"Thus he spoke. But Patroclus was obe"dient to his dear friend. He brought out "the beautiful Briseis from the tent, and 66 gave her to be carried away. They re"turned to the ships of the Greeks; but "she unwillingly went, along with her at"tendants." Patroclus now th' unwilling Beauty brought; And oft look'd back, slow moving o'er the strand. POPE. The ideas contained in the three last lines are not indeed expressed in the original, but they are implied in the word ɑɛzeσɑ; for she who goes unwillingly, will move slowly, and oft look back. The amplification highly improves the effect of the picture. It may be incidentally remarked, that the pause in the third line, Past silent, is admirably characteristic of the slow and hesitating motion which it describes. In the poetical version of the 137th Psalm, by Arthur Johnston, a compostion of clas sical elegance, there are several examples of ideas superadded by the translator, intimately connected with the original thoughts, and greatly heightening their energy and beauty. Urbe procul Solymæ, fusi Babylonis ad undas Nablia, servili non temeranda manu. Ne tibi noxa recens, scelerum Deus ultor! Idumes Vertite, clamabant, fundo jam vertite templum, Te quoque pœna manet, Babylon! quibus astra lacessis Felicem, qui clade pari data damna rependet, Et feret ultrices in tua tecta faces! Felicem, quisquis scopulis illidet acutis Dulcia materno pignora rapta sinu! : I pass over the superaddded idea in the second line, lachrymæ fluminis instar erant, because bordering on the hyperbole, it derogates, in some degree, from the chaste simplicity of the original. To the simple fact, "We hanged our harps on the willows "in the midst thereof," which is most poetically conveyed by Desuetas saliceta lyras, et muta ferebant nablia, is superadded all the force of sentiment in that beautiful expression, which so strongly paints the mixed emotions of a proud mind under the influence of poignant grief, heightened by shame, servili non temeranda manu. So likewise in the following stanza there is the noblest improvement of the sense of the original : Imperat et lætos, mediis in fletibus, hymnos, ̈*: THE reflection on the melancholy silence that now reigned on that sacred hill," once " vocal with their songs," is an additional thought, the force of which is better felt than it can be conveyed by words. AN ordinary translator sinks under the energy of his original: the man of genius frequently rises above it. Horace, arraigning the abuse of riches, makes the plain and honest Ofellus thus remonstrate with a wealthy Epicure, (Sat. 2. b. 2.) Cur eget indignus quisquam te divite ? A question, to the energy of which it was not easy to add, but which has received the most spirited improvement from Mr Pope: How dar'st thou let one worthy man be poor? An improvement is sometimes very happily made, by substituting figure and metaphor for simple sentiment; as in the following example, from Mr Mason's excellent translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting. In the original, the poet, treat ing of the merits of the antique statues, says: queis posterior nil protulit ætas Condignum, et non inferius longè, arte modoque. This is a simple fact, in the perusal of which the reader is struck with nothing else but the truth of the assertion. Mark how in the translation the same truth is conveyed in one of the finest figures of poetry: with reluctant gaze To these the genius of succeeding days. Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread, Hides in his mantle his diminish'd head. ! The description of the Spring, in the second Georgic, is possessed of very high. poetic merit; and the following passage, from which Buchanan has taken the idea of his Calenda Maia, is consummately beauti ful: Non alios prima erescentis origine mundi Illuxisse dies, aliumve habuisse tenorem |