the chief invention; and as long as this (which indeed is the characteristic of poetry itfelf) remains unequalled by his followers, he ftill continues fuperior to them. A cooler judgment may commit fewer faults, and be more approved in the eyes of one fort of critics: but that warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most univerfal applaufes, which holds the heart of a reader under the ftrongell enchantment. Homer not only appears the inventor of poetry, but excels all the inventors of other arts in this, that he has fwallowed up the honour of thofe who fucceeded him. What he has done admitted no increafe, it only left room for contraction or regulation. He fhewed all the ftretch of fancy at once; and if he has failed in fome of his flights, it was but because he attempted every thing. A work of this kind feems like a mighty tree which rifes from the most vigorous feed, is improved with induftry, flourishes, and produces the finest fruit; nature and art confpire to raise it; pleafure and profit join to make it valuable: and they who find the jufteft faults, have only faid, that a few branches (which run luxuriant through a richness of nature) might be lopped into form to give it a more regular appear-incurring the cenfure of a mere Engli 4 ance. Having now fpoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it remains to treat of the tranflation, with the fame view to the chief characteristic. As far as that is feen in the main parts of the poem, fuch as the fable, manners, and fentiments, no tranflator can prejudice it but by wilful omifiions or contractions. As it alfo breaks out in every particular image, defcription, and fimile, whoever lefiens or too much foftens thofe, takes off from this chief character. It is the first grand duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and unmaimed; and for the rett, the diction and verification only are his proper province; fince thefe must be his own, but the others he is to take as he finds them. It should then be confidered, what methods may afford fome equivalent in our language for the graces of thefe in the Greek. It is certain no literal tranflation can be just to an excellent original in a fuperior language: but it is a great miftake to imagine (as many have done) that a rafh paraphrafe can make amends for this general defect; which is no lefs in danger to lofe the fpirit of an ancient, by deviating into the modern manners of expreflion. If there be fometimes a dark nefs, there is often a light in antiquity which nothing better preferves than a ver fion almoft literal. I know no liberties one ought to take, but those which are neceffary for transfufing the spirit of the original, and fupporting the poetical tyle of the tranflation: and I will venture to fay, there have not been more men milled in former times by a fervile dull adherence to the latter, than have been deluded in ours by a chimerical infolent hope of raifing and improving their author. It is not to be doubted that the fire of the poem, is what a tranflator fhould principally regard, as it is most likely to expire in his managing: however, it is his fafett way to be content with preferving this to his utmoft in the whole, without endeavouring to be more than he finds his author is, in any particular place. It is a great fecre in writing, to know when to be plain, and when poetical and figurative; and it is what Homer will teach us, if we will bet follow modeftly in his footsteps. Where his diction is bold and lofty, let us raile ours as high as we can; but where he is plain and humble, we ought not to be de terred from imitating him by the fear of critic. Nothing that belongs to Hore: feems to have been more commonly miftaken than the juft pitch of his ftyle; fome of his tranflators having fwelled into fal tian in a proud confidence of the fublime; others funk into flatnefs in a cold and timorous notion of fim, city. Methinks I fee thefe different followers of Homer, fome fweating and ftraining after him by violent leaps and bounds, (the certain figns of falfe mettle); others flowly and fervilely creeping in his train, while the poet himself is all the time proceeding with an unaffected and equal majesty be fore them. However, of the two extrents one could fooner pardon frenzy than frigidity: no author is to be envied for fuch commendations as he may gain by that character of ftyle; which his friends must agree together to call fimplicity, and the re of the world will call dulnefs. There is a graceful and dignified fimplicity, as wel as a bald and fordid one, which differ 25 much from each other as the air of a plain man from that of a