Letters Concerning Poetical Translations - And Virgil's and Milton's Arts of Verse, &c. by William Benson
page 32 of 91 (35%)
page 32 of 91 (35%)
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--_Vilemque Faselum._ But if the Poet had writ (supposing the Verse would have allowed it) _Si vero Viciam seres_-- the Reader would have understood him without going any farther; and it is easily perceiv'd the Verse would have been very flat to what it is now. This double Use of the Particles gives Strength to the Verse; because, as the Excellent _Erythræus_ observes, the copulative Conjunctions are in Language of the same Use as Nerves in the Body, they serve to connect the Parts together; so that these Sorts of Verses which we are speaking of may be very properly called, Nervous Lines. This Art _Virgil_ most certainly learnt from _Homer_: for there is nothing more remarkable in _Homer_'s Versification, nothing to which the Majesty of it is more owing, than this very thing, and I wonder none of his Commentators (that I have seen) have taken notice of it. There are four in the 23 first Lines of the Iliad, of this Kind. I will put the _Latin_ for the sake of the generality of Readers. _Atrides_que, _rex virorum,_ et _nobilis Achilles. Redempturus_que _filiam, ferens_que _infinitum pretium liberationis, Atridæ_que, et _alii bene ocreati Achivi, Reverendum_que _esse sacerdotem,_ et _splendidum accipiendum pretium_. Clarke's _Translation_. |
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