Page images
PDF
EPUB

bible, and muft have been a work of infinite labour to collect. The names of the tranflators and verfions from which all these renderings are taken, are as follow: Coverdale, Matthew, Becke, Cranmer, Geneva, the bishops Doway and Purver, for the Old and New Testaments; for part of the Old Teftament, Ainsworth, Broughton, Hunt, Dr. Lowth (the prefent learned bishop of London), and Mr. Blaney, the editor of the Oxford bible; and for the New Teftament, Wicliffe, Tomfon, Broughton (M. S.), Rhemish, Whifton, Wefley, Hammond, Whitby, and Doddridge; with the tranflation that was printed with the paraphrafe of Erafmus. This is an undertaking, so far as we recollect, new; and is at the fame time a task of infinite labour, in which the industry and perfeverance of the editor are confpicuously displayed.

Such an arrangement, which unites the advantages of fo many learned verfions, does great credit to the abilities and judgment of the editor; who has likewife tranflated and introduced into this bible the third book of the Maccabees, a book of very refpectable authority, and but little known; which will of courfe excite the curiofity of all readers who delight in biblical information. The tranflation is faithful, and not inelegant.

The preface is valuable, and abounds with information, particularly in matters relating to the English church, and the tranflation of the fcriptures; and the biographical account of the different tranflators, though concife, is drawn up with care, and is in a high degree judicious and interefting,

The text is printed from the first edition of 1611, compared with twelve others; and wherever these editions vary, the different readings are noticed.

A lift of the various editions of the bible, and parts thereof, in English, from the year 1526, follows the editor's preface; and immediately preceding the text is bishop Wilfon's preamble.

On the whole, this valuable work cannot fail of being highly acceptable to the clergy of every Chriftian church, to the scholar, and to the critic, as well as to devout readers of the holy fcriptures among all Christian denominations.

With regard to paper and typographical execution, the former is excellent (too good for the advantage of the charity to whofe ufe the profits of the work are to be applied *),

The widows and children of the clergy in Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Isle of Man.

and

and the latter fuch as cannot but enfure to the printer (who is brother to the editor) a high degree of typographical reputation.

ART. VIII. La Pucelle; or, The Maid of Orleans. From the French of Voltaire. 4to. 6s. Wilkie. London, 1785.

THE original work of this lively and extraordinary writer

is well (perhaps too well) known. Keeping Ariofto and La Fontaine in his eye, he has not, in any of his productions, displayed more genius and invention than in this ludicrous performance; and no where has he given more scope to the faulty peculiarities which characterize too many of his writings. His Pucelle, though poffeffed of many allurements, yet often difgufts by her unmaidenly impudence, and flagrant impiety. He cannot fay, with Horace, Virginibus puerifque canto. For faults of this kind the tranflator has endeavoured to apologize in an advertisement prefixed to the five cantos now published as a fpecimen. It has been frequently obferved that tranflators are naturally led to think too highly of the authors they tranflate; the present writer is not an exception from the general rule. If he will impartially confider the original, he will often find the poet's fatire levelled at more than "the frippery of a de"clining fuperftition, the abuses and corruptions of popery "in particular, and of prieftcraft in general," and that many paffages of La Pucelle tend fully as much to "taint "the mind," as "to entertain the fancy.". We have obferved too, with regret, that the tranflator has, for the most part, expanded paffages of this kind, and expreffed the ideas more grofsly than Voltaire himself. We could give many inftances of this, but it is needlefs and improper; needlefs, because the tranflator, we dare fay, knows it well; and it would be confidered as an impropriety at least, if not fomething worfe, if the comparison appeared at full length in our Review. It may then be fufficient to refer to the candour of the tranflator himself, whether the defcription of Agnès Sorel by Voltaire, beginning with " Sous un "cou blanc," and ending with "Le plaifir embellit toute "belle," or his tranflation, or rather paraphrafe, of it, be the most exceptionable?

Voltaire's ludicrous defence, prefixed to the Pucelle, has ftill lefs weight than the ferious one of his tranflator. It is in vain that he endeavours to fhelter himself under the wings of Luigi Pulci, Arifto, the author of Lancelot du Lac,

C 2

Rabelais,

Rabelais, and La Fontaine. What they did does not justify him; a thoufand companions in vice do not, cannot change its nature, though they may contribute more widely to diffeminate its baleful influence.

Though, from the reasons we have affigned, the original work does not meet our approbation, and though, for the fame reasons, we have particular objections to the tranflation, yet juftice to the abilities of the tranflator obliges us to fay that he has executed a work of great difficulty with more than tolerable fuccefs. The peculiar manner of the original is not unhappily imitated; and lefs of its spirit has evaporated than could have been expected. We could have withed the tranflator lefs diffufe; but are fenfible that, in many parts, this was no eafy matter, without falling into an unpleafing meagrenefs of expreffion. In others, indeed, he feems purpofely diffufe; they feem to be paffages he dwells upon con amore. Sometimes (not often) he rifes above his prototype. As an inftance, we give the following defcription of a hound purfuing his game:

As in the foreft when a hound
Has, with fagacious noftril, found
Some ftag's fresh odour, and inhales
The ftrong effluvia from the gales,
The game unfeen he fwift puifucs,
Led only by the tainted dews,

O'er hedge and ditch his courfe he takes,
Skims o'er the heath and thrids the brakes,
To one devoted flot confin'd,

Leaving th' unnotic'd herd behind."

There is an expreffive eagerness and rapidity in the translation which is wanting in the French original, "qu'un chien," &c. chant quatrieme.

"Ainfi

An extract from the French, accompanied by the tranflation, will enable our readers to form an opinion of their own.

• Devers la Lune où l'on tient que jadis

Etait placé des fous le Paradis,

Sur les confins de cet abîme immense,
Où le cahos, et l'Erèbe, et la nuit,
Avant les tems de l'univers produit,
Ont exercé leur aveugle puiffance,
Il est un vafte et caverneux féjour
Peu careffe des doux rayons du jour,
Et qui n'a rien qu'une lumiére affreuse,
Froide, tremblante, incertaine et trompeufe:
Pour toute étoile on a des feux folets.
L'air eft peuplé de petits farfadets.

De

De ce pays la Reine eft la fottife.
Ce vieil enfant porte une barbe grife,
Qeil de travers, et bouche à la Danchet.
Sa lourde main tient pour fceptre un hochet,
De l'ignorance elle eft, dit-on, la fille.
Près de fon trône eft fa fotte famille,
Le fol orgueil, l'opiniâtreté,

Et la pareffe et la crédulité.

Elle eft fervie, elle eft flattée en Reine;
On la croirait en effet Souveraine;

Mais ce n'eft rien qu'un fantôme impuiffant,
Un Chilperic, un vrai Roi fainéant.
La fourberie eft fon miniftre avide.
Tout eft réglé par ce Maire perfide;
Et la fottife eft fon digne inftrument.
Sa Cour plénière eft à fon gré fournie
De gens profonds en fait d'Aftrologie,
Surs de leur art, à tous momens déçus,
Dupes, fripons, et partant toûjours crus.

C'eft là qu'on voit les maîtres d'alchimie
Faisant de l'or, et n'ayant pas un fou,
Les Rofes-croix, et tout ce peuple fou
Argumentant fur la Théologie.

Le gros Lourdis pour aller en ces lieux
Fut donc choifi parmi tous fes confrères.
Lorsque la nuit couvrait le front des Cieux
D'un tourbillon de vapeurs non légères.
Envelopé dans le fein du repos,
Il fut conduit au Paradis des fots.
Quand il y fut, il ne s'étonna guères :
Tout lui plaifait, et même en arrivant,
Il crut encor être dans fon couvent.

• Il vit d'abord la fuite emblématique
Des beaux tableaux de ce féjour antique.
Caco-Démon qui ce grand templa orna,
Sur la muraille à plaifir grifonna
Un long croquis de toutes nos fottifes,
Traits d'étourdi, pas de clerc, balourdifes,
Projets mal faits, plus mal exécutés,
Et tous les mois du mercure vantés.
Dans cet amas de merveilles confufes,
Parmi ces flots d'impofteurs et de buses,
On voit furtout un fuperbe Ecoffais,
Law eft fon nom; nouveau Roi des Français
D'un beau papier il porte un diadême,
Et fur fon front il est écrit fiftéme.
Environné de grands balots de vent,
Sa noble main les donne à tout venant:
Prêtres, Catins, guerriers, gens de juftice,
Lui vont porter leur or par avarice.'

C 3

[ocr errors]

⚫ Towards

• Towards the moon, where erft the space
Yclep'd Fool's Paradife had place,
A region on the confines drear
Of that abyfs unfathom'd, where,
Before creation sprang to light,
Old Chaos, Erebus, and Night,
Sworn foes to order, and to day,
Maintain'd their blind despotic sway,
There lies a cavernous retreat,
Impervious or to light or heat;
Or pervious only to fuch light
As gleams to chill, mislead, affright,
That should the dubious beam pervade,
Horror more horrible is made.

For ftars there jack o' th' lanthorns glare,
And goblins people all the air.
Daughter of Ignorance her reign
Folly extends o'er this domain;
A child grey-bearded and squint-ey'd,
With mouth, like Danchet's, open wide;
A coral in whose heavy hand,
Marks, like a fceptre, her command.
Her foolish family in state

Around her throne collected wait;
Here Obftinacy, Pride, and there
Credulity and Sloth appear.

Flatter'd, attended as fhe's feen,
You would indeed believe her Queen
But a mock fov'reign only, fhe
A pow'rless phantom's found to be;
For all her councils are by fraud,
Her greedy minister o'eraw'd,
"Tis his perfidious will is law,
And he is merely his cat's-paw.
At will she makes her court abound
With your aftrologers profound,
Who, ev'n in error, boast their skill,
Dupe-gulling knaves, yet trufted ftill.

You there can never fail to fee
Profeft adepts in Alchymy,

Makers of gold, and yet whose curfe
Is to poffefs an empty purse;
Your Roficrucians, and those fools
Who ftun the theologic schools.
Thither fat Lourdis was to go,
The Saint's deputed plenipo.
What time the Queen of darkness had
The heav'ns in murkieft fable clad,
Lourdis, on Sleep's foft bofom laid,
Was to Fool's Paradife convey'd,

Where

« PreviousContinue »