gels performed as they were commanded, excepting Satan, who would not bow down before Adam: wherefore he was banished from the fublime court, and punished with an eternal curfe. Adam was placed in Paradife; and God having caufed him to fall into a profound fleep, formed Eve out of his left fide. Adam, having awakened, afked, Who art thou?" And Eve anfwering, faid, "The Moft High created me for thy ufe." And Adam and Eve became man and wife.' Art. 9. An Account of the Embaffies and Letters that paffed between the Emperor of China, and Sultan Shahrokh, Son of Ameer Timur. Extracted from the Matla us Sadein of Abdur Rezak, and tranflated by William Chambers, Efq. We learn from the Tranflator's Preface, that the Chinese Emperor, who in thefe tracts calls himfelf Day-ming, was the prince of the Dynafty of Ming, and afcended the throne in the year 1403, five years before the first of thefe embaffies. Sultan Shahrokh, or, as he is commonly called by hiftorians, Shahrokh Mirza, was the 4th fon of the famous Timur, and the younger of the two that furvived him. Before we produce a fpecimen of their correfpondence, we mult premife that the work from which the prefent extracts are made, is in fome measure known to Europeans, having been mentioned in terms of commendation by D'Herbelot, under the article Shahrokh. The following letter from the Emperor of China will give our Readers fome idea of the reft: Mr Chambers has added notes, which fhew a comprehenfive knowledge of the hiftory and languages of the Eaft. The great Emperor, Day-ming, fends this letter to the country of Samarcand to Shahrokh Bahâdur. As we confider that the most high God has created all things that are in heaven and earth, to the end that all his creatures may be happy, and that it is in confequence of his fovereign decree, that we are become Lord of the face of the earth, we therefore endeavour to exercise rule in obedience to his commands; and for this reafon we make no partial diftinctions between thofe that are near, and thofe that are afar off, but regard them all with an eye of equal benevolence. We have heard before this, that thou art a wife and an excellent man, highly diftinguished above others, that thou art obedient to the commands of the most high God, that thou art a father to thy people and thy troops, and art good and beneficent towards all; which has given us much fatisfaction. But it was with fingular pleasure we obferved, that when we fent an ambassador with Kimkhâs, and Torkos +, and a dress, thou didst pay all due honour to our command, and didst make a proper difplay of the favour thou *A manufacture compofed of filk and cotton, called by the English, in India, Kincob; with flowers of gold, or filk, upon it. ተ "Silk ftuff," according to Strahlenberg. Ff3 hadft hadft received, infomuch that fmall and great rejoiced at it. Thou didft alfo forthwith difpatch an ambaffador to do us homage, and to prefent us the rarities, horfes, and choice manufactures of that country. So that with the ftricteft regard to truth we can declare, that we have deemed thee worthy of praise and of distinction. The government of the Moguls was fome time ago extinct, but thy father Timur Fûmâ was obedient to the commands of the most high God, and did homage to our great Emperor Tây Zûy; nor did he omit to fend ambaffadors with prefents. He (the Emperor) for this reafon granted protection to the men of that country, and enriched them all. We have now feen that thou art a worthy follower of thy father, in his noble fpirit, and in his measures; we have therefore fent Duji-chûn-bayazkasây, and Hararâ Sûchû, and Dan-ching Sadasûn Kunchi, with congratulations, and a dress, and Kimkhâs, and Torgos, &c. that the truth may be known. We shall hereafter fend perfons whofe office it will be to go and return fucceffively, in order to keep open a free communication, that merchants may traffick and carry on their bufinefs to their wish. KHALIL SULTAN is thy brother's fon; it is neceffary that thou treat him with kindness, in confideration of his rights as being the fon of fo near a relation. We trust that thou wilt pay attention to our fincerity and to our advice in thefe matters. This is what we make known to thee!' Art. 10. A Story from the Gulistan of Sadi. We are here told by one who profeffes to have tried both, that flavery is preferable to a fcolding wife. His farcafms on the fair fex are much in the ftyle of Euripides, though by his own account he had better reafon to complain of them. The ftory is alluded to by D'Herbelot, and is true of the poet himself, who is faid to have been taken prifoner by the Franks in the Holy Land, and to have worked as a flave on the fortifications of Tripoli. A merchant of Aleppo redeemed him for ten golden crowns, and added 100 more by way of dowry with his daughter, whom he gave to our poet in marriage. Sadi, it feems, thought he had purchafed his liberty at too dear a rate; for this is not the only part of his works in which he exhibits the dark fide of the fair Syrian's character. Art. 11. Softly, an Ode from Hafiz, by the late Captain Thomas Ford. Hafiz, as is well known, is the Perfian Anacreon, and his poems, like thofe of the Greek Lyrift, do not always appear decently in an English garb. That felected by Captain Ford, if not abfolutely indelicate, is, at leaft, very warmly coloured. ture. Art. 12. An Ode from Khoofro. By W. K. A love fong made up of the ufual mixture of defpair and rapThe lover applies to a phyfician, is by him remanded to his miftrefs, who cures him by the promise of a kils. Art. Art. 13. Extracts from the Yufef and Zelekha of Jami, by Thomas The chapter of the Koran, in which the ftory of Jofeph's continence is related, with fome deviations from the chafte fimplicity of the Mofaic account, has given rife to a number of poems on the fubject in the Eaftern languages. Nezami, a celebrated Perfian poet, fet the example to Jami, and others of his countrymen, and there are many poetical compofitions in the Turkish language, in which the fame theme is decorated with D-v-s. the fame voluptuous imagery. The account of No. II. will be given in our next. ART. XII. The Rape of Helen; from the Greek of Coluthus: with OLUTHUS was a native of Lycopolis, a city of Thebais, e Vol. C in Upper Egypt. Nothing is recorded of his parentage or education; and the fcanty memorials of him by Suidas barely 7951. Signed inform us that he lived in the reign of Anaftafius, furnamed Brachinus, who fucceeded Zeno, in the government of the Eaft- B ern empire, about the year 491. He wrote Calydonics, Perfics, and Encomia, as we learn from the fame memorialift; though none of his works have escaped the ravages of time, except the poem, entitled Exeuns agrayn, of which the prefent work is a tranflation. The original is evidently mutilated; and many paffages are very corrupt. It is not, however, deftitute of imagery; and it is adorned by a variety of ftriking and expreffive epithets. But as the fubject is of fo much celebrity in ancient ftory, and hath been related at large both by hiftorians and poets, we fhall, inftead of analyfing the poem, content ourselves with giving our Readers a general account of thofe various editions and tranflations of it with which we have any acquaintance. The first edition, that hath come to our knowledge, is that of Aldus, published at Venice, with Quintus Calaber. Renatus Perdirierus tranflated it into Latin, and published it, with the Notes of Bertrand, at Bafil, in 1555. Michael Neander published his Opus Aureum at Leipfic, in 1577, in which is inferted this poem of Coluthus, with a Latin verfion, and a copious commentary. We have Neander's trans EV * In fome account of Coluthus prefixed to the Aldine edition is the following paffage: Επιγεγραπται και το παρον ποίημα, Ελένης άρπαγη, Απελια συνηθες και γνωριμον οπ8 καὶ ἡ ποίησις το Ομηρικά + Κοίλου πρωτον ευρήλα εν τῷ ναῷ τε θεος Νικολας των κασσυλών εξω το Υδρολος. Ο ανασώσας ο θείος Βησ σαρίων ὁ Νικαιος καρδιναλις, κ. τ. λο Viz. Quintus Calaber. Ff4 lation, lation, altered by Francis Portus, and fome extracts from his Commentaries, together with the Greek original, in feveral of the fmall editions of the Iliad. Bandini publifhed this poem, at Florence, with an Italian verfion and Molard publifhed a French tranflation