ΤΟ

JOHN BOURRYAU, ESQ.

SIR,

WHEN I first thought of prefixing your name to this translation of Tibullus, I found myself considerably embarrassed; as I would choose to avoid the strain. of adulation, so common in addresses of this kind, on the one hand, without suppressing the just sense I have of your rising merit, on the other. I shall not however, I flatter myself, incur the imputation of the first, by declaring, even in this public manner, my satisfaction at the progress you have made in every branch of useful and polite literature; and this too, at a time of life, when young men of fashion are generally engrossed by the idle amusements of an age abounding in all the means of dissipation.

If your maturer years answer, as I am convinced they will, so favourable a dawn, I need not a moment hesitate to foretel the happiness of your friends, in an agreeable companion, and polite scholar; and of your country, in a principled and unshaken patriot.

It is with particular pleasure, sir, that I dwell, though but in idea, on this part of your future character. The time is not far off, when you will have finished the plan of your education, by a survey of foreign countries: and as it will then, of course, be expected from one of your opulent and independent fortune, you will, I hope, devote the fruits of your industry to the service of the public:

Hunc precor, hunc utinam nobis Aurora nitentem
Luciferem roseis candida portet equis.

TIBULLUS.

When you become a member of the most august assembly of the nation, every well-wisher to the community will exult to see you unawed by power, undazzled by riches, and unbiassed by faction: an impartial assertor of the just prerogatives of the crown, and the liberties of the people: equally a foe to corruption, and a friend to virtue.

Such, sir, are the hopes which all your friends at present conceive of you: and as your talents, both natural and acquired, seem strongly to confirin these hopes, the more inexcusable you will prove, should they hereafter be disappointed.

In regard to the translation, with which I here take the liberty to present you; I will not pretend to say, I set no value upon it: my offering it to you is a proof of the contrary. Indeed, the chief merit it has with me, is, that it formerly pleased you. It served also to make many of my hours pass agreeably, which otherwise would have been extremely irksome, amid the din of arms, and hurry of a camp-life.

But while you peruse Tibullus as a poet, let not his integrity, as a member of the commonwealth, be forgotten. In this light he merits your highest regard: for though he justly obtained a distinguished rank among the great writers of the Augustan age; yet ought it more especially to be remembered to his honour, that neither the frowns of a court, nor the distresses of fortune, could ever induce him to praise those powerful but wicked men, who had subverted the liberties of his country; and this, at a time, when the practice of the poets his cotemporaries might have countenanced in him the most extravagant adulation.

I am, sir,

your most obedient humble servant,

JAMES GRAINGER.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following version of Tibullus was begun and completed several years ago, when the author was in the army. A military man, even in the most active campaign, has many hours of leisure; and as these cannot be spent more rationally than in some literary pursuit, he employed that part of his time, which was not devoted to his profession, in perusing the classics.

Time and place influence us more in our opinions of, and relish for, particular writers, than is commonly imagined. Amid the horrours of war, the translator could most readily sympathize with, and best account for, his poet's aversion to a military life: and while exposed to all the hurry and tumult of a camp, could not but taste with a peculiar relish all descriptions of the unruffled and tranquil scenes of the country: beside these, every motive conspiring to make him regard the fair sex as the chief ornaments of society, was it surprising that Tibullus, who abounds in sentiments of this kind, should soon become a favourite; and that what delighted him, he should at last be tempted to translate?

A pleasing employment is seldom neglected. Those elegies which particularly touched him, were first rendered into English; and as these make the greater part of Tibullus's poems, he was contented afterwards to complete the work, by finishing as a task, what he began as an

amusement.

A favourite author, on whom some labour has been employed, is not easily forgotten; the version, therefore, was retouched as often as opportunity served. All this while, indeed, the translator had no intention of making the public acquainted with his poetical amusements: he knew his poet too well, and admired him too much, to think he had done him justice: yet when Mr. Dart's translation of Tibullus was sent him, he was resolved to publish his own; that those who did not understand the original might not form an idea of the most exact, elegant, and harmonious of the Roman elegiac poets from the most inaccurate, harsh, and inelegant version. of the present century.

The translator hopes, he will be acquitted of vanity, in preferring his own performance to Mr. Dart's: indeed that gentleman often missed the meaning of his author, while his poetry always escaped him. Neither does he appear to have been a competent judge of his own language; and from the little tenderness transfused into his verses, it may be concluded, that he was an utter stranger to that passion which gave rise to most of the elegies of Tibullus.

What advantages the present translator may have over his predecessor in these respects, does not become him to determine: yet he is well apprised, that no translator, however qualified, can give Tibullus the genuine air of an Englishman,

Yet as

It is true, that amorous elegy is less local than many other of the minor kinds of poetry, the passion of love operating pretty nearly the same upon the human mind in all ages. the modes of expressing that passion differ much in different countries, so these modes must not be confounded: a Grecian ought to make love like a Grecian, and a Roman like a Roman.