Chapter III (2)

Thus has he put himself above _Homer_, _Sophocles_, _Virgil_, _Horace_, _Corneille_, _Racine_, _Boileau_, &c. Notwithstanding we were so happy in Mr. _Dryden_'s Criticisms, Doctor _Felton_ is of Opinion the Art is not brought enough to Perfection among us; and therefore earnestly sollicites Sir _Richard Steel_ to write Comments upon _Homer_ and _Virgil_, as Mr. _Addison_ has done upon _Milton_. I am satisfied Sir _Richard Steel_ did not keep his Countenance if ever that Passage of the Doctor's came in his Way. I will not say the same of Mr. _Trap_, who, they tell me, is a Poet by his Place, or a _made_ Poet, better by half than one born so; but if Doctor _Felton_ had foreseen that the ingenious Gentleman would have came off as He did with _Virgil_, and in what a sad Place Doctor _Swift_ would find his Translation, I believe he would have postpon'd the Encomium, _What a polite Critick may do if he pleases_, says the Doctor, _and in how different an Aspect_ Criticism _appears, when formed by Men of Parts and Fire, we may see in Mr._ Trap; and the Encomium continues for a Page or two: But the aforesaid Translation having cut the Matter short, I will repeat no more of it.

_Cowley_ was in as great Vogue 60 or seventy Years ago, as any Composer or Translater of our Time has been, and Doctor _Felton_ without knowing that his Character is worn, informs us, that his _Davideis_ is as good an Epick Poem as the _Ilias_, that his Lyricks are as good as _Pindar_'s or _Horace_'s, that he wrote Elegies as well as _Tibullus_, Epistles as well as _Ovid_, Pastorals as well as _Theocritus_; and that his _Cutter of Colmanstreet_ is as good a Comedy as the _Adelphi of Terence_. The Doctor's own Words are; _He rivalled the_ Greek _and_ Latin _Poets in every Thing but Tragedy._ His saying so is the more remarkable, for that he had seen the Preface to _Dryden_'s Fables, wherein that incomparable Critick, as he terms him, says _Cowley_ is sunk in his Reputation, and the late Duke of _Bucks_ in his Essay acknowledges as much:

Cowley _might boast to have perform'd his Part,
Had he with Nature joyn'd the Rules of Art:
But ill Expression gives sometimes Allay
To noble Thoughts------------
Tho' All appears in Heat and Fury done,
The Language still must soft and easy run._

Doctor _Felton_ in Praise of Criticism tells us, with equal Elegance and Perspicuity, _If the Rules had not been given, we had not been troubled with_ many fewer _Writers:_ And in the Pursuit of his own excellent Work, he declares, _He has tempered the_ Briskness _of Thought with the Sedateness of Judgement._ The _French_ have their _Pensees Brusques_, but the Doctor could not fall so low as that. _Brusque_ signifying _blunt_, _rash_, and the like. This _Briskness_ is, I suppose, more agreeable to the Conception of a certain Bookseller, who being written to by a certain Squire for a _brisk History_, sent him by the next Carrier that of _Don Quixot_. This was thirty Years ago, before we were so well furnished with _brisk Histories_ as we have been since.

I take _brisk_ in our Tongue to be to _lively_, as _pert_ is to _witty_: But I cannot depend on my own Judgement; the Translator of _Homer_ having used _Briskness_ in the same Sense as Doctor _Felton_ uses it: _Heaven and Earth became engaged in the Subject, by which it rises to a great Importance, and is hastened forward into the briskest Scenes of Action._ If that Author could bear the least Objection to any Thing that belongs to him, I would ask the Reader whether he does not fancy there is some Affectation in the Expression. But let that pass; if we are rightly informed, the Word _Brisk_ is in the _Teutonick Friesch_, which is in plain English _Frisk_, and then for the Gods and Demi-gods to frisk up and down the Field of Action, or the Doctor to frisk up and down his Closet is very indecorous. The Duke of _Buckingham_ in the _Rehearsal_ seems to take _Brisk_ in the latter Sense, as when Thunder and Lightning act their Parts on the Stage. The former says, I am the _bold Thunder_, the latter the _brisk Lightning I_. And not at all to derogate from the Character of Lightning, which has been so serviceable to all Sorts of Poetry and Poets, I cannot help confirming my Opinion by a very common Simile, and saying _As brisk as bottled Ale_.

Among all the Refiners of our Tongue, 'tis the vulgar Notion, that Sir _Roger L'Estrange_ was most eminent. True it is, Doctor _Felton_ owns he was good for nothing but _Banter_ and _Railing_; for that is what we in _England_ generally mean by Raillery. Tho' _Smith_ and _Johnson_ in the _Rehearsal_ are not the most lively Characters; yet their Dialogue with _Bayes_ is what the _French_ call _Raillery_. We in _England_ do mean very often the Dialogue of _Billinsgate_, where it is common enough to hear one Fish-Woman cry to another, _No more of your Raillery_, which is there the worst Sort of Railling; and for that and Banter the Doctor assures us _L'Estrange_ was most proper. The same say I, and that he understood no more of true Eloquence than he did of _Greek_, out of which the Booksellers hired him to translate _Josephus_, and he did it from the _French_ Translation. The Philosopher _Seneca_'s Works he pretended to translate from the _Latin_, and I wish Mr. _Trap_ would translate the following Phrases in his _Seneca_'s _Morals_ back into that Tongue again, _One good Turn is the shoeing Horn to another._ _He does me Good in spite of my Teeth._ _After a Matter of eight Years_; and this into _Greek_ for _Esop_'s Fables, The _Moon was in a heavy Twitter_: Yet I'm satisfied these fine Sayings are some of those that gained him the Reputation of being a polite Writer of _English_: I have heard that about the Moon very much commended, which shews that we are not sufficiently sensible how mean Words debase a Thought. _There's nothing_, says _Boileau_, _which debases a Discourse more than mean Words. A mean Thought exprest in noble Terms, is generally better than the most noble Thoughts exprest in mean Terms._ I know no greater Instance of the ill Effect of mean Terms, than what we find in two Verses of Mr. _Montague_'s Epistle to the Lord _Dorset_ on King _William_'s Victory at the _Boyne_. 'Tis in the greatest Heat of that glorious Action, and in the Middle of the _Sublime_, which is not wanting in that Poem.

