MALFILATREk 
MALFILA'TRE, a Frencli poetical writer, was bom 
at Caen in the year 1733, and ftudied under the Jefuits in 
that city. Education foon developed in the young fcholar 
the germ of real talents; and his early productions de¬ 
clared that he was invited by nature to become a diftin- 
guilhed poet. The academy of Rouen four times decreed 
to him the prize of the Ode; and Marmontel, who firffc 
made known at the capital the brilliant effays of the young 
laureat, did not heiitate to foretell that the higheft literary 
honours awaited him. The belt of his lyrical compofi- 
tions, is an ode full of fpirit, intitled Le Soleilfixe au milieu, 
des Plane tes ; in which he explains, very beautifully, the 
Copernican fvftem, and the ingenious ideas of Defcartes 
concerning the movements of the celeftial bodies. Nou- 
rilhed in the fchool of the ancients, endowed with a pow¬ 
erful memory, and blefled with an exquilite tafte, Malfila- 
tre became familiarly acquainted with the Greek and Ro¬ 
man poets, and thoroughly acquired the elements of the 
fciences, of hiftory, and of mythology. The fable of 
Narciffus fupplied him with the foundation of a poem, 
which is clifiinguiflied by a funplicity and a colouring that 
belong to the antique ; and, by preferving to the hendeca- 
fyllabic meafure its freedom, its natural graces, its tone 
of eafe and animation, he has fometimes fucceeded in 
railing himfelf to the pomp and the harmony of Lucretius 
and of Virgil. His poem breathes that foftening melan¬ 
choly, and that fweet genuine tendernefs, which diffufe 
fo many charms over the profe of Fenelon and the verfe 
of Virgil. The author was employed, during the year 
*767, in fuperintending the publication, when he fell all 
at once a prey to the long fufterings of an agitated and 
unhappy exillence. This unfortunate young man, to 
whom, during his life, the jutlice which he merited was 
denied, lived in diltrefs, and died in want. He never 
enjoyed his fuccefs, and the regret which his lofs occa- 
lioned was the commencement of his reputation. We 
cannot learn without intereft, that, more fenfible to the 
charms of compofition than to thofe of glory, he was lay¬ 
ing in filence and obfcurity the foundations of many im- 
ortant works, when death furprifed him in the midft of 
is career. 
The above is the Ihort notice which is furnilhed of 
Malfilatre by P. A. M. Miger, his biographer, who under¬ 
took, in the year 1810, to publilh his great pofthumous 
work, the “ Genius of Virgil,” with Differtations pre¬ 
fixed to the Eclogues, the Georgies, and the jfiEneid, and 
a Preliminary Dilcourfe, containing reflections on the man¬ 
ner of tranflating the poets; inquiries concerning the na¬ 
ture of the different claffes of poetry in which Virgil ex¬ 
celled ; a defence of his undertaking, and fome remarks 
on fundry points of ancient and modern literature. From 
this Difcourfe we (hall make the author himfelf explain 
his objedt in the work before us: “ It is not a tranflation, 
properly fo called, that I here offer; it is, as my title an¬ 
nounces, the Genius of Virgil. Let me explain myfelf. 
When we have read Virgil, we have a general idea of the 
defign and nature of his works; but we remember with a 
greater degree of pleafure certain paffages that have (truck 
us more than others. Thefe are the paffages which we 
(hould wi(h to retain, without lofing fight of the whole ; 
becaufe the genius of the poet fhines in them more than 
in the others, and in a llyle peculiarly his own. Thefe, 
then, we may call, by way of eminence. The Genius of 
Virgil; and it is to fuch morfels, that I have applied my- 
felf. I have undertaken to tranflate them into French, 
and into verfe, as well as my abilities permit; but I ought 
not, according to my ideas, to give theqi as detached paf¬ 
fages, becaufe tlieir true value is only to be appreciated 
by what precedes and follows them. This principle ad¬ 
mitted, how can we prefent them in their true light, ex¬ 
cept by tranflating the intermediate parts which unite 
them to each other, and with which they compofe the en¬ 
tire body of the work ? But thofe parts are fo much lefs 
brilliant, that I would not wifli them to appear to advan¬ 
tage ; I only cite them becaufe they tnauitain that fuc- 
195 
ceflion, that precious Jthain, without which the former 
paffages would be like (hilling bands of purple badly- 
twined together, but not forming a whole with any effeft. 
