XII.-MASSEY'S OVID'S FASTI. [From the Critical Review, 1758. "Ovid's Fasti; or the Roman Sacred Calendar. Translated into English Verse, with Explanatory Notes. By William Massey."* 8vo. Ir was no bad remark of a celebrated French lady,† that a bad translator was like an ignorant footman, whose blundering messages disgraced his master by the awkwardness of the delivery, and frequently turned compliment into abuse, and politeness into rusticity. We cannot indeed see an ancient elegant writer mangled and misrepresented by the doers into English, without some degree of indignation; and are heartily sorry that our poor friend Ovid should send his Sacred Calendar to us by the hands of Mr. William Massey, who, like the valet, seems to have entirely forgot his master's message, and substituted another in its room very unlike it. Mr. Massey observes, in his preface, with great truth, that it is strange that this most elaborate and learned of all Ovid's works should be so much neglected by our English translators; and that it should be so little read or regarded, whilst his Tristia, Epistles, and Metamorphoses, are in almost every schoolboy's hands. "All the critics, in general," says he, "speak of this part of Ovid's writings with a particular applause ; yet I know not by what unhappy fate there has not been that use made thereof, which would be more beneficial, in many respects, to young students of the Latin tongue. than any other of this poet's works. For though Pantheons, and other books that treat of the Roman mythology, may be usefully put into the hands of This anonymous translation, though destitute of every kind of merit, was actually reprinted so recently as 1828."-See Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, vol. i. p. 425.] * [Many years master of a boarding-school at Wandsworth, in Surrey.] + Madame de la Fayette. young proficients in the Latin tongue, yet the richest fund of that sort of learning is here to be found in the Fasti. I am not without hopes, therefore, that by thus making this book more familiar and easy, in this dress, to English readers, it will the more readily gain admittance into our public schools; and that those who become better acquainted therewith, will find it an agreeable and instructive companion, well stored with recondite learning. I persuade myself also, that the notes which I have added to my version will be of advantage, not only to the mere English reader, but likewise to such as endeavor to improve themselves in the knowledge of the Roman language. "As the Latin proverb says, Jacta est alea; and my performance must take its chance, as those of other poetic adventurers have done before me. I am very sensible, that I have fallen in many places far below my original; and no wonder, as I had to copy after so fertile and polite a genius as Ovid's; who, as my Lord Orrery, somewhere in Dean Swift's Life, humorously observes, 'could make an instructive song out of an old almanac.' "That my translation is more diffuse, and not brought within the same number of verses contained in my original, is owing to two reasons: firstly, because of the concise and expressive nature of the Latin tongue, which it is very difficult (at least I find it so) to keep to strictly, in our language; and secondly, I took the liberty sometimes to expatiate a little upon my subject, rather than leave it in obscurity, or unintelligible to my English readers, being indifferent whether they may call it translation or paraphrase; for, in short, I had this one design most particularly in view, that these Roman Fasti might have a way opened for their entrance into our grammar schools." What use this translation may be of to grammar schools, we cannot pretend to guess, unless, by way of foil, to give the boys a higher opinion of the beauty of the original by the deformity of so bad a copy. But let our readers judge of Mr. Massey's performance by the following specimen. For the better determination of its merit, we shall subjoin the original of every quotation. "The calends of each month throughout the year, Are under Juno's kind peculiar care; But on the ides, a white lamb from the field, A grateful sacrifice, to Jove is kill'd; But o'er the nones no guardian god presides; Those days unlucky nominated are."* Ovid's address to Janus, than which in the original scarcely any thing can be more poetical, is thus familiarized into something much worse than prose by the translator: All things are then renew'd; a youthful dress With business is the year auspiciously begun; Quæsieram multis: non multis ille moratus, Et damus alternas accipimusque preces? Ad primam vocem timidas advertitis aures: But every artist, soon as he was tried Is there a possibility that any thing can be more different from Ovid in Latin than this Ovid in English? Quam sibi dispar! The translation is indeed beneath all criticism. But let us see what Mr. Massey can do with the sublime and more animated parts of the performance, where the subject might have given him room to show his skill, and the example of his author stirred up the fire of poetry in his breast, if he had any in it. Towards the end of the second book of the Fasti, Ovid has introduced the most tender and interesting story of Lucretia. The original is inimitable. Let us see what Mr. Massey has made of it in his translation. After he has described Tarquin returning from the sight of the beautiful Lucretia, he proceeds thus: "The near approach of day the cock declar'd, ⚫ Jam dederat cantum lucis prænuncius ales; |