_Stop, stop, brave Prince! What does your Muse, Sir, faint!
Proceed, pursue his Conquest. Faith I can't._

Mr. _Philips_'s Poems, the _splendid Shilling_ and _Cyder_, are full of Instances where mean Thoughts are raised by noble Expressions, and they are wonderfully pleasing; as in _Cyder_; this of the _Pear-Tree_.

_What tho' the Pear Tree rival not the Worth
Of_ Ariconian _Products, yet her Freight
Is not contemn'd, and her wide branching Arms
Best screen thy Mansion from the fervent Dog,
Adverse to Life. The wintry Hurricanes
In vain employ their Roar; her Trunk unmov'd,
Breaks the strong Onset, and controuls their Rage;
Chiefly the_ Bosbury, _whose large Increase,
Annual in sumptuous Banquets, claims Applause.
Thrice acceptable_ Bevrage! _could but Art
Subdue the floating_ Lee, Pomona_'s self
Would dread thy Praise, and shun the dubious Strife.
Be it thy Choice, when Summer Heats annoy,
To sit beneath her leavy Canopy,
Quaffing rich Liquids, Oh! how sweet t'enjoy
At once her Fruits, and hospitable Shade._

I have never met with any Author who so happily imitated the manner and stile of _Milton_ as _Philips_ has done, and there seems to be hardly any other Difference than that of the Subjects they wrote of.

What I have quoted out of _L'Estrange_ is nothing to the Delicacy of a modern Writer of Plays, who without Wit, Language, Learning, or Manners, wrote three or four Farces, which took as much as _Pradon_'s in _France_; but the _English_ have not recollected themselves so soon as the _French_ did; for _Pradon_ out-liv'd the Vogue he was in, and became a greater Jest than ever he had made. What think ye of our Poet's Delicacy and Wit, who in a gallant Letter to his Mistress, tells her, _He's gall'd with riding, Love is forging Darts in his Belly; he's a Dog in a Doublet_, &c. There's a deal of graver Nonsense with it, but it being mostly _Blasphemy_, I dare not repeat it. This Author had his Portion of temporary Fame. _Ogilvy_ had his Day, and _Dryden_ says:

_Fame, like a little Mistress of the Town,
Is gain'd with Ease; but then she's lost as soon._

However, as long as the Credit lasts, these temporary Authors bear the Port of the greatest Genius, are clapt and star'd at, as those Merchants who are driving in their Coaches to Bankrupcy, have generally the best Equipage. What are become of the _Marots_, the _Ronsards_, the _Scuderies_ of our neighbour Nation, yet these Writers were infinitely superiour to what most of our taking Authors have been. Could any Body have thought that Sir _Richard Baker_'s Chronicle would ever have past from the Justice's Hall Window to the Butler's Cellar, or that _Cowley_'s _Mistress_ would have lost all her Charms in thirty Years Time, and become a Cast-Off for City Prentices and Lawyers Clerks, to say nothing of _Orinda_, _Flatman_, &c. Yet these Writers were Originals which raises their Merit much above all Sorts of Translators, and it ought to be a Lesson to all Poets and Historians, whether first Hand or second Hand, to pay the World for their Applause with Modesty, which is the surest Way to keep it in a good Humour; _Since 'tis Posterity only_, says _Boileau_, _which sets a Value upon all Writings, you must not, as admirable as you take a modern Author to be, presently put him upon a Level with those Writers who have been admired for so many Ages, because one cannot be sure his Works will pass with Glory to the next. Indeed without going far for Examples, How many Authors have we seen admired in our Age, whose Glory is vanished in a very few Years. How were_ Balzac_'s Works admired thirty Tears ago?_ So much that Cardinal _Richelieu_ at the same Time that he was meditating the universal Monarchy for the Crown of _France_, wrote in Vindication of them. The Bishop of _Rochester_ did the same for _Cowley_; but neither the Cardinal nor the Bishop could defend them from the Fate of all Temporary Authors. Neither _Cowley_ nor _Balzac_ are now any more mentioned in _France_ or _England_. And the main Reason why they lost their Credit was for want of duly considering what their particular Talents were adapted to; for that they had both very great Talents is universally acknowledged, _Mons. de_ Balzac _a passe toute sa vie a ecrire des lettres, dont il n'a jamais pu attraper le veritable Charectere._ Balzac _spent all his Time in writing Letters, but could never hit the true Character._ _Cowley_ applied himself to Poetry, and never enough knew the Power and Harmony of Numbers. He had a great deal too much Wit to charm his Mistress with his Passion. Very few of us are let into this Secret. We cannot believe that a Poet can have too much Wit, and indeed the Offence given that Way is not very common. The last Duke of _Bucks_ rightly instructs us:

_Another Fault which often does befall,_ }
_Is when the Wit of some great Poet shall_ }
_So overflow, as to be none at all._ }

Again,

_That silly Thing we call sheer Wit avoid_.

