And the critic, who
coldly condemns it on the severe principles of art, will find a
charm in its very simplicity, that will make him recur again and
again to its pages, while more correct and classical compositions
are laid aside and forgotten.
I cannot dismiss this notice of Garcilasso, though already long
protracted, without some allusion to the English translation of
his Commentaries. It appeared in James the Second's reign, and
is the work of Sir Paul Rycaut, Knight. It was printed at
London, in 1688, in folio, with considerable pretension in its
outward dress, well garnished with wood-cuts, and a frontispiece
displaying the gaunt and rather sardonic features, not of the
author, but his translator. The version keeps pace with the
march of the original, corresponding precisely in books and
chapters, and seldom, though sometimes, using the freedom, so
common in these ancient versions, of abridgment and omission.
Where it does depart from the original, it is rather from
ignorance than intention. Indeed, as far as the plea of
ignorance will avail him, the worthy knight may urge it stoutly
in his defence. No one who reads the book will doubt his limited
acquaintance with his own tongue, and no one who compares it with
the original will deny his ignorance of the Castilian. It
contains as many blunders as paragraphs, and most of them such as
might shame a schoolboy. Yet such are the rude charms of the
original, that this ruder version of it has found considerable
favor with readers; and Sir Paul Rycaut's translation, old as it
is, may still be met with in many a private, as well as public
library.
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