this was the celebrated Addifon. It has been faid that Pope by his three productions, the Paftorals, the Effay, and the Rape of the Lock, made three adverfaries, at least fuch as he thought he had reafon to conclude were his adversaries; Phillips, Dennis, and Addison. But the cause of his imputing enmity and

jealousy

This tranflation was executed with the affiftance of Lord Bo lingbroke. In a dedication to the Marquis Manfreda Repetta, which contains fome obfervations on the poem, the tranflator fays, "Voi vi moltrate con ragione curiofo dell' Inglese Poefia, della quale tante volte abbiamo parlato a Compiglia, ma io non faprei darvene un più bel faggio, che inviandov il Riccio del Pope; io lo traduffi in Francia con l'affiftenza di Milord Bolingbrock, & mi ricordo ch'egli avendo letta & efaminata la traduzione, mi diffe che fe mai la rendeffi nota in Italia, vi aggiungeffi quefti verfi di Virgilio nella Prefazione:

"Non obtufa adeò geftamus pectora Pœni;

"Nec tam averfus equos Tyria fol jungit ab urbe."

Jos. COOPER WALKER.

I select a few strange paffages from this Italian translation of the Rape of the Lock:

"Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux." CANT. I. "Là pafte, polvi, biblia, e dolci fogli."

"One speaks the glory of the British Queen." CANT. III, "Chi d'antica Eroina † i pregi esalta.”

"Here fighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks." CANT. IV. "Geme un catin, parla un pafticcio d'oca ‡."

*Le dame in Inghilterra, & in Francia, leggono fpeffo il Nuovo & Antico Teftamento tradotto nelle lor lingue, ciò, che non è lecito farfi in Italia.

Si recitava in quel tempo a Londra un drama in Mufica, ove era introdotta una antica Reina della Bretagna.

Una dama Inglese s'imaginò d'effere divenuta un pafticcio d'oca, vivanda molto faporita in Inghiltera.

jealousy to Addison, all things confidered*, can only be attributed to his own temper.

Addison was the friend of Phillips, and the circumftance of Phillips's "fooleries," as he called it, at Button's, made him the more ready to think that Addison was concerned.

It immediately occurred to Pope, that when Addifon expreffed a doubt of the propriety of the machinery to be added to the Rape of the Lock, it was done with no other motive than the jealous and malignant one of endeavouring to deprefs Pope's rifing reputation as a poet. Johnfon has fpoken with the proper fternness of good fenfe on fuch an imputation, but I wonder he forgot a cafe exactly in point: "If Addison was actuated by jealousy, when he diffuaded the additions to the Rape of the Lock;" upon the fame principles we must grant, that Pope was actuated by jealousy, when he recommended that Cato fhould not be brought on the ftage: the opinion of both was diametrically oppofite to the event f.

As

*See Note on Addison, Vol. iv.

Let us only fee how a little different colouring makes the fame thing appear.-Hear Mr. Ruffhead:

"When Mr. Addifon had finished the tragedy of Cato, he "brought it to Mr. Pope, and left it with him three or four days, "for his opinion. Mr. Pope, with his wonted ingenuous candour, "told him, he thought he had better not exhibit it on the flage; ❝ and added, that, by printing it only as a claffical production, he "might make it turn to a profitable account, as the piece was well "penned !"

As Johnson has fo ably defcribed the history and progrefs of the translation of the Iliad, propofals for which were issued in 1713, and which was the cause of the final rupture between Pope and Addison, I need not follow, but fhall rather refer to his Life of Pope, page 304.-(Lives of the Poets.) He there fays (page 318), that from the emiffion and reception of the propofals of the Iliad, the kindness of Addifon began to cool. Addifon might ask, "quibus indiciis, quo tefte?" Johnson has given no authority, nor have I met with any, except what might be found in Pope's jealous imagination. Addifon was the first adviser and the first promoter of the tranflation, and he furely expreffed his ingenuous warmth, when he urged Pope

not to be satisfied with the applauses of half the country, when he could command the whole ;"meaning the Whigs as well as Tories. If Pope imagined Addison to be eftranged from him, and thought he could expect "nothing but enmity from him," does it follow, that, all this was owing "to the emif

fion

Pope, perhaps, was fincere, then why not Addifon? But, what was in Pope "wonted ingenuous candour,” was, (according to Ruffhead and Pope,) in Addifon, " difingenuous hoftility! and envy !"

:

Addifon was fixteen years older than Pope in 1715, Pope was 27, Addifon 43. Addifon, therefore, from his age and fuperior ftation, might juftly be fuppofed to have fpoken to Pope as a friend, in a manner to which his reputation and years might have entitled him is the inference fair, that if, confidering the inequality of circumftances, they parted in disguft, that the young man was entirely in the right, and the elder in the wrong?

:

fion and reception of Propofals for the tranflation of the Iliad," which Addison was the first to suggest and promote?

Prior to this great project, which at once established his fame and his fortune, he publifhed the Imitation from the Temple of Fame of Chaucer, with fome fmaller pieces *.

The Windfor Foreft now firft appeared in public; and, as Addifon was fuppofed to be mortified at Pope's rifing fame, of course he must be in troduced as having received great pain, from the animated conclufion of this poem, both as a politician and a poet. Johnson fufficiently exposed the petulance of this infinuation; but it fhews the " jealoufy," of him who could imagine it, much more than, in the eye of common fenfe and common charity, it can be thought to reflect on Addifon. Befides, at this time, Pope was fo fatisfied with Addison, that he courted his favour, by writing two things, which at once honoured and difgraced him-the exquifite prologue to Cato, and the low abufe of Dennis, which the gentlemanly magnanimity of Addifon difdained t.

The meditated propofals for the great tranflation were iffued 1713, and the four first books came out in 1715:

As

*He wrote to Steele, that it had been written two years,before, but it was not published till 1712, the year before his iffuing propofals for his Homer.

See his Letter to Steele, quoted by Johnfon, p. 292.

As the idea of the jealousy of Addison had taken deep root in the mind of Pope, it was in vain that Jervas the painter (the friend of Pope, from whom he was receiving inftructions in his art) endeavoured to unite them, 1714. Sir Richard Steele attempted the fame friendly part: this was ineffectual; they both parted, as Johnson fays, "with aggravated malevolence."

This incident has been generally recorded to the disadvantage of Addison: at such a distance of time the exact truth cannot be known; but as the circumstance in itself, of the final rupture between characters fo celebrated, may not be uninteresting, I fhall make fome further obfervations.

In the first place, the account is given folely by Pope's friends, and in Pope's colours:

παν πραγμα δυας εκει λάβας,

is an expreffion of Epictetus: every thing "has two handles ;" and, in this fenfe, every circumstance in the tranfactions of life has two "colourings:" in the cafe before us, we only fee the colouring of one fide. Pope's friends reprefented the tranfaction in the light in which Pope represented it to them.

I will set the account before the reader, in the words of Pope's most profeffed admirer, Ayre; and I fhall leave to him to form his conclufion even from the evidence of Pope's witness.

«Sir