when he had enjoyed for about thirty years the Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join all the appetite of curiosity for that from which we have a thousand times turned fastidiously away. The purpose of the poet is, as he tells us, to laugh at "the little unguarded follies of the female sex." It is therefore without justice that Dennis charges the Rape of the Lock,' with the want of a moral, and for that reason sets it below the 'Lutrin,' which exposes the pride and discord of the clergy. Perhaps neither Pope nor Boileau has made the world much better than they found it; but if they had both succeeded, it were easy to tell who would have deserved most from public gratitude. The freaks, and humours, and spleen, and vanity of women, as they embroil families in discord, and fill houses with disquiet, do more to obstruct the happiness of life in a year than the ambition of the To the praises which have been accumulated on clergy in many centuries. It has been well obthe Rape of the Lock' by readers of every class, served, that the misery of man proceeds not from from the critic to the waiting-maid, it is difficult to any single rush of overwhelming evil, but from make any addition. Of that which is universally small vexations continually repeated. allowed to be the most attractive of all ludicrous compositions, let it rather be now inquired from what sources the power of pleasing is derived. Here are the swiftness of the rapid race, and the march of slow-paced majesty, exhibited by the same poet in the same sequence of syllables, except that the exact prosodist will find the line of swiftness by one time longer than that of tardiness. Beauties of this kind are commonly fancied; and, when real, are technical and nugatory, not to be rejected, and not to be solicited. It is remarked by Dennis likewise that the machinery is superfluous; that, by all the bustle of preturnatural operation, the main event is neither Dr. Warburton, who excelled in critical perspi- hastened nor retarded. To this charge an efficacacity, has remarked, that the preturnatural agents cious answer is not easily made. The Sylphs canare very happily adapted to the purposes of the not be said to help or to oppose; and it must be allowpoem. The Heathen deities can no longer gain at-ed to imply some want of art, that their power has tention: we should have turned away from the con-not been sufficiently intermingled with the action. test between Venus and Diana. The employment Other parts may likewise be charged with want of of allegorical persons always excites conviction of connection: the game at ombre might be spared; its own absurdity: they may produce effects, but but, if the Lady had lost her hair while she was cannot conduct actions: when the phantom is put in intent upon her cards, it might have been inferred motion, it dissolves: thus Discord may raise à mu- that those who are too fond of play will be in dantiny; but Discord cannot conduct a march, nor be-ger of neglecting more important interests. Those siege a town. Pope brought in view a new race perhaps are faults; but what are such faults to much of beings, with powers and passions proportionate excellence! to their operation. The Sylphs and Gnomes act, The Epistle of 'Eloise to Abelard' is one of the at the toilet and the tea-table, what more terrific most happy productions of human wit: the subject and more powerful phantoms perform on the stormy is so judiciously chosen, that it would be difficult, ocean, or the field of battle; they give their proper in turning over the annals of the world, to find anohelp, and do their proper mischief. ther which so many circumstances concur to recom Pope is said, by an objector, not to have been mend. We regularly interest ourselves most in the inventor of this petty nation; a charge which the fortune of those who most deserve our notice. might with more justice have been brought against Abelard and Eloise were conspicuous in their days the author of the 'Iliad,' who doubtless adopted for eminence of merit. The heart naturally loves the religious system of his country; for what is truth. The adventures and misfortunes of this there, but the names of his agents, which Pope has illustrious pair are known from undisputed history. not invented? Has he not assigned them charac- Their fate does not leave the mind in hopeless deters and operations never heard of before? Has he jection; for they both found quiet and consolation not at least, given them their first poetical ex- in retirement and piety. So new and so affecting istence? If this is not sufficient to denominate his is their story, that it supersedes invention; and work original, nothing original can ever be written. imagination ranges at full liberty without straggling In this work are exhibited, in a very high de- into scenes of fable. gree, the two most engaging powers of an author. The story, thus skilfully adopted, has been diliNew things are made familiar, and familiar things gently improved. Pope has left nothing behind are made new. A race of aerial people, never him, which seems the effect of more studious perheard of before, is presented to us in a manner so severance and laborious revisal. Here is particuclear and easy, that the reader seeks for no further larly observable the curiosa felicitas, a fruitful soil information, but immediately mingles with his new