When the round World shall be contain'd What more Advance can Mortals make in Sin

TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID'S EPISTLES.

PREFACE CONCERNING OVID'S EPISTLES.

The Life of Ovid being already written in our language before the Translation of his Metamorphoses, I will not presume so far upon myself, to think I can add any thing to Mr. Sandys his undertaking. The English reader may there be satisfied, that he flourish'd in the reign of Augustus Cæsar; that he was Extracted from an Ancient Family of Roman Knights; that he was born to the Inheritance of a Splendid Fortune; that he was design'd to the Study of the Law, and had made considerable progress in it, before he quitted that Profession, for this of Poetry, to which he was more naturally form'd. The Cause of his Banishment is 10 unknown; because he was himself unwilling further to provoke the Emperour, by ascribing it to any other reason, than what was pretended by Augustus, which was, the Lasciviousness of his Elegies, and his Art of Love. 'Tis true, they are not to be Excus'd in the severity of Manners, as being able to corrupt a larger Empire, if there were any, than that of Rome: yet this may be said in behalf of Ovid, that no man has ever treated the Passion of Love with so much Delicacy of thought, and of Expression, or search'd into the nature of it more Philosophically than he. And the Emperour, who condemn'd him, had as lille reason as another Man to punish that fault with so much severity, if at least he were the Author of a certain Epigram, which is ascrib'd to him, relating to the cause of the first Civil War betwixt himself and Mark Anthony the triumvir, which is more fulsome than any passage I have met with 20 in our Poet. To pass by the naked familiarity of his Expressions to Horace, which are cited in that Author's Life, I need only mention one notorious Act of his, in taking Livia to his Bed, when she was not only Married, but with Child by her Husband, then living. But Deeds, it seems, may be Justified by Arbitrary Pow'r, when words are question'd in a Poet. There is another ghess of the Grammarians, as far from truth as the first from Reason; they will have him Banish'd for some favours, which, they say, he receiv'd from Julia, the Daughter of Augustus, whom they think he Celebrates under the Name of Corinna in his Elegies. But he, who will observe the Verses which are made to that Mistress, may gather from the whole contexture of them, that Corinna was not a Woman of the highest Quality. If Julia were then Married to Agrippa, why should our Poet make his Petition to Isis, for her safe delivery, 30 and afterwards Condole her Miscarriage; which, for ought he knew, might be by her own Husband? Or indeed how durst he be so bold to make the least discovery of such a Crime, which was no less than Capital, especially Committed against a Person of Agrippa's Rank? Or, if it were before her Marriage, he would surely have been more discreet, than to have published an Accident which must have been fatal to them both. But what most Confirms me against this Opinion is, that Ovid himself complains, that the true Person of Corinna was found out by the Fame of his Verses to her which if it had been Julia, he durst not have own'd; and, besides, an immediate punishment must have follow'd. He seems himself more truly to kave touch'd at the Cause of his Exile in those obscure verses,

Cur aliquid vidi, cur noxia Lumina feci? &c.

40 Namely, that he had either seen, or was Conscious to somewhat, which had procur'd him his disgrace. But neither am I satisfied, that this was the Incest of the Emperour with his own Daughter for Augustus was of a nature too vindicative, to have contented himself with so small a Revenge, or so unsafe to himself, as that of simple Banishment, and would certainly have secur'd his Crimes from publick notice, by the death of him who was witness to them. Neither have Histories given us any sight into such an Action of this Emperour: nor would he (the greatest Politician of his time,) in all probability, have manag'd his Crimes with so

PREFACE CONCerning Ovid's EPISTLES. Text of 1683. Some passages are omitted in several editions.

lille secrecie, as not to shun the Observation of any man. It seems more probable, that Ovid was either the confident of some other passion, or that he had stumbled by some inadvertency upon the privacies of Livia, and seen her in a Bath: For the words

Sine veste Dianam,

agree better with Livia, who had the Fame of Chastity, than with either of the Julia's, who were both noted of incontinency. The first Verses, which were made by him in his Youth, and recited publickly, according to the Custom, were, as he himself assures us, to Corinna : his Banishment happen'd not till the age of fifty: from which it may be deduced, with probability enough, that the love of Corinna did not occasion it: Nay, he tells us plainly, that his offence was that of Errour only, not of wickedness; and in the same Paper of Verses also, that the 15 cause was notoriously known at Rome, though it be left so obscure to after ages.

But to leave Conjectures on a Subject so incertain, and to write somewhat more Authentick of this Poet: That he frequented the Court of Augustus, and was well receiv'd in it, is most undoubted: all his Poems bear the Character of a Court, and appear to be written, as the French call it, Cavalierement: add to this, that the Titles of many of his Elegics, and more of his Letters in his Banishment, are address'd to persons well known to us, even at this distance, to have been considerable in that Court.

Nor was his acquaintance less with the famous Poets of his age, than with the Noble men and Ladies; he tells you himself, in a particular account of his own Life, that Macer, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and many others of them, were his familiar Friends, and that some of 20 them communicated their Writings to him; but that he had only seen Virgil.

