and, I am sorry to add, of old England also in every century but the present, though not often attended ef with equally fatal consequences. M. P. ART. III. Ovid's Metamorphoses Englished, mythologized, and represented in figures. An Essay to the Translation of Virgil's Eneis. By G.S. (George Sandys.) London: Printed by J. L. for Andrew Hell, and are to be sold at the signe of the Bell in St. Paul's Church Yard, MDCXL. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum hanc Ovidii Translationem. > This work is dedicated to Charles I. and concludes with saying, "Long may you live to be, as you are, the delight and glory of your people: and slowly, yet surely, exchange your mortall diadem for an immortall." A panegryic to the King, in verse, follows, consisting of upwards of sixty lines; and after that an address, also in verse, from "Urania to the Queene," of about the same length. There is also a short life of Ovid and a defence of him. The translation is in folio, and accompanied with copious notes, collected from various authors, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, and displaying a great deal of knowledge and good sense. The engravings are the originals, from which those were reduced, which are prefixed to each book of the later translation of the Metamorphoses by Creech, &c. printed in 12mo. in 1717; but in the edition of 1751, the prints are different and much better. As a short specimen of his translation of a celebrated passage, I insert a few lines from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in the fourth book. "Now she who could not yet her feare remove, In his translation of the First Book of the Æneis, the parting of Venus from her son is thus described. This said In turning she her rosie neck display'd; A heavenly odor; her inlarg'd attire Trailes on the ground: her gate a goddesse shows. Where stood her temple: there a hundred fires, Q fragrant? "Sabao-Ture calent are," &c. From From these specimens it will be seen, that Sandys's translation is more close and literal than poetical; and if compared with Dryden's, published only fifty-seven years after, there will be found a greater difference than could be expected in so short a time. George Sandys was seventh and youngest son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, in whose palace of Bishopthorp he was born in 1577, and died at his nephew, Sir Francis Wyat's house, of Boxley Abbey, in Kent, in 1643.* He was younger brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, of Northbourn, in Kent, who wrote the "Europa Speculum." George Sandys is better known as a traveller than as a poet. For an account of his Travels see CENSURA LITERARIA, Vol. IV. P. 147. M. P. ART. IV. A Choice of Emblemes, and other Devises, for the moste parte gathered out of sundrie writers, Englished and moralized. And divers newly devised by Geffrey Whitney, &c. &c. Imprinted at Leyden in the house of Christopher Plantyn, by Francis Raphelengius,† 1586. 4to. pp. 230, exclusive of Dedication, &c. Biog. Dict. In the account of him in this work, he is said to have died at Bexley instead of Boxley. His translation of Qvid is also said there to have been published at Oxford in 1632. My edition was published in London in 1640, and no notice is taken in it of any former edition; and the dedication to the King alludes to troubles which did not exist in 1632. + In a dedication of one of the plates Whitney addresses himself, “Ad doctiss. V. D. Franciscum Raphelengium in obsidione Antwerpiana periclitantem." The first edition seems to have been of the First Five Books, in 1627, and again 1632. Wood's Ath. II. 47. Editor. I have every reason to suppose, that this most curious work is of the greatest rarity, which may be accounted for, in some degree, by its having been printed abroad, and it is very rarely (from what cause I am unable to conjecture) that a perfect copy is to be met with in this country. I refer the reader to Herbert's Ames' "General History of Printing," page 1695, for some account of it; in addition to which I beg to observe, that many of the wood cuts, with which each page is adorned, display considerable ingenuity in design, and great excellence in point of execution. It appears that Whitney was a native of Cheshire (which I do not find noticed elsewhere) from one of the plates representing a phenix at page 177, being dedicated "to my countrimen of the Namptwiche in Cheshire." In the lines underneath he observes, "Althoughe I knowe that aucthors witnes true, Whose buildings brave, where cinders weare but late, And as the oulde,, was manie hundreth yeares, A towne of fame, before it felt that crosse: * The principal part of the plates are dedicated tɔ Cheshire and Lancashire gentlemen. There are two instances upon record of this town suffering by fire, the first in the year 1438, and the second (to which no doubt the poet alludes) in 1583, when it was nearly consumed; but, from a collection made by Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, and increased by Queen Elizabeth, it was rebuilt, considerably improved, and beautified. Even so, (I hope) this Wiche, that nowe appeares, As specimens of the author's style and versification, I subjoin the two following "Emblemes." "Mihi pondera, luxus. "When Autumne ripes the frutefull fieldes of graine, And Ceres doth in all her pompe appeare, The heavie eare doth breake the stalke in twaine, Soe worldlie wealthe, and great aboundance, marres And dulles the same, with manie carefull fittes: "Latet anguis in herbâ. "Of flattringe speeche, with sugred wordes beware, The faithfull wight, dothe neede no collours brave; As is the foe, that fawnes with freindlie shape." p.24. J. H. M. ART |