where he ftrove ' With Philomelides, and threw him flat? Odyf. iv. 423. To enumerate expreffions of this kind would be an endless labour. We fhall therefore point out fome other phrafes, to whose peculiarity we objet rather than their vulgarity. Thofe which our following collection exhibits by way of fpecimen, are not calculated, much more than the preceding ones, to inspire that reverence which is commonly fuppofed due to the Epic Muse. The game of rhetoric. Of paufe (i. e. of reft) impatient;' 'was for beauty fuch; con/cious of both,' i. e. knowing both, (review); flood for his herd,' i. e. defended; forlorn (i. e. deprived) of thee;' aduft for blood;' play-thing walls;' wiped the rheums, i. e. tears; corfiets furbish'd bright;' A fpear acuminated sharp with brafs;' Scilla's fix necks clubb'd into heads;' Diomede purfues the Cyprian goddess confcious whom' i. e. knowing who he was. • Ulyffes is dash'd into a wreck;' he might be fhipwrecked, but the ship alone could become a wreck. Remembrance bufilv* retracing themes' (antipathies); teeming with thoughts of flaughter;' and A cloud of dust Upflamp'd into the brazen vault of heaver, Sound rather affectedly as do, * Our banded decads should (would) fo far exceed Their units' i. e. they were teñ to one. Thou art my first and last, proem and close.' 11. ix. 105. Thus the wife Neftor addrefles his king of kings, Agamemnon. In Homer, he fays, he will begin and conclude his fpeech with talking about him. So, at leaft, we understand it; but we cannot conjecture how Mr. Cowper's line is meant to be understood. Neptune is mentioned as lifting high Æneas from the ground, He heav'd him far remote; o'er many a rank Of Neptune.' In the first line one fhould naturally fuppofe, from the location of the words, that neas was high, or tall in stature, not lifted on high. And, according to the laft, he feems let offs like a paper kite or fky-rocket, from the hand of Neptune. Juno difpleafed at Hector's fuccefs, -huddering on her throne Rock'd the Olympian.' Il. viii. 228. This bears a ftronger refemblance to a perfon feized with a cold fit of the ague, than to the emprefs of heaven moving with indignation, not with fear, in her throne, and wide Olympus, trembling around her. νεμεσησε δὲ ποτνια Ηρη Σείςατο δ' είναι θρόνω, ελέλιξε δε μακρον ολυμπον. 1. viii. 198. The effect is awful, and fimilar to that caused by the fovereign nod of Jupiter; and her fubfequent fpeech is full of violence and tury. Thund'ring, he downward hurled his candent bolt To the borje-feet of Diomede; dire fumed The flaming fulphur, and both horfes drove. The Tranflator here turns what was great to farce by the low defcription of the horses" terror, and by giving horfe-feet' to Diomede. Βροντήσας δ' αρα δεινον, αφηκ' αργητα κεραυνον, Δείνη δε φλεξ Za καιομένοιο Τω δ' ιππω δείσαντε καταπτη την υπ' εχεσφιν 11. viii. 133. This is truly fublime: and if the English reader will refer to Pope (II. viii. 161.), he will form a very different, and a much jufter, idea of the original than from the preceding translation. Neftor advises Telemachus, (Odyf. iii. 404.) not to leave his treasures at the mercy of thofe proud; why not add mer as in Homer? Wijhing home;' why not, wishing to go home? Menelaus, talking of Ulyffes, tells Telemachus, -I purpos'd To have receiv'd him with fuch friendship here Without recurring to the original (Odyf. iv. 171.), we cannot be certain whether he means as none befides would have received him, or as he would have received no one befides. As the laft paffages we quoted are rendered obfcure by the omiffion of fome effential words, others ftand in the fame predicament by a complicated location of them. Ye, then, with faces to the Trojans turn'd, Thus Diomede advises the Grecians; and it seems strange at first fight that fo gallant a warrior fhould direct his countrymen to retire without ceafing. But if we confult the original (II. v. 605.), we fhall find that he exhorts them to retire indeed, but with their faces conftantly turned towards the enemy. • Him Him never, while, alive myself, I mix With living men and move, will I forget' Il. xxii. 447• 1. e. while I live I will never forget him. Many inftances of obfcurity, caufed by an improper inverfion of words, have been given before. But it is not always to be referred to that caufe. Helen tells Paris, Ah! would that thou hadst died By that heroic arm, mine husband's erft.' What does this expreffion imply, the arm that was once her husband's? The original is perfectly plain: 'I with you had been killed by that brave man who was my former hufband.'-Os Eμos πρoτegos modis nev (Il. iii. 429). Spurr'd thro' the portal flew her rapid fteeds." This is fpoken of Juno's horfes, as fhe drives them harneffed to her chariot. An odd contraft occurs in the following defcription of a young warrior between the words starting and gliding: both applied to the fame action cannot be proper. in the vanity of youth, For fhow of nimbleness, he started oft When Neptune is styled, Earth-shaking fovereign of the waves,” the contradictory terms produce likewife a bad effect. Antique words and phrafes, it is generally allowed, if cautioufly introduced, have a good effect in an epic poem, but we meet with fome here, the inftances are however not many, that no way tend to preferve the majefty or venerable fimplicity of the original. Agnized for known; kirtle for mantle, 'convolv'd,'' blurr'd the fight,' 'the field's bourn,' &c. are, probably, too obfolete. 