Imatges de pàgina
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After this account of his author, he proceeds to speak of translations of the Divina Commedia. The one which least dissatisfies him, is the Latin version of Carlo d'Aquino. It is very modest in him to omit his own, as the reader will see by a few specimens, with which he has far voured us in the course of his work. In English he is acquainted with two, although he did not know any thing of the existence of either till very lately. "With regard to one of them," he adds, "it is quite unnecessary to notice it; for ramblingly paraphrastic as it is, I believe, if the title page were cut out and the book handed to me, I should not be aware it was intended for a translation of Dante. The other is, indeed, a very different production; I mean that of Mr. Cary. Its fidelity is exemplary, and, although somewhat of a paraphrase, it is far from loose." How happy Mr. Cary must have been at hearing such a sentence from such a judge. Poor easy man! Let no poet or translator confide too much in the first coaxing he receives from his critic. Perhaps the little mouse, that is first stroked by the velvet paws of grimalkin, and then let loose for a moment, expects that it shall be suffered to go about its business, and tell the rest of the brood what a pretty play-fellow it had met with,

-Velouté comme nous,

Marqueté, longue queue, une humble con

tenance,

but, alas! the next tap will be a ruder one; then comes a scratch, then a downright rending of its sleek ermine, till at last it is fain to squeak and run for its life. "A very different production-fidelity exemplary-though somewhat of a paraphrase, far from loose." Good; but what follows?

But whatever its literal merits, it does not give, nor pretend to give, any of the melody of the original. Dante writes in rhyme, and in a measure whose chief merits are pliancy and concision-Mr. Cary in blank verse, imitative of the stateliness and occasional prolixity of Milton. Be it observed, that before Dante, neither terza rima nor blank verse (versi sciolti) existed in Italian, though both now do; and Cesarotti, Alfieri, Parini, Bettinelli, &c. prove that the latter is no less adapted to the genius of the language than the former. Dante might then just as easily have invented blank verse as terza rima, if there was not something in

rhyme which pleased his car more. He had begun his poem in Latin heroics, but soon changed both tongue and metre. Who knows how many metres he might have tried, before he decided for terza rima? His smaller poems display a variety of metres. Any of these, or blank verse, were as easy an invention as terza rima. But in choosing this last, he, in my opinion, chose well; for no other seems capable of such variety

being alike proper for the highest and the lowest themes, and susceptible of every gradation of sound, to accompany each coour of eloquence, from rapid argument to playful imagery, from expanding tenderness to sarcasm and vehemence, from the sublimest simplicity to magnificence of description. Concision, however, is the chief peculiarity of Dante's style; even where he enters into descriptive details (which is rarely), his expressions are conciser than those of any other writer would have been on a similar occasion: no rhythm then is more unlike his than the Miltonic. Why then imagine that he would have selected it, had he written in English? He might have changed language, yet not ear. If we are to argue from analogy, it will not follow that because he preferred rhyme in his native tongue, he would blank verse in ours; and that he would choose in English the metre most entirely dissimilar to the one he liked best in Italian. Before Lord Byron employed terza rima, it might have been objected that there was something in that fine metre not agreeing with the form of our language; but that doubt is now va, nished. Perhaps Mr. Haley removed it before; but I cannot speak of his verses, having never seen them. But there is a far more ancient and higher authority for English terza rima than Mr. Haley-authority of which I was not aware till this very morning, the authority of the partial translator and frequent imitator of DanteMilton. His version of the second Psalm is in regular terza rima. P. xxi.

Perhaps if the critic had taken a few mornings more to inquire into the matter, he might have found that several of our old writers, as Lord Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Francis Bryan, and Sir Philip Sidney, had used the terza rima long before Milton; and that Gray, in those posthumous papers for which we are so much indebted to Mr. Mathias, has observed that "though the invention has usually been ascribed to Dante, there is a poem (called the Pataffio) extant, written in this very measure, by Ser Brunetto Latini, who was Dante's master, and who died in 1294." Gray adds, that it was probably the invention of the Provençals,