floven: it is one thing to be tricked up, and another not to be dreffed at all. Simplicity is the mean be tween oftentation and rufticity. This pure and noble fimplicity is ro where in fuch perfection as in the Scrip ture and our author. One may affirm, with all respect to the infpired writings, that the divine fpirit made ufe of no other words but what were intelligible and common to men at that time, and in that part of the world; and as Homer is the author nearest to thofe, his style muft of courfe bear a greater refemblance to the facred books than that of any other writer. This confideration (together with what has been obferved of the parity of fome of his thoughts) rany methinks in luce a tranflator on the one hard to give into feveral of thofe general phrafes and manners of expreffion, which have attained a veneration even in our linguage from being ufed in the Old Teftament; as on the other, to avoid thofe which have been appropriated to the Divinity, and in a manner configned to mystery and religion. For a farther prefervation of this air of fimplicity, a particular care fhould be taken to exprefs with all plainnefs, thofe moral fentences and proverbial fpeeches which are fo numerous in this poet. They have fomething venerable, and I may fay oracular, in that unadorned gravity and fhortnefs with which they are delivered a grace which would be utterly loft by endeavouring to give them what we call a more ingenious (that is, a more moderr) turn in the paraphrafe. pound, without violence to the ear, or to the received rules of compofition; as well as thofe which have received a fanation from the authority of our best poets, and are become familiar through their ufe of them; fuch as the cloud-compelling Jove, &c. As for the reft, whenever any can be as fully and fignificantly expreffed in a fingle word as in a compound one, the courfe to be taken is obvious. Some that cannot be fo turned as to preferve their full image by one or two words, may have juftice done them by circumlocution; as the epithet sivociptanes to a mountain, would appear little or ridiculous tranflated literally" leaf-fhaking," but affords a majeftic idea in the periphrafis : "The lofty mountain thakes his waving woods." Others that admit of differing fignifications, may receive an advantage by a judicious variation according to the occafions on which they are introduced. For example, the epithet of Apollo, iznos, or " far-fhooting," is capable of two explications; one literal in refpect to the darts and bow, the enligns of that god; the other allegorical with regard to the rays of the tun: therefore in fuch places where Apollo is reprefented as a god in pe: fon, I would use the former interpretation; and where the effects of the fun are defcribed, I would make choice of the latter. Upon the whole, it will be Perhaps the mixture of fome Grecifims neceflary to avoid that perpetual repetiand o'd words, after the manter of Mil-tion of the fante epithets which we find in ton, if done without too much affectation, Homer; and which, though it might be might not have an ill effect in a version of accommodated (as has been already thown) this particular work, which most of any to the ear of thofe times, is by no means other teems to require a venerable antique fo to ours: but one may wait for opporcaft. But certainly the ufe of modern tunities of placing them, where they`determs of war and government, fuch as rive an additional beauty from the occaplatoon, campaign, junto, or the like (into fions on which they are employed; and in which fome of his tranflators have fallen) doing this properly, a tranflator may at cannot be allowable; thofe only excepted, once thew his fancy and his judgment. without which it is impoffible to treat the fubjects in any living language. There are two peculiarities in Homer's diction, which are a fort of marks, or moles, by which every common eye diftinguishes him at firft fight: thofe who are not his greatest admirers look upon them as defects, and those who are, feem pleafed with them as beauties. I fpeak of his compound epithets, and of his repetitions. Many of the former cannot be done literally into English without detroying the purity of our language. I believe fuch thould be retained as flide taly of themselves into an English com As for Homer's repetitions, we may di. vide them into three forts; of whole narrations and fpeeches, of fingle fentences, and of one verfe or hemiftich. I hope it is not impoffible to have fuch a regard to thefe, as neither to lofe fo known a mark of the author on the one hand, nor to offend the reader too much on the other. The repetition is not