Mr. OLDMIXON,

in his forementioned Effay, frequently commends the fame. And the painful

Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD

thus extols it, "The spirit 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 raised and flung "with ease a weighty ftone, 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 "mafterly hands." Indeed the fame gentleman appears to have changed his sentiment 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 translation of the Illiad was not in all re"spects conformable to the fine tafte of his friend Mr. "Addison; infomuch that he employed a younger Muse,

× Cenfor, vol. ii. n. 33.

"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 these words : Mr. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, N3. 40.

66

"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 "tranflations 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 illi"terate among our own countrymen may learn to judge "from Dryden's Virgil of the most perfect Epic per"formance. 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 66 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) employed by Mr. Addison to tranflate it after him, fince he faith himself that he did it before y. Contrariwife, that Mr. Addison 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

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

November

November 2, 1713, where he declares it is his opinion that no other perfon 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 "forget to discharge even the dull duty of an editor. "In this project let him lend the bookseller his name "(for a competent sum of money) to promote the cre"dit of an exorbitant fubfcription." Gentle reader, be pleafed to caft thine eye on the Propofal 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 some thousand 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 fequel of that work, the Odyssey; and having "fecured the fuccefs by a numerous fubfcription, 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 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 fubfcription "for Shakespeare belongs wholly to Mr. Tonfon: And

" that

"that the benefit of this Propofal is not folely for my ❝own ufe, but for that of two of my friends, who have "affifted me in this work." But thefe very gentlemen are extolled above our poet himself in another of Mift'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 "those extraneous parts fhould unhappily ascend to "the fublime, and retard the declenfion of the whole." | Behold! thefe Underlings are become good writers!

If any fay, that before the faid Propofals were printed, the fubfcription was begun without declaration of fuch affistance; verily those who fet it on foot, or (as the term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Viscount HARCOURT, were he living, would i teftify, and the right honourable the Lord BATHURST, now living, doth testify, the same is a falshood.

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 raised this author from obfcurity, obtained 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, "who frequently levied by that means unufual constributions on the Public." Which furely cannot be, if, as the author of the Dunciad diffected report

eth,

eth, Mr. Wycherley had before "introduced him in"to a familiar acquaintance with the greatest Peers and brighteft Wits then living."

"No fooner (faith the fame Journalist) was his body lifelefs, but this author, reviving his resentment, "libelled the memory of his departed friend; and "what was ftill more heinous, made the scandal pub

lic." Grievous the accufation! unknown the accufer! the perfon accused, no witness in his own cause ; the perfon, in whofe regard accufed, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whofe friendship, yea any one gentleman whofe subscription 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, several years before Mr. Addison's decease, did fee and approve of the faid verses, in no wise 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 authorized to declare, will fufficiently evince 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, Plagiarifm, from the inventive and quaint conceited

JAMES-MOORE SMITH, Gent.

"Upon