Page:Essay on the Principles of Translation - Tytler (1791, 1st ed).djvu/94

 we think of the translator, who makes the solemn and sententious Tacitus express himself in the low cant of the streets, or in the dialect of the waiters of a tavern?

Facile Asinum et Messalam inter Antonium et Augustum bellorumn præmiis refertos: Thus translated in a version of Tacitus by Mr Dryden and several eminent hands: "Asinus and Messala, who feathered their nests well in the civil wars 'twixt Antony and Augustus." Vinolentiam et libidines usurpans: "Playing the good-fellow." Frustra Arminium præscribi: "Trumping up Arminius's title." Sed Agrippina libertam, nurum ancillam, alaque eundem in modum muliebriter fremere: "But Agrippina could not bear that a freedwoman should nose her."