——No doubt, a Godesse!—Edit. 1583.
Gabriel Harvey desired only to be “Epitaph'd, the Inventor of the English Hexameter,” and for a while every one would be halting on Roman feet; but the ridicule of our Fellow-Collegian Hall, in one of his Satires, [pg 190] and the reasoning of Daniel, in his Defence of Rhyme against Campion, presently reduced us to our original Gothic.
But to come nearer the purpose, what will you say if I can shew you that Shakespeare, when, in the favourite phrase, he had a Latin Poet in his Eye, most assuredly made use of a Translation?
Prospero in the Tempest begins the Address to his attendant Spirits,
Ye Elves of Hills, of standing Lakes, and Groves.
This speech Dr. Warburton rightly observes to be borrowed from Medea in Ovid: and “it proves,” says Mr. Holt, “beyond contradiction, that Shakespeare was perfectly acquainted with the Sentiments of the Ancients on the Subject of Inchantments.” The original lines are these,
Auræque, & venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,
Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adeste.
It happens, however, that the translation by Arthur Golding is by no means literal, and Shakespeare hath closely followed it;
Ye Ayres and Winds; Ye Elves of Hills, of Brookes, of Woods alone,