year 1571, Drant printed an English translation from Tully, which he called, The chosen eloquent oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero for the poet Archias, selected from his orations, and now first published in English. I have never seen this version, but I am of opinion that the translator might have made a more happy choice. For in this favorite piece of superficial declamation, the specious orator, when he is led to a formal defence of the value and dignity of poetry, instead of illustrating his subject by insisting on the higher utilities of poetry, its political nature, and its importance to society, enlarges only on the immortality which the art confers, on the poetic faculty being communicated by divine inspiration, on the public honours paid to Homer and Ennius, on the esteem with which poets were regarded by Alexander and Themistocles, on the wonderful phenomenon of an extemporaneous effusion of a great number of verses, and even recurs to the trite and obvious topics of a school-boy in saying, that poems are a pleasant relief after fatigue of the mind, and that hard rocks and savage beasts have been moved by the power of song. A modern philosopher would have considered such a subject with more penetration, comprehension, and force of reflection. His excuse must be, that he was uttering a popular harangue. f MSS. Coxeter. SECTION LIX. THE EPIGRAMS of Martial were translated in part by Timothy Kendall, born at North Aston in Oxfordshire, successively educated at Eton and at Oxford, and afterwards a student of the law at Staple's-inn. This performance, which cannot pro-perly or strictly be called a translation of Martial, has the following title, "FLOWRES OF EPIGRAMMES out of sundrie the most singular authors selected, etc. By Timothie Kendall late of the vniuersitie of Oxford, now student of Staple Inn. London, 15772." It is dedicated to Robert earl of Leicester. The epigrams translated are from Martial, Pictorius, Borbonius, Politian, Bruno, Textor, Ausonius, the Greek anthology, Beza, sir Thomas More, Henry Stephens, Haddon", Parkhurst, and others. But by much the greater part is from Martial". It is charitable to hope, that our translator Timothy Kendall wasted no more of his time at Staples-inn in culling these fugitive blossoms. Yet he has annexed to these versions his TRIFLES or juvenile epigrams, which are dated the same year . a In duodecimo. They are entered at Stationers Hall, Feb. 25, 1576. REGISTR. B. fol. 138. a. To John Sheppard. b Walter Haddon's POEMATA, containing a great number of metrical Latin epitaphs, were collected, and published with his LIFE, and verses at his death, by Giles Fletcher and others, in 1576. See T. Baker's Letters to bishop Tanner, MS. Bibl. Bodl. And by Hatcher, 1567. 4to. [Kendall translated his Precepts of Wedlocke from the Latin poems of Haddon: they may be seen in Mr. Ellis's Specimens, vol. ii.-PARK.] * John Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich, a great reformer, published, LUDICRA SEU EPIGRAMMATA JUVENILIA, Lond. 1572. 4to. Also, EPIGRAMMATA SERIA, Lond. 1560. 8vo. He died in 1574. See Wilson's Collection of EPITAPHIA on Charles and Henry Brandon, Lond. 1552. d Kendall is mentioned among the English EPIGRAMMATISTs by Meres, ubi supr. fol. 274. e The first line is, "Borbon in France bears bell awaie." That is, Nicholas Borbonius, whose NUGE, or Latin Epigrams, then celebrated, have great elegance. But Joachim du Bellai made this epigram on the Title: Meres, in his WITS TREASURY, mentions doctor Johnson, as the translator of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY, and Watson of Sophocles's ANTIGONE, but with such ambiguity, that it is difficult to determine from his words whether these versions are in Latin or English. That no reader may be misled, I observe here, that Christopher Johnson, a celebrated headmaster of Winchester school, afterwards a physician, translated Homer's FROGS AND MICE into Latin hexameters, which appeared in quarto, at London, in 15805. Thomas Watson, author of a