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PLEASURES of Retirement,

238

Expedit, Accountant, 403
Rules for the French Gen-

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187

294

400

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SERMONS on relig. Hypocrify, 355
486
fingle, 79, 246, 405
SHAKESPEARE'S Macbeth and Ju-
lius Cæfar, collated,

69

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REFLECTIONS On Lindfey's Apo-
logy,

SOLITARY Walks,

78

297

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ROBINSON's Three Indexes to Lon-
ginus, &c.

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View of the Manners, &c.

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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JULY, 1774.

ART. I. Comedies of Plautus, translated into familiar Blank Verfe, by the Gentleman who tranflated The Captives. Volume the Fifth and last. 8vo. 6 s. bound. Becket. 1774.

TH

HIS very ingenious and refpectable tranflation now calls for our laft attention: and in the capacity of public cri ticism, we have nothing more to do than to fet down, for the Tranflator's future confideration, fuch remarks as may occur to us in comparing certain parts of the English Plautus with the original.

In the Bacchides, or Courtezans, the first comedy in this volume, we could with the Tranflator had not followed the French editors in admitting the fpurious firft fcene.

BACCHID. ACT I. Sc. I.

Mala tu es beftia.

Nam huic ætati non conducit latebrofus locus.
You're a fly ferpent: fuch a dark retreat
Suits not my youth

The metaphor here is not fupported, nor the happy fenfe of the
original conveyed in the tranflation. The allufion is borrowed
from hunting the wild beast, and to attack him in his den was
too bold an enterprize for a stripling, non HUIC ATATI latebro-
fus lacas. We are forry this fine idea is not preserved.
Homo adolefcentulus

IB.

Penetrare hujufmodi in palæstram ubi damnis defudafcitur,
Ubi pro difco damnum capiam, pro curfura dedecus.

TRANSLATION.

In the heydey of my blood,

To enter one of these academies,

Where people toil and fweat for their undoing,
I my own ruin for a quoit fhall tofs ;

My running will be my difgrace and shame.
VOL. LI.

B

We

We cannot fay that this fatisfies us. The fourth line in particular has no precifion of idea, nor propriety of expreffion. The word academies does not correfpond with the idea of toil and fweat, as defudafcitur does with palatra in the original.Simply in profe it might ftand thus, a pretty field of exercise this for a young man, where he ruft play-to lofs, and run to

fhame!'

IB.

At nimium preciofa es operaria.

TRANS, Alas! you'll be a mistress too expensive.

The word miftress here feems a little unlucky as a translation of operaria. IB. ACT IV. Sc. I.

Quæque harum funt ædes, pulta.

Knock at it

whichfoe'er's the house,

The original led the Tranflator into this little inaccuracy, which, however, may as well be removed.

Who i'ft comes out,

in the fame scene, is rather harsh, and may be omitted.

IB. ACT IV. Sc. VIII.

Equom eft tabellis confignatis credere.

It is but right,

That, when they're feal'd, I fhould give credit to them. The original feems to be a general obfervation on the credit due to fealed writings, in contrast to the verba danti fervo, whole faith Nicobulus had been just then doubting, rather than to have any particular reference to the letter of Mnefilochus, which the Tranflator has given it.

IB. Sc. IX.

Nunc Priamo noftro fi quis eft emptor, coëmtionalem fenem Vendam ego, venalem quem habeo, extemplo ubi oppidum expugnavero.

LITERALLY,

Now if I can find a purchaser for our Priam, I will fell an old man, whom I have for fale, in the fame lot with him, immediately after I have taken the town.’

We have quoted the original as it is pointed in our editions of Plautus, and we entirely agree with Gronovius in his fenfe of coemtionalis. By the fenem coëmtionalem, Chryfalus most probably means the father of Piftoclerus.

We leave this conftruction of the paffage, which Mr. Warner has not followed, to his better judgment. periffe fuavius eft

IB.

Suavius

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