Imatges de pàgina
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foreigner, who is fo far from being acquainted with the pronunciation of our language, that he often mistakes the fignification of the most common words; of which there are many remarkable inftances in this boasted translation of Julius Cæfar; for he does not know that the word course fignifies method of proceeding, but imagines it means a courfe of dishes, or a race. Brutus replies to Caffius's proposal to kill Cæfar;

BRUTUS.

Our course will feem too bloody, Caius Caffius,
To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs.

Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards:
For Antony is but a limb of Cæfar.

Thus it is tranflated by Mr. de Voltaire.

BRUTUS.

Cette courfe aux Romains paraitrait trop fanglante; On nous reprocherait la colêre & l' envie,

Si nous coupons la tête, & puis hachons les membres, Car Antoine n'eft rien qu'un membre de Cæfar.

The following ingenious note is added by the tranflator. The word course, says he, perhaps

perhaps has an allufion to the Lupercal course. It also fignifies a fervice of dishes at table. It is very extraordinary that a man fhould fet up for a tranflator, with fo little acquaintance in the language as not to be able to distinguish whether a word in a certain period fignifies a race, a fervice of dishes, or a mode of conduct. In a piece entitled Guillaume de Vade, and attributed to Mr. de Voltaire, there is a blunder of the fame kind. Polonius orders his daughter not to confide in the promises of Hamlet, who, being heir to the crown, cannot have liberty of choice in marriage like a private perfon. He muft not, fays the old statefman, carve for himself as vulgar perfons do. The French author tranflates it, he must not cut his own victuals; and runs on about morfels, as if Hamlet's dinner, not his marriage, had been the subject of debate. translator knew not that the word carve is often used metaphorically in our language for a perfon's framing or fashioning his lot or portion. We fay, the lover feeds on hope; the warrior thirfts for glory: would it be

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The

fair

fair to tranflate that the lover eats a morfel of hope, and the warrior defires to drink a draught of glory? If fuch tranflations are allowed, the works of the most correct author may be rendered ridiculous. It is apparent that Mr. de Voltaire has depended entirely on the affiftance of a dictionary to enable him to give the most faithful translation that can be, and the only faithful one, in the French language, of any author; ancient or modern.

It is neceffary to present to those readers who do not understand French, the miferable mistakes and galimatheus of this dictionary work. Brutus, in his foliloquy meditating on what Caffius had been urging concerning Cæfar, thus expreffes his apprehenfion, that imperial power may change the conduct of

the man.

BRUTUS.

'Tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face ; But when he once attains the upmoft round,

He

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, fcorning the bafe degrees By which he did afcend. So Cæfar may. Thus Mr. Voltaire tranflates it,

BRUTUS.

On fait affez quelle eft l'ambition.

L'échelle des grandeurs à fes yeux fe présente;

./

Elley monte en cachant fon front aux fpectateurs ; >
Et quand elle eft haut, alors elle fe montre ;
Alors jufques au ciel élevant fes regards,

D'un coup d'œil meprifant fa vanité dédaigne
Les premiers échelons qui firent fa grandeur.
C'eft ce que peut Cefar.

"One knows what ambition is: the ladder of grandeurs prefents itself to her; in going up she hides her face from the fpectators; when she is at the top then she shews herself; then raising her view to the heavens, with a scornful look her vanity disdains the steps of the ladder that made her greatness. This it is that Cæfar may do."

In the original, lowliness is young ambition's ladder: the man who by feign'd humility,

and courtesy, has attained to the power to which he aspired, turns his back on those humble means by which he afcended to it; the metaphor agreeing both to the man who has gained the top of the ladder, or to him who has rifen to the fummit of power. In the tranflation, ambition afcends by steps of grandeurs, hiding her face from the spectators, when she is at the top, with a look or glance of her eye her vanity difdains the first fteps fhe took; which steps observe were grandeurs; fo the allegory is, vanity and ambition difdaining grandeur; and the image prefented is a woman climbing up a ladder, which is not a very common object, but more so than vanity's difdaining grandeurs.

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I am forry the tranflator had not a better English dictionary, for on that, not on his own knowledge of our tongue, it is plain he depended. In another inftance it misleads him. After Porcia had importuned Brutus to communicate to her the fecret caufe of his perturbation, he fays to her,

BRUTUS.

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