ng letter from the author:--

TRANSLATION OF PART OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE AENEID.[81]

_To the editor off the Philological Museum_.

Your letter reminding me of an expectation I some time since held out to
you, of allowing some specimens of my translation from the _Aeneid_ to
be printed in the _Philological Museum_, was not very acceptable; for I
had abandoned the thought of ever sending into the world any part of
that experiment--for it was nothing more--an experiment begun for
amusement, and, I now think, a less fortunate one than when I first
named it to you. Having been displeased, in modern translations, with
the additions of incongruous matter, I began to translate with a resolve
to keep clear of that fault, by adding nothing; but I became convinced
that a spirited translation can scarcely be accomplished in the English
language without admitting a principle of compensation. On this point,
however, I do not wish to insist; and merely send the following passage,
taken at random, from a wish to comply with your request.

W.W.[82]

[80] Vol. i. p. 382.

[81] _Philological Museum_, edit. Camb. 1832, vol. i. p. 382.

[82] _Memoirs_, ii. 68-9.

49. _On the same: Letters to Earl Lonsdale_.

MY LORD,

Many thanks for your obliging letter. I shall be much gratified if you
happen to like my translation, and thankful for any remarks with which
you may honour me. I have made so much progress with the second book,
that I defer sending the former till that is finished. It takes in many
places a high tone of passion, which I would gladly succeed in
rendering. When I read Virgil in the original I am moved; but not so
much so by the translation; and I cannot but think this owing to a
defect in the diction, which I have endeavoured to supply, with what
success you will easily be enabled to judge.

Ever, my Lord,
Most faithfully your obliged friend and servant,
WM. WORDSWORTH.[83]

Feb. 5 [1829].

MY LORD,

I am truly obliged by your friendly and frank communication. May I beg
that you would add to the favour, by marking with a pencil some of the
passages that are faulty, in your view of the case? We seem pretty much
of opinion upon the subject of rhyme. Pentameters, where the sense has a
close of some sort at every two lines, may be rendered in regularly
closed couplets; but he