Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/78

mongst the Italians, yet his Translation of the Æneis is most scandalously mean, though he has taken the ad­vantage of writing in Blank Verse, and freed himself from the shackles of modern Rhime: (if it be modern, for Le Clerc has told us lately, and I believe has made it out, that David's Psalms were written in as errant Rhime as they are Translated.) Now if a Muse cannot run when she is unfetter'd, tis a sign she has but little speed. I will not make a digression here, though I am strangely tempted to it; but will only say, that he who can write well in Rhime, may write better in Blank Verse. Rhime is certainly a constraint even to the best Poets, and those who make it with most ease; though perhaps I have as little reason to complain of that hardship as any Man, excepting Quarles, and Withers. What it adds to sweetness it takes away from Sense; and he who loses the least by it, may be call'd a gain­er: it often makes us swerve from an Author's meaning. As if a Mark be set up for an Archer at a great distance, let him aim as exactly as he can, the least wind will take his Arrow, and divert it from the White. I return to our Italian Translator of the Æneis: He is a Foot-Poet, he Lacquies by the side of Virgil at the best, but never mounts behind him. Doctor Morelli, who is no mean Critick in our Poetry, and therefore may be presum'd to be a better in his own Language, has confirm'd me in this Opinion by his Judgment, and thinks with­al, that he has often mistaken his Master's Sense. I wou'd say so, if I durst, but I am afraid I have committed the same fault more often, and more grosly: For I have forsaken Ruæus, (whom generally I fol­low) in many places, and made Expositions of my own in some, quite contrary to him. Of which I will give but two Examples, be­cause they are so near each other in the Tenth Æneid: