Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850 | Page 2

it the moon's distorted face? The ghost-like image of a cloud? Is it a

gallows these pourtrayed? Is Peter of himself afraid? Is it a coffin--or a
shroud?
"A grisly idol hewn in stone? Or imp from witch's lap let fall? Or a gay
ring of shining fairies, Such as pursue their brisk vagaries In sylvan
bower or haunted hall?
"Is it a fiend that to a stake Of fire his desperate self is tethering? Or
stubborn spirit doomed to yell In solitary ward or cell, Ten thousand
miles from all his brethren."
"Is it a party in a parlour? Cramm'd just as they on earth revere
cramm'd-- Some sipping punch, some sipping tea, But, as you by their
faces see, All silent and all damn'd!
"A throbbing pulse the gazer hath," &c. Part i., pp. 33, 39.
This last stanza was omitted in subsequent editions. Indeed, it is not
very easy to imagine what it could possibly mean, or how any stretch of
imagination could connect it with the appearance presented by a body
in the water.
To return, however, from this digression to the subject of translations.
In the passage already quoted, the reader has been presented with a
proof how well Dryden could compress the words, without losing the
sense, of his author. In the following, he has done precisely the reverse.
"Lectus erat Codro Procula minor."--_Juv. Sat._ iii. 203.
"Codrus had but one bed, so short to boot, That his short wife's short
legs hung dangling out!"
In the year 1801 there was published at Oxford, in 12mo., a translation
of the satires of Juvenal in verse, by Mr. William Rhodes, A.M.,
superior Bedell of Arts in that University, which he describes in his
title-page as "nec verbum verbo." There are some prefatory remarks
prefixed to the third satire in which he says:
"The reader, I hope, will neither contrast the following, nor the tenth
satire, with the excellent imitation of a mighty genius; though similar,
they are upon a different plan. I have not adhered rigidly to my author,
compared with him; and if that were not the case, I am very sensible
how little they are calculated to undergo so fiery an ordeal."
And speaking particularly of the third satire, he adds:
"This part has been altered, as already mentioned, to render it more
applicable to London: nothing is to be looked for in it but the
ill-humour of the emigrant."

The reader will perhaps recollect, that in the opening of the third satire,
Juvenal represents himself about to take leave of his friends Umbritius,
who is quitting Rome for Canæ: they meet on the road (the Via Appia),
and turning aside, for greater freedom of conversation, into the Vallis
Egeriæ, the sight of the fountain there, newly decorated with foreign
marbles, leads to an expression of regret that it was no longer suffered
to remain in the simplicity of the times of Numa:
"In valem Egeriæ descendimus, et speluncas Dissimiles veris. Quanto
præstantius esset Numen aquæ, viridi si margine clauderet undas Herba,
nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum?" _Sat._ iii. 17.
In imitating this passage, Mr. Rhodes, finding no fons Egeriæ, no
Numa, and perhaps no Muses in London, transfers his regrets from a
rivulet to a navigable stream; and makes the whole ridiculous, by
suggesting that the Thames would look infinitely better if it flowed
through grass, as every ordinary brook would do.
"Next he departed to the river side, Crowded with buildings, tow'ring in
their pride. How much, much better would this river look, Flowing
'twixt grass, like every other brook, If native sand its tedious course
beguil'd, Nor any foreign ornament defil'd."
W (1.)
* * * * *
DEDICATION TO MILTON BY ANTONIO MALATESTI.
Dr. Todd, in his _Life of Milton_, ed. 1826, mentions the accidental
discovery of a manuscript by Antonio Malatesti, bearing the following
title:
"La Tina Equivoci Rusticali di Antonio Malatesti, c[=o]posti nella sua
Villa di Taiano il Settembre dell' Anno 1637. Sonetti Cinqu[=a]nta.
Dedicati al' III'mo Signore et Padrone Oss'mo Signor Giovanni Milton,
Nobil' Inghilese."
It seems that this MS. had been presented, together with Milton's works,
to the Academy della Crusca, by Mr. Brand Hollis, but had by some
chance again found its way to England, and was sold by auction at
Evans's some short time before Mr. Todd published this second edition
of Milton's Life.
I know not if there has been any further notice of this MS., which is
interesting as a monument of the respect and attention our great poet
received from the most distinguished literary men of Italy at the time of

his visit, and I should be glad if any of your correspondents can
indicate its existence, {147} and the place where it is now preserved.
When it was on sale, I had