of it in 1742. Lennep's edition is held (and very defervedly) in the first estimation. That learned editor hath restored many corrupt and mutilated paffages: and by many happy conjectures hath thrown light on what was before very obfcure, if not wholly unintelligible. In 1701, Sir Edward Sherborne (the tranflator of the Sphere of Manilius) first published this poem in English verfe. His poetry is uncouth and inharmonious; but his valuable and ju dicious notes, full of claffical information, in fome meafure recompenfe for the defect of his Mufe. In 1785, a tranflation of this poem, in Englifh verfe, was published by Fawkes's coadjutor, and the editor of his Apollonius Rhodius. It appears to have been inferted from the fimilarity of the fubject to the rape of Medea. In point of poetical merit the prefent attempt is inferior to that of Fawkes's friend; and we think the Author hath dif covered fome want of judgment, in giving to the Public what they did not need, and for which it is to be feared they have no reafon to be thankful. The prefent Tranflator, by avoiding the timid and contracted course of the mere fidus interpres, hath run into the contrary, and lefs pardonable extreme; and in many places he hath not preferved a fingle trace of the original. The ftrength and beauty of the poem is frequently deftroyed by the too free ufe of feeble expletives; and, indeed, if we fay the whole is flat and nervelefs, we fhall not perhaps pals too fevere a cenfure on it. There is a faulty epithet in the first line: Ye Trojan Nymphs! the filver Xanthus' pride. Why filver Xanthus? The original is fimply Пoraμ& Eartα10 Even. But an epithet embellishes !-We acknowledge it doth, when it is true as well as elegant. But filver is very improperly applied to a river that took its name from another colour. Now, we are informed by Arifto le, in his third book De Animalibus, that this river was called Xanthus, becaufe the fleeces of the sheep that drank of it were turned yellow from the colour and quality of the water itself. Say, what that judgment was which Helen's name Gave to his ear, and to the page of fame. This is not the exact fenfe of the original, as the learned reader will perceive by comparing it with the Greek. Τις δε δικασπολιη, ποθεν εκλύεν όνομα νύμφης The The Tranflator feems to have thought that mod refers to dinamon, but it is evidently the introduction of another fubject. The characteristics of beauty, as delineated by Jupiter to Mercury, and in which Paris was to be inftructed previous to the judgment that he was to pafs on the three Goddeffes on Mount Ida, are omitted by the Author in his translation of the paffage in which they occur. There let the happy youth, unaw'd and bold, Κεκλες και βλεφαρων συνοχην και κυκλα προσώπων. Now the συνοχη βλεφαρων was by the ancients elteemed as one of the indifpentible attributes of beauty. Anacreon in defcribing his miftrefs to the painter, numbers this among her other perfections. [See alfo Theocritus Idyl. d. 72. We might quote Ariftinætus and Petronius to the fame purpose.] All the English tranflators appear to have totally mistaken the meaning of the poet in the following line, at the conclufion of Venus's speech: Πολλακις ωδίνεσι και 8 θνήσκεσι γυναίκες. our fling Which smart to women, but not death doth bring. My fting infix'd, renews the lover's pain, SHERBORNE. FAWKES'S FRIEND. And tho' behind no deadly wound it leaves, THE PRESENT TRANSLATOR. Thus they all agree to refer the word wdives, to the pains of love, taken in a general fenfe; and underftood it rather of the anxieties of the mind than of any corporeal affliction. But it means, moft undoubtedly, the throes of childbirth. We think it proper to remark, that Coluthus, throughout the poem, hath steadily kept in his eye the celebrated Dialogue of Lucian, entitled, The Judgment of the Goddeffes. We will here take leave of a performance which is faulty in many refpects, both as to accuracy of tranflation, and harmony of verfe. The Notes, however, in fome measure recompenfe for the defects of the text; and the Author appears in a more refpectable light as a Commentator than as a Poet. B-d-k ART. |