"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 feveral paffages that occafioned them: I cannot but "take notice that our English author has after the "fame manner exemplified several of the precepts in "the 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 mafter-piece in its kind; The Effay on Tranflated "Verfe; the Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the "Effay on Criticism."

Of WINDSOR FOREST, pofitive is the judgment of the affirmative

Mr. JOHN DENNIS,

That it is a wretched rhapfody, impudently "writ in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir John "Denham: The author of it is obfcure, is ambiguous, is affected, is temerarious, is barbarous." But the author of the Difpenfaryt,

Dr. GART H,

in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion: "Thofe who have feen these two ex"cellent poems of Cooper's Hill, and Windfor Foreft, "the one written by Sir John Denham, the other by "Mr. Pope, will fhew a great deal of candor if they approve of this."

66

Of the Epistle of ELOISA, we are told by the obfcure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That because "Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the finest taftes, our author writ his Eloife in oppofition to it;

but

s Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer,

1717.

t Printed 1728, p. 12.

forgot innocence and virtue: If you take away her "tender thoughts, and her fierce defires, all the rest "is of no value." In which, methinks, his judgment refembleth 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 Mr. PRIOR

himfelf, faying in his Alma",
O Abelard! ill-fated youth,
Thy tale will justify this truth:
But well I weet, thy cruel wrong
Adorns a nobler Poet's fong:

Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd,
With kind concern and fkill has weav'd
A filken web; and ne'er shall fade

Its colours gently has he laid

:

The mantle o'er thy fad distress,

And Venus fhall the texture blefs, &c.

Come we now to his tranflation of the ILIAD, celebrated by numerous pens, yet fhall it fuffice to mention the indefatigable

SIR RICHARD BLACK MORE, Kt. Who (tho' otherwise a severe cenfurer of our author) "laudable tranflation w. yet ftyleth this a "" That ready writer

Mr. OLD MIXON,

W

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 tranflation.-I am in doubt, whether I "should most admire the juftness to the original, or the w In his Effays, vol. 1. printed Cenfor, vol. ii, n. 33.

Alma, Cant. 2. for E. Curl,

66

"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 eafe a weighty stone, that two common men "could not lift from the ground; juft fo, one fingle "perfon has performed in this tranflation, what I once defpaired to have feen done by the force of feveral masterly 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, fo his verfion denote 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 re"fpects 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 supervised "himfelf." Whether Mr. Addifon did find it conformable to his taste, or not, beft appears from his own testimony the year following its publication, in thefe words: Mr. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, N° 40.

"When I confider myself as a British freeholder, I am in a particular manner pleased with the labours "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 86 tongue, and, what is more for the honour of our "language, it has been taught to exprefs with elegance "the greatest of their poets in each nation. The illiterate among our own countrymen may learn to judge

56

"from Dryden's Virgil of the most perfect Epic per"formance. And those parts of Homer which have "been published already by Mr. Pope, give us reason 66 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, since he faith himself that he did it before. Contrariwife, that Mr. Addifon engaged our author in this work appeareth by declaration thereof in the preface to the Iliad, printed some 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 Shakespear on the stage: "Let him (quoth one, whom I take to be

Mr. THEOBALD, Mift's Journal, June 8, 172°.) "publish such an author as he has least studied, and "forget to discharge even the dull duty of an editor. "In this project let him lend the bookseller his name "(for a competent fum of money) to promote the cre"dit of an exorbitant subscription." Gentle reader, be pleased to caft thine eye on the Proposal 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 subscription."

"After the Iliad, he undertook (faith

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.) "the sequel of that work, the Odyssey; and having

y Vid. pref. to Mr. Tickel's translation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to.

"fecured the fuccefs by a numerous fubfcription, he "employed fome underlings to perform what, accord"ing to his proposals, should 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 by J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.)

"I take this occafion to declare that the subscription "for Shakespear belongs wholly to Mr. Tonfon: And "that the benefit of this Propofal is not folely for my

own use, but for that of two of my friends, who have "affifted me in this work." But these very gentlemen are extolled above our poet himself in another of Mist's Journals, March 30, 1728, faying, "That he would not

advife Mr. Pope to try the experiment again of get"ting a great part of a book done by affiftants, left "thofe extraneous parts fhould unhappily 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 Proposals were printed, the fubfcription was begun without declaration of fuch affiftance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as the term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Viscount HARCOURT, were he living, would testify, and the right honourable the Lord BATHURST, now living, doth teftify, the fame is a falfehood.

Sorry I am, that perfons profeffing to be learned, or of whatever rank of authors, should either falsely 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, ob"tained him the acquaintance and friendship of the "whole body of our nobility, and transferred his power"ful interefts with thofe great men to this rifing bard,