We inuft proceed, then, to unite thefe valuable fragments 
by connecting tranlitions; or, rather, we muft give to 
thefe flowers, embroidered in filk and gold, a groundwork 
on which they may fliine with greater fplendour; this 
groundwork is, Amply, the narration of Virgil. Though 
this narration be very beautiful, and perfectly verfified 
in the original, yet, as it is not my principal objeft, and 
as I ufe it only to fill up the defign which I have formed, 
I (hall not endeavour to obtain for it the fame luftre in 
French which it poffefles in Latin. Far from verfifying, 
I (hall not even tranflate it in the whole extent, but merely 
preferve the fubftance. Here, then, is an analyfis of the 
Georgies, the Eclogues, and the /Eneid, in the body of 
which I have inferted the beautiful paffages, (tranflated 
into verfe,) in fuch a manner that they may bear relation 
to each otheT in the progrefs of thefe feveral poems. My 
readers, therefore, will not be furprifed if the profe of my 
work is not always a faithful tranflation of the Latin text. 
I have not pretended to tranflate, but to analyze ; I have 
wilhed to give an abridgment of the poems on which I 
have laboured. When we would reduce twenty or thirty 
verfes into two or three lines, we are not obliged to notice 
every feature of the original, as in an exaft verfion ; and 
it would be wrong to find fault with me on this account. 
The analyfis of the fecond, fourth, and fixth, books of 
the AJneid is the longeft ; it is not the fame with the others, 
in which the poet deferibes battles and fingle combats. 
The ancients named thofe who periflied in the crowd, and 
the manner in which they died. Our tafte differs from 
their’s in this refpeCl. We feldom mention more than the 
principal chiefs; that is to fay, thofe who by their rank 
and qualities, by the eminent ftations which they fill in ail 
army, appear worthy of our attention and intereft. The 
others, I mean the fubalterns, have not fo great a claim 
to our regard ; and none of them ought to be named, urt- 
lefs they merit this diftinftion by glorious exploits. Every 
nation, every age, has its tafte. As in this we think dif¬ 
ferently from the Greeks and Romans, and as we (hould 
fatigued by a detail which would appear to us dry or mi¬ 
nute, I have fuppreffed (as far as I could) fuch of thefe de- 
feriptions as occur in the laft books of the .rEneid ; but by 
this fuppreflion I broke the neceffary chain in a connected 
work ; it was therefore requifite to fupply it; which I have 
done by (light tranfitions, containing the fubftance and 
foundation of the parts omitted.” 
Thus, then, we have a curious and unexampled tranf¬ 
lation of Virgil: thofe parts which (truck the author as 
being beautiful, in verfe 5 the reft, to conneft the beauties 
together, in profe. _ The work we have not examined, nor 
do we think that it is much known in England; but, from 
the extracts furnilhed in the Monthly Review, we think 
it an indifferent performance. The editors of that work 
exprefs their “ furprife, that an author who (eems fo ca¬ 
pable of appreciating the beauties of Virgil; who declares 
that a poet only (hould tranflate a poet; and who com¬ 
bats the arguments of Sanadon, and of a holt of pedants, 
in favour of profe-tranllations of ancient poems ;-—that 
fuch an author (hould have conceived the prepofterous 
defign which he has fo clearly announced. Did it not 
occur that, even if his readers acquiefced in his plan, in¬ 
numerable faults mufi be found with the execution of it ? 
Who is to decide on the comparative claims of many pal- 
fages to be rendered in verle or in profe ? With the ex¬ 
ception of fome tranfeendeut beauties, what two raftes 
will agree on the propriety of denying to this or that por¬ 
tion of the narrative the advantage of a poetical drefs ? 
Even waving all thefe difiiculties, how could fo ignoble a 
feeling enter into the mind of a writer, who bad already 
conceived himfelf capable of tranflating the Genius of 
Virgil, as the defpair of following this moft uniform of 
poets throughout his whole path, quanquam non pajibus 
eqvisl In a word, how could fo unpoetical 4 thought 
arife 
