nshaw, says Mickle in
the preface to his translation of Camoens, had not "the least idea of
the dignity of the epic style." The originals themselves, however,
presented obstacles to suitable rendering. Preston finds this so in the
case of Apollonius Rhodius, and offers this explanation of the matter:
"Ancient terms of art, even if they can be made intelligible, cannot be
rendered, with any degree of grace, into a modern language, where the
corresponding terms are debased into vulgarity by low and familiar use.
Many passages of this kind are to be found in Homer. They are frequent
also in Apollonius Rhodius; particularly so, from the exactness which he
affects in describing everything."[446] Warton, unusually tolerant of
Augustan taste in this respect, finds the same difficulty in the
_Eclogues_ and _Georgics_ of Virgil. "A poem whose excellence peculiarly
consists in the graces of diction," his preface runs, "is far more
difficult to be translated, than a work where sentiment, or passion, or
imagination is chiefly displayed.... Besides, the meanness of the terms
of husbandry is concealed and lost in a dead language, and they convey
no low and despicable image to the mind; but the coarse and common words
I was necessitated to use in the following translation, viz. _plough and
sow_, _wheat_, _dung_, _ashes_, _horse and cow_, etc., will, I fear,
unconquerably disgust many a delicate reader, if he doth not make proper
allowance for a modern compared with an ancient language."[447]
According to Hoole, the English language confines the translator within
narrow limits. A translation of Berni's _Orlando Innamorato_ into
English verse would be almost impossible, "the narrative descending to
such familiar images and expressions as would by no means suit the
genius of our language and poetry."[448] The task of translating
Ariosto, though not so hopeless, is still arduous on this account.
"There is a certain easy negligence in his muse that often assumes a
playful mode of expression incompatible with the nature of our present
poetry.... An English translator will have frequent reason to regret the
more rigid genius of the language, that rarely permits him in this
respect, to attempt even an imitation of his author."

The comments quoted in the preceding pages make one realize that, while
the translator was left astonishingly free as regarded his treatment of
the original, it was at his peril that he ran counter to contemporary
lite