The Metamorphoses of Ovid | Page 2

text. A fifth edition of this translation was
published so recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond
the furbishing up of the old-fashioned language of the original preface.
A far more literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John
Clarke, which was first published about the year 1735, and had attained
to a seventh edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced
very nearly to fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being "as
literal as possible," still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and
the fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early
part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at
explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the
requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too
much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words,
"have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of
regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school," he has, in
many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of
the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes; but, for
the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a few of them
are adduced: the word "nitidus" is always rendered "neat," whether
applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a temple, or the
art of wrestling. He renders "horridus," "in a rude pickle;" "virgo" is
generally translated "the young lady;" "vir" is "a gentleman;" "senex"
and "senior" are indifferently "the old blade," "the old fellow," or "the
old gentleman;" while "summa arx" is "the very tip-top." "Misera" is
"poor soul;" "exsilio" means "to bounce forth;" "pellex" is "a miss;"

"lumina" are "the peepers;" "turbatum fugere" is "to scower off in a
mighty bustle;" "confundor" is "to be jumbled;" and "squalidus" is "in a
sorry pickle." "Importuna" is "a plaguy baggage;" "adulterium" is
rendered "her pranks;" "ambages" becomes either "a long rabble of
words," "a long-winded detail," or "a tale of a tub;" "miserabile
carmen" is "a dismal ditty;" "increpare hos" is "to rattle these blades;"
"penetralia" means "the parlour;" while "accingere," more literally than
elegantly, is translated "buckle to." "Situs" is "nasty stuff;" "oscula
jungere" is "to tip him a kiss;" "pingue ingenium" is a circumlocution
for "a blockhead;" "anilia instrumenta" are "his old woman's
accoutrements;" and "repetito munere Bacchi" is conveyed to the sense
of the reader as, "they return again to their bottle, and take the other
glass." These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure the
most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses.
In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] B[ulloker,]
entitled "Ovid's Metamorphosis, translated grammatically, and,
according to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar and
the verse will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be used
according to the directions in the preface to the painfull schoolmaster,
and more fully in the book called, 'Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar
school, chap. 8.'" Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, it contains a
translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the first Book,
executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner; and its rarity is now the
only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear translation of the first
Book "on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke," was published in 1839,
which had been already preceded by "a selection from the
Metamorphoses of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a
literal and interlineal translation," published by James Hamilton, the
author of the Hamiltonian system. This work contains selections only
from the first six books, and consequently embraces but a very small
portion of the entire work.
For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narratives and
allusions, explanations have been added, which are principally derived
from the writings of Herodotus, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the

historians, philosophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number
of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid,
published by the Abbé Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the
last century; who has, therein, and in his "Explanations of the Fables of
Antiquity," with indefatigable labour and research, culled from the
works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely
to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and
Rome.
This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a
statement of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most
likely to enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various
subjects presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three instances,
space has been found