prove it. We should have been happy to lay this paper before our readers, if it were not too long, and too much chequered with Latin and Greek quotations. The author's industry in collecting materials for his work has already received our praise, and is indeed more intitled to it than his discrimination and judgment in selecting them for the use of his readers. Many of the extracts will be found to illustrate the main subject in the happiest manner, and the classical reader will feel much indebted to Mr. Austin for preserving so much of the ingenious Latin poem of Lucas, de actione Oratoris: but not a few exhibit an immoderate appetite for making citations. Those positions of the hands described by Quintilian, of which the author professes not to perceive the significancy, might surely have been spared; and in speaking of the numerous plates, we must here remark that the engraved shoes, which mark the relative situation of the feet, will scarcely be found very useful, as directing the mode in which an actor should plant them on a stage which he does not see; that the various actions required in reciting Gay's fable of the Miser and Plutus are by much too solemn and vehement; and that, in recognizing some of Mr. Engel's attitudes, as expressive of particular emotions, we feel some of the difficulties stated by us in reviewing Mr. Siddons's translation of the work of that learned German*. If the reader, for instance, will turn to grief' and ' agony of mind,' (No. 113. and No. 114. in plate the eleventh,) he may be, like ourselves, more apt to imagine that the delineations are intended for "sober contentment" and "drunken satisfaction," than for the melancholy passions for which they are designed. The plates are nevertheless well executed, and in many respects form a valuable commentary on the book. We are really loth to pronounce an unfavourable judgment on the new scheme of notation invented, explained, and very highly appreciated by Mr. Austin; yet he would perhaps still less forgive us if we passed it over in silence. We must avow, then, that we have examined it with care, and are sorry to acknowlege that it appears to us cumbersome, complicated, and ill adapted to its purpose. In this volume, we have detected with surprize a few trifling errors. Richmond and Macduff are confounded, a speech of the one being ascribed to the other. It is much more extraordinary that Shakspeare's Mark Antony should be deliberately treated as the same person with Cicero's Antonius, who figures so conspicuously in the dialogue de Oratore, where See our Number for last April, p. 373. he he appears as the companion, as he was the friend and rival, of the celebrated Crassus. This grand mistake is formally introduced by a grave remark, that it is a little singular, if Shakspeare was as illiterate as is reported, that he has given to Antony almost the very species of eloquence which Cicero describes him to have possessed; so that it is questionable whether the real could have equalled the imagined Antony of our great poet.' We entirely agree with this remark, and think that the "flebile quiddam in conquestionibus, aptumque cum ad fidem faciendam, tum ad misericordiam commovendam,” was never so finely excmplified as in Antony's harangue to the Romans, in Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar: but Cinna the poet must not be treated as Cinna the conspirator. In a word, we think that Mr. Austin's book, notwithstanding a few faults and some redundancies, may be found instructive and useful: at any rate, we are sure that it is curious and entertaining; and the reader's convenience in perusing it is consulted by a full index. ART. IV. Poems; consisting of Translations, from the Greek, Latin, and Italian; with some Originals. Ware Hill, Herts. Crown 8vo. 78. Boards. 1809. By Mrs. Ware, of A LADY, a scholar, and a poetess! We shall no doubt be accused of being barbarians indeed, if we resist these united claims on our critical forbearance. Yet we have a paramount duty which we owe to the public; and which compels us to greater accuracy and minuteness in examining these poems, and in stating our objections to them, than would be compatible with our gallantry under any other circumstances. Mrs. Ware seems not to be sensible that it is as easy to scribble indifferent verse, as it is difficult to reach the heights of genuine poetry. "The mob of gentlemen who write with ease" have their counterparts in the softer sex: but we by no means intend absolutely to include Mrs. Ware in so insipid a coterie; and we shall mention our specific reasons for offering some advice to this fair writer, as well as for tempering our criticism with a due degree of praise. In the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, which Parnell and others have translated, and which is here purported to be rendered from Homer, but which bears strong marks of having passed through a Latin medium, we have the following grammatical errors, to say nothing of general imperfection in giving the exact meaning of the original: Page 13. Page 17. Mrs. Ware. Lychenōrem,-a wrong pronunciation of the Latin accusative case in the literal version of Homer; which also should have been Lichenora, from Au Xhropa Ibid. Mrs. Ware. Homer. Peleionem. In Page 18. we have Troglodytes,-though in the page before Troglodites, rightly pronounced.-Ibid. Lichenor in the nominative case; evidently shewing that the Latin and the English accusative were considered to be the same.-Page 19. Tyroglyphus' again-with a small variation in spelling, as in the case of Lichenor and Troglodites, supposed, we conclude, to authorize the variation in quantity.