'Or ere that' and or ere we part' for < before that, are phrafes feldom to be found but in the facred writings, or in Shakspeare, and have nothing but thofe refpectable authorities to recommend them. Our charge against Mr. Cowper for using phrases of modern fashion, or allufive to modern manners, is much more heavy than in regard to those which are obfolete. He afferts indeed 'that he has cautioufly avoided all terms of new invention:" But we fancy it would be no easy matter for him to trace the following to any other fource. A fathomer of defigns.' The fatteft of the faginated charge,' i. e. the fatteft of fatten'd pigs. A helmet quatre-crested. Mr. Cowper vindicates this epithet ( ( 6 by the cowlip' (mole) cinque fpotted in Shakspeare. We never before met with woman-mad, ‹ [pic-maiden,' ‹ misfortune-flaw'd,' cross-eyed, and intellected;' with 'unfirew'd, unflain, unvantag'd,' and unemafculated steeds.' We are not fo clear in regard to the ups as the uns, which are likewise We have upflamp'd, updarted, uppretty numerous. ridg'd, updrawn,' upbuilds,' "upwent,' upfood,' and 'upran to manhood.' S a-ward,' and even land-ward' we have feen before, but never file-ward, left ward, or Troyward. If all thefe words are not abfolutely new, we are certain that they are generally fo; and others, either newly invented or newly compounded, will occur, when we more particularly confider the epithets. Many phrafes likewife are adopted not in unifon with the times in which the original was written. Neftor obferves that the fuccefs or overthrow of the Greeks was poifed on a razor's edge.' Troy's reprieve' is not the exact fubftitute for Τρωσιν ανάβλησις κακες nor the hardy clans of Hyrie' for O. TUPLEY EVEμOVTO-Penelope threatens her domeftics with being 'cashier'd.' Irus, struck down by Ulyffes, with his heels drumm'd the ground.' Ulyffes talks of being cajaled by a threw'd Phoenician.' A veffel of that country is mentioned, in another place, as being mann'd by harpers; and Eumeus fays a woman of Phoenicia talked of him when a child, as an urchin that feamper'd by her fide.' He likewife informs us that in ancient Greece, as well as in modern Britain, perquifites are ev'ry fervant's joy.' And Hector talks of exhibiting Patroclus' head -impaled on high,' This mode of punishment was, we believe, never heard of in the region of Troy till it became fubject to the difciples of Mahomet. This may be confidered as a faithful translation of But it gives a modern idea. Pope has dropt the letter and retained the fpirit. Stands on the barpeft edge of death or life,' This phrafe might poffibly be borrowed from Milton; Ye fee our danger on the utmost edge Of hazard.' Par. Reg. i. 94. And Milton night have the preceding paffage of Homer in his contempla tion when he writ it; or, indeed, the following one of Shakspeare; who hardly confulted Homer on the occafion, but derived his ideas from the fare common fource with him, a bold and vivid imagination. We'll strive to hear it, for your worthy fake, To th' extreme edge of bazard.' Impoled, if Mr. Cowper would have ventured here to coin a new word, would have been more confonant to the original. Homer threatens to cut off (ugt lopp') his head, and fix it upon a pole. τα πήξης ανα εκολοβέτσιο Ile Ayiii. 176, The The tranflator fays: those — that would coufent to an English form I have preferved as epithets; others that would not, I have melted into the context. There are none, I believe, which I have not tranflated in one way or other, though the reader will not find them repeated fo often as most of them are in Homer, for a reafon that need not be mentioned.' We frequently obferve an omiffion of epithets, but cannot `affirm that they are not introduced in other places. To repeat them, whenever they occurred in the original, would, as Mr. C. obferves, have produced a very unpleasant effect. In Homer, particular ones are often repeatedly applied to particular heroes without refpect to their propriety as to fituation and circumftance. The godlike Patroclus kindles a fire to roast some mutton; and the divine Eumæus broils a pork-grifkin, which the divine Ulyffes devours very greedily. So ludicrous an oppofition, between the fituation and the expreffion, is commonly avoided yet when we could have wished for an epithet lefs clofe to the original. When Apollo inftigates Æneas to oppofe Achiles, Mr. C. properly drops the word Bancope (II. xx. 83.), for to address him by the name of counsellor, at fuch a time, would appear rather ludicrous in our language. We with he had always omitted the words counsellors and fenators (however confonant to the original) when applied to the Trojan and Græcian leaders, exhorting one another to action, or engaging in battle. There, Neftor, brave Gerenian, with a voice Sonorous roufed the godlike counsellor Black as a form the fenators renown'd . . . affailed buttress and tower.' Il. xii. 456. Huge Priam' enters unfeen into the tent of Achilles, (Il. xxiv. 599.) We can scarcely conceive a more improper word: syaç certainly fignifies great, but it might be allufive to eminence of ftation, of power, or of mind, as well as body. A • blatant goat' may, poffibly, be allowed; but we cannot approve of blatant appetite;' of triturated barley-grain;' of the deep-fork'd Olympian,' (70λuπTUXOS); of birth-pang-difpenfing llythia,' (uorosonos); of deep-bellied barks,' (yatupas); of aftone angled sharp,' (Tpnxv); of glutinated portals;' of boorish-rough; brainless and big earth-cumbrer (B8y~18) Ajax; thy whole big promife;' of a tripod ample-womb'd,' (Teimoda μeyav);' of an unrelenting fpear,' for ože naxxw; of beauteous Halia with eyes protuberant,' (Bownis); of furdy Q94 being |