sir Richard Fanfhaw. This was 66 undertaken merely in compliment to me, who happened to fay that it was the beft fcene in "Italian, and the worft in English. He was only "two hours about it. It begins thus: "Dear happy groves, and you the dark retreat From these lines, which are fince fomewhat mended, it appears that he did not think a work of two hours fit to endure the eye of criticism without revifal. When Mrs. Philips was in Ireland, fome ladies that had seen her tranflation of Pompey refolved to bring it on the ftage at Dublin; and, to promote their defign, Lord Rofcommon gave them a prologue, and Sir Edward Dering an epilogue; "which," fays fhe, are the best performances of those kinds I 66 "ever faw." If this is not criticifm, it is at least gratitude. The thought of bringing Cæfar and Pompey into Ireland, the only country over which Cæfar never had any power, is lucky. Of Rofcommon's works the judgement of the publick feems to be right. He is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquifite beauties, and he feldom falls into grofs faults. His verfification is smooth, but rarely vigorous; and his rhymes are remarkably exact. He improved tafte, if he did not enlarge knowledge, and may be numbered among the benefactors to English literature. OTWAY. OTWA Y. OF THOMAS OTWAY, one of the first names in the English drama, little is known; nor is there any part of that little which his biographer can take pleasure in relating. He was born at Trottin in Suffex, March 3, 1651, the fon of Mr. Humphry Otway, rector of Woolbeding. From Winchefter-fchool, where he was educated, he was entered, in 1669, a commoner of Chrift-church; but left the univerfity without a degree, whether for want of money, or from impatience of academical reftraint, or mere eagerness to mingle with the world, is not known. It seems likely that he was in hope of being bufy and confpicuous; for he went to London, and commenced player; but found himself unable to gain any reputation on the stage *. In Rofcius Anglicanus, by Downes the prompter, p. 34, we learn, that it was the character of the King in Mrs. Behn's Forced Marriage, or The Jealous Bridegroom, which Mr. Otway attempted to perform, and failed in. This event appears to have happened in the year 1672. R, |