ungraceful in thofe fpeeches, where the dignity of the fpeaker readers it a fort of infolence to alter his words; as in the meflages from gods to men, or from higher powers to inferiors in concerns of flare, or where the ceremonial of religion feems to require it, in the folemn No 4 forms forms of prayer, oaths, or the like. In other cafes, I believe, the beft rule is, to be guided by the nearness, or diftance, at which the repetitions are placed in the original when they follow too clofe, one may vary the expreffion; but it is a queftion, whether a profeffed tranflator be authorised to omit any: if they be tedious, the author is to anfwer for it." It only remains to fpeak of the Verfification. Homer (as has been faid) is perpetually applying the found to the fenfe, and varying it on every new subject. This is indeed one of the moft exquifite beauties of poetry, and attainable by very few: I know only of Homer eminent for it in the Greek, and Virgil in Latin. I am fenfible it is what may fometimes happen by chance, when a writer is warm, and fully poffeffed of his image: however it may be reasonably believed they defigned this, in whofe verfe it fo manifeilly appears in a fuperior degree to all others. Few readers have the ear to be judges of it; but thofe who have, will fee I have endeavoured at this beauty. But that have been of an arrogant turn, and in enthufiaft in poetry. His own but of having finished half the Iliad in lefs thin fifteen weeks, fhews with what negligent his verfion was performed. which is to be allowed him, and wh very much contributed to cover his fects, is a daring fiery fpirit which anim his tranflation, which is fomething what one might imagine Homer would have writ before he arrived a years of difcretion. Upon the whole, I muft conclude myfelf utterly incapable of doing juftice to Homer. I attempt him in no other hope but that which one may entertain without much vanity, of giving a more tolerable copy of him than any entire tranflation in verfe has yet done. We have only thofe of Chapman, Hobbes, and Ogilby, Chapman has taken the advantage of an immeafurable length of verfe, notwithstanding which, there is fcarce any paraphrafe more loose and rambling than his. He has frequent interpolations of four or fix lines, and I remember one in the thirteenth book of the Odyffes, ver. 312, where he has fpun twenty verfes out of two. He is often mistaken in fo bold a manner, that one might think he deviated on purpofe, if he did not in other places of his notes infift fo much upon verbal trifles. He appears to have had a strong affectation of extracting new meanings out of his author, infomuch as to promife, in his rhyming preface, a poem of the mysteries he had revealed in Homer: and perhaps he endeavoured to ftrain the obvious fenfe to this end His expreffion is involved in fuftian, a fault for which he was remarkable in his original writings, as in the tragedy of Buffy d'Amboife, &c. In a word, the nature of the man may account for his whole performance; for he appears, from his preface and remarks, to par Hobbes has given us a correct explana tion of the fenfe in general: but for ticulars and circumstances he continually lops them, and often omits the most bea tiful. As for its being efteemed a clofe tranflation, I doubt not many have been led into that error by the fortnefs of it, which proceeds not from his following the original line by line, but from the contras, tions above mentioned. He fomet nes omits whole fimiles and fentences, and is now and then guilty of mistakes, into which no writer of his leaning could have fallen, but through carelefels. His poetry, as well as Ogilby's, is too mean for criticif.n. 2 It is a great lofs to the poetical world that Mr. Dryden did not live to tranflate the Iliad. He has left us only the fir book, and a fmall part of the fixth; in which, if he has in feme places not tray interpreted the fenfe, or preferved the antiquities, it ought to be excused on 20count of the hafte he was obliged to write in. He feems to have had too much regard to Chapman, whofe words he foretimes copied, and has unhappily followed him in paffages where he wanders from the original. However, had he tranflated the whole work, I would no more have attempted Homer after him than Virg his verfion of whom (notwithstanding for: human errors) is the most noble an fpirited tranflation I know in any guage. But the fate of great geniale like that of great ministers, though they are confeffedly the firft in the commer wealth of letters, they must be envied 2 calumniated only for being at the hezi of it. agreeing with that character; to copy him in all the