"her tender thoughts, and her fierce defires, all the "reft is of no value." In which, methinks, his judgment refembleth that of a French tailor on a villa and garden by the Thames: "All this is very fine; "but take away the river, and it is good for nothing." But very contrary hereunto was the opinion of Come we now to his Tranflation of the Iliad, celebrated by numerous pens; yet it shall fuffice to mention the indefatigable SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE, KT. who (though other wife a fevere cenfurer of our Author) yet ftyleth this "A laudable Tranflation.” " That ready writer, MR. OLDMIXON, in his fore-mentioned Effay, frequently commends the fame. And the painful MR. LEWIS THEOBALD thus extols it: "The fpirit of Homer breathes all "through this Tranflation.-I am in doubt whether I "fhould most admire the juftnefs to the Original, or "the force and beauty of the Language, or the found"ing variety of the Numbers; but when I find all thefe meet, it puts me in mind of what the poet fays "of one of his heroes, that he alone raised and flung with eafe a weighty ftone that two common men "could not lift from the ground; just fo one fingle Alma, canto 2. In his Effays, vol. I. printed for E. Curl. "perfon has performed, in this Tranflation, what I "once despaired to have feen done by the force of fe"veral masterly hands." Indeed the fame gentleman appears to have changed his fentiment in his ESSAY ON the Art of finking in Reputation, (printed in MIST'S JOURNAL, March 30, 1728,) where he lays thus: "In order to fink in reputation, let him take it into "his head to defcend into Homer, (let the world won"der, as it will, how the devil he got there,) and "pretend to do him into English, to his verfion de"notes his neglect of the manner how." Strange variation! We are told in MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, "That this Tranflation of the Iliad was not in all refpects conformable to the fine taste of his friend "Mr. Addifon; infomuch that he employed a "younger Mufe in an undertaking of this kind, which he fupervifed himself." Whether Mr. Addison did find it conformable to his taste or not, beft appears from his own teftimony the year following its publication, in these words: MR. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, No. 40. "When I confider myself as a British freeholder, I "am in a particular manner pleafed with the labours "of those who have improved our language with the "translations of old Greek and Latin authors.-We "have already most of their hiftorians in our own tongue; and, what is more for the honour of our language, it hath been taught to exprefs with elegance the greatest of their poets in each nation. "The illiterate among our own countrymen may learn "to judge from Dryden's Virgil of the moft perfect "epic performance; and thofe parts of Homer which "have been published already by Mr. Pope, give us "reason to think that the Iliad will appear in English "with as little difadvantage to that immortal poem." As to the rest, there is a flight mistake; for this younger mufe was an elder: nor was the gentleman (who is a friend of our Author) employed by Mr. Addifon S 2 Addison to tranflate it after him, fince he faith himself that he did it before.* Contrariwise, that Mr. Addifon engaged our Author in this work, appeareth by declaration thereof in the Preface to the Iliad, printed fome time before his death; and by his own letters of October 26, and November 2, 1713, where he declares it is his opinion, that no other perion was equal to it. Next comes his Shakespeare on the stage: "Let "him" (quoth one, whom I take to be MR. THEOBALD, MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728) publifh fuch an author as he has leaft ftudied, and "forget to discharge even the dull duty of an editor. "In this project let him lend the bookfeller his name "(for a competent fum of money) to promote the cre dit of an exorbitant fubfcription." Gentle Reader, be pleased to caft thine eye on the Propofal below quoted, and on what follows (fome months after the former affertion) in the fame Journalist of June 8. "The bookfeller propofed the book by fubfcription, ❝and raised fome thousands of pounds for the fame: "I believe the gentleman did not share in the profits of > this extravagant fubfcription." "After the Iliad, he undertook (faith MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728) the fequel of that work, the Odyssey; and having se cured the fuccefs by a numerous fubfcription, he "employed fome underlings to perform what, according to his Propofals, fhould come from his own hands." To which heavy charge we can in truth oppofe nothing but the words of MR. POPE'S PROPOSAL for the ODYSSEY, (printed for J. WATTS, Jan. 10, 1724.) "I take this occafion to declare, that the fubfcription "for Shakespeare belongs wholly to Mr. Tonfon; and Vide Preface to Mr. Tickel's Tranflation of the First Book of the Iliad, 4to. that the benefit of this Propofal is not folely for my "own ufe, but for that of two of my friends, who "have affifted me in this work." But thefe very gentlemen are extolled above our Poet himself in another of MIST'S JOURNALS, March 30, 1728, faying, "That he would not advise Mr. Pope to try the experi"ment again of getting a great part of a book done by "affiftants, left thofe extraneous parts fhould unhap"pily afcend to the fublime, and retard the declenfion " of the whole." Behold! thefe underlings are become good writers! If any fay, that before the faid Propofals were printed, the fubfcription was begun, without declaration of fuch affiftance; verily thofe who fet it on foot, or (as the term is) fecured it, to wit, the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Harcourt, were he living, would teftify, and the Right Honourable the Lord Bathurst, row living, doth teftify, the fame is a falfehood. Sorry I am that persons profelling to be learned, or of whatever rank of authors, should either falfely tax, or be falfely taxed. Yet let us, who are only reporters, be impartial in our citations, and proceed. MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728. "Mr. Addison raifed this Author from obfcurity, obtained him the acquaintance and friendship of the whole body of our nobility, and transferred his powerful interefts with thofe great men to this rifing bard, who frequently levied, by that means, unusual contributions on the Public." Which furely cannot be, if, as the Author of the Dunciad Diffected reporteth, "Mr. Wycherley had before introduced him into "a familiar acquaintance with the greatest peers and brightest wits then living." "No fooner (faith the fame Journalist) was his "body lifeless, but this Author, reviving his refent"ment, libelled the memory of his departed friend; "and, what was ftill more heinous, made the scandal "public." Grievous the accufation! unknown the accufer the perfon accused no witnefs in his own S3 caufe! caufe! the perfon, in whofe regard accused, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whofe friendship, yea, any one gentleman whofe fubfcription, Mr. Addifon procured to our Author, let him stand forth, thaț truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis amica veritas. In verity, the whole ftory of the libel is a lie; witnefs thofe perfons of integrity who, feveral years before Mr. Addifon's deceafe, did fee and approve of the faid verfes, in no wife a libel, but a friendly rebuke, fent privately, in our Author's own hand, to Mr. Addifon himself, and never made public, till after their own Journals and Curl had printed the fame. One name alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will fufficiently evince the truth, that of the Right Honourable the Earl of Burlington. Next is he taxed with a crime, (in the opinion of fome authors, I doubt, more heinous than any in morality,) to wit, Plagiarism, from the inventive and quaint-conceited JAMES MOORE SMITH, Gent. "Upon reading the third volume of Pope's Mif"cellanies, I found five lines which I thought excel« lent; and happening to praise them, a gentleman "produced a modern comedy (the Rival Modes) pub« lished last year, where were the fame verfes to a "tittle. "These gentlemen are undoubtedly the first plagia"ries, that pretend to make a reputation by stealing "from a man's works in his own life-time, and out of "a public print." Let us join to this what is written by the author of the Rival Modes: the faid Mr. James Moore Smith, in a letter to our Author himself, who had informed him, a month before that play was acted, Jan. 27, 1726-7, "That thefe verfes, which he had before given him leave to infert in it, would be "known for his, fome copies being got abroad. He "defires, nevertheless, that fince the lines had been "read in his Comedy to several, Mr. P. would not deprive it of them," &c. Surely if we add the tetti 66 * Daily Journal, March 18, 1728. |