On remettait au gré du mort
Le nez auprès de son derriere.
It will be allowed, that notwithstanding the supplemental witticism of the translator, contained in the last four lines, the simile loses, upon the whole, very greatly by its diffusion. The following anonymous Latin version of this simile is possessed of much higher merit, as, with equal brevity of expression, it conveys the whole spirit of the original.
Sic adscititios nasos de clune torosi
Vectoris doctâ secuit Talicotius arte,
Qui potuere parent durando æquare parentem:
At postquam fato clunis computruit, ipsum
Unâ sympathicum cœpit tabescere rostrum.
With these translations may be compared the following, which is taken from a complete version of the poem of Hudibras, a very remarkable work, with the merits of which (as the book is less known than it deserves to be) I am glad to have this opportunity of making the English reader acquainted: