cating his translation of Hesiod to the Duke of
Argyll, says to his patron: "You, my lord, know how the works of genius
lift up the head of a nation above her neighbors, and give as much honor
as success in arms; among these we must reckon our translations of the
classics; by which when we have naturalized all Greece and Rome, we
shall be so much richer than they by so many original productions as we
have of our own."[374] Seemingly there was an attempt to naturalize "all
Greece and Rome." Anacreon, Pindar, Apollonius Rhodius, Lucretius,
Tibullus, Statius, Juvenal, Persius, Ovid, Lucan, are names taken almost
at random from the list of seventeenth and eighteenth-century
translations. Criticism, however, was ready to concern itself with the
translation of any classic, ancient or modern. Denham's two famous
pronouncements are connected, the one with his own translation of the
Second Book of the _Aeneid_, the other with Sir Richard Fanshaw's
rendering of _Il Pastor Fido_. In the later eighteenth century
voluminous comment accompanied Hoole's _Ariosto_ and Mickle's _Camoens_.

At present, however, we are concerned not with the number and variety of
these translations, but with their homogeneity. As translators showed
themselves less inclined to wander over the whole field of literature,
the theory of translation assumed much more manageable proportions. A
further limitation of the area of discussion was made by Denham, who
expressly excluded from his consideration "them who deal in matters of
fact or matters of faith,"[375] thus disposing of the theological
treatises which had formerly divided attention with the classics.

The aims of the translator were also clarified by definition of his
audience. John Vicars, publishing in 1632 _The XII. Aeneids of Virgil
translated into English decasyllables_, adduces as one of his motives
"the common good and public utility which I hoped might accrue to young
students and grammatical tyros,"[376] but later writers seldom repeat
this appeal to the learner. The next year John Brinsley issued _Virgil's
Eclogues, with his book De Apibus, translated grammatically, and also
according to the propriety of our English tongue so far as Grammar and
the verse will permit_. A significant comment in the "Directions" runs:
"As for the fear of making truants by these translations, a conceit
which arose merely upon the abuse of other translations, never intended
for this end, I hope that happy experien