A LETTER

To her Serene Highness

The Dutchefs of MAINE.

MADAM,

OU faw the conclufion of that admir

YOU

able century, to whofe glory you contributed fo much, by your taste and your example; that age which is the model of ours in many respects, and in others a reproach, as it will be to all future ages. It was in those celebrated days, that the Condés, your ancestors, covered with victorious laurels, cultivated and encouraged the arts; that a Boffuet immortalized beroes and instructed kings; that a Fenelon, the second man in eloquence *, but the first in the art of rendering virtue amiable, taught with fuch charms and grace, the beauty of juftice and humanity; that

* Boffuet's funeral orations made him looked upon as the most eloquent of all the french writers.

the

the Racines and Boileaus prefided in the belles lettres, Lulli in mufic, and Le Brun in painting. All these arts were well received, particularly in your palace, where I shall always remember, that in my younger days, I fometimes had the happiness of hearing the celebrated monfieur de Malezieu. He was a man in whom profound erudition had not ftifled the most lively genius, and who fucceeded fo very happily in the education of the duke of Burgundy, as well as in that of your grace and in the duke of Maine's, because he was fo very much affifted by nature. Sometimes he would take a Sophocles, or an Euripides before your ferene highness, and translate at once one of their tragedies into french. The admiration and enthusiasm thefe great authors infpired him with, furnished him expreffions which came as near to the strong and harmonious energy of the greeks, as it was poffible in a language hardly recovered from barbarifm; and which, polifhed as it is by fo many writers of genius, is yet deficient in copioufnefs, preciM 2 fion,

fion, and force. It is well known, that it is impoffible to transmit into any modern language the intire value of the grecian expreffions; they defcribe in one word what requires feveral in any other tongue. A fingle term is fufficient to exprefs in greek, a mountain covered with trees loaded with leaves; another, a god who fhoots his darts at a great diftance; and a third, the fummits of rocks often ftruck by thunder-bolts. Not only, one word was enough to convey a series of ideas that filled the mind; but each term had its peculiar harmony, and charmed the ear at the fame time that it displayed sublime descriptions to the imagination. And this is the reason, why moft tranflations from greek poets, are flimfy, dry, and uninteterefting. It is like an attempt to imitate porphyrian marble with brick or pebbles. And yet, monfieur de Malezieu, by efforts that a fudden enthusiasm always drew from him, and by the eloquence of action, seemed to make up, in fome measure, for the poorness of our language; and to breathe, in his declamation, the very spirit

of

of the great writers of Athens. Give me leave, madam, to mention here his thoughts relative to that ingenious, delicate, and inventive nation, which taught every thing to its conquerors, the romans; and long after its deftruction, and that of the roman empire, ftill ferved to draw modern Europe from the grofs ignorance in which it had been plunged for fo many centuries.

He was better acquainted with Athens, than feveral travellers are now-a-days with Rome, after having spent fome time in that city. The prodigious number of ftatues, by the greatest mafters; thofe columns which adorned the public market-places; these monuments of genius and of grandeur; that immenfe and fumptuous theatre, fituated between the town and the citadel, where the works of Sophocles and of Euripedes were acted before fuch men as Pericles and Socrates, and where young fellows were not allowed to affift in a confufed tumultuous manner; in a word, every thing the Athenians did in favour of the fine arts, was present to his mind. He was far from M 3 agreeing

agreeing with fome people, whofe ridicu lous aufterity and falfe politics incline them to condemn the Athenians for the great attention they paid to, and the vast expences they were at in, their public diverfions. Those people do not confider, it feems, that this very magnificence contributed to the enriching of Athens, by attracting conftantly fuch numbers of foreigners, who came to admire its fplendor, and to learn precepts of virtue and of eloquence.

You prevailed, madam, on this almoft univerfal genius, to tranflate into french the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, which he performed with great fidelity, elegance, and force. It was acted in an entertainment, which he had the honour to give your ferene highness, and which was worthy of the perfon that received it, and of him who gave it. You were pleased to reprefent the part of Iphigenia. I was prefent at this fpectacle; I was not then accustomed to our french theatre; it never came into my head, that gallantry could find a place in that tragic fubject; I entirely