and careful cultivation. Here is no crudeness of acquaintance, adopts their interests, and attends sense, nor asperity of language. their pursuits, loves a Sylph, and detests a Gnome. The sources from which sentiments, which have That familiar things are made new, every pa- so much vigour and efficacy, have been drawn, are ragraph will prove. The subject of the poem is an shown to be the mystic writers, by the learned auevent below the common incidents of common life; thor of the Essay on the Life and Writings of Pope;' nothing real is introduced that is not seen so often a book which teaches how the brow of Criticism as to be no longer regarded; yet the whole detail may be smoothed, and how she may be enabled, of a female day is here brought before us, invested with all her severity, to attract and to delight. with so much art of decoration, that though nothing The train of my disquisition has now conducted is disguised, every thing is striking, and we feel me to that poetical wonder, the translation of the E 'Iliad,' a performance which no age or nation can of life and the habits of thought. Virgil wrote in pretend to equal. To the Greeks translation was a language of the same general fabric with that of almost unknown; it was totally unknown to the in- Homer, in verses of the same measure, and in an habitants of Greece. They had no recourse to the age nearer to Homer's time by eighteen hundred Barbarians for poetical beauties, but sought for years: yet he found, even then, the state of the every thing in Homer, where, indeed, there is but world so much altered, and the demand for elegance little tha they might not find. so much increased, that mere nature would be endured no longer; and perhaps in the multitude of borrowed passages, very few can be shown which he had not embellished. The Italians have been very diligent translators; but I can hear of no version, unless perhaps Anguilara's Ovid may be excepted, which is read with eagerness. The Iliad of Salvini every reader may There is a time when nations, emerging from bardiscover to be punctiliously exact; but it seems to barity, and falling into regular subordination, gain be the work of a linguist skilfully pedantic; and his leisure to grow wise, and feel the shame of ignocountrymen, the proper judges of its power to rance and the craving pain of unsatisfied curiosity. please, reject it with disgust. To this hunger of the mind plain sense is grateful; Their predecessors the Romans, have left some that which fills the void removes uneasiness, and specimens of translation behind them, and that em- to be free from pain awhile is pleasure; but repleployment must have had some credit in which tion generates fastidiousness; a saturated intellect Tully and Germanicus engaged; but, unless we sup-soon becomes luxurious, and knowledge finds no pose, what is perhaps true, that the plays of Terence willing reception till it is recommended by artificial were versions of Menander, nothing translated diction. Thus it will be found, in the progress of seems ever to have risen to high reputation. The learning, that in all nations the first writers are French, in the meridian hour of their learning, simple, and that every age improves in elegance.-were very laudably industrious to enrich their own One refinement always makes way for another; language with the wisdom of the ancients; but found and what was expedient to Virgil was necessary to themselves reduced, by whatever necessity, to Pope. turn the Greek and Roman poetry into prose. I suppose many readers of the English 'Iliad,' Whoever could read an author, could translate him. when they have been touched with some unexpect From such rivals little can be feared. ed beauty of the lighter kind, have tried to enjoy The chief help of Pope in this audacious under- it in the original, where, alas! it was not to be taking was drawn from the versions of Dryden. found. Homer doubtless owes to his translator Virgil had borrowed much of his imagery from Ho-many Ovidian graces not exactly suitable to his mer, and part of the debt was now paid by his character; but to have added can be no great crime, translator. Pope searched the pages of Dryden for if nothing be taken away. Elegance is surely to be happy combination of heroic diction; but it will not desired, if it be not gained at the expense of dignibe denied, that he added much to what he found. ty. A hero would wish to be loved, as well as to He cultivated our language with so much diligence be reverenced. and art, that he has left in his Homer' a treasure To a thousand cavils one answer is sufficient; the of poetical elegances to posterity. His version purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism may be said to have tuned the English tongue; for which would destroy the power of pleasing must since its appearance, no writer, however deficient be blown aside. Pope wrote for his own age and in other powers, has wanted melody. Such a series his own nation: he knew that it was necessary to of lines, so elaborately corrected, and so sweetly colour the images, and point the sentiments of his modulated, took possession of the public ear: the author; he therefore made him graceful, but lost vulgar were enamoured of the poem, and the learn- him some of his sublimity. ed wondered at the translation. The copious notes with which the version is ac But in the most general applause discordant voices companied, and by which it is recommended to will always be heard. It has been objected by many readers, though they were undoubtedly writsome, who wished to be numbered among the sons ten to swell the volumes, ought not to pass without of learning, that Pope's version of Homer is not praise; commentaries which attract the reader by Homerical: that it exhibits no resemblance of the the pleasure of perusal have not often appeared; original and characteristic manner of the Father of the notes of others are read to clear difficulties, poetry, as it wants his artless grandeur, his unaf- those of Pope to vary entertainment. fected majesty.* This cannot be totally denied; It has however been objected, with sufficient reabut it must be remembered that necessitas quod son, that there is in the commentary too much of cogit defendit; "that may be lawfully done which unseasonable levity and affected gaiety; that too cannot be forborne." Time and place will always many appeals are made to the Ladies, and the enforce regard. In estimating this translation, con- ease which is so carefully preserved is sometimes sideration must be had of the nature of our language, the case of a trifler. Every art has its terms, and the form of our metre, and, above all, the change every kind of instruction its proper style; the which two thousand years have made in the modes gravity of common critics may be tedious, but is less despicable than childish merriment. * Bentley was one of these. Pope, desirous of his opin- Of the Odyssey' nothing remains to be observed: ion of the translation, addressed him thus: "Dr. Bent the same general praise may be given to both transley, I ordered my bookseller to send you your books, Ilations, and a particular examination of either would hope you received them." Bentley pretended not to un derstand him, and asked, "Books! books! what books?" require a large volume. The notes were written "My Homer," replied Pope, which you did me the by Broome, who endeavoured, not unsuccessfully, honour to subscribe for."-"Oh," said Bentley, "ay, now I recollect-your translation:-it is a pretty poem, Mr. to imitate his master. Pope; but you must not call it Homer." Of the Dunciad' the hint is confessedly taken from Dryden's Mac Flecnoe;' but the plan is so and place, and wrong place, it had been vain to ask enlarged and diversified as justly to claim the Pope, who probably had never asked himself. praise of an original, and affords the best specimen Having exalted himself into the chair of wisdom, that has yet appeared of personal satire ludicrously he tells us much that every man knows, and much pompous. that he does not know himself; that we see but That the design was moral, whatever the author little, and that the order of the universe is beyond might tell either his readers or himself, I am not our comprehension; an opinion not very uncommon; convinced. The first motive was the desire of re- and that there is a chain of subordinate beings venging the contempt with which Theobald had" from infinite to nothing," of which himself and treated his 'Shakspeare,' and regaining the honour his readers are equally ignorant. But he gives us which he had lost, by crushing his opponent. Theo-one comfort, which without his help he supposes bald was not of bulk enough to fill a poem, and unattainable, in the position" that though we are therefore it was necessary to find other enemies fools, yet God is wise." with other names, at whose expense he might di- This Essay affords an egregious instance of the vert the public. predominance of genius, the dazzling splendour of In this design there was petulance and malignity imagery, and the seductive powers of eloquence. enough; but I cannot think it very criminal. An Never was penury of knowledge and vulgarity of author places himself uncalled before the tribunal sentiment so happily disguised. The reader feels of Criticism, and solicits fame at the hazard of dis- his mind full, though he learns nothing; and, when grace. Dulness or deformity are not culpable in he meets it'in its new array, no longer knows the themselves, but may be very justly reproached talk of his mother and his nurse. When these when they pretend to the honour of wit or the in-wonder-working sounds sink into sense, and the fluence of beauty. If bad writers were to pass doctrine of the Essay, disrobed of its ornaments, is without reprehension, what should restrain them? left to the powers of its naked excellence, what impune diem consumpserit ingens Telephus; and shall we discover? That we are, in comparison upon bad writers only will censure have much with our Creator, very weak and ignorant; that we effect. The satire, which brought Theobald and do not uphold the chain of existence; and that we Moore into contempt, dropped impotently from could not make one another with more skill than Bentley, like the javelin of Priam. we are made. We may learn yet more: that the All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may arts of human life were copied from the instinctive be considered as useful when it rectifies error and operations of other animals; that, if the world be improves judgment; he that refines the public taste made for man, it may be said that man was made is a public benefactor. for geese. To these profound principles of natural The beauties of this poem are well