"notice that our English author has after the same " manner exemplified several of the precepts in the very precepts themselves." He then produces some instances of a particular beauty in the numbers, and concludes with saying, that "there are three poems in " our tongue of the fame nature, and each a master" piece in its kind! The Essay on Translated Verse; "the Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the Essay on "Criticifm." Of WINDSOR FOREST, positive is the judgment of the affirmative Mr. JOHN DENNIS. "s That it is a wretched rhapsody, impudently writ " in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir John Den"ham: The author of it is obfcure, is ambiguous, is "affected, is temerarious, is barbarous." But the author of the Dispensaryt, Dr. GARTH, in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion: "Those who have seen these two excel"lent poems of Cooper's Hill, and Windfor Forest, "the one written by Sir John Derham, the other by "Mr. Pope, will shew a great deal of candor 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 tastes, $ Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717. Printed 1728, p. 12. " our " our author writ his Eloife in oppofition to it; but for"got 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 resembleth 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, saying in his Alma". O Abelard! ill fated youth, Come we now to his tranflation of the ILIAD, celebrated by numerous pens, yet shall it fuffice to mention the indefatigable Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE, Kt. Who (though otherwise a fevere cenfurer of our author) yet styleth this a "laudable translation w." That ready writer u Alma, Cant. 2. w In his Essays, vol. 1. printed for E. Curll. Mr. Mr. OLDMIXΟΝ, in his forementioned Essay, 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 justness 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 says 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; just so, one fingle " person has performed in this translation, what I once " despaired to have seen done by the force of several "masterly hands." Indeed the same gentleman appears to have changed his sentiment in his Essay on the Art of finking in reputation, (printed in Mist's Journal, March 30, 1728.) where he says thus: "In order to " fink in reputation, let him take it into his head to " descend into Homer (let the world wonder, as it will, " how the devil he got there) and pretend to do him " into English, so his version denote his neglect of the " manner how." Strange Variation! We are told in MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8. "That this tranflation of the Illiad was not in all re"spects conformable to the fine taste of his friend Mr. "Addison; infomuch that he employed a younger Mufe, * Cenfor, vol. ii. n. 33. : " in an undertaking of this kind, which he supervised "himself." Whether Mr. Addison did find it conform able to his taste, or not, best appears from his own teftimony the year following its publication, in these words: Mr. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, No. 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 "tranflations of old Greek and Latin authors. -We "have already most of their Historians in our own "tongue, and, what is more for the honour of our " language, it has been taught to express 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 those parts of Homer which have " been published already by Mr. Pope, give us reason " to think that the Iliad will appear in English with " as little disadvantage to that immortal poem." As to the rest, there is a flight mistake, for this younger Muse was an elder: nor was the gentleman (who is a friend of our author) employed by Mr. Addison to translate 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 tranflation 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, Mist'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 bookfeller his name " (for a competent sum of money) to promote the cre"dit of an exorbitant subscription." Gentle reader, be pleased to cast 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 bookseller proposed the book by subscription, " 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 sequel of that work, the Odyssey; and having "secured the success by a numerous subscription, 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 oppose nothing but the words of Mr. POPE'S PROPOSAL for the ODYSSEY, (printed by J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.) "I take this occasion to declare that the subscription " for Shakespeare belongs wholly to Mr. Tonfon: And "that |