If the imitation of Nature be the business of a Poet, I know no Author who can justly be compar'd with ours, especially in the Description of the passions. And, to prove this, I shall need no other Judges than the generality of his Readers; for all Passions being inborn with us, we are almost equally Judges, when we are concern'd in the representation of them: Now I will appeal to any man, who has read this Poet, whether he find not the natural Emotion of the same Passion in himself, which the Poet describes in his feigned persons? His thoughts, which are the Pictures and results of those Passions, are generally such as naturally arise from those disorderly Motions of our Spirits. Yet, not to speak too partially in his behalf, I will confess, that the Copiousness of his Wit was such, that he often writ too pointedly for his 30 Subject, and made his persons speak more Eloquently than the violence of their Passion would admit; so that he is frequently witty out of season: leaving the imitation of Nature, and the cooler dictates of his Judgment, for the false applause of Fancy. Yet he seems to have found out this Imperfection in his riper age: for why else should he complain, that his Metamorphosis was left unfinished? Nothing sure can be added to the Wit of that Poem, or of the rest: but many things ought to have been retrenched; which I suppose would have been the business of his Age, if his Misfortunes had not come too fast upon him. But take him uncorrected, as he is transmitted to us, and it must be acknowledged, in spite of his Dutch Friends, the Commentators, even of Julius Scaliger himself, that Seneca's Censure will stand good against him;

Nescivit quod bene cessit relinquere ;

40

he never knew how to give over, when he had done well, but continually varying the same sence an hundred ways, and taking up in another place, what he had more than enough inculcated before, he sometimes cloys his Readers instead of satisfying them; and gives occasion to his Translators, who dare not cover him, to blush at the nakedness of their Father. This then is the Allay of Ovid's writing, which is sufficiently recompenc'd by his other Excellencies: nay, this very fault is not without its Beauties; for the most severe Censor cannot but be pleas'd with the prodigality of his Wit, though at the same time he could have wish'd that the Master of it had been a better Manager. Every thing which he does, becomes him; and, if sometimes he appear too gay, yet there is a secret gracefulness of youth, which accompanies his Writings, though the stay'dness and sobriety of Age be wanting. In the most material part, which is the 50 conduct, 'tis certain that he seldom has miscarried; for if his Elegics be compared with those

30

of Tibullus and Propertius his Contemporaries, it will be found, that those Poets seldom design'd before they writ; And though the language of Tibullus be more polish'd, and the Learning of Propertius, especially in his Fourth Book, more set out to ostentation; Ye their common practice was to look no further before them than the next Line; whence it will inevitably follow, that they can drive to no certain point, but ramble from one Subject to another, and conclude with somewhat, which is not of a piece with their beginning:

Purpureus, latè qui splendeat, unus et alter
Assuitur pannus, as Horace says,

though the Verses are Golden, they are but patch'd into the Garment. But our Poet has always 10 the Goal in his Eye, which directs him in his Race: some Beautiful design, which he first establishes, and then contrives the means, which will naturally conduct it to his end. This will be Evident to Judicious Readers in this work of his Epistles of which somewhat, at least in general, will be expected.

The Title of them in our late Editions is Epistolæ Heroidum, the Letters of the Heroines. But Heinsius has judg'd more truly, that the Inscription of our Author was barely, Epistles; which he concludes from his cited Verses, where Ovid asserts this Work as his own Invention, and not borrow'd from the Greeks, whom (as the Masters of their Learning) the Romans usually did imitate. But it appears not from their writers, that any of the Grecians ever touch'd upon this way, which our Poet therefore justly has vindicated to himself. I quarrel not at 20 the word Heroidum, because 'tis used by Ovid in his Art of Love:

Jupiter ad veteres supplex Heroidas ibat.

But, sure, he cou'd not be guilty of such an over-sight, to call his Work by the Name of Heroines, when there are divers Men, or Heroes, as, namely, Paris, Leander, and Acontius, joyned in it. Except Sabinus, who writ some Answers to Ovid's Lellers,

(Quam celer è toto rediit meus orbe Sabinus)

I remember not any of the Romans, who have treated this Subject, save only Propertius, and that but once, in his Epistle of Arethusa to Lycotas, which is written so near the style of Ovid, that it seems to be but an Imitation; and therefore ought not to defraud our Poet of the Glory of his Invention.

Concerning this work of the Epistles, I shall content my self to observe these few particulars : first, that they are generally granted to be the most perfect piece of Ovid, and that the Style of them is tenderly Passionate and Courtly; two properties well agreeing with the Persons, which were Heroines and Lovers. Yet where the Characters were lower, as in Enone, and Hero, he has kept close to Nature, in drawing his Images after a Country Life, though, perhaps, he has Romanized his Grecian Dames too much, and made them speak, sometimes, as if they had been born in the City of Rome, and under the Empire of Augustus. There seems to be no great variety_in_the_particular Subjects which he has chosen; Most of the Epistles being written from Ladies, who were forsaken by their Lovers: Which is the reason that many of the same thoughts come back upon us in divers Letters: But of the general Character of Women, 40 which is Modesty, he has taken a most becoming care; for his amorous Expressions go no further than vertue may allow, and therefore may be read, as he intended them, by Matrons without a blush.

Thus much concerning the Poet: Whom you find translated by divers hands, that you may at least have that variety in the English, which the Subject denied to the Author of the Latine. It remains that I should say somewhat of Poetical Translations in general, and give my Opinion (with submission to better Judgments) which way of Version seems to be most proper. All Translation, I suppose, may be reduced to these three heads :

First, that of Metaphrase, or turning an Author Word by Word, and Line by Line, from one Language into another Thus, or near this manner, was Horace his Art of Poetry trans43 Whom you find... of the Latine] This passage is omitted by some editors.