This probably was a Rebuke to the Author of the _Plain-Dealer_ and _Country-Wife_, who has transgressed in this kind as much as any Body, and was the best able to do it. The Author of the _Relapse_ is not entirely free from this Censure, nor the Authors of _Love for Love_, and the _Funeral_. But it will not be more surprising than it is true, that _Peter Motteux_ declared he had taken a great deal of pains with a Character in a Farce of his, to bring it within the Duke of _Buckingham_'s Rule in those Places where he told me he had given it too much Wit. Mr. _Walsh_, one of the greatest Criticks of our Nation, observes, that the Softness, Tenderness, and Violence of Passion, are wanting in Mr. _Cowley_'s Love Verses, insomuch that he _could hardly fancy he was in Love when he wrote them_. _Pref._ to _Lett._ Yet there were Variety and Learning enough in them, and more Wit than in all our witty Poets since the Restoration, excepting those above-mentioned. Mr. _Wycherly_, who wrote as good Comedies as any in the _English_, or any other Tongue, did not value himself so much upon them as on a Folio of as bad Verses as any. _Creech_ having had Success in _Lucretius_, was put upon translating _Horace_, and it is said by _Dryden_, that he might lose so much of his Reputation, as to prevent Rivalship. Nay, _Butler_, tho' he knew the Follies of Mankind so perfectly well, did not perceive that there is no greater Folly than to undertake what one is not fit for, and was persuaded to let _Hudibras_ translate _Ovid_. On this Rock many Authors have split, who would have succeeded had they consulted their Talents, and taken the right Course: but it is a general Maxim with us in _England_, Verses are Verses. He that can write one Thing, can write another, and till our Taste is so refined, that we can distinguish the Good and the Bad in the various Kinds of Thinking, Writers will not be at the Pains to consult their Talents, but content themselves with pleasing their own Fancy, or that of the Publick, by which Means, like Flies, they make a buzzing for a Day or two, and are forgotten for ever. The _Spectator_ very judiciously animadverts on this Weakness: _Our general Taste in_ England _is for Epigram, Turns of Wit, and forced Conceits, which have no manner of Influence, either for the bettering or enlarging the Mind of him who reads them, and have been carefully avoided by the greatest Writers, both among the Antients and Moderns._ He adds after Mr. _Dryden_, _The Taste of most of our_ English _Poets is extreamly_ Gothick, _which I have endeavoured to banish in several of my Speculations_.

Another remarkable Observation of Dr. _Felton_'s is, that the _best Performers are the best Judges_. He has only _Horace_ against him of the Antients, and _Dacier_ of the Moderns, as is already observed in this Essay. I believe no Body will deny, but Mr. _Walsh_ before-mentioned was one of our best Judges of Regularity and Wit, yet hardly any Body will say he was one of our best Performers. There's nothing more common with small Genius's and small Judges, than to demand of all Criticks _to write themselves_ before they criticise upon others Writings. They would stare if it should be said, that _Dursey_ knew no more of Poetry than he did of Philosophy, nor of _English_ than of _Hebrew_; though it is very true, if it be understood of the Art of Poetry, and the Beauty of Language; yet, that he was a Performer, is I doubt not well known to the Doctor, and well approved of. To teach us good Language by Example, Dr. _Felton_ expresses himself thus elegantly and unaffectedly. _When I wrote these Sheets, my Lord_ Landsdown_'s Poems lay dispersed up and down in the Miscellanies; but some kind Hand_, as for Instance the Bookseller, upon a very laudable Motive, _hath assembled those scattered Stars, and added another Lyre to the Constellation_; which, though it is meant, to do singular Honour to those Poems, must have an ill Effect in astronomical Observations; it makes thirteen to the Dozen in the twelve Houses, and must cause as much Confusion, as two Signs of the Harp in a short Lane. The Modesty of the following Passage adds as much to its Merit as to the Truth of it: _If I offered any Thing which is not commonly observed, I hope it will not be interpreted any Singularity, but such as may render your Lordship more eminent and distinguished in the World_; and having taught his noble Pupil what he should imitate, he gives him warning what he should avoid, and that is the Reading any Thing written by a _Presbyterian_: _What crude indigested Volumes! How many tedious Sheets without Argument or Consistency, are the Writings of some of the_ Dissenters! whom does he mean, such as _Bates_, _Manton_, _How_, _Pool_, _Clarkson_, _Alsop_, &c. He and some other good Church-Criticks make _Presbyterianism_ to be a Sort of _Hellebore_, if you do but snuff it up in your Nose you run mad immediately. Thence it is, that the _Presbyterians_ are termed _Fanatici_, by the learned and sober Writers of our two famous Universities. Is it expected, that every Orthodox Doctor should know as much as Bishop _Stillingfleet_, or write as well as Archbishop _Tillotson_? Where is the Reason or Justice of censuring a Body of Men for the Enthusiasm and Ignorance of a few? Would this Doctor suffer the Tables to be turn'd, and a Judgement to be made of the Writings of good Church-men, by the Argument and Consistency of the Works, with which the learned World are obliged by those of the Country Clergy, whose Pieces can crawl to the Press, whether in Prose or Verse, Meditations or Hymns. I do verily believe he did not think of Dr. _Bates_, when he fell thus furiously on Dissenters, or had ever seen any of his Writings, which are as polite as the Politest of our Age; the Sentiments as pious, as great, as noble, and as just, according to the Subject, and the Language as pure and as harmonious. What can be more so, than this Passage of his _Harmony of the divine Attributes_, speaking of the Fall of _Adam_: _Prodigious Pride! He was scarce out of the State of Nothing, no sooner created but he aspired to be as God; not content with his Image, he would rob God of his Eternity to live without End; of his Sovereignty to command without Dependance; of his Wisdom to know all Things without Reserve. Infinite Insolence! that Man the Son of Earth, forgetful of his Original, should usurp the Prerogatives, which are essential to the Deity, and set himself up a real Idol, was a Strain of the same Arrogancy which corrupted the Angels._ This is what Dr. _Felton_ calls _Presbyterian Crudity_. It is strange, but it is true, that there is a Narrowness of Soul, and a Conceit in some of our Ecclesiasticks founded on the Establishment which we do not meet with in others; nay, not in those who pretend to Supremacy and Infallibility. Father _Bouhours_, though as zealous a Jesuit as any in _France_, yet had so just a Notion of every one's Merit in polite Learning, that he freely owns the Refinement of the _French_ Tongue, and the _French_ Manners was owing to those of the reformed Religion, even to _Presbyterians_. _Nous devons aux dernieres Heresies une partie de l'Embellissement de notre Langue, & de la politesse de notre Siecle._