known; its knowledge are added some moral instructions chief fault is the grossness of its images. Pope and Swift had an unnatural delight în ideas physically impure, such as every tongue utters with unwillingness, and of which every ear shrinks from the mention. equally new; that self-interest well understood, will produce social concord; that men are mutual gainers by mutual benefits; that evil is sometimes balanced by good; that human advantages are unstable and fallacious, of uncertain duration and But even this fault, offensive as it is, may be for- doubtful effect; that our true honour is, not to have given for the excellence of other passages; such as a great part, but to act it well; that virtue only is the formation and dissolution of Moore, the account our own; and that happiness is always in our power. of the Traveller, the misfortune of the Florist, and Surely a man of no very comprehensive search the crowded thoughts and stately numbers which may venture to say that he has heard all this bedignify the concluding paragraph. fore; but it was never till now recommended by The alterations which have been made in the such a blaze of embellishments, or such sweetness 'Dunciad,' not always for the better, require that of melody. The vigorous contraction of some it should be published, as in the present collection, thoughts, the luxuriant amplification of others, the with all its variations. incidental illustrations, and sometimes the dignity, The Essay on Man' was a work of great labour sometimes the softness of the verses, enchain phiand long consideration, but certainly not the hap-losophy, suspend criticism, and oppress judgment piest of Pope's performances. The subject is per- by overpowering pleasure. 6 haps not very proper for poetry, and the poet was This is true of many paragraphs; yet, if I had not sufficiently master of his subject; metaphysical undertaken to exemplify Pope's felicity of compomorality was to him a new study; he was proud of sition before a rigid critic, I should not select the his acquisitions, and, supposing himself master of Essay on Man;' for it contains more lines unsucgreat secrets, was in haste to teach what he had cessfully laboured, more harshness of diction, more not learned. Thus he tells us, in the first epistle, thoughts imperfectly expressed, more levity withthat from the nature of the Supreme Being may be out elegance, and more heaviness without strength, deduced an order of beings such as mankind, be- than will easily be found in all his other works. cause Infinite Excellence can do only what is best. The Characters of Men and Women' are the He finds out that these beings must be "some- product of diligent speculation upon human life; where;" and that "all the question is, whether much labour has been bestowed upon them, and man be in a wrong place." Surely if, according to Pope very seldom laboured in vain. That his exthe poet's Leibnitian reasoning, we may infer that cellence may be properly estimated, I recommend man ought to be, only because he is, we may allow a comparison of his Characters of Women,' with hat his place is the right place, because he has it. Boileau's Satire; it will then be seen with how Supreme Wisdom is not less infallible in disposing much more perspicacity female nature is investihan in creating. But what is meant by somewhere gated, and female excellence selected; and he surely is no mean writer to whom Boileau should) Pope had, in proportions very nicely adjusted to be found inferior. The 'Characters of Men,' how-each other, all the qualities that constitute genius eyer, are written with more, if not with deeper He had Invention, by which new trains of events thought, and exhibit many passages exquisitely are formed, and new scenes of imagery displayed, beautiful. The Gem and the Flower' will not as in the Rape of the Lock;' and by which exeasily be equalled. In the women's part are some trinsic and adventitious embellishments and illusdefects; the character of Atossa is not so neatly trations are connected with a known subject, as in finished as that of Clodio; and some of the female the Essay on Criticism.' He had Imagination, characters may be found perhaps more frequently which strongly impresses on the writer's mind, and among men; what is said of Philomede was true of enables him to convey to the reader, the various Prior. forms of nature, incidents of life, and energies of In the Epistles of Lord Bathurst and Lord Bur-passion, as in his 'Eloisa,'' Windsor Forest,' and lington, Dr. Warburton has endeavoured to find a Ethic Epistles.' He had Judgment, which selects train of thought which was never in the writer's from life or nature what the present purpose rehead, and, to support his hypothesis, has printed quires, and, by separating the essence of things that first which was published last. In one, the from its concomitants, often makes the representamost valuable passage is perhaps the Elegy on tion more powerful than the reality: and he had 'Good Sense;' and the other, the End of the Duke colours of language always before him, ready to deof Buckingham.' corate his matter with every grace of elegant exThe Epistle to Arbuthnot, not arbitrarily called pression, as when he accommodates his diction to the the 'Prologue to the Satires,' is a performance con- wonderful multiplicity of Homer's sentiments and sisting, as it seems, of many fragments wrought into descriptions. one design, which by this union of scattered beau Poetical expression includes sound as well as ties contains more striking paragraphs than could meaning: "Music," says Dryden, "is inarticulate probably have been brought together into an occa- poetry;" among the excellences of Pope, theresional work. As there is no stronger motive to fore, must be mentioned the melody of his metre. exertion than self-defence, no part has more ele- By perusing the works of Dryden, he discovered gance, spirit, or dignity, than the poet's vindica- the most perfect fabric of English verse, and hation of his own character. The meanest passage, is bituated himself to that only which he found the the satire upon Sporus. best; in consequence of which restraint, his poetry Of the two poems which derived their names has been censured as too uniformly musical, and as from the year, and which are called the Epilogue glutting the ear with unvaried sweetness. I susto the Satires,' it was very justly remarked by pect this objection to be the cant of those who Savage, that the second was in the whole more judge by principles rather than perception; and strongly conceived, and more equally supported, but who would even themselves have less pleasure in that it had no single passages equal to the conten- his works, if he had tried to relieve attention by tion in the first for the dignity of Vice, and the studied discords, or affected to break his lines and celebration of the triumph of Corruption. vary his pauses. "The Imitations of Horace' seem to have been But though he was thus careful of his versificawritten as relaxations of his genius. This em- tion, he did not oppress his powers with superfluployment became his favourite by its facility; the ous rigour. He seems to have thought with Boiplan was ready to his hand, and nothing was re-leau, that the practice of writing might be refined quired but to accommodate as he could the senti- till the difficulty should overbalance the advantage. ments of an old author to recent facts or familiar The construction of his language is not always images; but what is easy is seldom excellent; such strictly grammatical; with those rhymes which imitations cannot give pleasure to common readers; prescription had conjoined, he contented himself, the man of learning may be sometimes surprised without regard to Swift's remonstrances, though and delighted by an unexpected parallel; but the there was no striking consonance; nor was he very comparison requires knowledge of the original, careful to vary his terminations, or to refuse adwhich will likewise often detect strained applica- mission, at a small distance, to the same rhymes. tions. Between Roman images and English man- To Swift's edict for the exclusion of Alexanthere will be an irreconcileable dissimilitude, drines and Triplets he paid little regard; he adand the works will be generally uncouth and party-mitted them, but, in the opinion of Fenton, too coloured: neither original nor translated, neither rarely; he uses them more liberally in his translaancient nor modern.* tion than in his poems. ners, He has a few double rhymes: and always, I *In one of these poems is a couplet, to which belongs think, unsuccessfully, except once in the Rape of a story related by the Rev. Dr. Ridley: the Lock.' Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage; Sir Francis Page conceiving that his name was meant Expletives he very early ejected from his verses; but he now and then admits an epithet rather commodious than important. Each of the first six lines to fill up the blank, sent his clerk to complain of the in- of the 'Iliad' might lose two syllables with very sult. Pope told the young man, that the blank might be little diminution of the meaning; and sometimes, supplied by many monosyllables other than the judge's after all his art and labour, one verse seems to be name:"But, Sir, the judge says that no other word will make sense of the passage."-"So then it seems," made for the sake of another. In his latter prosays Pope, "your master is not only a judge but a poet: as that is the case, the odds are against me. Give my respects to the judge, and tell him, I will not contend this distinction to the unjustifiable insolence he displayed with one that has the advantage of me, and he may fill on the memorable trial of Savage, of whom Pope was up the blank as he pleases." Judge Page probably owed the sincere friend. ductions the diction is sometimes vitiated by French|veral hundred places; and the Cambridge editors idioms, with which Bolingbroke had perhaps in- of the large Homer, in Greek and Latin, attributed fected him. so much to Hobbs, that they confess they have I have been told that the couplet by which he corrected the old Latin interpretation very often declared his own ear to be most gratified was this: by his version. For my part, I generally took the author's meaning to be as you have explained it; Lo, where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flows yet their authority, joined to the knowledge of my The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows. own imperfectness in the language, overruled me. But the reason of this preference I cannot discover. However, Sir, you may be confident I think you It is remarked by Watts, that there is scarcely in the right, because you happen