DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9260#0017
The booksellers
PREFACE
TO THIS EDITION.
vil
Ban
eges;
ier,
O offer at any Apology for publifhing a tolerable new Edition of OvM,
would be to affront the Public; and to question the favourable Judgement
it has always pronounced of his Works. They have been one of the
chief Sources from which the moft celebrated Poets, Painters, and Wits
fihce his Time, have formed their Genius, enriched their Fancy, and
derived their Excellence. We cannot therefore doubt but an Edition of
his Metamorphofes Co improved and adorned as This is, will be acceptable
both to the Beau-Monde and the Republic of Lettres. The EngUjh Book-
fellers, we hope, will not confider our Reprinting here the Translation
publiilied by the late Sir Samuel Garth, as an Encroachment on their Pri-
me Occafion of it muft obviate all Umbrage and Difpleafure on that Subject. Monfieur
a French Abbot, and Member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris, a
Gentleman who has diftinguifhed himfelf in the Study of ancient Hiftory and Mythology; had long
Projected a French Edition of this fort. The Conveniency of having the Latin Text already compofed,
and the Plates engraved for the Fr^wc^Tranflation, gave Rife both to mis Edition, and another in Dutch;
"^hicri we printed with it aquis paribus, and now publiili with the fame Ornaments and Advantages.
It will perhaps at firft fight appear Pedantic, that a Book, which by it's Magnificence and Price
can only be intended for a Court and for Perfons of the firft Quality, fliould be half filled with La-
tln- But how many are there of fo elevated a Rank, especially among the Engli/h Nobility, who
can relifh the Beauties of the Original ? And certainly it is a Convenience for fuch Readers to have
fhe Poet himfelf fo near them, when they would examine the Juftnefs or perceive the Elegancies of
the Tranflation. We have followed the Judgement of Monfieur Banier in the Choice of the Latin
Text publiilied by the Learned Profeffor Burman.
As to the Englifi Tranflation; the Reader may well fuppofe we could not get a better than That
Publiflied by Dr. Garth. We have followed it religioufly , except in a few Places; where the Trans-
lators have either thought Ovid abfolutely not worth Tranflating at all, and fo have left out PaiTa-
ges: Or elfe his Thoughts too low to require a laboured Tranflation: Or Laftly, where more Ima-
ges occurred to the Translator, than had done to the Poet himfelf, and thus lengthened out the
-fre/cription : For the Genius of a Poet, and That of his Tranilators being feldom of a Size, or
equally animated in the fame Defcriptions, will produce all Thefe and fometimes much greater Di-
Verfities. The Neceflity of making the Senfe of the two Languages correspond as near as pofhble,
Within the Bounds of the fame Page, has obliged us fometimes to fupply the Defects, and fome-
rinies to retrench the Redundancies of the Tranflation. But the Occafions of fuch Changes as
c°u'd not be provided for, by crowding the Lines together, or letting them at wider {paces from one
another, in one or t'other Column, have very feldom happened, and they are made with fo much
* * Care
PREFACE
TO THIS EDITION.
vil
Ban
eges;
ier,
O offer at any Apology for publifhing a tolerable new Edition of OvM,
would be to affront the Public; and to question the favourable Judgement
it has always pronounced of his Works. They have been one of the
chief Sources from which the moft celebrated Poets, Painters, and Wits
fihce his Time, have formed their Genius, enriched their Fancy, and
derived their Excellence. We cannot therefore doubt but an Edition of
his Metamorphofes Co improved and adorned as This is, will be acceptable
both to the Beau-Monde and the Republic of Lettres. The EngUjh Book-
fellers, we hope, will not confider our Reprinting here the Translation
publiilied by the late Sir Samuel Garth, as an Encroachment on their Pri-
me Occafion of it muft obviate all Umbrage and Difpleafure on that Subject. Monfieur
a French Abbot, and Member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris, a
Gentleman who has diftinguifhed himfelf in the Study of ancient Hiftory and Mythology; had long
Projected a French Edition of this fort. The Conveniency of having the Latin Text already compofed,
and the Plates engraved for the Fr^wc^Tranflation, gave Rife both to mis Edition, and another in Dutch;
"^hicri we printed with it aquis paribus, and now publiili with the fame Ornaments and Advantages.
It will perhaps at firft fight appear Pedantic, that a Book, which by it's Magnificence and Price
can only be intended for a Court and for Perfons of the firft Quality, fliould be half filled with La-
tln- But how many are there of fo elevated a Rank, especially among the Engli/h Nobility, who
can relifh the Beauties of the Original ? And certainly it is a Convenience for fuch Readers to have
fhe Poet himfelf fo near them, when they would examine the Juftnefs or perceive the Elegancies of
the Tranflation. We have followed the Judgement of Monfieur Banier in the Choice of the Latin
Text publiilied by the Learned Profeffor Burman.
As to the Englifi Tranflation; the Reader may well fuppofe we could not get a better than That
Publiflied by Dr. Garth. We have followed it religioufly , except in a few Places; where the Trans-
lators have either thought Ovid abfolutely not worth Tranflating at all, and fo have left out PaiTa-
ges: Or elfe his Thoughts too low to require a laboured Tranflation: Or Laftly, where more Ima-
ges occurred to the Translator, than had done to the Poet himfelf, and thus lengthened out the
-fre/cription : For the Genius of a Poet, and That of his Tranilators being feldom of a Size, or
equally animated in the fame Defcriptions, will produce all Thefe and fometimes much greater Di-
Verfities. The Neceflity of making the Senfe of the two Languages correspond as near as pofhble,
Within the Bounds of the fame Page, has obliged us fometimes to fupply the Defects, and fome-
rinies to retrench the Redundancies of the Tranflation. But the Occafions of fuch Changes as
c°u'd not be provided for, by crowding the Lines together, or letting them at wider {paces from one
another, in one or t'other Column, have very feldom happened, and they are made with fo much
* * Care