"
So that they thought the imitation of Lucilius was more proper to
their purpose than that of Horace. "They changed satire," says
Holyday, "but they changed it for the better; for the business being
to reform great vices, chastisement goes farther than admonition;
whereas a perpetual grin, like that of Horace, does rather anger
than amend a man."
Thus far that learned critic Barten Holyday, whose interpretation
and illustrations of Juvenal are as excellent as the verse of his
translation and his English are lame and pitiful; for it is not
enough to give us the meaning of a poet (which I acknowledge him to
have performed most faithfully) but he must also imitate his genius
and his numbers as far as the English will come up to the elegance
of the original. In few words, it is only for a poet to translate a
poet. Holyday and Stapleton had not enough considered this when
they attempted Juvenal; but I forbear reflections: only I beg leave
to take notice of this sentence, where Holyday says, "a perpetual
grin, like that of Horace, rather angers than amends a man.
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