venuti

92 The Translator’s Invisibilityreform, asserted that “We object, from moral principles, to thetranslator’s plan” and insisted that the translation “should besedulously removed from youth and from females” (British Critic1798:672); whereas the liberal Monthly Review added a carefullyworded comment that at once admitted the possibility of anotherreading of Catullus and refused to sanction it: “though we may appearfastidious to the present translator, we confess that in our opinion ajudicious selection of his poems would have been more acceptable tothe public” (Monthly Review 1797:278). 15Nott’s translation was neglected by the periodicals, with the firstreviews appearing several years after publication and in very smallnumber. Lamb’s translation was widely reviewed as soon as it waspublished; and even though judgments were mixed, they were statedin the same bourgeois terms and tended to be much more favorablethan Nott’s. The usually contentious reviewers turned not so muchnonpartisan, as class-conscious in their embrace of Lamb’s version.The liberal Monthly Magazine, which announced itself in its firstnumber as “an enterprise on behalf of intellectual liberty against theforces of panic conservatism” (Sullivan 1983b:314–319), praisedLamb’s expurgation of Catullus’s text:the more correct moral feeling of modern times, would never permita complete version of many of those objectionable passages inwhich he abounds. This portion of his task Mr. Lamb has executedwith considerable judgment, and we need not fear that our delicacymay be wounded in perusing the pages of his translation.(Monthly Magazine 1821:34)The reactionary Anti-Jacobin Review enlisted Lamb in its struggleagainst the opponents of church, state, and nation:The extreme impropriety of many Poems written by Catullus, hasobliged Mr. Lamb to omit them, and had he turned his attentionwholly to some purer author, it would have honoured his powers ofselection. At this hour of contest between the good and evil principleamong us, when so many are professedly Atheists, and blasphemyis encouraged by subscription, and sedition supported by charities,no patriot and christian would assist vice by palliating its excesses,or render them less offensive by a decent veil. […] Mr. Lamb isentitled to both the above characters of patriot and christian.(Anti-Jacobin Review 1821:14)