But upon the Article of adding to his Author, and altering his Sense, there is one Fault in Mr. _Dryden_ which is not to be pardoned. I mean when he does it directly contrary not only to the _Sense_, but to the _Temper_ and _Genius_ of his Author; and that too in those Instances which injure him not only as a _good Poet_, but as a _good Man_. As _Virgil_ is the most chaste, and modest of Poets, and has ever the strictest Regard to Decency; after the Prayer of _Iarbas_ to _Jupiter_ in the Fourth Book, he proceeds thus:
_Talibus orantem dictis, arasque tenentem Audiit omnipotens; oculosque ad mœnia torsit Regia, &_ oblitos famæ melioris amantes.
What could be more well-mannered, more delicate, and truly _Virgilian_, than the Sweetness, and Softness of that remote, insinuating Expression, _oblitos famæ melioris amantes_? For this Piece of a Verse Mr. _Dryden_ gives us Three entire ones; which I will not transcribe. The two first are totally his own; and to One who is not himself _insensible of Shame_, those fulsom Expressions must be very nauseous. Part of the last Verse indeed is _Virgil_'s; and it comes in strangely, after the odious Stuff that goes before it. If _Virgil_ can be said to be remarkable for any one good Quality more than for Modesty, it is for his awful Reverence to Religion. And yet, as Mr. _Dryden_ represents him describing _Apollo_'s Presence at one of his own Festivals, he speaks Thus; Book iv. V. 210.
_Himself, on Cynthus walking, sees below The merry Madness of the sacred Show._
_Virgil_ says, He walks on the Top of _Cynthus_; That's all: The rest is Mr. _Dryden_'s. And it is exactly of a Piece with a Passage in the Third Georgick; in which, without any sort of Provocation, or the least Hint from his Author, He calls the _Priest_ the _Holy Butcher_. If Mr. _Dryden_ took Delight in abusing Priests, and Religion; _Virgil_ did not. It is indeed wonderful that a Man of so fine, and elevated a Genius, and at the same time of so good a Judgment, as Mr. _Dryden_ certainly was, could so much as endure those clumsey Ideas, in which he perpetually rejoices; and that to such a degree, as to thrust them into _Translations_, contrary not only to the Design, and Meaning, but even to the Spirit, and Temper, and most distinguishing Character of his Author. Thus in his Translation of the last Lines of _Homer_'s First Iliad he describes the Gods, and Goddesses as being drunk; and that in no fewer than three Verses, and in some of the coarsest Expressions that our Language will admit of: Whereas the Original gives not the least Intimation of any such thing; but only says that they were _sleepy_, and went _to bed_. And therefore here again I cannot be of Mr. _Pope_'s Opinion, _that it is a great Loss to the Poetical World that Mr._ Dryden _did not live to translate the Iliad_. If we may judge of what the Whole would have been by the Specimen which he has left us; I think it was a Gain to the Poetical World that Mr. _Dryden_'s Version did not hinder us from Mr. _Pope_'s. Which may be said, without any great Compliment to the latter.