Sir RICHARD BLACK MORE, Kt.

Who (tho' otherwife a fevere cenfurer of our author) yet ftyleth this a "laudable tranflation "." That ready writer

Mr. OLD MIXON,

in his forementioned Effay, 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 "fhould most admire the juftness to the original, or the "force and beauty of the language, or the founding variety of the numbers: But when I find all these 66 meet, it puts me in mind of what the poet fays of one "of his heroes, That he alone rais'd and flung with ease a weighty stone, that two common men could not lift "from the ground; just fo, one fingle perfon has per"formed in this tranflation, what I once defpaired to "have seen done by the force of several masterly hands." Indeed the fame gentleman appears to have chang'd 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, so his verfion de$6 note 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 fupervifed "himfelf." Whether Mr. Addifon did find it conformw In his Effays, vol, i, printed for E. Curl,

n. 33.

x Cenfor vol. ii.

able to his tafte, or not, beft appears from his own testimony the year following its publication, in these words; Mr. ADDISON, FREE HOLDER, No. 40.

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"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 tran"flations of old Greek and Latin authors.-We have al"ready moft of their Hiftorians in our own tongue, and, "what is more for the honour of our language, it has "been taught to exprefs with elegance the greatest of "their Poets in each nation. The illiterate among our

66

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 reaion to think that the "Iliad will appear in English with as little disadvantage "to that immortal poem."

66

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) employ'd by Mr. Addison to tranflate it after him, fince he faith himself that he did it before. Contrariwife that Mr. Addifon 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 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 stage: "Let him (quoth one, whom I take to be

Mr. THEOBALD, Mift's Journal, June 8, 1728.) "publish fuch 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 fum of money) to promote the credit of "an exorbitant fubfcription. Gentle reader, be pleafed

ور

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

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 pro"pofed the book by fubfcription, and raised fome thou"fands of pounds for the fame: I believe the gentle"man did not fhare in the profits of this extravagant "fubfcription.

"After the Iliad, he undertook (faith

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.)

"the fequel of that work, the Odyffey; and having fe"cured the fuccefs by a numerous fubfcription, he em"ployed fome underlings to perform what, according to "his propofals, fhould come from his own hands." To which heavy charge we can in truth oppofe nothing but the words of

66

Mr. POPE'S PROPOSAL for the ODYSSEY,

(printed by J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.)

"I take this occafion to declare that the fubfcription for Shakespear belongs wholly to Mr. Tonfon: And 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 thefe 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 thofe extra"neous 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 fubfcription was begun without declaration of fuch affiftance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as their term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Vifcount HARCOURT, were he living, would teftify, and the right honourable the Lord BATHURST, now living, doth teftify 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.

66

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.

"Mr. Addifon raifed this author from obfcurity, ob"tained him the acquaintance and friendship of the whole body of our nobility, and transferred his powerful in"terefts with those great men to this rifing bard, who frequently levied by that means unusual contributions on the public." Which furely cannot be, if, as the author of The Dunciad diffected reporteth ; "Mr. Wy"cherley had before introduced him into a familiar ac"quaintance with the greatest Peers and brightest Wits "then living.

66

"No fooner (faith the fame Journalist) was his body "lifeless, but this author, reviving his refentment, li"belled the memory of his departed friend; and, what

was ftill more heinous, made the fcandal public.” Grievous the accufation! unknown the accufer! the perfon accufed no witnefs in his own caufe; the person, in whofe regard accufed, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whofe friendship, yea any one gentleman whofe fubfcription Mr. Addison procured to our author; let him ftand forth, that truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis amica veritas. In verity, the whole ftory of the libel is a lye; witnefs thofe persons of integrity, who feveral years before Mr. Addison's decease, did fee and approve of the said verses, in no wise a libel, but a friendly rebuke fent privately in our author's own hand to Mr. Addison himself, and never made public, 'till after their own Journals, and Curl had printed the fame. One nanie alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will fufficiently evince this truth, that of the right honourable the Earl of BURLINGTON.

Next is he taxed with a crime (in the opinion of fome authors, I doubt, more heinous than any in morality) to wit, Plagiarifm, from the inventive and quaint-conceited

JAMES-MOORE SMITH Gent.

Upon rea ing the third volume of Pope's Mifcellanies, I found five lines which I thought excellent; "and happening to praise them, a gentleman produced a modern comedy (the Rival Modes) published laft year, where were the fame verfes to a tittle.

་

"Thefe gentlemen are undoubtedly the first plagiaries, "that pretend to make a reputation by ftealing from a " man's works in his own life-time, and out of a Public print." Let us join to this what is written by the author of the Rival Modes, the faid Mr. James-Moore Smith, in a letter to our author himself, who had informed him, a month before that play was acted, Jan. 27, 1726-7, that "These verses, which he had before .46 given him leave to infert in it, would be known for "his, fome copies being got abroad. He defires, ne"vertheless, that fince the lines had been read in his comedy to feveral, Mr. P. would not deprive it of them," &c. Surely, if we add the teftimonies of the Lord BOLINGBROKE, of the Lady to whom the faid verfes were originally addreffed, of Hugh Bethel Efq. and others, who knew them as our author's, long before the faid gentleman compofed his play; it is hoped, the ingenuous that affect not error, will rectify their opinion by the fuffrage of fo honourable perfonages.

16

And yet followeth another charge, infinuating no lefs than his enmity both to Church and State, which could come from no other informer than the faid

Mr. JAMES-MOORE SMITH.

"The Memoirs of a Parish clerk was a very dull " and unjust abuse of a person who wrote in defence of our Religion and Conftitution, and who has been dead This feemeth also most untrue; it bemany years. ing known to divers that thefe Memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt in Oxfordshire, before that

z Daily Journal, March 18, 1728. a Daily Journal, April 3, 1728.