And another _French_ Bigot tells us; _One of their Historians has observed, that the pretended Reformers began to speak well and write well, and were the First that shewed their Way to others_. They were all of them _Presbyterians_:

--------Parvos femando libellos
Sucratis populumq; rudem amorcando parolis.

Our _Staunch_ Criticks will not allow, that a _Presbyterian_ ever had or could have any Wit or any Eloquence, though it was only to make an ill Use of it. No, no Body must be well-born or well-bred, that is without the Pale. No Man must be brave, nor Woman beautiful. The Men are all painted with cropt Hair, and the Women with Forehead-Cloaths, unless they assent and consent. No Wit, no Language, no Honour, nor any Thing that's good, is to be had any more than Matrimony without a Licence. _Vide Grand Rebellion_, and Mr. _Echard_'s _History of England_.

I am so very well entertain'd with _Dryden_'s _Virgil_, that I am glad to meet with any Excuse for his Translation; and would allow Dr. _Felton_'s, that _the Faults are to be ascribed partly to some Defects of our Language_; if the Doctor himself, a few Lines before, had not said of the same Language, _that it is capable of all the Beauty, Strength, and Significancy of the_ Greek _and_ Latin. The Faults which have been generally found with _Dryden_ as to _Virgil_, have been his mistaking or altering the Sense of the Original, and turning the _Epick_ Stile into _Elegiack_. I doubt not but the _English_ Tongue has Expression for _English_ Sentiments, let them be ever so great and sublime; but I may very well doubt whether it has Diction equal to the Strength and Dignity of the _Ilias_, without the Helps _Milton_ made use of, as compounding of Words and reviving some old Teutonicks, which would look very uncouthly among the Softnesses and Gingles of our fine Writers of late.

I wish the Doctor had explain'd how he would have us to understand him, when he informs us, that to translate well is more difficult than to write well; by which he intimates, that to form a Fable for a great and important Action, to mark the Characters with suitable Sentiments, to conduct the One and maintain the Other with Art and Elevation diversify'd with proper Episodes; through such a Work as the _Ilias_, is so far from being the principal Part of an _Epick_ Poem that it is no Part at all; for with all this the Translator has nothing to do. The Labour and Merit of it, according to Dr. _Felton_, consist in the Language and Verses, in finding Words to express the Action and Sentiments, and to adorn those Words with Numbers and Harmony. This is all that is necessary in a Translation; and being also but some Parts of the Original, it cannot be more difficult to do a Part than to do the Whole. Can one suppose, that to write such a History as Mr. _Echard_'s from printed Books, written Books, from the Hearsay and Report of Men, Women and Children, is more difficult than to contrive and write such a One as the _Cassandra_ of _Calprenade_? or in plain _English_, that to invent and tell a Story, is much easier than the bare telling it only? It needs no Reflection. If the Version of _Homer_ had been born when he wrote, he must of Consequence have preferr'd it to the _Ilias_, which would have cost the Translator's Modesty, as much as Sir _Richard Steele_'s to be put upon a Comment on _Homer_ and _Virgil_. My Lord _Roscommon_ has explain'd this Matter to us sufficiently:

