146 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 40. 



After some remarks on Peter's strange state of 

 mind when saluted by this horrible music, and 

 describing him as prejjaring to seize the ass by the 

 neck, we are told his purpose was interrupted by 

 something he just then saw in the water, which 

 afterwards proves to be a corpse. The reader is, 

 however, first excited and disposed to expect some- 

 thing horrible by the following startling conjec- 

 tures : — 



" Is it the moon's distorted face? 



The ghost-like image of a cloud ? 



Is it a gallows there pourtrayed? 



Is Peter of himself afraid ? 



Is it a coffin — or a shroud ? 



" A grisly idol hewn in stone? 

 Or imp from witch's lap let fall? 

 Or a gay ring of shining fairies, 

 Such as pursue their brisk vagaries 

 In sylvan bower or haunted hall? 



" Is it a fiend that to a stake 

 Of fire his desperate self is tethering? 

 Or stubborn spirit doomed to yell 

 In solitary ward or cell, 

 Ten thousand miles from all his brethren." 



" Is it a p.irty in a parlour ? 

 Cramm'd just as they on earth were cramm'd — 

 Some sipping punch, some sipping tea, 

 But, as you by their faces see. 

 All silent and all damn'd ! 



" A throbbing pulse the gazer hath," &c. 



Part i., pp. 33, 39. 



This last stanza was omitted in subsequent 

 editions. Indeed, it is not very easy to imagine 

 what it could possibly mean, or how any stretch of 

 imagination could connect it with the appearance 

 presented by a body in the water. 



To return, however, from this digression to the 

 subject of translations. In the passage already 

 quoted, the reader has been presented with a 

 proof how well Dryden could compress the words, 

 without losing the sense, of Lis author. In the fol- 

 lowing, he has done precisely the reverse. 



" Leetus erat Codro Procula minor." — Jiiv. Sat. iii.203. 

 " Codriis had but one bed, so short to boot, 

 That his short wife's short legs hung dangling out !" 



In the year 1801 there was published at Oxford, in 

 I2mo., a translation of the satires of Juvenal in 

 verse, byMr. William Rhodes, A.M., superior Bedell 

 of Arts in that University, which he describes in his 

 title-page as " nee verbum verbo." There are some 

 prefatory remarks prefixed to the third satire, 

 in which he says : 



" The reader, I hope, will neither contrast the fol- 

 lowing, nor the tenth satire, with the excellent imita- 

 tion of a mighty genius ; though similar, they are upon 

 a different plan. I liave not adhered rigidly to my 

 author, compared with him ; and if that were not the 

 case, I am very sensible how little they are calculated 

 to undergo so fiery an ordeal." 



And speaking particularly of the third satire, he 

 adds : 



" This part has been altered, as already mentioned, 

 to vender it more applicable to London: nothing 

 is to be looked for in it but the ill -humour of the 

 emigrant." 



The reader will perhaps recollect, that in the 

 o)iening of the third satire, Juvenal represents 

 himself about to take leave of his friend Umbritius, 

 who is quitting Rome for Cana; : they meet on the 

 road (the Via Appia), and turning aside, for 

 greater freedom of conversation, into the Vallis 

 Egerise, the sight of the fountain there, newly de- 

 corated with foreign marbles, leads to an expres- 

 sion of regret that it was no longer suffered to re- 

 main in the simplicity of the times of Numa : 



" In vallem Egeria; descendimus, et speluncas 

 Dissimiles veris. Quanto pra>stantius esset 

 Numen aquas, viridi si marglne clauderet undas 

 Herba, nee ingenuum vlolarcnt marmora tophum ? " 



Sat. ill. 17. 



In imitating this passage, ]Mr. Rhodes, finding no 

 fons Egeria;, no Numa, and perhaps no Muses in 

 London, transfers his regrets from a rivulet to a 

 navigable stream ; and makes the whole ridiculous, 

 by suggesting that the Thames would look infi- 

 nitely better if it flowed through grass, as every 

 ordinary brook would do. 



" Next he departed to the river side, 

 Crowded with buildings, tow'ring in their pride. 

 How much, much better would this river look. 

 Flowing 'twixt grass, like every other brook. 

 If native sand its tedious course heguil'd. 

 Nor any foreiiin ornament defil'd." 



W.(l.) 



DEDICATION TO MILTON UY ANTONIO MALATESTI. 



Dr. Todd, in his Life of Milton, ed. 1826, 

 mentions the accidental discovery of a manuscript 

 by Antonio Malatesti, bearing the following title : 



" La Tina Equivoel Rusticali dl Antonio Malatesti, 

 coposti nella sua Villa di Talano il Settembre dell' 

 Anno 1637. Sonetti Cinqiiata. Dedicati all' 111""" 

 Signore et Padrone Oss™" Signor Giovanni Milton, 

 Nobll' Inghilese." 



It seems that this MS. had been presented, together 

 with Milton's works, to the Academy della Crusca, 

 by Mr. Brand Ilollis, but had by some chance 

 again found its way to England, and was sold by 

 auction at Evans's some short time before Mr. 

 Todd published this second edition of ililton's 

 Life. 



I know not if there has been any further notice 

 of this ]\IS., which is interesting as a monument of 

 the respect and attention our great poet received 

 from the most distinguished literary men of Italy 

 at the time of his visit, and I should be glad if any 

 of your correspondents can indicate its existence, 



