John Hoole

John Hoole (2 December 1727 – 2 August 1803) was an English translator.

Quotes

 * My endeavour has been to render the sense of my author as nearly as possible, which could never be done merely by translating his words.
 * Preface to Jerusalem Delivered, an Heroic Poem; translated from the Italian of Torquato Tasso (1764), p. xix

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)
Which on its native stem unsullied grows; Where fencing walls the garden-space surround, Nor swains, nor browsing cattle tread the ground. But if some hand the tender stalk invades, Lost is its beauty, and its colour fades: No more the care of heaven, or garden's boast, And all its praise with youths and maidens lost.
 * The spotless maid is like the blooming rose
 * Book I, line 300

And things invisible are seen by Love.
 * Love what we see can from our sight remove,
 * Book I, line 396

Two tender bosoms with a mutual fire? Say, whence, perfidious, dost thou pleasure find To sow dissension in the human mind?
 * Ah! why so rare does cruel Love inspire
 * Book II, line 1

What good on earth, whose virtuous praise is lost?
 * What has that wretched damsel left to boast,
 * Book VIII, line 285

Of Phoebus, or the silver queen of night, Along the spacious rooms with splendour plays, Now high, now low, and shifts a thousand ways.
 * So from a water clear, the trembling light
 * Book VIII, line 490

Forgets that Heaven with all-discerning eyes Surveys the secret heart; and when desire Has, in possession, quenched its short-lived fire, The devious winds aside each promise bear, And scatter all his solemn vows in air!
 * The youth, who pants to gain the amorous prize,
 * Book X, line 24

Who gain experience from another's woe.
 * Reflect, ye gentle dames, that much they know,
 * Book X, line 32

Than while we others seek, ourselves to lose?
 * What more our folly shows,
 * Book XXIV, line 7

And most attempt to speak when least they know.
 * In blaming others, fools their folly show,
 * Book XXVIII, line 7

Of costly vest improves a beauteous face.
 * For oft the grace
 * Book XXVIII, line 82

No woman yet was ever content with one.
 * Of all the sex this certain truth is known,
 * Book XXVIII, line 370

That which yourselves would wish undone to you.
 * To others never do
 * Book XXVIII, line 591

Still prone to change with every changing wind! All our resolves are weak, but weakest prove Where sprung from sense of disappointed love.
 * Behold the state of man's unstable mind,
 * Book XXIX, line 1

And chiefly when it works another's woe.
 * Never let us utter what we never can know,
 * Book XXXII, line 753

Whom most they loath the people most obey.
 * But such their power who rule with tyrant sway,
 * Book XXXVII, line 774

Evil or good beyond the truth she swells.
 * When Fame, O monarch! good or evil tells,
 * Book XXXVIII, line 327


 * And Neptune's white herds low above the wave.
 * Book XLI, line 66

For grief imparted oft alleviates care.
 * These friendly words awhile consoled the fair;
 * Book XLII, line 202

A woman's name (he said) to height of praise, If not in action chaste.
 * Not beauty, wealth, or lineage e'er could raise
 * Book XLIII, line 628

Unhappy man must soon expect to feel A sad reverse, and in the changing round With rapid whirl as sudden touch the ground.
 * When highest placed on giddy Fortune's wheel,
 * Book XLV, line 1

Dramas and Other Poems of Metastasio (1800)

 * The toils of honour dignify repose.
 * "Achilles in Scyros", Act III, last scene


 * 'Tis often constancy to change the mind.
 * "Siroes", Act I, scene viii

The traitor still I love.
 * For while the treason I detest,
 * "Romulus and Hersilia", Act I, scene v

Quotes about Hoole

 * A noble transmuter of gold into lead. [...] He did exactly so many couplets day by day, neither more nor less; and habit had made it light to him, however heavy it might seem to the reader.
 * Walter Scott, diary entry (June 4, 1826), in John Gibson Lockhart's Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott (1837), p. 317