to be of my opia happy combination of words, or a phrase poeti- nion: for, men (let them say what they will) never cally elegant in the English language, which Pope approve any other's sense, but as it squares with has not inserted into his version of Homer. How their own. But you have made me much more he obtained possession of so many beauties of proud of, and much more positive in my judgment, speech, it were desirable to know. That he glean- since it is strengthened by yours. I think your ed from authors, obscure as well as eminent, what criticisms, which regard the expression, very just, he thought brilliant or useful, and preserved it and shall make my profit of them: to give you some all in a regular collection, is not unlikely. When, proof that I am in carnest, I will alter three verses in his last years, Hall's Satires were shown him, on your bare objection, though I have Mr. Dryhe wished that he had seen them sooner. den's example for each of them. And this, I hope, New sentiments and new images others may you will account no small piece of obedience from produce; but to attempt any further improvement one who values the authority of one true poet of versification will be dangerous. Art and dili- above that of twenty critics or commentators. But, gence have now done their best, and what shall be though I speak thus of commentators, I will con added will be the effort of tedious toil and need-tinue to read carefully all I can procure, to make less curiosity. up, that way, for my own want of critical under After all this, it is surely superfluous to answer standing in the original beauties of Homer. Though the question that has once been asked, Whether the greatest of them are certainly those of InvenPope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in re- tion and Design, which are not at all confined to turn, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be the language: for the distinguishing excellences of found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition, Homer are (by the consent of the best critics of all will only show the narrowness of the definer; nations) first in the manners (which include all the though a definition which shall exclude Pope will speeches, as being no other than the represennot easily be made. Let us look round upon the tations of each person's manners by his words;) present time, and back upon the past; let us inquire and then in that rapture and fire, which carries to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the you away with him, with that wonderful force, wreath of poetry; let their productions be examin- that no man who has a true poetical spirit is mased and their claims stated, and the pretensions of ter of himself while he reads him. Homer makes Pope will be no more disputed. Had he given the you interested and concerned before you are aware, world only his version, the name of poet must have all at once, whereas Virgil does it by soft degrees. been allowed him: if the writer of the Iliad' were This, I believe, is what a translator of Homer to class his successors, he would assign a very high ought principally to imitate; and it is very hard for place to his translator, without requiring any other evidence of genius. The following Letter, of which the original is in the hands of Lord Hardwicke, was communicated to me by the kindness of Mr. Jodrell. any translator to come up to it, because the chief reason why all translations fall short of their originals is, that the very constraint they are obliged to, renders them heavy and dispirited. "The great beauty of Homer's language, as I take it, consists in that noble simplicity which runs "To MR. BRIDGES, at the Bishop of London's at through all his works; (and yet his diction, con "SIR, Fulham. trary to what one would imagine consistent with simplicity, is at the same time very copious.) I "The favour of your Letter, with your Remarks, don't know how I have run into this pedantry in a can never be enough acknowledged; and the speed Letter, but I find I have said too much, as well as with which you discharged so troublesome a task spoken too inconsiderately: what farther thoughts doubles the obligation. I have spoken upon this subject, I shall be glad to "I must own that you have pleased me very communicate to you (for my own improvement) much by the commendations so ill bestowed upon when we meet; which is a happiness I very earme; but I assure you, much more by the frankness nestly desire, as I do likewise some opportunity of your censure, which I ought to take the more of proving how much I think myself obliged to kindly of the two, as it is more advantage to a your friendship, and how truly I am, Sir, scribbler to be improved in his judgment than to be soothed in his vanity. The greater part of those deviations from the Greeks, which you have observed, I was led into by Chapman and Hobbs; who are, it seems, as much celebrated for their know- The Criticism upon Pope's Epitaphs, which was ledge of the original, as they are decried for the printed in "The Universal Visitor,' is placed here, badness of their translations. Chapman pretends being too minute and particular to be inserted in to have restored the genuine sense of the author, the Life. from the mistakes of all former explainers, in sc "Your most faithful, humble servant, Every art is best taught by example. Nothing |