who used it in their Syrvientes (or satires), whence the Italians have commonly called it Serventese. (Vol. ii. p. 21.) What now becomes of the hypothesis, that Dante might just as easily have invented blank verse, and of his having tried many metres before he decided? It might have been mentioned by this writer, in the fairness which he professes towards Mr. Cary, of whom he says, "he is, I believe, a fair antagonist, and I will treat him fairly," that Mr. Cary says not a word of his imagining that Dante would have used blank verse had he written in English. He merely uses it himself; but it does not follow, that because a translator finds it convenient to use a certain measure, he must therefore suppose that the poet whom he translates would have used the same. An original writer is master of what he shall say next, and has sometimes a happy thought suggested to him by the rhyme it self. The translator has no such advantage, and will be apt to employ the metre that will leave him most at liberty to make choice of such words as shall best convey the sense of his original. Mr. Cary might have managed better if he had possessed the ingenuity of the learned commentator. But he shall tell his own tale. "Long before seeing Mr. Cary's translation, I had begun to attempt one conformably to the principles just disclosed. That translation of mine I have since suppressed; yet not until two cantos were printed, as well as the comments on them." He then goes on to clear himself from the impeachment of being, in this, an imitator of Lord Byron, and to apologize for the points in which his varies a little from that of Lord Byron's." Let who will impeach him, we will not; let who will refuse his apology, we will accept it. Who, indeed, could be so hard as to deny him any thing after hearing his candid confession, in the following words? "The naked truth is best. About six years since, I turned five cantos of Dante precisely into the same measure which is in the Prophecy of Dante, but afterwards found it so heavy that I renounced it." Here it is natural to ask, if the writer, with the knowledge of these principles which he has disclosed, and after having lived so many years in Italy, found

the measure so heavy that he re nounced it, after going through five cantos; this very measure which was fixed on by Dante (perhaps after trying many metres) for his hundred cantos, should he not have had a little compassion on Mr. Cary, who has never been in Italy, nor ever had "this writer's principles disclosed to him?" Where we see one virtue, we expect to find another. Of want of sincerity no one will accuse our commentator, when he thus accounts for his failure: "The fault," says he, "was possibly entirely my own; but also I could not remedy it." The fault his own? and why not Dante's, who tried so many metres, and might as well have invented blank verse, but chose this, which in his own language is so fumous for melody, and pliancy, and concision, but which an ingenious English gentleman, who has lived in Italy many years, finds so heavy, that after translating five cantos he renounces it? A poet, who took such ungenerous advantages in his own language, did not deserve to be translated. But what will not the art of ingenious men accomplish? For though the commentator (or hears he rather the translator?) owns that the fault was possibly entirely his own, but also he could not remedy it, yet in the very next sentence he tells us that he did remedy it, and in what manner. "Without troubling others," says he, "I meditated on the mat ter; and the consequence was, that I at last determined to allow myself the liberty of varying my lines from eight to ten syllables, instead of giving them all the fine heroic complement; as well as of using double rhymes at pleasure. Even his lordship uses them." Here one scarcely knows which to commend most, the forbearance in not troubling others, the magnanimous resolution not to give all the lines the fine heroic complement, or the politeness to his lordship. The result of this solitary meditation, however, was, that the terza rima should be used with verses from eight to ten syllables, and double rhymes at pleasure, which even his lordship uses. But this was not the whole of our author's invention when he meditated upon the matter; for with him a full heroic line answers to the Alexandrine; that is, the English verse of five feet answers to

one of six. This may perplex some readers at first, but the whole is very simple. Six is one more than five, but an Alexandrine consists of six; five is one more than four, therefore a verse of five answers to an Alexandrine. It is no more than if one should say, a man of six feet is a tall man; and five feet is one more than four, as six is one more than five, and therefore a man of five feet answers to a tall man. Q. E. D.

One might have hoped that such a discovery would have put the learned commentator in good humour with himself, and with all around him. But no; after seeing Mr. Cary's unfortunate translation, he took the resolution to suppress his own; and, at the same time, entered his protest against the former, drawn up in the following most awful form of words, " protesting (as I hereby most solemnly do) against his metre, its want of harmony, his paraphrases, and, in fine, all that appertains to style, as totally inadequate to convey the remotest resemblance to the poetry of his original." Well-a-day for Mr. Cary! But this is not the worst of his offences. For the exemplary fidelity, for which at the outset he was so liberally praised, turns out to be a mere imposition; since a great many passages are adduced from the first eight cantos (and there is not a canto in the whole hundred in which there are not some inaccuracies) where he has misrepresented his original. We own ourselves to be a little interested in this matter. We shall therefore examine, one by one, all the charges of inaccuracy and misrepresentation that have been as yet brought, in order that the culprit may no longer plume himself in his false colours, but, if fairly detected, may receive the punishment he de

serves.

1. The plaintiff's first count is, that "he cannot but object to the title, Vision, instead of that chosen by the author; and, the more so, because Italians enumerate among the many reasons, which induced him to call his book Comedy, the desire to avoid precisely such low common-place, as Journey, Vision, or the like,-non volendo chiamare la sua opera Cammino, o Visione, o con altro simile nome basso (Gelli, sopra lo Inferno de Dante, vol. i. p. 50)." Here Mr.