HUNDRED SONNETS, or the passionate century of Love, published a Latin ANTIGONE in 1581". The latter publication, however, shews at this time an attention to the Greek tragedies. Christopher Marlowe, or Marloe, educated in elegant letters at Cambridge, Shakespeare's cotemporary on the stage, often applauded both by queen Elisabeth and king James the First, as a judicious player, esteemed for his poetry by Jonson and Drayton, and one of the most distinguished tragic poets of his age, translated Coluthus's RAPE OF HELEN into English rhyme, in the year 1587. I have never seen it; and I owe this information to the manuscript papers of a diligent collector of these fugacious anecdotes. But there is entered to Jones, in 1595, "A booke entituled RAPTUS HELENE, Helens Rape, by the Athenian duke Theseus k." Coluthus's poem was probably brought into vogue, and suggested to Marlowe's notice, by being paraphrased in Latin verse the preceding year by Thomas Watson, the writer of sonnets just mentioned'. Before the year 1598, appeared Marlowe's translation of the LOVES OF HERO AND LEANDER, the elegant prolusion of an unknown Paule, tuum inscribis NUGARUM nomine In toto libro nil melius titulo. & Entered to T. Purfoote, Jan. 4, 1579. With "certen orations of Isocrates." REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 165. a. In quarto. Licenced to R. Jones. notion of Borbonius's elegant simplicity, Jul. 31, 1581. Ibid. fol. 182. b. was still more witty. Quas tu dixisti NUGAS, non esse putasti, Non dico NUGAS esse, sed esse puto. f Fol. 289. p. 2. MSS. Coxeter. sophist of Alexandria, but commonly ascribed to the antient Musaeus. It was left unfinished by Marlowe's death*; but what was called a second part, which is nothing more than a continuation from the Italian, appeared by one Henry Petowe, in 1598m. Another edition was published, with the first book of Lucan, translated also by Marlowe, and in blank verse, in 1600". At length George Chapman, the translator of Homer, completed, but with a striking inequality +, Marlowe's unfinished * [Nashe in his "Lenten Stuffe" 1599, asks whether any body in Yarmouth hath heard of Leander and Hero, of whom divine Musæus sung, and a diviner Muse than him Kit Marlow? p. 42. It is the suggestion of Mr. Malone, that if Marlow had lived to finish his "Hero and Leander," he might perhaps have contested the palm with Shakspeare in his Venus and Adonis, and Rape of Lucrece. Shaksp. x. p. 72. edit. 1791. Marlow's translation of Ovid's Elegies is noticed at p. 246. supr. -PARK.] m For Purfoot, 4to. See Petowe's Preface, which has a high panegyric on Marlowe. He says he begun where Marlowe left off. In 1593, Sept. 28, there is an entry to John Wolfe of "A book entitled Hero and Leander, beinge an amorous poem devised by Christopher Marlowe." REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 300. b. The translation, as the entire work of Marlowe, is mentioned twice in Nashe's LENTEN STUFF, printed in 1599. It occurs again in the registers of the Stationers, in 1597, 1598, and 1600. REGISTR. C. fol. 31. a. 34. a. I learn from Mr. Malone, that Marlowe finished only the two first Sestiads, and about one hundred lines of the third. Chap man did the remainder. Petowe published the Whipping of Runawaies, for Burbie, in 1603. There is an old ballad on Jephtha judge of Israel, by William Petowe. In the year 1567, there is an entry to Alexander Lacy, of "A ballett intituled the Songe of Jesphas dowghter at his death." REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 162. a. Perhaps this is the old song of which Hamlet in joke throws out some scraps to Polonius, and which has been recovered by Mr. Steevens. HAMLET, Act ii. Sc. 7. [See also Jeffa judge of Israel, in REGISTR. D. fol. 93. Dec. 14, 1624.] This is one of the pieces which Hamlet calls pious chansons, and which taking their rise from the Reformation, abounded in the reign of Elisabeth. Hence, by the way, we see the propriety of reading pious chansons, and not pons chansons, or ballads sung on bridges, with Pope. Rowe