Our Language, I think, will admit of few things more truly Poetical, than those four Lines. But the two first are set to render
Huc tunc Ignipotens cœlo descendit ab alto.
There is nothing of cœlo ab alto in the Version; nor of by Night, brown Air, or precipitates his Flight in the Original. The two last are put in the room of
Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro,
Brontesque, Steropesque, & nudus membra Pyracmon.
Vasto in antro in the first of these Lines, and the last Line entirely are left out in the Translation. Nor is there any thing of eternal Anvils (I wish there were) or here be found, in the Original: And the Brethren beating, and the Blows go round, is but a loose Version of Ferrum exercebant. Much the same may be said of the whole Passage throughout; which will appear to Those who compare the Latin with the English. In the whole Passage Mr. Dryden has the true Spirit of Virgil; but he would have had never the less of it, if he had more closely adhered to his Words, and Expressions.
Sometimes he is near enough to the Original; And tho' he might have been nearer, he is altogether admirable, not only as a Poet, but as a Translator. Thus in the Second Book;
Pars ingentem formidine turpi
Scandunt rursus equum, & nota conduntur in alvo.
And some, oppress'd with more ignoble Fear,
Remount the hollow Horse, and pant in secret there.
And in the Twelfth, after the last Speech of Juturna;
Tantum effata, caput glauco contexit amictu,
Multa gemens, & se fluvio Dea condidit alto.
She drew a length of Sighs; no more she said,
But with her azure Mantle wrap'd her Head;
Then plung'd into her Stream with deep Despair,
And her last Sobs came bubbling up in Air.
Tho' the last Line is not expressed in the Original, yet it is in some measure imply'd; and it is in it self so exceedingly beautiful, that the whole Passage can never be too much admired. These are Excellencies indeed; This is truly Mr. Dryden. Si sic omnia dixisset, tho' he had approached no nearer to the Original than This; my other Criticisms upon his Translation had been spared. And after all, I desire that Mine, being in a different sort of Verse, may be considered as an Undertaking of another kind, rather than as an Attempt to excel His. For tho' I think even That may very well be done; yet I am too sensible of my own Imperfection, to presume to say it can be done by Me. I have nothing to plead, besides what I have already alledged, in Excuse of my many, and great Faults, in the Execution of This bold Design; but that I was drawn into it, not by any Opinion of my Abilities to perform it, but by the inexpressible Passion which I have always had for this incomparable Poet. With a View to whom, I will here insert a noble Stroke out of my Lord Roscommon's excellent Essay on Translated Verse: Which, I think, is proper to stand in This Place, both as a Conclusion of my Preface, and as a Kind of Poetical Invocation to my Work: