"Mr. Addison; infomuch that he employed a

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younger Mufe in an undertaking of this kind, "which he supervised himself." Whether Mr. Addifon did find it conformable to his tafte, or not, best appears from his own teftimony the year following its publication, in thefe words :

Mr. ADDISON'S FREEHOLDER, N° 40.

"When I confider myself as a British freeholder, "I am in a particular manner pleafed with the la"bours of those who have improved our language "with the translations of old Greek and Latin "authors. We have already moft of their hiftorians "in our own tongue, and, what is more for the "honour of our language, it has been taught to ex

prefs 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 most perfect epic performance. And "thofe parts of Homer which have been published "already by Mr. Pope, give us reafon to think that "the Iliad will appear in English with as little difadvantage to that immortal poem."

As to the reft 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. Addison to tranflate it after him, fince he faith himfelf that he did it before y. Contrariwife, that Mr. Addison engaged our Author in this work appeareth

y Vid. pref. to Mr. Tickell's tranflation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to.

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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 person was equal to it.

Next comes his Shakespeare on the stage: "Let him (quoth one, whom I take to be

Mr. THEOBALD, Mift's Journal, June 8, 1728.) "publish such an author as he has least studied, and

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forget to discharge even the dull duty of an edi"tor. In this project let him lend the bookfeller his "name (for a competent fum of money) to pro"mote the credit 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 Journalift of June 8, "The bookfeller propofed the "book by fubfcription, and raised fome thoufand "of pounds for the fame: I believe the gentleman "did not fhare 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 fecured the fuccefs by a numerous fubscription, he "employed fome underlings to perform what, açcording to his proposals, fhould come from his "own hands." To which heavy charge we can in truth oppofe nothing but the words of

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Mr. POPE'S PROPOSAL for the ODYSSEY (print

ed by J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.),

"I take this occafion to declare that the subscrip"tion for Shakespeare belongs wholly to Mr. Ton"fon and that the benefit of this Propofal is not

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:

folely for my own use, but for that of two of my "friends, who have assisted me in this work." But these very gentlemen are extolled above our Poet himself in another of Mift's Journals, March 30, 1728, faying, "That he would not advise Mr. "Pope to try the experiment again of getting a great part of a book done by affiftants, left those extra

neous parts fhould unhappily afcend to the fub"lime, and retard the declenfion of the whole." Behold! thefe underlings are become good writers!

If any fay, that before the faid Proposals were printed, the fubfcription was begun without declaration of fuch affiftance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as the term is) secured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Viscount HARCOURT, were he living, would teftify, and the right honourable the Lord BATHURST, now living, doth testify, the the fame is a falfehood.

Sorry I am, that perfons profeffing 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 raised this author from obfcurity, "obtained him the acquaintance and friendship of

"the whole body of our nobility, and transferred "his powerful interests with those 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 re"fentment, 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 accufed, no witness in his own caufe; the person, in whose regard accused, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whose friendship, yea any one gentleman whofe fubfcription Mr. Addifon procured to our Author, let him ftand forth, that truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis amica veritas. In verity, the whole ftory of the libel is a lie; witness those persons of integrity, who, feveral years before Mr. Addison's deceafe, did fee and approve of the said verfes, in no wife a libel, but a friendly rebuke fent privately in our Author's own hand to Mr. Addison himself, and never made public, till after their own Journals, and Curll had printed the fame. One name alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will fufficiently evince

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this 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.

"z Upon reading the third volume of Pope's "Miscellanies, I found five lines which I thought “excellent; and happening to praise them, a gen"tleman produced a modern comedy (the Rival "Modes) published last year, where were the fame " verses to a tittle.

"These gentlemen are undoubtedly the firft pla"giaries, that pretend to make a reputation by ftealing 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 "These verses, which he had before given him "leave to infert in it, would be known for his, fome copies being got abroad. He defires, ne"vertheless, that fince the lines had been read in "his comedy to feveral, Mr. P. would not deprive "it of them," &c. Surely, if we add the testimonies of the Lord BOLINGBROKE, of the Lady

.

z Daily Journal, March 18, 1728.

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