PREFACE.

AVING fome time ago heard, that the tranflation of HOMER's Iliad would be attempted, I refolved to confer with the gentleman who undertook it. I found him of a tall prefence, and thoughtful, countenance, with his hands folded, his eyes fixed, and his beard untrimmed. This I took to be a good omen, because he thus refembled the Conftantinopolitan Statue of HOMER which Cedrenus defcribes; and furely nothing could have been liker, had he but arrived at the character of age and blindness. As my business was to be my introduction, I told him how much I was acquainted with the fecret history of HOMER; that no one better knows his own horse, than I do the camel of Bactria, in which his foul refided at the time of the Trojan wars; that my acquaintance continued with him, as he appeared in the perfon of the Grecian poet; that I knew him in his next tranfmigration into a peacock; was pleafed with his return to manhood, under the name of Ennius at Rome; and more pleased to hear he would foon revive under another name, with all his full luftre, in England. This knowledge, added I, which fprung from the love I bear him, has made me

fond

fond of a converfation with you, in order to the fuccefs of your tranflation.

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The civil manner in which he received my proposal encouraging me to proceed, I told him, there were arts of fuccefs, as well as merits to obtain it; and that he, who now dealt in Greek, should not only fatisfy himfelf with being a good Grecian, but also contrive to haften into the repute of it. He might therefore write in the title-page, Translated from the original Greek, and felect a Motto for his purpose out of the fame language. He might obtain a copy of verses written in it to prefix to the work; and not call the titles of each book, the firft, and fecond, but Iliad Alpha, and Beta. He might retain fome names, which the world is leaft acquainted with, as his old tranflator Chapman ufes Ephaiftus inftead of Vulcan, Baratrum for hell; and if the notes were filled with Greek verfes, it would more increase the wonder of many readers. Thus I went on; when he told me, fmiling, I had fhewn him indeed a fet of arts very different from merit, for which reafon he thought, he ought not to depend upon them. A fuccefs, fays he, founded on the ignorance of others, may bring a temporary advantage, but neither a confcious fatisfaction, nor future fame to the author. Men of fenfe defpife the affectation which they easily fee through, and even they who were dazzled with it at first, are no fooner informed of its being an affectation, but they imagine it also a veil to cover imperfection.

The

The next point I ventured to speak on, was the fort of poetry he intended to use, how fome may fancy, a poet of the greatest fire would be imitated better in the freedom of blank verfe, and the defcription of war founds more pompous out of rhime. But, will the tranflation, faid he, be thus removed enough from profe, without great inconveniencies? What tranfpofition is Milton forced to, as an equivalent for want of rhime, in the poetry of a language which depends upon a natural order of words? And even this would not have' done his bufinefs had he not given the fulleft fcope to his genius, by choosing a fubject upon which there could be no hyperboles. We fee, however be be defervedly: fuccefsful, that the ridicule of his manner fucceeds better than the imitation of it; because tranfpofitions, which are unnatural to a language, are to be fairly derided if they ruin it by being frequently introduced; and becaufe hyperboles, which outrage every leffer fubject where they are feriously used, are often beautiful in ridicule. Let the French, whofe language is not copious, tranflate in profe; but ours, which exceeds it in copioufness of words, may have a more frequent likeness of founds, to make the unifon or rhime easier; a grace of mufic, that attones for the harshness our con· fonants and monofyllables occafion.

After this, I demanded what air he would appear with? whether antiquated, like Chapman's verfion or modern, like La Motte's contraction. To which he anfwered, by defiring me to obferve what a painter does who would always have his pieces in fashion. He

neither

neither chooses to draw a beauty in a ruff, or a Frenchhead; but with its neck uncovered, and in its natural ornament of hair curled up, or spread becomingly; fa may a writer choose a natural manner of expreffing himself, which will always be in fashion, without affecting to borrow an odd folemnity and unintelligible pomp from the past times, or humouring the present by falling into its affectations, and those phrases which are born to die with it.

I asked him, laftly, whether he would be frictly literal, or expatiate with further licenses? I would not be literal, replies he, or tied up to line for line in fuch a manner, wherein it is impoffible to exprefs in one language what has been delivered in another. Neither would I fo expatiate, as to alter my author's fentiments, or add others of my own. Thefe errors are to be apoided on either hand, by adhering not only to the word, but the Spirit and genius of an author; by confidering what he means, with what beautiful manner he has expreffed his meaning in his own tongue, and how he would have expressed himself, had it been Thus we ought to seek for HOMER in a verfion of HOMER: other attempts are but transformations of him: fuch as Ovid tells us, where the name is retained, and the thing altered: this will be really what you mentioned in the compliment you began with, tranfmigration of the poet from one country into an

in ours.

a

other.

Here ended the ferious part of our conference. All Į remember further was, that having asked him, what

he

he defigned with all thofe editions and comments I obferved in his room? He made anfwer, that if any one, who had a mind to find fault with his performance, would but stay till it was entirely finished, he Should have a very cheap bargain of them.

Since this difcourse, I have often refolved to try what it was to tranflate in the spirit of a writer, and at laft, chofe the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, which is afcribed to HOMER; and bears a nearer refemblance to his Iliad, than the Culex does to the Æneid of Virgil. Statius and others think it a work of youth, written as a prelude to his greater poems. Chapman thinks it the work of his age, after he found men ungrateful; to fhew he could give ftrength, lineage, and fame as he pleafed, and praise a mouse as well as a man. Thus, fays he, the poet profeffedly flung up the world, and applied himself at laft to hymns. Now, though this reafon of his may be nothing more than a fcheme formed out of the order in which HOMER'S works are printed, yet does the conjecture that this poem was written after the Iliad, appear probable, because of its frequent allufions to that poem, and particularly that there is not a frog or a mouse killed, which has not its parallel inftance there, in the death of fome warrior or other.

The poem itself is of the epic kind; the time of its action the duration of two days; the fubject, however in its nature frivolous, or ridiculous, raised, by having the most fhining words and deeds of gods and heroes accommodated to it; and while other poems often com

pare