arbitrarily substituted Rubric, not that the titles of old ballads were ever printed in red. Rubric came at length simply to signify title, because, in the old manuscripts, it was the custom to write the titles or heads of chapters in red ink. In the Statutes of Winchester and New college, every statute is therefore called a RUBRICA. "But this version of Lucan is entered, as above, Sept. 28, 1593, to John Wolfe, Ibid. fol. 300. b. Nor does it always appear at the end of MUSEUS in 1600. There is an edition that year by P. Short. + [Chettle in his "Englands Mourning Garment," does not admit of this inequality, when he describes Chapman as That finish'd dead Museus' gracious Coryn, full of worth and wit, version, and printed it at London in quarto, 1606°. Tanner takes this piece to be one of Marlowe's plays. It probably suggested to Shakespeare the allusion to Hero and Leander, in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, under the player's blunder of Limander and Helen, where the interlude of Thisbe is presented. It has many nervous and polished verses. His tragedies manifest traces of a just dramatic conception, but they abound with tedious and uninteresting scenes, or with such extravagancies as proceeded from a want of judgment, and those barbarous ideas of the times, over which it was the peculiar gift of Shakespeare's genius alone to triumph and to predominate 9. His TRAGEDY OF DIDO QUEEN OF CARTHAGE was completed and published by his friend Thomas Nashe, in 1594', Although Jonson mentions Marlowe's MIGHTY MUSE, yet the highest testimony Marlowe has received, is from his cotemJohn Rightwise's play on the same subject performed at saint Paul's school before Cardinal Wolsey, and afterwards before queen Elisabeth at Cambridge, in 1564. There is another edition in 1616, and 1629. 4to. The edition of 1616, with Chapman's name, and dedicated to Inigo Jones, not two inches long and scarcely one broad, is the most diminutive product of English typography. But it appears a different work from the edition of 1606. The "Ballad of Hero and Leander' is entered to J. White, Jul. 2, 1614. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 252. a. Burton, an excellent Grecian, having occasion to quote MusÆus, cites Marlowe's version, MELANCHOLY, pag. 372. seq. fol. edit. 1624. P Act v. Sc. ult. ¶ Nashe in his Elegy prefixed to Marlowe's DIDO, mentions five of his plays. Mr. Malone is of opinion, from a similarity of style, that the Tragedy of LoCRINE, published in 1595, attributed to Shakespeare, was written by Marlowe. SUPPL. SHAKESP. ii. 190. He conjectures also Marlowe to be the author of the old KING JOHN. Ibid. i. 163. And of TITUS ANDRONICUS, and of the lines spoken by the players in the interlude in HAMLET. Ibid. i. 371. In quarto. At London, by the widow Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke. Played by the children of the chapel. It begins, "Come gentle Ganimed!" It has been frequently confounded with [I doubt whether any play that had been acted before Cardinal Wolsey, could be performed again before queen Elizabeth, as on such occasions I believe they never exhibited stale or second-hand goods, but fresh for the nonce.-ASHBY.] I have before mentioned the Latin tragedy of Dido and Eneas, performed at Oxford, in 1583, before the prince Alasco. [See supr. iii. 210.] See what Hamlet says to the first Player on this favorite story. In 1564, was entered a "ballet of a lover blamynge his fortune by Dido and Eneas for thayre vntruthe." REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 116. a. In the TEMPEST, Gonzalo mentions the "widow Dido." Acr iii. Sc. i. On old ballads we read the Tune of queen Dido. Perhaps from some ballad on the subject, Shakespeare took his idea of Dido standing with a willow in her hand on the sea-shore, and beckoning Eneas back to Carthage. MERCH. VEN. Acr v. Sc. i. Shakespeare has also strangely falsified Dido's story, in the S. P. of K. HENRY THE SIXTH, Act iii. Sc. ii. I have before mentioned the interlude of Dido and Eneas at Chester. |