Cary must be satisfied to answer for himself, in the words of his preface. "In one or two of those editions' (editions of the original)" is to be found the title of 'The Vision,' which I have adopted, as more conformable to the genius of our language, than that of The Divine Comedy." Dante himself, I believe, termed it simply The Comedy;' in the first place, because the style was of the middle kind; and, in the next, because the story (if story it may be called) ends happily." In glancing an eye over the titles of different editions, we find a great variety. There is " Capitola," and "Terze Rime," and "Rime," and "Lo Inferno Purgatorio" and "Paradiso," and "Commedia, or Comedia," and "Visione.” Mr. Cary has given his reason for preferring the last; but as our expounder and Gelli object to it as low common-place, it must be discarded in future; and we do hereby give notice to all editors and translators, not to use it under pain of their displeasure.

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2. Canto 1. "In Mr. Cary's translation of v. 20 of the original, he gives recesses,' instead of lake of the heart ;" and thus not only impairs the imagery of the passage, but removes what was intended to be a scientific position. Yet even the lines quoted from Redi might have emboldened him to be more literal." The expounder himself in his note on this line observes, "It is a matter on which Fontanini and others quote our poet; but I need not enter into the discussion." Venturi's remark on it is, that "some think Dante, by the lake of the heart, means its ventricles, others, the pericardium." As soon as the "scientific position" has been settled, Mr. Cary must answer for having removed it. In the meantime, he is responsible for having wilfully impaired the imagery, unless he can show that "in my heart's lake" would have sounded very like nonsense in English, and that "in the lake of my heart would have been unmetrical.

3. V. 30. "Mr. Cary falls into the usual error of explaining it by "in ascending, the weight of the body rests on the hinder foot!"" Those who prefer an unusual error will refer to the expounder's note of two pages and a half on this passage,

from whence it appears that he had himself with exemplary fidelity" translated

66 an un

Sì che 'l piè fermo sempre era 'l più basso, With steps that backward hung, which he rightly says was natural, unavailing gait." Mr. Cary is guilty of persevering in the usual error; and the only excuse for him is, that there is no other way of explaining the line, by which it can appear that Dante contrived to move himself forwards.

4. V. 43. "He makes a difficulty where there is really none. He, in part, remedies this by translating right; but his note (notwithstanding his encomiast) taxes his original with an obscurity which it does not merit." Here again Mr. Cary may have leave to speak for himself in his note on this line.

A late editor of the Divina Commedia, Signor Zotti, has spoken of the present translation as the only one that has rendered this passage rightly; but Mr. Hayley had shown me the way, in his very skilful version of the first three cantos of the Inferno, inserted in his notes to his Essay on Epic Poetry:

I now was raised to hope sublime By those bright omens of my fate benign, The beauteous beast, and the sweet hour of prime.

All the commentators whom I have seen, understand our poet to say, that the season of the year and the hour of the day induced him to hope for the gay skin of the panther; and there is something in the sixteenth canto (v. 107) which countenances this interpretation, although that which I have followed still appears to me the more probable.

Mr. Cary, when he "ventured to differ from all the commentators," ought not to have expressed the least doubt about his being right. There is nothing like a good assurance.

The learned expounder himself (as he tells us)" does not reject a suspicion of a hope, alluding to some particular appearances then well known, but long since irreparably sunk into oblivion." As soon as he discovers what grounds there are for his suspicion, we trust he will ease the anxiety which he has created in our minds on this head.

5. V. 45. Mr. Cary falls into the common abuse of being strained, if not quite unintelligible, by interpreting the

three beasts, Ambition, Luxury, Avarice. This, to be sure, is rather to be attributed to the commentators than to him; as his not giving any explanation of the allegorical forest, the sun-clad mountain, the pass "that never left one alive," is rather a deficiency than defect; and if he gave no notes at all, such a deficiency would not deserve animadversion; and one might suppose that he fully comprehended the whole, though it was not in his plan to explain it to his readers. But as it is, I cannot conceive how he could clearly understand his original; and who, without understanding clearly, can translate clearly? The citation he gives from Jeremiah might have made him approach nearer the truth.

As the abuse Mr. Cary has fallen into of being strained, if not quite unintelligible, is the common one, he must abide it as well as he can, and the more "as it is rather to be attributed to the commentators than to him." But, behold, how vain his prehimself cannot conceive how he could tensions to fidelity, for the expounder understand his original. All that can be said for Mr. Cary is, that if he had attempted an explanation of the allegorical forest, the sun-clad mountain, the pass "that never left one alive" (we own we should have translated che non lasciò giammai persona viva, "which no one ever left alive"), he must have derived such explanation from the commentators; and it is as well he did not, as he has been deceived by trusting to their interpretations already. It will be found throughout that Mr. Cary has not been near so full as he might have been on the allegory; and this is the more inexcusable, as by translating any of the old commentators, he might easily have swelled his book to almost any size, and, after all, have left the matter as uncertain as he found it; for both which advantages the reader would, no doubt, have been very thankful to him. It is our intention, before we conclude, to say a few words on the expounder's interpretation of the allegory in this first canto; but we will not now interrupt the course of his strictures on Mr. Cary's translation.

6. V. 70. Instead of either translating literally," though late," or at least paraphrasing it rightly, he makes a paraphrase which is in all probability a false one.

Here Mr. Cary must answer for himself in his note on the passage. Nacqui sub Julio ancorchè fosse

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tardi." This is explained by the commentator, "Although it were rather late with respect to my birth, before Julius Cæsar assumed the supreme authority, and made himself perpetual dictator. Virgil indeed was born twenty-five years before that event." The learned expounder, in his translation, had not only avoided the difficulty, but introduced, as he says, an artful beauty." "My though late,' retains all the uncertainty of the original-Ancorchè fosse tardi;" (not quite, for he omits the fosse)" and in this, I obey Ascensius, who, in speaking of a disputed passage in the Eneid, affirms it is sometimes an artful beauty to arrange a phrase so, that it becomes susceptible of a variety of explica-tions."

7. V. 109. Mr. Cary's misconstruction of the entire allegory leads him into the common difficulty of making Can chase "avarice" through every town; which who can comprehend?

The expounder's note of ten pages on this passage gives us no insight into his mind on the subject. Here he has again much the advantage over Mr. Cary, who "is led into the common difficulty" by following some of the most approved commentators, -when he might have substituted for it an uncommon difficulty of his own. Mr. Cary's misconstruction of the "entire allegory" is the more unaccountable, as he has just been accused of not giving any explanation of the greater part of it. By this it would seem as if the learned expounder must be as intimately acquainted with Mr. Cary as Dante was "with Marco Polo, the first modern who made a famous voyage of discovery, and learned from him many things which are not to be found in his book." The expounder observes that, "although we may go with the momentary stream, so far as to concede that the hound' may mean Can, in the absence of any thing more plausible, we must not permit our condescension for an hypothesis totally modern, and which, I repeat it, is without a shadow of any ancient authority, to lead us so wrong as to imagine (with those who disregard dates) that the present passage was composed in gratitude for hospitality received from Can." P. 45. There is

nothing, we repeat it, like a good assurance. This hypothesis, which is pronounced to be totally modern, and without a shadow of any ancient authority, is now before us in Vellutello's note on the passage, printed in his edition of 1544. "Fingendo per quello pronosticar di Can Grande, primo de la Scala, Signor di Verona; et predice cio che, allhora era presente, perche Dante nel suo esilio fu molto sovenuto ne suoi bisogni da questo Signore." "Feigning thereby to prognosticate of Can Grande, the first of la Scala, Lord of Verona; and he predicts that which was then present; because Dante, in his banishment, was much supplied in his wants by this lord." To the expounder's own objection, that the " passage was in all probability written before Can was five years old, and certainly before Dante had had any opportunity of appreciating his character," he has himself supplied an answer; for at p. 8. of his Comment, he says, “He (Dante) might have altered many things in these canti, long after having composed them; some I am sure he did." Nothing can be fairer than this way of proceeding; nor has Mr. Cary any right to complain of an opponent, who thus handsomely knocks his own arguments in the head.

8. V. 117. By citing from Revel. ix. 6, Mr. Cary leads the reader into the mistake of ascribing to "second death,” a signification which it does not, cannot bear, the biblical one.

The learned expounder is to be commended for his discretion in not telling us what he supposed the biblical signification to be. It is, in fact, that which he himself affixes to the passage in Dante, by these words of his Comment: "This is indubitable, that his second death means either oblivion, or annihilation," (P. 56.) To avýπоiтov тõν áλyový vočiται, ως του θανάτου πανάλγεινον ἀποTETOVтOC, says Arethas, on this verse, as cited in Gregory's Greek Testament. Quærent (vel optâbunt homines mortem) præ fame gravissimâ, præ summa anxietate, vel dolore, ut a tantis malis liberentur. In the notes in Poli Synopsis ad locum.

9. V. 134. Mr. Cary misinterprets St. Peter's Gate the Gate of Purgatory, instead of Paradise.

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