21: "in it fomething new which is not in Dryden's prefaces dedications, and his effay on dramatic 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, fo in judgment) by the modeft and fimple minded 66 A Mr. LEONARD WELSTED, Who, out of great refpect 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 q: "As to the numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &o. both in verfe and profe, that have been written by the moderns on this "ground work, they do but hackney the fame thoughts over again, making them fill more trite. Moft of their pieces are nothing but a pert, infipid heap of common place. 1. Horace has even in his art of Foetry thrown "out feveral things which plainly fhew, he thought an "Art of Poetry was of no ule, even while he was writing one. To all which great authorities, we can only oppofe that of Mr. ADDISON. "The Art of Criticifm (faith he) which was published fome months fince, is a master-piece in its kind. The obfervations follow one another, like thofe in "Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regula'rity which would have been rèquifite in a profe writer. They are fome of them nncommon, 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 "moft received, they are placed in fo beautiful a light, and illuftrated with fuch apt illufions, that they have in "them all the graces of novelty and make the reader, 5 p Effay on Criticism in profe, Critical Hiftory of England. r Spectator, No. 253. ved old to 826 octavo, 1728. by the author of the q Preface to his Poems, p. 18. 53. ་་ "who was before acquainted with them, ftill more con"vinced of their truth and folidity. And here give me "leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo well enlarged upon in the preface to his works: That wit "and fine writing doth not confift fo much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things that are known "an agreeable turn. It is impoflible 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 elfe "left us, but to reprefent the common fenfe of mankind "in more ftrong, 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 Aristotle, 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. 66 Longinus, in his reflections, has given us the fame "kind of fublime, which he obferves in the feveral pasfages that occafioned them: I cannot but take notice "that our English author has after the fame manner exemplified feveral 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 master-piece in its kind; The Effay on Tranflated Verfe; the Effay on the Art of "Poetry; and the Effay on Criticism." แ Of WINDSOR FOREST, pofitive is the judgment of the affirmative Mr. JOHN DENNIS. "s 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 t.” i s Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remark on Pope's Homer, 1717. t Printed 1728, p. 12. ✓ But the author of the Difpenfary, Dr. GARTH. in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion: "Thofe who have feen these two excellent 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 candour if they approve of "this." Of the Epistle of ELOISA, we are told by the obscure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That because Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the finest taftes, our au"thor writ his Eloife, in oppofition to it; but forgot inno"cence and virtue: if you take away her tender thoughts, "and her fierce defires, all the rest is of no value." which, methinks, his judgment resembles 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 v, O Abelard! ill fated youth, Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd, And Venus fhall the texture bless, &c. In Come we now to his tranflation of the ILIAD, cele. brated by numerous pens, yet fhall it fuffice to mention the indefatigable v Alma, Cant. if. SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE, Kt. Who (though otherwise a severe cenfurer of our author) yet styleth this a “laudable translation w." That ready writer Mr. OLD MIXON in his forementioned Effay, frequently commends the fame. And the painful Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD thus extolls it X, "The fpirit of Homer breathes all through this tranflation.I am in doubt, whether I "fhould moft admire the juftness to the original, or the "force and beauty of the language, or the founding va"riety 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 stone, that two common men could not lift "from the ground; juft fo, one fingle perfon has per"formed 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 ver"fion 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 refpects conformable to the fine tafte of his friend Mr. "Addison; infomuch that he employed a younger muse, "in an undertaking of this kind, which he fupervised "himself." Whether Mr. Addison did find it conformable to his tafte, or not, beft appears from his own teftimony the year following its publication, in these words: w In his Effays, vol, i. printed for E. Curl. x Cenfor, vol. ii. n. 33» Mr. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, No 40.1 A "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 "most of their Hiftorians in our own 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 from Dryden's "Virgil of the most perfect Epic performance. And "thole parts of Homer which have been published al"ready by Mr. Pope, give us reafon to think that the "Iliac will appear in English with as little disadvantage 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) employ'd 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 fometime 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 perfon 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,). publifh fuch an author as he has leaft ftudied, and forgot "to discharge even the dull duty of an editor. In this “ project let him lend the bookfeller his name (for å competent fum of money) to promote the credit of an exorbitant subscription." Gentle reader, be pleafed to caft thine eye on the Propofal below quoted, and on what follows (fome months after the former affertion) in y Vid. pref. to Mr. Tickel's tranflation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to. 3 |