THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. VOL. XXXIV. PUBLISHED IN JUNE & SEPTEMBER, 1826. RED SETON HALL JUNVERTY 27.5. Marshall Library So. Orange, LONDON: STO JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1826. SETON HALL UNIVERSITY SO. ORANGE, N.J. VIII.-1. Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 2. Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 3. Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Corn- 4. Report of the Liverpool Royal Institution. 5. Bristol Institution. Proceedings of the Second Annual 6. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philo- IX.-1. A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool, proposing to finish 2. Observations on the Buildings, Improvements, and 3. Sketch of the North Bank of the Thames, showing 4. Considerations upon the Expediency of Building a 6. Short Remarks and Suggestions upon the Improve- Page. 153 - 179 X.-1. Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, Esquire, including a History of the Stage from the time of Garrick to the present period. By James Boaden, Esquire. 2. Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, of the King's Theatre, and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, including a period of nearly half a Century; with Original Anecdotes of many distinguished Personages, Political, Literary, and Musical. XI. The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius List of New Publications 196 248 - 299 NEW CONTENTS OF No. LXVIII. ART. 1.-1. Britton's Cathedral Antiquities. Page 2. A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of John II.-Lives of the Novelists. By Sir Walter Scott. III.—]. Journal of a Third Voyage for the Discovery of a 2. A Voyage towards the South Pole, performed in the · .305 349 - 378 IV.-Philippe-Auguste; Poëme Héroïque, en Douze Chants. 2. The Adventures of a Young Rifleman in the French VI.-Mémoires de Madame la Comtesse de Genlis. 406 421 VII.-Memoir of the Life and Character of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke; with Specimens of his Poetry and Letters ; and an Estimate of his Genius and Talents, compared with those of his great Contemporaries. By James Prior, Esq. Second Edition; enlarged to two volumes by a variety of Original Letters, Anecdotes, Papers, and other Additional Matter. 1 VIII.-Sandoval; or the Freemason. By the Author of Don Esteban. IX.-Transactions of the Geological Society of London. Vol. i. 2d Series. 457 X.-Observations on the actual State of the English Laws of 507 - 540 XI.-1. Correspondence with the British Commissioners, re- 3. British and Foreign State Papers. 1824, 1825. 4. Nineteenth and Twentieth Reports of the Directors of List of New Publications. Index. 579 - 609 - 615 THE THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.-Jerusalem Delivered; an Epic Poem, in Twenty Cantos; translated into English Spenserian Verse from the Italian of Tasso, &c. &c. By J. H. Wiffen. 8vo. London and Edinburgh. MUCH didactic prose and poetry has been written upon the subject of translation: the substance of which may be comp ised in an exhortation to translate rather by equivalents than by literal version of the author's words. If we try the merit of this precept, however, by its fruits, we shall find that, though its adoption may have produced good poetry, it has not often produced the thing required. With the exception of 'Mittitur in disco mihi piscis ab archiepisco -Po non ponatur quia potus non mihi datur.' “I had sent me a fish in a great dish by the archbish- we do not know of above one good translation executed upon this system in more than a century from the time in which it was most popular. On the other hand, we have many, among the best in the language, and not despicable even as poetry, for which we are indebted to that severe style of version, which was in fashion before the doctrine of equivalents was broached. Among these, many of Ben Jonson's essays rank foremost, and Sandys' Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses may be deemed a happy. specimen of the school. Yet it must be allowed, that the free. is the noble style of translation; that the only versions in our language, which rank as poems, are boldly executed; and that even the closest copyist must at times resort to equivalents, if he would give the real meaning of his original. This, however, is a daring and hazardous course; full of shoals so irregularly scattered, and often seen in such false lights, that there are few who have a sufficient perception of their dangers, or dexterity to avoid them. The most obvious of these dangers are modern and vulgar associations; of which we have spoken at large in a former Number: but there is another, which we do not remember to have seen laid down in any chart of criticism: this is, the resorting to some equivalent, which appears to convey the exact sense of the author, without observing the effect of that equivalent upon other parts of the text, under translation; a risk almost as perilous in its ultimate, though not VOL. XXXIV. NO. LXVII. A in |