A Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings | Page 4

Menagiana. Ed. _Paris._ 1715. T. 4. p. 219.]
[C: Mr. du Tremblay. Traité des Langues. ad fin.]
The Characters of Theophrastus have been twice translated into English. The former Translation is anonymous, and the latter was done by the ingenious Mr. Eustace Budgell. It will be expected that I shou'd say something of these two Translations. And I shall be the more ready to do this, because I shall hereby insensibly lead the Reader to the Reasons which induc'd me to undertake a third.
The anonymous English Translation is said to have been done upon the Greek. But this is only a Pretence, and a low Artifice of the ignorant Translator: For in reality 'tis no more than a mean and insipid Translation of the French of Mr. de la Bruyere, revis'd upon the Latin of Casaubon, which answers almost verbally to the Original Greek. If this were a Matter of Importance, I wou'd here fully demonstrate it: For the Fact is so glaring, that tho' the Translator is wholly unknown to me, yet I can aver what I have asserted to be Truth, almost as certainly, as if I had been an Eye Witness to the doing of it_.
Mr. _Budgell_'s Translation must be own'd to be polite: But politeness is not the only Qualification that is required in such a Translation. The learn'd Reader, who understands the Original, will consider it in a different View. And to judg of it according to those Rules which Translators ought to observe, it must be condemned. In general, it is not exact and accurate enough; but what is far worse, Mr. Budgell gives, in too many Instances, his own Thoughts instead of representing the true Sense of Theophrastus. This is perverting the Humour of the Original, and, in Effect, making a new Work, instead of giving only a Translation. Mr. Budgell ingenuously confesses, that he has taken a great deal of Liberty; but when a Translator confesses thus much, it does but give the Reader good Reason to suspect that instead of taking a great deal, he has in reality taken too much.
Antient Authors (when they are translated) suffer in nothing more, than in having the Manners and Customs, to which they allude, transformed into the Manners and Customs of the present Age. By this Liberty, or rather Licenciousness of Translators, Authors not only appear in a different Dress, but they become unlike themselves, by losing that peculiar and distinctive Character in which they excel. This is most palpable in those Authors, whose Character consists in Humour. Let any one read Terence, as he is translated by Mr. Echard, and he will take him to have been a Buffoon: Whereas Terence never dealt in such a Kind of low Mirth. His true Character is, to have afforded to his Spectators and Readers the gravest, and, at the same Time, the most agreeable, most polite Entertainment of any antient Author now extant. This is, in some Measure, the Case of _Theophrastus:_ He has been transformed; and he has suffer'd in the Transformation. What I have endeavoured is, to do him that Justice which, I think, he has not hitherto met with, by preserving the native Simplicity of his Characters, by retaining those antient Manners and Customs which he alludes to, and keeping up the peculiar Humour of the Original as nearly, as the Difference of Language wou'd allow. This is the Attempt; how far I have succeeded, must be let to the judicious and curious Reader to determine. Thus much I thought necessary to say concerning former Translations, in order to justify my own Undertaking, which will not acquire an intrinsic Merit from the Censures, that I have pass'd upon others. No: The Faults of others cannot extenuate our own; and that Stamp, which every Work carries along with it, can only determine of what Kind it really is.
The Reader will expect that I shou'd here say a Word or two concerning the Notes which follow the Characters. Some Authors or Commentators (call them which you will) out of a vain Ostentation of Literature, lay hold of the slightest of Opportunities to expose all their Learning to the World, without ever knowing when they have said enough: Insomuch, that in most Commentaries upon antient Authors, one may sooner meet with a System of Antiquities, than with Solutions of the real Difficulties of the Text. Consider'd barely as a Translator, I lay under no immediate Necessity of writing Notes, but then as I was highly concern'd, even in that Capacity, to lay before the English Reader, what I took to be the true Sense of the Greek, and as I farther propos'd to preserve that particular Humour of the Original, which depends on those Manners and Customs which are alluded to, I found, my self necessitated to