_Though Composition is the nobler Part,
Yet good Translation is no easy Art._

Monsieur _Maucroix_, who translated _Cicero_ into _French_, writes thus of translating to Monsieur _Boileau_: _You have told me more than once, that Translation is not the Way to Immortality_; and he excuses his meddling with it, on Account of his Want of Application and Knowledge: As to Immortality it is to be question'd, whether that was the main Thing our Translators had in View. It will not be deny'd, but that _Dryden_'s Bookseller put him upon translating _Virgil_, by the Temptation of so much a Line. And other Undertakers pay well enough to make a mortal Life a little comfortable, it is not much Matter whether the Work be immortal or not. _Ogilby_ however is sure of Immortality; for though his Translations are as dead as his Carcass, yet he will be remember'd in good Satyr for the Badness of them. _My Author_, says Monsieur _Maucroix_, _is learned for me, the Topicks are all digested, the Inventing and Disposing are none of my Business; I have nothing to do but to utter my self_. Which Utterance is much more difficult, as Dr. _Felton_ will have it, than to study, to digest, to invent, to dispose, and to utter too. I do not suppose, that a Man ever applied himself to Translation, if he felt in himself any of the heavenly Fire which animates a great Genius, or was ambitious of Fame by the Merit of an Epick Poem. It must be own'd, that Judgement is requisite in Translation as well as Composition, not only to preserve the Spirit of the Original, but also to make Choice of such a One as the Translator may be best able to manage. Mr. _Charles Hopkins_ was Master of this Secret; and instead of attempting _Homer_ or _Virgil_, he contented himself with _Ovid_, and succeeded to Admiration. _Hopkins_ knew, that the Manners and Sentiments in _Ovid_ were natural and universal, which must please in all Ages; whereas, but a very few can relish the Quarrels and Battles, which are the main Subject of the _Ilias_. The Learned have explained to us, for what it is that our Adoration is due to _Homer_: For the Unity and Greatness of his Fable, the Variety and Dignity of his Characters, and his sublime Thought and Expression; I dare not say Diction and Sentiments, because the _Spectator_ has disgraced the Use of technical Terms, by calling it Cant; and supposing, that those who use them, do it to disguise their Ignorance, and shew their Vanity in critical Phrase.

I should be glad to know, which it is of all _Homer_'s before-mention'd Excellencies, that has so delighted the Ladies, and the Gentlemen who judge like Ladies; or whether ever a One of those Excellencies has been at all distinguished from the Other; or whether there is any Possibility of expressing the Sublime of the _Greek_ Tongue in our Language. As to the Sentiments, which are a principal Part of Epick Poetry, they may be translated; we very probably think much after the same Manner the _Greeks_ did, though we do not speak so. The Passions are the same in all humane Nature; and probably the Expression of them, by so great a Master of our Tongue as the Translator of _Homer_, may gain as much as it may lose by the Translation. But the Mischief of it is, these Sentiments are that Part of the _Ilias_ which the Criticks have made most bold with:

_For who, without a Qualm, hath ever look'd
On holy Garbage, though by_ Homer _cook'd?
Whose railing Heroes, and whose wounded gods,
Make some suspect he snores as well as nods.
But I offend_--------
Roscom.

_Dormitat Homerus_; that _Homer_ sometimes sleeps, was said before by _Horace_. The _Spectator_ informs us, that _Homer_ is censured by the Criticks, for his Defect as to the Sentiments in several Parts of the _Ilias_ and _Odysses_. However, it is most certain, that the Translation of _Homer_ must have pleased Ladies and Gentlemen by these very Sentiments, or by the Translator's beautiful Diction and Versification. But then all the great Parts of Epick Poetry are lost to them, especially those that depend on the Dignity and Strength of Expression, which will not be pretended to be entirely preserved in the _English_ Version.

Reading _Dacier_ a few Days since, I was extreamly surprised at a Criticism of his on a Translation of _Homer_, by a much greater Critick than himself, even _Horace_ his Master, who has thus translated the Beginning of the _Odyssey_:

Dic mihi, Musa, virum, captæ post tempora Trojæ,
Qui mores Hominum Multorum vidit & Urbes.

_Muse, sing the Man, who after_ Troy _was taken
The Manners of many Men and Cities saw._

I have aimed to be literal here, the better to explain _Dacier_'s Remarks. _There are considerable Faults in this Translation_, says Monsieur _Dacier_, _he has forgotten the Epithet [Greek: polytropon], which marks_ Ulysses_'s Character; he neglects the Circumstance that makes us most concern'd for him, [Greek: hos mala planchthê], who wandered a long Time, he says in a loose Way, after the Taking of_ Troy; _whereas, it is in_ Homer _after having ruined_ Troy. Now, if _Horace_, who had studied and admired _Homer_ so much, as to make him a Pattern for all future Writers of _Heroick_ Poems, could mistake three Times in translating two Lines, what a Discouragement must it have been to those who knew how he had succeeded in attempting it? 'Tis true, no Poet will ever undertake a Translation with more Advantage than the last Translator of _Homer_ had; for besides Eight or Ten Versions in _Latin_, _Italian_, _French_, &c. there are Three or Four in _English_; a Prose Translation by Madam _Dacier_, and a Cart-load of Comments in all Languages. I am satisfy'd so good a Versifyer as the Translator of the _Ilias_ might with those Helps, have made a very good Translation, without understanding any more _Greek_ than my self; and nothing in the World could have been more easy, than out of one Commentator to have corrected another, and to have alter'd and amended the Reading in the Name of any of the Criticks, from _Eustathius_ down to _Dacier_. I do not boast of being Master of _Greek_ enough to read _Homer_ with so much Pleasure in the Original as I could do in a good Version, and it is much to be question'd, whether every one that can read him in the Original do understand what they read: Several Ladies and Gentlemen have subscribed for _Chaucer_ of the _Christ-Church_ Edition, but I doubt very much whether they understand him or not, and whether a great many, who can read _Greek_, do really know what they read. One of the greatest Masters of the _Greek Tongue_, in our Time, has often question'd whether there were Twenty Men in _England_ who understood the Strength, Beauty, and Elegance of that Language, tho' there are a Thousand that pretend to it. He represented it as a Study for a Man's Life, and I am confirm'd in this Judgement by what _Menage_ tells us of himself, and others upon this Subject. 'Tis well known _Menage_ wrote several Things in _Greek_, particularly some Odes in Imitation of _Anacreon_, which are not thought inferiour to the _Teian_ Poet's; _J'ay toujours fait beaucoup de cas de ceux qui savent le grec_, &c. _He always highly valued those that understood_ Greek. He does not mean to construe and parse it as Boys do at School, which is the most of what we find in those who pretend to be Masters of it. _Without this Language_, continues he, _a Man can't be said to be more than half Learned: Monsieur_ Cotelier, _Monsieur de_ Treville, _and Monsieur_ Bigot, _are the only Men in_ France, _who can read the_ Greek _Fathers in the Original._ I suppose the Fathers are not so difficult as _Homer_ with respect to the Tongue at least; for the Language of Poetry is peculiar to it, a made Language compounded and metaphorical. If it be so, the Translation of the _Ilias_, from the _Greek_ of _Homer_, must shew the Translator to be a greater Master of the _Greek_ Language than all the Learned Men in _France_ except Three, and all the Learned Men in _England_ except about Twenty. For my own Part, I confess, I make bold with all Kinds of Versions to help me out in Originals, and am not asham'd to do as _Menage_ did; _I own I do not understand_ Pindar _enough_, says he, _to take Pleasure in him_. I have heard _Pindar_ quoted a Hundred Times by Persons who were very far from being so modest as _Menage_, and fully satisfy'd themselves that they understood him as well as the _Græcians_, to whom he read his _Odes_, tho' I suspected the contrary. _Menage_, again; _I never read a_ Greek _Author without having before read the Translation_.

I do not insinuate any thing to depreciate the Translator of _Homer_'s excellent Performance, which, as I have observ'd, has the Merit of the most pure and harmonious Diction and Versification; but to hint a little of the Confusion of our Taste, and the Irregularity of our Judgement, which like Things for Beauties which they have not, and not for those which they have. Thus the Version of _Homer_ is lik'd as a Translation of the best _Epick_ Poem that ever was written, and not for the Softness and Sweetness of the Elegy, which are every where to be met with, as where the God _Apollo_ appears in the Shape of _Agenor_:

_Flies from the furious Chief in this Disguise,
The furious Chief still follows as he flies._

This is what the _French_ call _Jeu des Mots_, playing upon Words, and what _Dryden_'s _Virgil_ is full of, tho' he knew as well as any Body that it was a Fault: _The Turn of Thoughts, and Words_, says he, _is the chief Talent of the_ French; _but the_ Epick _Poem is too stately to receive such little Ornaments_, which would have been in Perfection in a Version of _Ovid_, and very little agrees with _Waller_ in his Epistle to my Lord _Roscommon_;

_Well sounding Verses are the Charm we use,
Heroick Thoughts, and Virtue to infuse:
Things of deep Sense, we may in Prose unfold,
But they move more, in lofty Numbers told:
By the loud Trumpet, which our Courage aids,
We learn that Sound, as well as Sense, perswades._

In these Things our Taste is strangely confin'd: provided the Verses run smoothly, and the Language is soft and harmonious, we think it is fine: Let the Subject be a _Boreas_, or a _Zephyr_: Nay, I do not question but the Couplet I quoted out of the _English_ _Homer_ is reckon'd one of the finest of the Version by Ladies, and Gentleman who judge like Ladies, and who are the Nine in Ten of all Readers of Poetry. I confess, I am much more pleas'd with the following Verses, as rough and rumbling as they are, because they participate of the Roughness of the Thing which is imag'd to us,

_Jumping high o'er the Shrubs of the rough Ground,
Rattle the clattering Cars, and the shockt Axles bound._

When such assimilating the Sound to the Sense is not affected 'tis very agreeable; but when there is any Force or Affectation in it, 'tis puerile and distasteful.

The following Description of the Poetical Fire, which several Poets were enflam'd with, seems to be somewhat deficient, and to want farther Explanation; especially where the Translator tells us, MILTON's Fire _is like a Furnace, but_ Shakespear_'s like a Fire from Heaven_: VIRGIL's like a _Kenning-Glass_, and _Lucan_'s and _Statius_'s like _Lightning_. The _Kenning-Glass_ should have given me no Manner of Disturbance: But why is _Milton_'s _Celestial Fire_ compar'd to that which destroy'd the _Three Children_; the Fire of a Furnace is boisterous and voracious, consuming whatever is within its Reach. _Milton_'s Fire, like that of the Sun, warms and enlivens; and if ever any was fetch'd from Heaven, 'twas that, which shines with so much radiant Brightness throughout his whole Poem. I was the more shockt with this Misrepresentation of _Milton_'s Fire, for that there's something burlesque in the very Expression, a _Furnace_, and one can't help being jealous that this Passage of _Hudibras_ might give the Hint for it.

Talgol, _who had long possest
Enflamed Rage in glowing Breast,
Which now began to rage, and burn as
Implacably as Flame in Furnace._

Tho' I am very far from taking _Dryden_ to be a perfect Master of Criticism, yet I do not think his Deficiency proceeded from Want of Judgement so much as from Inconsistency and Vanity, and an Opinion that he was Tyrant of _Parnassus_, and might govern by Will and Pleasure instead of Law and Reason. I have observed elsewhere that he adapts his Prefaces to the Circumstances of every Play and Poem, and very often contradicts in one what he had said in another: Nay, in his Essay on _Dramatick Poetry_, the Contradiction is within a few Lines of the Assertion, as thus; _There is no Theater in the World has any Thing so absurd as the_ English Tragi-Comedy, which he confirms by this Verse;

_Atq; ursem & Pugiles media inter Carmina poscunt_.

