DAVEIDOS: OR A Specimen of some of David's Psalms IN English METRE.
With Remarks upon the Late TRANSLATORS, By Mr. JOHN PHILLIPS
LONDON; Printed for William Keblewhite, at the Swan in St.Paul's Church-Yard, 1798.
THE PREFACE
IT was the Complaint of a Person no less eminent in the Church of England, then Dr. Don, Dean of St. Paul's, that the Psalms of King David, I mean as they were translated into English Metre in his time, and by that means being adapted to the Vulgar Tunes, were made a considerable Part of the Publick Worship, should be admitted into the Church in such an undecent and unmannerly Dress. That Great Person, who himself expressing his own Thoughts and Notions with so much Rapture and Sublimity, must certainly be deem'd a competent Judge, in his Poem upon the Translation of the Psalms by Sir Philip Sidney and his Sister the Countess of Pembrook, cannot forbear [Page] condoling the Misfortune of these Celestial Hymns, so rudely handl'd by other Pens. Says he,
Since the Death of Dr. Donne, several Persons have attempted to redress this Grievance with more Zeal then good Success; for Zeal and Poetry are two different Inspirations that do not always accompany one another. Men may be good Men, eloquent Divines, most excellent Preachers, yet but very bad Poets. Sandys of later times, and Buchanan [Page] before him, both adventur'd to imp their Muses Wings with Cherubims Feathers, and suffer 'em to expatiate in the Tempes of Fancy and Exuberancy; yet Cowley in his Preface to his Pindaric Odes, ranges both those Great Men among those that have not hit the Mark. For, says He, All the Translators of the Psalms of David, even Mr. Sands Himself (for in despite of Popular Error, I will be bold not to Except him) are so far from doing Honour, or at least Justice to that Divine Poet, that, methinks, they revile him worse then Shimei. And Buchanan himself, who much the best of them all, and indeed a great Person, comes, in my Opinon, no less short of David, then his Country does of Judea. And the Reason of this he gives to be, because that none of these People have sought to supply the lost Excellencies of another Language, with new ones in their own. To this I cannot forbear adding, That all the Translations which I have hitherto seen since his time, are equally as guilty of their Predecessors [Page] Faults, and are so far from supplying us with the Excellencies of our Language, that where they are forc'd, for their conveniency, to gloss upon the Sense of the Text, they rather deform the Granduer of the Sacred Authors's Style with flat and insipid Notions of their own, and Expressions no less improper, mean, and vulgar. They fetch in Rhimes by the Head and Shoulders like so many obstinate Delinquents, and bind 'em with the Chains of Impropriety ànd Incongruity to Words and Sentences altogether forc'd and foreign from the true Signification: and all this, to patch up a Clink i'the Close. And while they pretend to be Reformers of others, sin against the very Idiom of the Language which they pretend to be Masters of. Unrivall'd, of which the Translators N. B. and N. T. seem to be proud off, is an Epithite by no means proper for God: And Incarnate, ten times worse for the Messiah. For Incarnate is a word more frequently taken in an ill then a good Sense. We say of Women that are continually Brawling and Scolding, that they [Page] are Devils Incarnate. And therefore Words that admit of a twofold and dubious Signification, are to be carefully avoided in a Sacred Translation. Their Cadences, which ought to fall with the greatest ease and softness imaginable, are harsh and violent, rather like the Shogs and Rubs of Carts and Coaches against the Posts i'the Street, then natural Closes. Of this number are The feather'd Throng, spoken of Birds. His rains from Heav'n parch'd Hills recruite; and Storms, the swift wing'd Steeds with which he flies. Really, not good Sense. And make the angry Sea comply— Let all the World, O Lord, combine, to praise, &c. Then shall the Teeming Ground a large Increase disclose— These Expressions will serve in a Ballad, but there is nothing of Flight, nothing of Curiosity in 'em. Of the same nature are, A thousand dewy Sweats distill'd— Thy word unseal'd the Springs — You who the Lord adore, your Vows before him lay— Thy ratling Thunders roard around— As Floods [Page] through ancient Forrests roar, or Mountain Shrubs surprize— God for their Diet finds a way— When great they seem, like some large Cloak, let shame be round 'em rould— But enough of these Blunders in General, little superiour to Hopkins and Sternhold: for they do so Scaturire, that it would almost require a Transcription of the whole to repeat 'em all. In short, the Poetry, more especially N. B. and N. T's is very ordinary, and insipid, not to be call'd Poetry; the Contexture nothing better then Linsey Woolsey, and the Stuffing meer Thrums.
To come to particulars, I would fain know how N. B. and N. T. could pick out of these words, Beterem javinou Sirothekem Atad, in the 58th. Psalm, Ante spinae Vestrae crescant in Rhamnum, this piece of ill sounding and spropositous Sense, E're Thorns can make the Fleshpots Boyl; 'twas certainly before Dinner; For I cannot see the least ground in the words for such a Pye Corner Expression. In the 95th. Psalm the Text runs thus, Ki El Gadol Jehova, [Page] ou melek Gadol gnal Col Elohim. Quia Deus Magnus Jehova, & rex Magnus super omnes Deus. These words N. B. and N. T. thus Translate.
