Vol. XI. 



NOV. 15, 1883. 



No. 11. 



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VIRGIIi'S TREATISE ON BEES. 



CoTittnued. 



fRIEND ROOT:— Did you never hear of a lot of 

 individuals picking up a mistake, and repeat- 

 ing it, and riding it for a hobby, until they 

 not only heartily believed it, but could not tolerate 

 the thought of any one else doubting it? I suspect, 

 that generation after generation of writers on bee- 

 craft have used Virgil as a dark background, to set 

 off their own superior wisdom against, until ihey 

 are In just about that same fix. Now as to the 

 charge that I have greatly helped Virgil in this 

 translation: If that expression means that I have 

 Introduced Ideas not to be found In the original, I 

 shall feel inclined to flght like a Trojan. In two 

 places 1 know of, and there may be others, I have 

 made mistakes that 1 will correct; but I have been 

 conscientiously correct in the effort to leave out 

 nothing material that the author did say, and to put 

 in nothing material that he did not. Immaterial ad- 

 ditions of common-places, such as might about as 

 well belong to one poet as to another, are frequent, 

 when there is space that needs filling up. Thanks 

 for being forewarned and forearmed, if this version 

 is put in permanent form I think it must be accom- 

 panied by a literal, word-for-word translation, each 

 Latin word with its English equivalent under it, so 

 the unclasslcal reader can see just what's what. If, 

 on the other hand, helping Virgil only means taking 

 his ideas and setting them forth in clearer light and 

 more words than the original, why, then I shall 

 '* confess judgment " at once, and instruct the court 

 to bid me " go sin again." Virgil's language is more 



concise than pleases modern poetic taste. I wish to 

 expand it somewhat; and where can that be better 

 done than on those striking ideas that are crowded 

 into a single word? Again, I deem it necessary to 

 have some sort of relation between line and line of 

 original and translation, else an unpleasant effect 

 will be produced by having so many sentences and 

 important clauses end at improper places. To ren- 

 der Virgil's lines of from fourteen to seventeen syl- 

 lables, of matter already too condensed, by an equal 

 number of ten-syllabled lines, would be ruinous; 

 therefore 1 allow two English lines for each one of 

 Latin, which gives four or five syllables for expan- 

 sion. 



Let me now bestow a few words upon Dryden's 

 translation. It would not look well for the like of 

 me to take the like of him to task as to whether he 

 did or did not properly render the poetic fire of our 

 noble author; but in some things a "cat may look 

 at a king." At the point where- 

 Then from their dwellings forth anon they bear 

 Tliose bodies whence the light of life has fled, 

 And lead the sad processions of the dead; 



Dryden renders it— 



" And crowds of dead, that never must return 

 To their loved hives, in decent pomp are borne; 

 ZVicir friends attend Vie hearse; the next relations 

 mourn," 



There is not a syllable of original out of which to 

 make this last false and ridiculous line. What Vir- 

 gil actually said is scientifically correct; but Dryden 

 evidently thought it a whim, and could not resist the 

 temptation to make gratuitous additions. Really, 

 my friends, is it not better for a translator to respect 



