Translators From Scotland

"But Ajax now no longer thought it good To keep his post, and stand where others stood."

"Why com'st thou like a girl with blubber'd eyes, Who running by her busie mother cries To be ta'en up, and by her garments holds, Till she the fondling in her arms infolds."

"Then let him swear he ne'er the lady knew, And did with her as men with women do."

"Why prattle we like children at their play, Spending thus idle breath, enough to freight An able vessel of the primer rate? Our tongues are voluble, and store of words Invention on all arguments affords, Scatter'd on fresh occasions here and there, And what thou say'st thou shalt from others hear. Let us no longer vainly thus contend, Like fenceless women, railing to no end."

"Who, dearest daughter! thus unkindly used, And like a malefactor thee abused? She sighing then replied; Juno thy wife, Who still foments contention here and strife."

"When they and Venus to his cottage came, For lust-rewards prefer'd the Cyprian dame."

"That prudent Hero's wandering, Muse, rehearse, Who (Troy b'ing sack'd) coasting the Universe, Saw many Cities, and their various Modes; Much suffering, tost by Storms on raging Floods, His Friends conducting to their Native Coast: But all in vain, for he his Navy lost, And they their Lives, prophanely feasting on Herds consecrated to the glorious Sun; Who much incens'd obstructed so their way, They ne'er return'd: Jove's Daughter this display."

"Then in a chair, with a rich cushion grac'd And a carv'd foot-stool, he Minerva plac'd. There 'gainst a column sets her lance, where stood Ulysses' javelins, planted like a wood."

"There had his flesh been rent, fractur'd his bones, 'Mongst rowling pebbles, and sharp pointed stones."

"At last a pleasant river's mouth he finds, Free from rough clifts, safe from disturbing winds."

"Their oars I bid them ply, their lives to save, Death at their heels: they brush the briny wave, And soon our ship the open sea enjoy'd; But all the rest the Læstrigons destroy'd."

"These Heaven decrees, and ever-fixed Fate. But say, blest prophet, and the truth relate; I see my mother's shade, who not her son Will speak to, nor so much as look upon: Silent she sits by sacred blood: ah, how May she, poor shadow! her dear offspring know?"

"He is too blest that his own Happiness knows, And Mortals to themselves are greatest Foes."

"He that loves Gold, starves more, the more he's fed."

"Robber of Man, who now shall give thee ayd?"

"Great Expectations oft to nothing come."

"True Valour best is without Witness shown."

"Mercy makes Princes Gods."

"Small Help may bring great Aid."

"This cruel Prince that made his Will a Law."

"They that have Power to do, may, when they will, Pick Quarrels, and, pretending Justice, kill."

"Who Weapons put into a Mad-Man's Hands, May be the first the Error understands."

"None can Protect themselves with their own Shade. None for themselves are born."

"People that under Tyrant Scepters live, Should each to other kind Assistance give."

"No Beast is half so False as Man."

"Fortune assists the Bold, the Valiant Man Oft Conqueror proves, because he thinks he can."

"Thus at Home happy, oft fond Youth complain, And Peace and Plenty with soft Beds disdain. But when in Forrein War Death seals his Eys, His Birth-place he remembers e'r he Dies."

"Rich Cloaths, nor Cost, nor Education can Change Nature, nor transform and Ape into a Man."

"Those that can Help, to Hurt may find a way."

"One good Art's better than a thousand bad."

"Lost Reputation hard is to be found."

"Of Pride in thy Prosperity beware, Vicissitudes of Fortune Constant are."

"Loud Threatnings make men stubborn, but kind Words Pierce gentle Breasts sooner than sharpest Swords."

"Though Strong, Resist not a too Potent Foe; Madmen against a violent Torrent row. Thou mayst hereafter serve the Common-weal; Then yield till Time shall later Acts repeal."

"He had such an excellent inventive and prudentiall witt, and master of so good addresse, that when he was undon he could not only shift handsomely (which is a great mastery), but he would make such rationall proposalls that would be embraced by rich and great men, that in a short time he could gaine a good estate again, and never failed in any thing he ever undertooke but allwayes went through with profits and honour."

"Ogilby, the favourite of Pope's schoolboy days, and the banker on whom he not unfrequently drew for rhymes while composing his own translation, though a faithful interpreter of the Greek, ranks as an epic poet below Sir Richard Blackmore."