-Ibid. PternoglyphusПTEENOVAÇOS AIXO, Lichopinax; Crissodioctes, for Cnissodioctes; Pelusium (the name of a place, not of a man or frog,) used in the accusative case for the nominative Pelusius. -Page 20. μedov map is translated "ruby liver;" and ibid, Artipibulus, for "Αρτεπιβελος The translations from the Latin are, as we might expect, considerably better than those from the Greek; which, with an exception rather in favour of the versions from Theocritus, we reluctantly characterize as decidedly tame and incorrect. In the Ceyx and Alcyone from Ovid, are some passages which rise above the mediocrity of the larger part of this volume: but at the same time we have manifold instances of carelessness, and want of spirit. Such couplets as the following should never have been permitted to see the light: Page 53. Her falt'ring tongue thrice to address him tries, P. 59. Some furl the sails, while some incessant lave P. 65. We have Athon, for Athos; and at p. 76. the strange adverb, unwelcomely :'-but the Cave of Sleep, page 68., is well described. The subsequent lines appear to us very happy: 'As o'er the stones the waters softly creep, The hollow sound invites to calmest sleep' and we may refer to this place for several other examples of correct and poetical expression: but the last line of this translation is the most extraordinary specimen of a "lame and impotent conclusion" that we can recollect; And his descendants safely flutter o'er the sea.' Page 80. Page 80. we have nuptial rights' for "rites," the parties being not yet married. - Page 87. sputt'ring gore.'-Page 122. antique salts,' a kind of glass-cutter's phrase, to express the simplicity of paternum salinum. Indeed, we particularly wish that Mrs. Ware had not rendered into English, any part of Horace, that most exquisite master of poetical language; because failure is here certain, without a complete and profound scholarship, a perfect taste, and an equal force and elegance of style. Mrs. W. also, according to the custom of the age, has been strikingly injudicious in selecting the very best Odes of Horace for her imitation. Besides her numerous inaccuracies in these versions, she has made gratuitous and flat additions to the original at the concluding stanzas of Rectius vives, and of Equam memento; and we read, page 137, through months successive roll;' the certain shore,' page 141.; and spectres rare,' 143.; which we confess ourselves unequal to reconcile with meaning and grammar: but perhaps one of the two requisites may be enough: we are unwilling to be fastidious.-Ibid.: the couplet In Pluto's shadowy realm you'll find presents a new image to us, of a cottage in a very unusual place; and Acrivius and Dance,' 145., introduce two new characters to our acquaintance. The lines • One Macedonian hero paid His goid, and conquer'd without strife,' 146., concisely remind us of the Man of Macedon; It is not thus that Horace is to be complimented away. We really cannot afford him to the fairest of our fair candidates for literary tame; and until England produces another Sappho, we must proscribe the goosequills of our countrywomen from the pages of the most enchanting of Reman poets. Tage 148. For those who covet greatly strive With wants, by reason rarely taught,' is a passage as animated as it is intelligible; and we could select too many similar instances of equal sense and spirit: but we forbear, and will merely observe that the table of erata in this volume had better not have been published, since the scantiness of the list only renders more prominent the faults which are not noticed. For instance ;-we have • Tuba' corrected corrected to Juba,' page 114. but Apalia' stands uncorrected for Apulia,' in the very next line; tide' is corrected, it it can be so called, to hide,' 139.; but the word Gelonians' is printed with an apostrophe, wrongly, in the very same. verse; we have Tityon' for Tityus,' 129.; and Geryon for Geryones infest,' and infest,' repeated, infest us through page 122;—and at page 127. we are told that An ample recompense they find Whom Silence's true dictates bind.' We fear that we shall not find this recompense in Mrs. Ware's favour: but we could not be silent, consistently with propriety, on such frequent errors. The indulgence of criticism begets the abundance of authors. To come now to the Italian translations; we must briefly remark that Orlando ting'd with blood, Drench'd with the brine, and spatter'd with the mud, does not form a very engaging picture: but Ariosto himself is not particularly delicate, and his translator may be excused. Indeed her few Italian translations are, we think, creditable to her taste; and the scene from the Pastor Fido is very prettily rendered. Let us encourage Mrs. Ware to pursue more attentively the study of this pleasing and poetical language. We are, indeed, on the whole, inclined to attribute the chief defects of this lady's translations to a want rather of sufficient acquaintance with her originals, than of poetic ability; and when we consider that she is self-instructed, (as she informs us in the preface,) we are more disposed to wonder at what she has attained than to blame her deficiencies. The faults which we have pointed out will serve as a beacon to her in any future production; which, if she suffers it to pass the circle of her friends, we trust that she will endeavour to render more generally correct in point of expression. From classical translation we dissuade her, till she has attained a more perfect knowlege of the languages which she professes to render: but we think that, in some of her own composi tions, (particularly in the tender lines addressed to an absent husband, and in those on a deceased father, pages 191. and 207.) we discover a power of writing pathetically, and of attaining with care and practice a more creditable accuracy of style. ART. |