No More Learning

[20] Pope, Odyss. XX.

[21] Richard Fanshaw, Esq. , afterwards Sir Richard, was English
Ambassador both at Madrid and Lisbon. He had a taste for literature, and
translated from the Italian several pieces which were of service in the
refinement of our poetry. Though his Lusiad, by the dedication of it to
William, Earl of Strafford, dated May 1, 1655, seems as if published by
himself, we are told by the editor of his Letters, that "during the
unsettled times of our anarchy, some of his MSS. , falling by misfortune
into unskilful hands, were printed and published without his knowledge
or consent, and before he could give them his last finishing strokes:
such was his translation of the Lusiad. " He can never have enough of
conceits, low allusions, and expressions. When gathering of flowers is
simply mentioned (C. 9, st. 24) he gives it, "gather'd flowers by
pecks;" and the Indian Regent is avaricious (C. 8, st. 95)--

_Meaning a better penny thence to get. _

But enough of these have already appeared in the notes. It may be
necessary to add, that the version of Fanshaw, though the Lusiad very
particularly requires them, was given to the public without one note.
[22] Some liberties of a less poetical kind, however, require to be
mentioned. In Homer and Virgil's lists of slain warriors, Dryden and
Pope have omitted several names which would have rendered English
versification dull and tiresome. Several allusions to ancient history
and fable have for this reason been abridged; e. g. in the prayer of GAMA
(Book 6) the mention of Paul, "thou who deliveredst Paul and defendest
him from quicksands and wild waves--

_Das scyrtes arenosas e ondas feas_--"

is omitted. However excellent in the original, the prayer in English
would lose both its dignity and ardour. Nor let the critic, if he find
the meaning of Camoens in some instances altered, imagine that he has
found a blunder in the translator. He who chooses to see a slight
alteration of this kind will find an instance, which will give him an
idea of others, in Canto 8, st. 48, and another in Canto 7, st. 41. It
was not to gratify the dull few, whose greatest pleasure in reading a
translation is to see what the author exactly says; it was to give a
poem that might live in the English language, which was the ambition of
the translator. And, for the same reason, he has not confined himself to
the Portuguese or Spanish pronunciation of proper names. Regardless,
therefore, of Spanish pronunciation, the translator has accented
Granada, Evora, etc. in the manner which seemed to him to give most
dignity to English versification. In the word Sofala he has even
rejected the authority of Milton, and followed the more sonorous usage
of Fanshaw. Thus Sir Richard: "Against Sofala's batter'd fort.