Here are no less then two Blunders to supply the conciseness of the Text; unrivall'd Glory, hardly warrantable; whom by his Title God we call, of which there is nothing at all in the Text; only it was a hard Shift which might have been supply'd with much better words. These occurr'd to the first Glances of my Eye, and I was unwilling to examin any farther for fear of meeting many more. I shall say nothing farther at present of their Translation, but that it is too full of He'ls and He's, deformities not to be endur'd in true and elegant Poetry.
[Page]As for the Psalms that have lately appear'd under the Name of Mr. Milbourn, they may be truly said to be his: For the whole is an exuberant Paraphrase, with little of David in it; insomuch that they may be rightly call'd David's Psalms in Disguise. For why should this Gentleman spend such an exuberancy of words upon only Ahsre ha Isch, in the first Psalm, Beatus Vir, A thousand Blessings crown his Head— Or how it could come into his Mind to fancy the dreadful Sound of the last Trumpet in the word Mischphat, which signifies in that place no more then an Assembly, which is plain from its being coupled with the word Gnadath, which signifies Caetus. Or lastly, how could he extract such an effluvium from the first words of the second Psalm, Lummat Ragschou Goiim, ou leummim yehegou Rik.
What is this to the Purpose? nothing I'm sure to the Text: And besides the Elegancy of the double expostulation is lost. Such Paraphrases as these rather mislead then Instruct. And therefore Benedicat Deus operi & Authori. Paraphrases are nothing to our Business.
There is in the last place a small Specimen printed for the Company of Stationers for the reforming of old Sternhold and Hopkins, but it begins so unfortunately, that I dàre be bold to assert, that the Honour of reforming those Authors is not reserv'd for that Gentleman. For the first Psalm instead of being reform'd is render'd ten times worse then it was before. There is such a Hysteron Proteron in the two first Lines, that stumsently [...] [Page] bles you at the very Threshold, and presently calls for a Candle to light you to the Sence.
The rest is much of the same Form and Stile; from whence we may safely conclude, that the Expressions of Sternhold and Hopkins are too beggarly already to want any more Patching.
It may be objected in defence of these Gentlemen, that they condescend to a mean and vulgar way of expressing themselves, for the better understanding of the Common People, and in complyance with their Capacities. But whose fault is that, the People are no better taught? At least I am sure it would be much more for the Honour of the Publick Worship that they should be better instructed, then to sing the Praises of God in undecent and incongruous Language. 'Tis the General Opinion, that the Psalms [Page] of David, in their Original Beauty were the most exalted Productions of a divine and soaring Genius, and withal, the Perfection of the Hebrew Idiome, and that they were inrich'd with a Copious and Eloquent Conciseness which our Modern Languages cannot reach, without the help of Paraphrase and Circumlocutions. However those two Assistances are very warily to be made use of; by no means too profusely; yet so as to supply the vacuums of our own Language with those Beauties of the English Idiom, which come the nearest to the Grandeur of Style and Meaning of the Author: And to this a due Consideration of the Subject of the Psalm, and the Occasion of the Author's writing it, and the Connexion and Coherence of the Sentences will very much contribute.
'Tis true that there are some of these Psalms that are written with a plainness befitting the Subjects of Penitence, Prayer and Confession.
[Page]On the other side, there are others so truly Poetical, and full of sublime Rapture, that if they be not follow'd with a Spirit and a Fancy in some measure adequate, they must of necessity loose their Luster.
Seeing therefore that Specimens are come into the Mode, and that so many have so good an Opinion of themselves as to believe their Offerings worthy of the Publick View, I thought it now my time to be not Semper Auditor tantum, especially having by me so many as I have of David's Psalms, some long since Translated, and others of [...] later Date. I know I shall not wait for Censure, having adventur'd to pass my Judgment so freely upon others. But for that, my Years and Education may in some measure bear me out.
The Method which I took, that I might avoid the Rock which others had dash'd against, was in the first place to throw off the Shackles of Rhime, a weight [Page] that lyes a little too heavy upon Fancy and Invention, but which I would never be a Slave to. In the next place, I had the Assistance of the Original it self, the Latin, and Greek Versions, together with the Chaldee Paraphrase, all which I examin'd with the best Judgment I had. Nor was I without the two English Translations, not refusing to look upon Sternhold and Hopkins, sometimes, whether by accident or no, not far distant sometimes from the Point.
As for my Talent in Poetry, I leave that with the rest for others to judge of: Only this I must add, that whoever he be, who has not that Talent in some measure above N. B. and N. T. whatever his other Properties or Perfections are, shall never obtain much Credit by Translating David's Psalms.
I will not insist upon the Ʋse and Benefit of the Singing Psalms in Churches, which would savour too much of inclining to Self-interest. 'Tis sufficiedt for me, that the Church of England has approv'd [Page] the Custome, and given 'em admission into their Congregations. And truly, since the Voices of the People are so much reform'd to what they have been, by the many Organs set up in several Churches in this Ciry, 'tis but Reason that the Words they Sing should be reform'd as well. By whomsoever it be done, I shall not envy that Honour to the Person who does it as it should be. Nevertheless as I have shewd my self ready to serve the Publick, I should account it among the greatest Felicities of my Life if such a Work as this should Crown the end of my Days.