"poetry, not to mention the French critics, I fhould "be very glad to have the benefit of the discovery P." He is followed (as in fame, so in judgment) by the modest and fimple-minded Mr. LEONARD WELSTED. Who, out of great respect to our poet, not naming him, doth yet glance at his Effay, together with the Duke' of Buckingham's, and the Criticisms of Dryden, and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth 9: "As to "the numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &c. both in "verse and profe, that have been written by the mo"derns on this ground-work, they do but hackney the "fame thoughts over again, making them still more "trite. Most of their pieces are nothing but a pert, "infipid heap of common-place. Horace has, even in "his Art of Poetry, thrown out several things which "plainly fhew, he thought an Art of Poetry was of "no use, even while he was writing one.” To all which great authorities, we can only oppose that of Mr. ADDISON. " The Art of Criticism (faith he) which was pub-"lished fome months fince, is a mafter-piece in its "kind. The obfervations follow one another like' " thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that metho"dical regularity which would have been requifite in P. Effay on Criticifm in profe, octavo, 1728, by the author of the Critical Hiftory of England. 9 Preface to his Poems, p. 18, 53. I Spectator, No 253. C4 " a profe a profe writer. They are fome of them uncommon "but fuch as the reader muft affent to, when he fees "them explained with that eafe and perfpicuity in "which they are delivered. As for those which are "the most known and the most received, they are placed "in fo beautiful a light, and illustrated with fuch apt "allufions, that they have in them all the graces of "novelty; and make the reader, who was before ac"quainted with them, ftill more convinced of their "truth and folidity. And here give me leave to men❝tion what Monfieur Boileau has fo well enlarged upon "in the preface to his works: That wit and fine wri"ting doth not confift fo much in advancing things "that are new, as in giving things that are known an "agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us, who live in "the latter ages of the world, to make obfervations ❝in criticism, morality, or any art or fcience, which "have not been touched upon by others; we have "little else left us, but to represent the common sense "of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more "uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's "Art of Poetry, he will find but few precepts in it "which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which "were not commonly known by all the poets of the "Auguftan age. His way of expreffing, and applying "them, not his invention of them, is what we are "chiefly to admire. “Longinus, in his Reflections, has given us the fame "kind of fublime, which he observes in the several 'paffages that occafioned them: I cannot but take 66 "notice "notice that our English author has after the fame "manner exemplified several of the precepts in the 66 very precepts themselves." He then produces fome inftances of a particular beauty in the numbers, and concludes with faying, that "there are three poems in "our tongue of the fame nature, and each a master66 piece in its kind! The Effay on Translated Verse; "the Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the Effay on "Criticifm." Of WINDSOR FOREST, pofitive is the judgment of the affirmative Mr. JOHN DENNIS. ❝s That it is a wretched rhapsody, impudently writ "in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir John Den“ham: The author of it is obfcure, is ambiguous, is "affected, is temerarious, is barbarous." But the author of the Difpenfaryt, Dr. GARTH, in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion; Those who have feen these two excel"lent poems of Cooper's Hill, and Windfor Forest, "the one written by Sir John Denham, the other by "Mr. Pope, will fhew a great deal of candor if they approve of this." Of the Epiftle of ELOISA, we are told by the obfcure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That because "Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the finest tastes, s Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717. t Printed 1728, p. 12.. our author writ his Eloife in oppofition to it; but for-` got innocence and virtue: If you take away her ❝tender thoughts, and her fierce defires, all the reft is of no value." In which, methinks, his judgment" resembleth that of a French taylor on a villa and gardens 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 himself, faying in his Alma". O Abelard! ill fated youth, Thy tale will justify this truth: Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd, And Venus fhall the texture blefs, &c. Come we now to his tranflation of the ILIAD, cele brated by numerous pens, yet shall it fuffice to mention the indefatigable Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE, Kt. Who (though otherwise a severe censurer of our author)> yet styleth this a "laudable translation w." That ready writer u Alma, Cant. 2. w In his Effays, vol. 1. printed for E. Curll. Mr. Mr. OLDMIXON, in his forementioned Effay, frequently commends the fame. And the painful Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD thus extols it, "The fpirit of Homer breathes all "through this translation.—I am in doubt, whether I "fhould most admire the juftness to the original, or the "force and beauty of the language, or the founding "variety of the numbers: But when I find all these "meet, it puts me in mind of what the poet fays of "one of his heroes, That he alone raised and flung "with ease a weighty ftone, that two common men "could not lift from the ground; juft fo, one fingle "person has performed in this tranflation, what I once "despaired to have seen done by the force of several "mafterly hands." Indeed the fame gentleman appears to have changed his fentiment in his Effay on the Art of finking in reputation, (printed in Mift's Journal, March 30, 1728.) where he fays thus: "In order to "fink in reputation, let him take it into his head to "defcend into Homer (let the world wonder, as it will, "how the devil he got there) and pretend to do him "into English, so his version denote his neglect of the "manner how." Strange Variation! We are told in MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8. "That this tranflation of the Illiad was not in all re fpects conformable to the fine taste of his friend Mr. "Addison; infomuch that he employed a younger Mufe, * Cenfor, vol. ii. n. 33. |