The word rejicit, I know, will admit of
both senses; but Jupiter having confessed that he could not alter
fate, and being grieved he could not in consideration of Hercules,
it seems to me that he should avert his eyes rather than take
pleasure in the spectacle. But of this I am not so confident as the
other, though I think I have followed Virgil's sense.
What I have said, though it has the face of arrogance, yet is
intended for the honour of my country, and therefore I will boldly
own that this English translation has more of Virgil's spirit in it
than either the French or the Italian. Some of our countrymen have
translated episodes and other parts of Virgil with great success; as
particularly your lordship, whose version of Orpheus and Eurydice is
eminently good. Amongst the dead authors, the Silenus of my Lord
Rescommon cannot be too much commended. I say nothing of Sir John
Denham, Mr. Waller, and Mr. Cowley; it is the utmost of my ambition
to be thought their equal, or not to be much inferior to them and
some others of the living.
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