prefly acknowledged in the title-page.-Xenophon's institution of Cyrus was given to the public from the original; and the tranflator was a Mr. William Bercher, or, as he is called in another edition of the book, Wylliam Barkar.

Sir Anthony Poyngz, a gentleman of rank, tranflated the table of Cebes in a manner which was thought to be deferving of commendation. This work he did not execute from the original Greek, but from a Latin verfion. It is the first tranflation of Cebes that appeared in our language.-Abraham Fleming, who was a frequent tranflator, among other works, produced in English Elian's various History. Something, likewife, of Ifocrates came from the fame hand; and, alfo, Synefius's Panegyric on Baldness, which had been brought into fashion by Erafmus's encomium on folly. This Abraham Fleming was of confiderable fervice to the literature of his country, by rendering into English many celebrated books which had been written in Latin about the fifteenth century, and at the restoration of learning.-The only remaining tranflation from the Greek, or, at least, the only remaining one of which we are able to give an account, is that of the ten books of Heliodorus's Ethiopic history. Thomas Underdowne, a native of Oxford, and, as may reasonably be fuppofed, a fcholar of the univerfity of that city, was the tranflator. By the publication of this work a new field of romance was opened, which is thought to have fuggefted to fir Philip Sidney the fcheme of his Arcadia.

"The tranflations from the Latin poets were more numerous than from the Greek. Of thefe poets, Seneca the the tragedian feems to have been no finall favourite: nor will this be thought furprifing, when we reflect that found literature, and especially a juft tafte, were not yet arrived to a great degree of perfection. At different times, and by different poets, a verfion was completed of the whole of Seneca's ten tragedies; and they were all of them printed, together in 1581. The Hyppolitus, the Medea, the Hercules Oeteus, and the Agamemnon, were tranflated by John Studley, who had been educated at Westminster fchool, and afterward became a member of Trinity college, in Cam

bridge. His Agamemnon, had been separately published fifteen years before, and dedicated to fecretary Cecil. This book is now become fo exceedingly fcarce, that it is not eafy to meet with it in the choiceft black letter collections. A whole fcene is added by the tranflator to the end of the fifth act, for the purpose of explaining fome circumftances which he imagined had not been fufficiently unfolded by the original writer. Though this attempt to improve the plot of the drama, by a new conduct or contrivance, was, in the prefent inftance, needlefs and improper, it is in one refpect deferving of notice, as it fhews that authors began to think for theinfelves, and that they were not always implicity enflaved to the prefcribed letter of their models. Studley, who appears to have been a man of talents, was qualified for better things than fome which were undertaken by him; for he condefcended to tranflate Bale's Acts of the Popes. The verfion of the Octavia was done by Thomas Nuce, or Newce, who afterwards obtained feveral preferments in the church. Alexander Nevyle was the tranflator of the Edipus, and he executed the task in the fixteenth year of his age. Notwithstanding Nevyle's youth, his tranflation is the moft fpirited and elegant verfion in the collection; and it would have been eminently to the advantage of the undertaking if the whole had been executed by him. Through a falfe idea of the gravity which was fuppofed to be attached to the clerical character, he seems to have been perfuaded by his friends that poetry was only one of the lighter accomplishments of a young man, and that it ought foon to give way to the more weighty purfuits of literature. Nevyle became one of the learned men whom archbishop Parker patronifed, and refided with him as his fecretary. He projected an English tranflation of Livy, but there is no reafon to believe that he made any great progrefs in the defign. The Hercules Furens, the Thyeftes, and the Troas of Seneca were tranflated by Jafper Heywood, fon of John Heywood the epigrammatift. In thefe verfions fome additions are made to the original writer. Jafper Heywood, after paffing through feveral fcenes in life, left England, and became a catholic priest

