Malherbe has given to the same sentiment a high portion of tenderness, and even sublimity:
Le pauvre en sa cabane, où le chaume le couvre,
Est sujet à ses loix;
Et la garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre,
N’en défend pas nos rois.[16]
Cicero writes thus to Trebatius, Ep. ad fam. lib. 7, ep. 17: Tanquam enim syngrapham ad Imperatorem, non epistolam attulisses, sic pecuniâ ablatâ domum redire properabas: nec tibi in mentem veniebat, eos ipsos qui cum syngraphis venissent Alexandriam, nullum adhuc nummum auferre potuisse. The passage is thus translated by Melmoth, b. 2, l. 12: “One would have imagined indeed, you had carried a bill of exchange upon Cæsar, instead of a letter of recommendation: As you seemed to think you had nothing more to do, than to receive your money, and to hasten home again. But money, my friend, is not so easily acquired; and I could name some of our acquaintance, who have been obliged to travel as far as Alexandria in pursuit of it, without having yet been able to obtain even their just demands.” The expressions, “money, my friend, is not so easily acquired,” and “I could name some of our acquaintance,” are not to be found in the original; but they have an obvious connection with the ideas of the original: they increase their force, while, at the same time, they give ease and spirit to the whole passage.
I question much if a licence so unbounded as the following is justifiable, on the principle of giving either ease or spirit to the original.
In Lucian’s Dialogue Timon, Gnathonides, after being beaten by Timon, says to him,
Αει φιλοσκῴμμων συ γε· αλλα ποῦ το συμποσιον; ὡς καινον τι σοι ασμα των νεοδιδακτων διθυραμβων ἥκω κομιζων.
“You were always fond of a joke—but where is the banquet? for I have brought you a new dithyrambic song, which I have lately learned.”