variations of his ftyle, and the different modulations of his numbers; to preferve, in the more active or defcriptive parts, a warmth and elevation; in the more fedate or narrative, a plainnefs and folemnity; in the speeches, a fulness and perfpicuity; in the fentences, a fhortnefs and gravity: not to neglect even the little figures and turns on the words, nor fometimes the very caft of the periods, neither to omit nor confound any rites or cuftoms of antiquity: perhaps too he ought to include the whole in a fhorter compass than has hitherto been done by any tranflator, who has tolerably preferved either the fenfe or poetry. What I would farther recommend to him, is to fludy his author rather from his own text than from any commentaries, how learned foever, or whatever figure they may make in the eftimation of the world; to confider him attentively in comparifon with Virgil above all the ancients, and with Milton above all the moderns. Next these, the archbishop of Cambray's Telemachus may give him the trueft idea of the fpirit and turn of our author, and Boffu's admirable treatife of the epic poem the jufteft notion of his defign and conduct. But after all, with whatever judgment and study a man may proceed, or with whatever happinefs he may perform fuch a work, he muft hope to please but a few; thofe only who have at once a tafte of poetry, and competent learning. For to fatisfy fuch as want either, is not in the nature of this undertaking; fince a mere modern wit can like nothing that is not modern, and a pedant nothing that is not Greek. What I have done is fubmitted to the public, from whofe opinions I am prepared to learn; though I fear no judges fo little as our best poets, who are most fenfible of the weight of this tafk. As for the worst, whatever they fhall please to fay, they may give me fome concern as they are unhappy men, but none as they are malignant writers. I was guided in this tranflation by judgments very differrent from theirs, and by perfons for whom they can have no kindnefs, if an old obfervation be true, that the ftrongeft antipathy in the world is that of fools to men of wit. Mr. Addifon was the firft whofe advice determined me to undertake this tafk, who was pleafed to write to me upon that occafion, in fuch terms as I cannot repeat without vanity. I was obliged to Sir Richard Steele for a very early recommendation of my undertaking to the public. Dr. Swift promoted my intereft with that warmth with which he always ferves his friend. The humanity and franknefs of Sir Samuel Garth are what I never knew wanting on any occafion. I must alfo acknowledge, with infinite pleasure, the many friendly offices, as well as fincere criticifms, of Mr. Congreve, who had led me the way in tranflating fome parts of Homer; as I wish, for the fake of the world, he had prevented me in the reft. I must add the names of Mr. Rowe and Dr. Parnell, though I fhall take a farther opportunity of doing justice to the laft, whofe goodnature (to give it a great panegyric) is no less extenfive than his learning. The favour of these gentlemen is not entirely undeserved by one who bears them so true an affection. But what can I fay of the honour fo many of the great have done me, while the first names of the age appear as my fubfcribers, and the most diftinguished patrons and ornaments of learning as my chief encouragers? Among thefe, it is a particular pleasure to me to find, that my higheft obligations are to fuch who have done most honour to the name of poet: that his grace the duke of Buckingham was not difpleafed 1 should undertake the author, to whom he has given (in his excellent Effay) fo complete a praise. "Read Homer once, and you can read no more; "For all books elfe appear fo mean, so poor, "Verfe will feem Profe; but ftill pertift to read, "And Homer will be all the books you need." That the Earl of Halifax was one of the first to favour me, of whom it is hard to fay, whether the advancement of the polite arts is more owing to his generofity or his example. That fuch a genius as my Lord Bolingbroke, not more distinguished in the great fcenes of bufinefs than in all the useful and entertaining parts of learning, has not refufed to be the critic of thefe fheets, and the patron of their writer. And that fo excellent an imitator of Homer as the noble author of the tragedy of Heroic Love, has continued his partiality to me, from my writing Pastorals, to my attempting the Iliad. I cannot deny myself the pride of confeffing, that I have had the advantage not only of their advice for the conduct in general, but their correction of feveral particulars of this tranflation, I could I