Octob. 22. 1736.

I am, SIR, _&c._

* * * * *

P.S.

When I was taking notice of Virgil’s Arts of Versification, I should not have omitted his sudden varying the Tense of the Verb from the Preterperfect to the Present.

“Non tua te nobis, Genitrix pulcherrima talem
Promisit, Graiisque ideo bis vindicat armis.

This is very agreeable both as to the Verse and the Sense; for it makes the thing described more immediately present than it would be otherwise.  I cannot just now recollect an Example in Milton of this nature, but I remember one in Fairfax, in a Couplet already cited.

  “Their jolly Notes they chanted loud and clear,
  And horrid Helms high on their Heads they bear.

This is much more lively and peinturesque than if he had writ bore, and you will easily perceive it.  It may be said, perhaps, that Fairfax used bear here for the sake of the Verse; let that be allow’d, but then it must be likewise granted, that Virgil uses vindicat instead of vindicavit, for the sake of his Verse, which he would not have done, if it had not been more beautiful than the common Prose way of writing:  And as it is an Excellency in Virgil, so it is in Fairfax.

LETTER VII.

SIR,

I am now to collect the Passages of the AEneid, mentioned in my former Letters, and bring them together with the rhym’d and blank Verse Translations.

The first Passage is this (not to take notice of the very first Lines, which Mr. Pit has translated in two different manners)

  “Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam
  Prospiciens genitor, coeloque invectus aperto
  Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo.

Dr. Trapp,

  “So all the hurry of the Ocean ceas’d,
  Soon as its God appear’d above the Waves: 
  Who, managing his Steeds in Air serene,
  Flies swift with slacken’d Reins and loose Career.

Mr. Pit,

  “Then did the roaring Waves their Rage compose,
  When the great Father of the Flood arose,
  Rapt by his Steeds he flies in open Day,
  Throws up the Reins, and skims the watry Way.

  “Atque rotis summas levibus pellabitur undas.

Dr. Trapp,

  “And with light Wheels upon the Surface rides,

Mr. Pit,

  “Then mounted on his radiant Carr he rides,
  And wheels along the Level of the Tides.

Again,

  “AEole (namque tibi divum pater atque hominum rex
  Et mulcere dedit fluctus, & tollere vento)

Dr. Trapp,

  “—­O AEolus (for thee
  The Sire of Gods, and King of Men impow’rs
  To smooth the Waves, or raise them with the Wind.)