Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE, Kt.

Who (tho' otherwise a severe cenfurer of our author) yet ftyleth this a "laudable tranflation." That ready writer

Mr OLD MIXON,

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 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 rais'd and flung with "ease a weighty stone, that two common men could "not lift from the ground; just so, one fingle perfon "has performed in this tranflation, what I once de "fpaired to have feen done by the force of feveral maf"terly 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 into his head "to defcend into Homer (let the world wonder, as

w In his Effays, vol 1. printed for E. Curl.

x Cenfor, vol. ii. n. 33.

"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 ref66 pects 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 fupervised "himfelf." Whether Mr Addifon 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 myfelf as a British freeholder, I "6 am in a particular manner pleased with the labours "of thofe who have improved our language with the "tranflations of old Greek and Latin authors.-We "have already most of their Hiftorians in our own

tongue, and what is inore for the honour of our lan"( guage, it has been taught to exprefs with elegance "the greatest of their poets in each nation. The illi"terate 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 publifhed 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 himself that he did it before Y. Contrariwife, 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 Otober 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. 1728. "publish such 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 "credit of an exorbitant subscription." 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 of Journalist of June 8. "The bookfeller propofed the book by fubfcription, "and raised some thousands of pounds for the fame: "I believe the gentleman did not share in the profits "of this extravagant fubfcription.

y Vid, pref. to Mr Tickel's tranflation of the fift book of the Iliad, quarto.

"After the Iliad, he undertook (faith

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8. 1728)

"the fequel of that work, the Odyffey; and having fecured the fuccefs by a numerous subscription, he "employed fome underlings to perform what, accord"ing to his propofals, fhould come from his own "hands." To which heavy charge we can in truth oppose 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 fubfcription "for Shakespear belongs wholly to Mr Tonfon: And "that the benefit of this Proposal is not folely for iny ❝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 advise Mr Pope to try the experiment again of 66 getting a great part of a book done by assistants, "left those 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 subscription was begun without declaration of fuch affistance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as their term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Vifccunt HARCOURT, were he living, would

teftify, and the right honourable the Lord BATHURST, now living, doth testify the fame is a falfhood.

Sorry I am, that perfons profeffing to be learned, or of whatever rank of authors, fhould either falfely tax, or be falfely taxed. Yet let us, who are only reporters, be impartial in our citations, and pro-ceed.

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8. 1728.

"Mr Addison raised 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 those great men to this rifing bard, "who frequently levied by that means unusual con"tributions on the public." Which surely cannot be, if, as the author of The Dunciad diffected reporteth; Mr Wycherley had before" introduced him into a fa"miliar acquaintance with the greatest Peers and "brightest Wits then living."

"No fooner (faith the fame Journalist) was his bo"dy lifeless, but this author, reviving his resentment, li"belled the memory of his departed friend; and "what was still more heinous, made the scandal pub<lic." Grievous the accufation! unknown the accufer, the perfon accufed no witness in his own cause; the perfon, in whofe regard accused, dead! but if there be living any one nobleman whofe friendship, yea any ene gentleman whofe fubfcription Mr Addifon procured to our author; let him stand forth, that truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis