Tityre tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi.
Tityre tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi.
Tityre tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi.
Tityre tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi.
We easily see thatturefers torecubans, andpatulætofagi; though the related words are separated from one another by the intervention of several others: because the terminations, showing the correspondence of their cases, determine their mutual reference. But if we were to translate this line literally into English, and say,Tityrus, thou of spreading reclining under the shade beech, Œdipus himself could not make sense of it; because there is here no difference of termination, to determine which substantive each adjective belongs to. It is the same case with regard to verbs. In Latin the verb may often be placed, without an inconveniency or ambiguity, in any part of the sentence. But in English its place is almost always precisely determined. It must follow the subjective and precede the objective member of the phrase in almost all cases. Thus in Latin whether you say,Joannem verberavit Robertus, orRobertus verberavit Joannem, the meaning is precisely the same, and the termination fixes John to be the sufferer in both cases. But in EnglishJohn beat Robert, andRobert beat John, have by no means the same signification. The place therefore of the three principal members of the phrase is in the English, and for the same reason in the French and Italian languages almost always precisely determined; whereas in the ancient languages a greater latitude isallowed, and the place of those members is often, in a great measure, indifferent. We must have recourse to Horace, in order to interpret some parts of Milton’s literal translation;
Who now enjoys thee credulous all gold,Who always vacant, always amiableHopes thee; of flattering galesUnmindful.
Who now enjoys thee credulous all gold,Who always vacant, always amiableHopes thee; of flattering galesUnmindful.
Who now enjoys thee credulous all gold,Who always vacant, always amiableHopes thee; of flattering galesUnmindful.
Who now enjoys thee credulous all gold,
Who always vacant, always amiable
Hopes thee; of flattering gales
Unmindful.
are verses which it is impossible to interpret by any rules of our language. There are no rules in our language, by which any man could discover, that, in the first line,credulousreferred towho, and not tothee; or, thatall goldreferred to any thing; or, that in the fourth line,unmindful, referred towho, in the second, and not totheein the third; or, on the contrary, that, in the second linealways vacant, always amiable, referred totheein the third, and not towhoin the same line with it. In the Latin, indeed, all this is abundantly plain.
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ,Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilemSperat te; nescius auræ fallacis.
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ,Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilemSperat te; nescius auræ fallacis.
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ,Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilemSperat te; nescius auræ fallacis.
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ,
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem
Sperat te; nescius auræ fallacis.
Because the terminations in the Latin determine the reference of each adjective to its proper substantive, which it is impossible for any thing in the English to do. How much this power of transposing the order of their words must have facilitated the composition of the ancients, both in verse and prose, can hardly be imagined. That it must greatly have facilitated their versification it is needless to observe; and inprose, whatever beauty depends upon the arrangement and construction of the several members of the period, must to them have been acquirable with much more ease, and to much greater perfection, than it can be to those whose expression is constantly confined by the prolixness, constraint and monotony of modern languages.
FINIS.
FINIS.
FINIS.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESSilently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
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