Recapitulation, 45$ 



other kind of writing the ancients have left us 

 models which all succeeding ages have laboured 

 to imitate; but Translation may justly be claimed 

 by the moderns as their own."- — The Greeks, so 

 far as we know, achieved nothing worthy of no- 

 tice in this department of literary labour. The 

 Romans, who confessed themselves the scholars 

 of the Greeks, made a few versions of those writ- 

 ings which they followed as models/ but itdoes 

 not appear that any of their writers grew eminent 

 by translation; and, indeed, it was probably more 

 frequent to translate for private exercise or amuse- 

 ment than for fame. 



For three centuries past the art of translation 

 has been gradually gaining ground throughout the 

 literary world, both in frequency and elegance/ 

 But the extension of this art, in both these re- 

 spects, during the period under review, was so 

 great and signal, that it must be considered as 

 forming a remarkable feature of the age.- — Trans- 

 lations from every polished language, into every 

 other of this character, have not only become nu- 

 merous, but have also attained, particularly within 



j Every man in Rome who aspired to the praise of literature thought 

 it necessarv to learn Greek, and, therefore, stood in little need of trans- 

 lations. Translation, however, was not wholly neglected. Dramatic 

 poems could be understood by the people in no language but their own ; 

 and the Romans were sometimes entertained with the tragedies of Eu- 

 ripides, and the comedies of Menakder. Other works were some- 

 times attempted : in an old scholiast there is mention of a Latin Iliad, 

 and we have not wholly lost Cicero's version of the poem of Aratus.— 

 Idler, ii. No. 68. 



k Chaucer, the father of English poetry, was among the first trans- 

 lators into our language. He left a version of Boetius On the Comforts 

 of Philosophy, which, though dull, prosaic, and inelegant, held at that 

 early period, a conspicuous place. Some improvement in the art of trans- 

 lation was made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but. still any thing 

 like freedom and elegance was seldom attained. It was not till towards 

 the close of the seventeenth century that this art began to be generally 

 understood, and its proper principles reduced to practice. It is unnceessary 

 to add, that, since that time many specimens of translation have been 

 presented to the world, which are altogether unequalled in the history of 

 preceding ages. 



