I shall now restore the ludicrous INDEX, and adapt it to the stanzas of the later edition.
| Stanza | |
| Introduction | 1 |
| The subject proposed | 2 |
| A circumstance in the situation of the MANSION OF EARLY DISCIPLINE, discovering the surprising influence of the connexions of ideas | 3 |
| A simile; introducing a deprecation of the joyless effects of BIGOTRY and SUPERSTITION | 4 |
| Some peculiarities indicative of a COUNTRY SCHOOL, with a short sketch of the SOVEREIGN presiding over it | 5 |
| Some account of her NIGHTCAP, APRON, and a tremendous description of her BIRCHEN SCEPTER | 6 |
| A parallel instance of the advantages of LEGAL GOVERNMENT with regard to children and the wind | 7 |
| Her gown | 8 |
| Her TITLES, and punctilious nicety in the ceremonious assertion of them | |
| A digression concerning her HEN'S presumptuous behaviour, with a circumstance tending to give the cautious reader a more accurate idea of the officious diligence and economy of an old woman. | 10 |
| A view of this RURAL POTENTATE as seated in her chair of state, conferring HONOURS, distributing BOUNTIES, and dispersing PROCLAMATIONS | 16 |
| Her POLICIES | 17 |
| The ACTION of the poem commences with a general summons, follows a particular description of the artful structure, decoration, and fortifications of an HORN-BIBLE | 18 |
| A surprising picture of sisterly affection by way of episode | 20, 21 |
| A short list of the methods now in use to avoid a whipping--which nevertheless follows | 22 |
| The force of example | 23 |
| A sketch of the particular symptoms of obstinacy as they discover themselves in a child, with a simile illustrating | |
| a blubbered face | 24, 25, 26 |
| A hint of great importance | 27 |
| The piety of the poet in relation to that school-dame's memory, who had the first formation of a CERTAIN patriot. | |
| [This stanza has been left out in the later editions; it refers to the Duke of Argyle.] | |
| The secret connexion between WHIPPING and RISING IN THE WORLD, with a view, as it were, through a perspective, of the same LITTLE FOLK in the highest posts and reputation | 28 |
| An account of the nature of an EMBRYO-FOX-HUNTER.— | |
| [Another stanza omitted.] | |
| A deviation to an huckster's shop | 32 |
| Which being continued for the space of three stanzas, gives the author an opportunity of paying his compliments to a particular county, which he gladly seizes; concluding his piece with respectful mention of the ancient and loyal city of SHREWSBURY. |
BEN JONSON ON TRANSLATION.
I have discovered a poem by this great poet, which has escaped the researches of all his editors. Prefixed to a translation, translation is the theme; with us an unvalued art, because our translators have usually been the jobbers of booksellers; but no inglorious one among our French and Italian rivals. In this poem, if the reader's ear be guided by the compressed sense of the massive lines, he may feel a rhythm which, should they be read like our modern metre, he will find wanting; here the fulness of the thoughts forms their own cadences. The mind is musical as well as the ear. One verse running into another, and the sense often closing in the middle of a line, is the Club of Hercules; Dryden sometimes succeeded in it, Churchill abused it, and Cowper attempted to revive it. Great force of thought only can wield this verse.
On the AUTHOR, WORKE, and TRANSLATOR, prefixed to the translation of Mateo Alemans's Spanish Rogue, 1623.
Who tracks this author's or translator's pen
Shall finde, that either hath read bookes, and men:
To say but one were single. Then it chimes,
When the old words doe strike on the new times,
As in this Spanish Proteus; who, though writ
But in one tongue, was formed with the world's wit:
And hath the noblest marke of a good booke,
That an ill man dares not securely looke
Upon it, but will loath, or let it passe,
As a deformed face doth a true glasse.
Such bookes deserve translators of like coate
As was the genius wherewith they were wrote;
And this hath met that one, that may be stil'd
More than the foster-father of this child;
For though Spaine gave him his first ayre and vogue
He would be call'd, henceforth, the English rogue,
But that hee's too well suted, in a cloth
Finer than was his Spanish, if my oath
Will be receiv'd in court; if not, would I
Had cloath'd him so! Here's all I can supply
To your desert who have done it, friend! And this
Faire aemulation, and no envy is;
When you behold me wish myselfe, the man
That would have done, that, which you only can!
BEN JONSON.
The translator of Guzman was James Mabbe, which he disguised under the Spanish pseudonym of Diego Puede-ser; Diego for James, and Puede-ser for Mabbe or May-be! He translated, with the same spirit as his Guzman, Celestina, or the Spanish Bawd, that singular tragi-comedy,—a version still more remarkable. He had resided a considerable time in Spain, and was a perfect master of both languages,—a rare talent in a translator; and the consequence is, that he is a translator of genius.