tender thoughts, and her fierce defires, all the rest
is of no value." In 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
Mr. PRIOR

himself, faying in his Alma ",
"O Abelard! ill-fated youth,
Thy tale will justify this truth.
But well I weet, thy cruel wrong
Adorns a nobler Poet's fong:

Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd,

With kind concern and fkill has weav'd

A filken web; and ne'er shall fade
Its colours: gently has he laid

The mantle o'er thy fad distress,

And Venus fhall the texture blefs," &c.

Come we now to his tranflation of the Iliad, celebrated by numerous pens, yet fhall 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 "." That ready writer

Mr. OLDMIXON,

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

Mr.

"Alma, Cant. ii. w In his Effays, Vol. i. printed for E. Curl.

Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD

thus extolls it: "The spirit of Homer breathes all through this translation.—I am in doubt, whether I should most admire the juftnefs 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 despaired 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 version 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 taste of his friend Mr. Addison; infomuch that he employed a younger mufe, in an undertaking of this kind, which he supervised

* Cenfor, Vol. ii. No 33.

fupervised himself." Whether Mr. Addifon did find it conformable to his taste, or not, best appears from his own testimony the year following its publication, in these words:

Mr. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, N° 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 translations 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 illiterate among our own countrymen may learn to judge from Dryden's Virgil of the most perfect epic performance. And thofe 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 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 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 fome time before his death, and by his own letters

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

letters of October 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 ftage: "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 fubfcription." 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 Journalist of June 8: "The bookfeller propofed the book by fubfcription, and raised fome thousands of pounds for the fame: I believe the gentleman did not fhare in the profits of this extravagant fubscription.

"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 fubfcription, he employed fome underlings to perform what, according to his proposals, 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 for J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.)

"I take this occafion to declare that the fubfcription for Shakespear 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 these very

gentlemen are extolled above our poet himself in another of Mift's Journals, March 30, 1728, faying, "That he would not advise Mr. Pope to try the experiment again of getting a great part of a book done by affiftants, 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 the term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Viscount 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 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 powerful interefts with those great men to this rifing bard, who frequently levied by that means unusual

contributions