could fay a great deal of the pleasure of being diftinguished by the earl of Carnarvon; but it is almoft abfurd to particularize any one generous action in a perfon whose whole life is a continued feries of them. Mr. Stanhope, the prefent fecretary of state, will pardon my defire of having it known that he was pleased to promote this affair. The particular zeal of Mr. Harcoust (the fon of the late lord chancellor) gave me a proof how much I am honoured in a fhare of his friendship. I must attribute to the fame motive that of feveral others of my friends, to whom all acknowledgments are rendered unneceffary by the privileges of a familiar correfpondence and I am fatisfied I can no better way oblige men of their turn, than by my filence. In fhort, I have found more patrons than ever Homer wanted. He would have thought himself happy to have met the fame favour at Athens, that has been fhown me by its learned rival, the univerfity of Oxford. If my author had the wits of after ages for his defenders, his tranflator has had the Beauties of the prefent for his advocates; a pleasure too great to be changed for any fame in reverfion. And I can hardly envy him those pompous honours he received after death, when I reflect on the enjoyment of fo many agreeable obligations, and eafy friendships, which make the fatisfaction of life. This diftinction is the more to be acknowledged, as it is fhewn to one whofe pen has never gratified the prejudices of particular parties, or the vanities of particular men. Whatever the fuccefs may prove, I fhall never repent of an undertaking in which I have experienced the candour and friendship of fo many perfons of merit; and in which I hope to pafs fome of thofe years of youth that are generally loft in a circle of follies, after a manner neither wholly unufeful to others, nor difagreeable to myself. $235. An Efay on Virgil's Georgics, prefixed to Mr. Dryden's Tranflation. Pope. Virgil may be reckoned the first who introduced three new kinds of poetry among the Romans, which he copied after three the greatest masters of Greece. Theocritus and Homer have ftill difputed for the advantage over him in paftoral and heroics; but I think all are unanimous in giving him the precedence to Hefiod in his Georgics. The truth of it is, the fweetnefs and rufticity of a paftoral cannot be fo well expreffed in any other tongue as in the Greek, when rightly mixed and quali fied with the Doric dialect; nor can the majefty of an heroic poem any where ap pear fo well as in this language, which ha a natural greatness in it, and can be often rendered more deep and fonorous by the pronunciation of the Ionians. But in the middle ftyle, where the writers in both tongues are on a level, we fee how far Virgil has excelled all who have written in the fame way with him. There has been abundance of criticin fpent on Virgil's Paftorals and Eneids, but the Georgics are a fubject which none of the critics have fufficiently taken into their confideration; moft of them pafing it over in filence, or cafting it under the fame head with Paftoral; a divifion by co means proper, unless we fuppofe the tyle of a husbandman ought to be imitated in a Georgic, as that of a fhepherd is in Paftoral. But though the scene of both thefe poems lies in the fame place, the fpeakers in them are of a quite different character, fince the precepts of husbandry are not to be delivered with the fimplicity of a plowman, but with the address of a poet. No rules therefore that relate to Paftoral can any way affect the Georgics, fince they fall under that clafs of poetry which confifts in giving plain and direct inftructions to the reader; whether they be moral duties, as thofe of Theognis and Pythagoras; or philofophical fpeculations, as thofe of Aratus and Lucretias; or rele of practice, as those of Heliod and Virg. Among thefe different kinds of fubje that which the Georgics go upon is, think, the meanest and leaft improving, but the most pleafing and delightful. Precepts of morality, befides the natural corruption of our tempers, which makes es averfe to them, are fo abftracted from ideas of fenfe, that they feldom give an opportunity for thofe beautiful defcriptions and images which are the fpirit and life ci poetry. Natural philofophy has indeed fenfible objects to work upon, but then it often puzzles the reader with the intricacy of its notions, and perplexes him with the multitude of its difputes. But this kind of poetry I am now (peaking of, addrefs itfelf wholly to the imagination: it is altcgether converfant among the fields and woods, and has the most delightful part of nature for its province. It raises in |