and

and a Jefuit, at Rome. He is faid to have been an accurate critic in the Hebrew language, no common quality in those days. The only remaining one of the ten tragedies of Seneca, the Thebais, was tranflated by Thomas Newton, the publifher of the whole. He feems to have undertaken the bufinefs more from a defire of completing the collection than from any ftrong poetical inclination. His verfion is more profaic than that of moft of the other tragedies, and it appears to have been his chief aim to preferve perfpicuity and fidelity. If as an English poet he obtained no great praife, he otherwife deferved well of the literature of this country: for he became famous for the elegance of his Latin poetry, of which he left a specimen in his "Illuftrium aliquot Anglorum Encomia." He is perhaps the first Englishman, after Leland, who wrote Latin elegies with a claffical clearness and terfenefs. Newton was courted by moft of the ingenious and learned men of that age, and Robert earl of Effex was his patron, Ovid appears to have been another very favourite Latin poet in this period. Early in queen Elizabeth's reign, the four first books of the Metamorphofis were tranflated by Arthur Golding; and in a fhort time afterwards, he completed the whole. This work was fo acceptable to the public, that, in due courfe, it paffed through several editions. Golding's ftyle is poetical and fpirited; and though his manner is ornamental and diffufive, it was not carried to fuch an excefs, as to prevent his retaining a fufficient obfervance of his original. On the whole, as a translator and a poet, he excelled many of his contemporaries. In various cafes he fhews himself to have felt the imagery, and to have been infpired with the fpirit of his author. The Metamorphofis of Golding continued to be a popular book till it was in a great measure fuperfeded, in 1632, by Sandys' tranflation of the fame work of Ovid. Golding diftinguished himfelf as a tranflator; for he has left verfions of many modern Latin writers, which were then of confiderable utility, as being adapted to the condition and opinions of the times. Now, indeed, they are forgotten, in confequence of the introduction of better books, and a

general

general change in the fyftem of knowledge. Among other works, he finished a tranflation of Mornay's French treatise on the truth of chriftianity, which had been begun by fr Philip Sidney. The only original productions of Golding, were an account of an earthquake in 1580, and a small number of verfes. Confidering that he was a man of real genius, it would be deemed furprifing that he fhould have confined himself fo entirely to the bufinefs of a tranflator, if we did not reflect that, at a period in which Englth literature ftill continued in a state of imperfection, the increase of knowledge by the importation of foreign materials was an employment as honourable as it was ufeful. Golding, who was a gentleman by birth, and a native of the city of London, refided with fecretary Cecil; and fuch was the efteem in which he was held, that he was patronifed by the principal characters of the age. His having given a verfion of the whole Metamorphofis of Ovid, did not prevent fome diftinct fables of that work from being tranflated by different, writers.-The Fafli of Ovid were rendered into English verfe by an author whofe name does not appear; and Thomas Underdowne not only gave a tranflation of the Ibis, but illustrated it with annotations.-Chriftopher Marloe was fo void of principle and of decency, as to traflate the elegies of the fame poet; the elegant language of which can make no atonement for their obfcenities. That Marloe was fenfible of his acting wrong, or, at least, that he was in danger of giving offence by his conduct, may be conjectured from his procuring the work to be printed at Middleburg, and without a date. The fubterfuge, however, did not avail him; for, by command of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, the book was ordered to be burnt at Stationer's-hall.-Ovid's Remedy of Love met with an anonymous tranflator. For a verfion of the Heroical Epiftles, with Sabinus's Anfwers, the public was endebted to Thomas Turberville, a name at that time of confiderable celebrity. This verfion was fo popular as fpeedily to occafion a demand for three editions. Six of the Epiftles are in blank verfe, and the reft in four-lined ftanzas. Turberville was happy in the turn which he gave to various parts

of

of his tranflation.-There exifts, it is faid, one of Ovid's Epiftles tranflated by the accomplished earl of Effex. But if it could be recovered, it is probable that it would only be valued as a curiofity; fince it is apparent, from a few of his Sonnets which are preferved in the Afhmolean museum, that he was not endued with a poetic genius. To finish our account of what relates to Ovid, the three first books of his Triftia were tranflated by Thomas Churchyard. As Churchyard was a man of abilities, it is probable that his verfion is not deftitute of merit; and this we rather judge, as from others of his productions it is apparent that he could occafionally rife to harmonious ver fication. There were feveral fhort pieces difperfed abroad in this reign, concerning which it is doubtful, whether they were regular tranflations from Ovid, or poems formed from an imitation of the English editions of his works that were now in circulation.

Very early in queen Elizabeth's reign, an attention was paid to the prince of Latin poets, Virgil. Thomas Phayer, who in a former article has been mentioned as fuftaining the threefold character of poet, lawyer, and phyfician, and as concerned in the "Mirror of Magiftrates," had tranflated in the life of Mary, the feven first books of the Eneid. He afterwards finifhed the eighth and ninth books, but died foon after he had begun the tenth. This imperfect work, after a space of more than twenty years, was completed by Thomas Twyne, a native of Canterbury, and a phyfician at Lewes, who had been educated at both of our univerfities, was an admirer of John Dee's mysterious philofophy, and patronifed by lord Buckhurst. To the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth books of Virgil, Twyne added a tranflation of Maphæus's fupplemental book. So well was this work received, that from the year 1584 to 1620, it went through four editions; after which period it became obfolete, and is now totally forgotten. The reafon of Phayer's undertaking his verfion, according to his own account, was to infpire the young nobility, gentry, and ladies of this country with a fenfe of the riches of their pative tongue, and to fhew that the English language was

not,