"John Ogilby, the well-known translator of Homer, was originally a dancing-master. He had apprenticed himself to that profession on finding himself reduced to depend upon his own resources, by the imprisonment of his father for debt in the King's Bench. Having succeeded in this pursuit, he was very soon able to release his father, which he did, very much to his credit, with the first money he procured. An accident, however, put an end to his dancing, and he was left again without any permanent means of subsistence. In these circumstances, the first thing he did was to open a small theatre in Dublin; but just when he had fairly established it, and had reason to hope that it would succeed, the rebellion of 1641 broke out, and not only swept away all his little property, but repeatedly put even his life in jeopardy. He at last found his way back to London, in a state of complete destitution: but, although he had never received any regular education, he had before this made a few attempts at verse-making, and in his extremity he bethought him of turning his talent in this way, which certainly was not great, to some account. He immediately commenced his studies, which he was enabled to pursue chiefly, it is said, through the liberal assistance of some members of the university of Cambridge; and although then considerably above forty years of age, he made such progress in Latin that he was soon considered in a condition to undertake a poetical translation of Virgil. This work was published in the year 1650. In a very few years a second edition of it was brought out with great pomp of typography and embellishments. Such was its success that the industrious and enterprising translator actually proceeded, although now in his fifty-fourth year, to commence the study of Greek, in order that he might match his version of the Æneid by others of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In due time both appeared; and Ogilby, who had in the meanwhile established himself a second time in Dublin in the management of a new theatre, was in the enjoyment of greater prosperity than ever, when, having unfortunately disposed of his Irish property, and returned to take up his residence in London, just before the great fire of 1666, he was left by that dreadful event once more entirely destitute. With unconquerable courage and perseverance, however, he set to work afresh with his translations and other literary enterprises; and was again so successful as to be eventually enabled to rebuild his house, which had been burned down, and to establish a printing-press; in the employment of which he took every opportunity of indulging that taste for splendid typography to which his first works had owed so much of their success. He was now also appointed cosmographer and geographic printer to Charles II.; and at last, at the age of seventy-six, terminated a life remarkable for its vicissitudes, and not uninstructive as an evidence both of the respectable proficiency in literature which may be acquired by those who begin their education late in life, and also of what may be done by a stout heart and indefatigable activity in repairing the worst injuries of fortune. Ogilby was no great poet, although his translations were very popular when they first appeared; but his Homer, we ought to mention, had the honour of being one of the first books that kindled the young imagination of Pope, who, however, in the preface to his own translation of the Iliad, describes the poetry of his predecessor and early favourite as "too mean for criticism.""

"It is a curious co-incidence of circumstances, that Pope was initiated in poetry at eight years of age by the perusal of Ogilby's Homer. A friend having presented Dr. Beattie, in the latter part of his life, with a copy of Ogilby's Virgil, made him very happy, in thus recalling to his imagination all the ideas with which his favourite author had at first inspired him, even through the medium of a translation."

"But why without Annotations? Because I had no hope to do it better than it is already done by Mr. Ogilby."

"Hobbes's] poetry, as well as Ogilby's, is too mean for criticism."

"Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great."

"Ogilby's translation of Homer was one of the first large poems that ever Mr. Pope read; and he still spoke of the pleasure it then gave him with a sort of rapture, only on reflecting on it."

"[Alexander Pope] treads in the steps of Ogilby; below criticism, perhaps, but not imitation."

"John Ogilby was one, who from a late Initiation into Literature, made such a Progress therein, as might well stile him to be the Prodigy of his time, sending into the world so many large and learned Volumes, as well in Verse as in Prose, as will make posterity much indebted to his Memory."

"The animals [nature] brings forth (not to speak of the plants and the minerals) are in many cases ugly, unamiable, ferocious, and tormented with monstrous appetites, which can only be satisfied by devouring their fellow-creatures; nearly all of them are quite selfish and immoral; and the few of them that are philanthropic (such as surly old lions, tigers, wolves, sharks, vultures and other sweet carrion fowl; all genuine lovers of man) are almost as disagreeably so as our human philanthropists themselves."

"And all sad scenes and thoughts and feelings vanish In that sweet sleep no power can ever banish, That one best sleep which never wakes again."

"For it may be very plausibly urged on their behalf, that it is impossible to extinguish evil until the origin thereof has been discovered and destroyed. This great river of human Time (rivers were expressly created to feed metaphors, allegories, and navigable canals) which comes flowing down thick with filth and blood from the immemorial past surely cannot be thoroughly cleansed by any purifying process applied to it here in the present for the pollution, if not in its very source (supposing it has a source), or deriving from unimaginable remotenesses of eternity indefinitely beyond its source, at any rate interfused with it countless ages back, and is perennial as the river itself. This immense poison-tree of Life, with its leaves of illusion, blossoms of delirium, apples of destruction, surely cannot be made wholesome and sweet by anything we may do to the branchlets and twigs on which, poor insects, we find ourselves crawling, or to the leaves and fruit on which we must fain feed; for the venom is drawn up in the sap by the taproots plunged in abysmal depths of the past. This toppling and sinking house wherein we dwell cannot be firmly re-established, save by re-establishing from its lowest foundation upwards."

"But nature could not and cannot ever be constrained into self-improvement by sporadic or even endemic or epidemic cases of slow or swift suicide and slaughter, so long as the premature extinction of the whole human race was not and is not seriously threatened. Threaten this seriously, and she will forthwith become our most obedient humble servant. This is the forcible plan of "strikes" by labour against capital, applied in its utmost extension by man against nature; as you have already mere trades'-unions, organise a universal Man-union, and threaten, if all your demands are not immediately granted, to "strike" living, to "turn out" of human existence, and you will at once bring- the everlasting employer to reason."

"I call special attention to the fact that it is only our universal suicide which would prove a panacea for all the ills our ' flesh is heir to j individual suicides can do little or no good, save to the individuals themselves; Thus true philosophers may rationally and generously deny themselves the luxury of self-murder, because their death must leave the human average still worse than it is; and, besides, death’s coming is so certain and (at farthest) so near, that it is scarcely worth while to put one’s self out of breath hastening to meet him."

"In order to ensure absolute equality (which perchance cannot co-exist with essential distinctions) the new race may demand .either that sex be abolished, or that every human being be of both sexes. Perhaps the very perfecting process will either unsex or androgynise its subject, so that all alike shall be regenerated either neutral or epicene."