And a little after; _I cannot but conclude, to the Honour of our Nation, that we have invented, encreased, and perfected, a more pleasant Way of Writing than was ever known to the Antients or Moderns of any Nation, which is_ Tragi-Comedy. _One of the most monstrous Inventions_, says the _Spectator_, _that ever enter'd into the Poet's Thought. An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of_ Æneas _and_ Hudibras _into one Poem, as of writing such a motley Piece of Mirth and Sorrow_. Whatever others thought of Mr. _Dryden_'s Criticisms, he did himself full Justice, and seem'd to despise all other Criticks at the same Time that he laid himself most open to them. _These little Criticks do not well consider what the Work of the Poet is, and what the Graces of a Poem; the Story is the least Part of either._ Pref. to _Moch-Astrol._ Against him is every Critick, ancient and modern, from _Aristotle_ to _Rimer_, and more than all of them against him is his own self. In another Place he writes thus; _The Fable is without doubt the chief Part of a Tragedy, because it contains the Action, and the Action contains the Happiness or Misery, which is the End of Tragedy. Without the Fable the Poet, who had otherwise good Manners, Sentiments, and Diction, would no more have made a regular Poem, than a Painter would have made a good Picture that had mingled Blue, Yellow, Red, and other Colours confusedly together._ I do not mention these Things to lessen Mr. _Dryden_'s great Character as a Poet; but to shew how well Dr. _Felton_ could judge of it, when he recommended him to us as a Critick. Against Mr. _Dryden_, as to the _Story_, _is Rapin_, who he assures us would _be alone sufficient, were all other Criticks lost, to teach a-new the Rules of Writing_. Against his _Rapin_ we find the Translator of _Homer_ in an extraordinary Manner in his Notes on the Fifth _Iliad_. I hope it did not arise from any Resentment for that Jesuit's reflecting on those Poets who seem to place the Essence of Poetry in fine Language, and smooth Verse, to which he ascribes its present Decay. _As if the Art consisted only in Purity and Exactness of Language: This indeed pleased well, and was much to the Advantage of Women that had a Mind to be tampering in Writing Verse: They found it their Concern to give Vogue to this Kind of Writing, of which they were as capable as the most Part of Men: For all the Secret was no more than to make some little easy Verses, in which they were content if they cou'd dress some soft passionate Thoughts_, &c. The most of our modern Poets being interested in this Affair, I shall say no more of it.

I have hinted more than once, that such Poets, and their Admirers, almost always mistake Affectation for Beauty, and I wonder the Translator of _Homer_ should give them the least Countenance by his Example; for I am very much deceiv'd if there is a more affected Period in the _English_ Tongue than what follows: _Nothing is more lively_ and Picturesque _than the_ Attitude _of_ Patroclus _is describ'd in; The_ Pathetick _of his Speech is finely_ contrasted _by the_ Fierte _of_ Achilles. Again, _There's something inexpressibly_ riant _in the_ Compartments of _Achilles_'s Shield. In the _Spectator_, Nº 297. you read thus: _The last Fault which I shall take notice of in Stile, is the frequent Use of_ technical _Words or Terms of Art_. The bringing in more _French_ Words to soften and enervate our Stile is of very ill Consequence. The Translator, besides _Riant_, has also _Traits_, _ensanguin'd_, &c. I doubt, the Last is hardly a Word in any other Language, and does not at all enrich our own. _Dryden_, in an Epistle to the Earl of _Orrery_, has this Remark upon it: _I wish we might at length leave to borrow Words of another Nation, which is now a Wontonness in us, not a Necessity: But so long as some affect to speak, there will not be wanting others, who will have the Boldness to write them_.

If I might make Use of the Word _Contrast_, nothing can be more so than Affectation and Simplicity; and the Translator seems, either not to have a just Notion of the Latter, or to have a very ill Opinion of it: For without distinguishing between Simplicity and Negligence, he affirms, _That Simplicity is a Word of Disguise for a shameful unpoetical Neglect of Expression_, he makes no Exception in this general Charge. And thus one of the greatest Beauties of both Thought and Expression is rendered one of the greatest Deformities. Father _Bouhours_ asserts, that _Simplicity contributes the most of any Thing to make a Stile perfect_; and again, _The Holy Scripture, the Stile of which is, at the same Time, so_ simple _and so_ sublime.

Mr. _Addison_ has treated of the noble Force of Simplicity as it relates to Thought; and in the following Verses, if I am not mistaken, the Simplicity of Expression as well as Thought is noble:

_So chear'd he his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd;
But silently a gentle Tear let fall
From either Eye, and wip'd them with her Hair.
Two other precious Drops, that ready stood
Each in their chrystal Sluice, he 'ere they fell
Kist, as the gracious Signs of sweet Remorse,
And pious Awe, that fear'd to have offended._

It is certain, Simplicity, as well as other Virtues in Speech, has its Vice, and that is Meanness which falls naturally into Burlesque, as this Line:

_Then he will talk--good gods! How he will talk._

Which the _Spectator_ speaks of as inexpressibly beautiful for its Simplicity, though I think one can hardly repeat it with a grave Tone; and when I have heard it pronounced on the Stage in a burlesque Way, as it is in _The Plot and No Plot_; it has never fail'd of a hearty Laugh and Clap. _Spectator_, Nº 39. _There is a Simplicity in the Words, which out-shines the utmost Pride of Expression_; and he attributes it to the Break, _good gods_! He also informs us, that the Thought is at once _natural_, _soft_, _passionate_, and _simple_. It would have been well for us, if the learned Critick had told us in what this Thought is _simple_, in what _passionate_, in what _soft_, and in what _natural_, there being so few Words to express it; and I cannot help thinking, that it is but one fond Rant of an amorous Woman. True it is, Simplicity is not of it self very wordy, but methinks the Break, _good gods!_ has more of the _Passionate_ in it, than of the _Simple_ or the _Soft_; and may be as well used in Anger as in Love, as well in a Fright as in a Transport. It would have gone a good Way in explaining the different Kinds of Thought, if the judicious Author had distinguished them in this Line; for there are not so many Kinds in one Verse in all Father _Bouhour_'s _Maniere de bien penser_. I would not be mistaken here, nor be charged with Ostentation, in setting up my Judgement in Opposition to the _Spectator_'s; from whose Writings and Lessons, I have learned more than from all other Authors. I only offer it as an Instance, that the Best of our Criticks do not seem to have gone to the Bottom of this Subject. It never enter'd into the Heads of Writers and Readers in General, that Thought was any Thing but Thought, or Stile any Thing but Stile, or that there were any other Terms or Distinctions for them, but the Good and the Bad, as is already hinted; nor were they at all sensible of my Lord _Roscommon_'s Meaning in these Verses:

_Whose incoherent Stile, like sick Men's Dreams,
Varies all Shapes, and mixes all Extreams._

The same may be said of Thought.

I want very much to be informed, whether there is a perfect Agreement of Thought in these several Quotations out of _Homer_, or how they must be understood so as not to contradict one another. The first Couplet is against _Wine_:

_Inflaming Wine, pernicious to Mankind,
Unnerves the Limbs, and dulls the noble Mind._

The next Couplet is for Wine:

_With_ Thracian _Wines recruit thy honour'd Guests,
For happy Counsels flow from sober Feasts._

What follows taken out of the _Notes_ upon _Homer_ is against Wine. _What_ Hector _says against Wine in the two first Verses has a great Deal of Truth in it: It is a vulgar Mistake to imagine the Use of Wine, either raises the Spirits or encreases Strength._

The next Words are for Wine:

_Then with a plenteous Draught refresh his Soul,
And draw new Spirits from the generous Bowl._

Again for Wine:

_For Strength consists in Spirits and in Blood,
And those are ow'd to generous Wine and Food._

And the Translator's Observation, that the moderate Use of Wine does not raise the Spirits, is not the truer, because it is said by _Hector_, the Son of _Priam_. Father _Sirmond_, a sober reverend as well as learned Priest says quite another Thing:

Si bene commemini causæ sint quinque bibendi,
Hospitis Adventus, præsens Sitis, atque futura,
Et Vini bonitas, & quælibet altera Causa.

_If all be true_, &c.

Whoever reads an Author with Exactness cannot fail of meeting with several Passages, where Self-love, Humour, Party, or Complexion, are uppermost. Thus a good Catholick will never have a good Word for a Heretick, nor a _Puritan_ for a _Papist_. Dr. _Ch----_ will never speak well of Punch, nor Dr. _Mand----_ of Watergruel. He who writes well is jealous of him who judges well, and he who judges well envies him who writes well. The _Swifts_ turn every Thing into Grimace, the _Whistons_ into Mathematicks, and whatever touches an Author's own Taste, he is always recommending to his Reader.

We all remember how the Duke of _Malborough_ was treated by the blessed Peace-makers for beating their Friends the _French_. _Delight in War_ was a Mark set upon him in a most solemn Manner, and a memorable Instance of our Wisdom and Gratitude. There is a Paraphrase upon it in the Version of _Homer_; and when the Application is made will turn the _Epick_ into Satyr.

_Curs'd is the Man, and void of Law and Right,
Unworthy Property, unworthy Light;
Unfit for publick Rule or private Care,
That Wretch, that Monster who delights in War;
Whose Lust is Murder, and whose horrid Joy
To tear his Country_, &c.

To _tear_ a Country is very much in Heroicks. The Image of _Discord_ has good Lines in it; but methinks they would not have been the Worse, if they had been heated a little in _Milton_'s Furnace:

_Discord, dire Sister of the slaughtering Pow'r,
Small at her Birth,_ but rising ev'ry Hour;
_While scarce the Skies her horrid Head can bound,
She stalks on Earth, and_ shapes _the World around:
The Nations bleed, where e'er her Steps she turns,
The Groan still deepens, and the Combat burns._

I refer to the Judgement of the Reader, whether the following Image of Discord taken from a modern burlesque Poem, has not more of the Epick in it:

Non tulit invisæ speciem Discordia Pacis,
Ilicet horrentes ad fibila concitat hydros,
Ulcisci jubet Ira nefas. Spumantia felle
Ora tument, micat ex oculis ardentibus Ignis.

_Discord enrag'd at the Approach of Peace
Made her Snakes hiss, and urg'd to dire Revenge.
Her foaming Mouth of horrid Poison full,
From her red Eyes she darted Flakes of Fire._

The new invented Words made use of by the Translator of _Homer_ are well enough chosen, and well warranted by the Practice of the greatest Poets, such as _Moveless_, _Instarr'd_, _Inurn'd_, _Conglobe_, _Deathful_, _Fountful_, _Lengthful_:

_But if you write of Things abstruse and new,
Words of your own inventing may be us'd._
Roscom.

I have mention'd some of the Helps which were prepared for the Translator of the _Ilias_. But Dr. _Felton_ informs us, Dr. _Busby_ would not allow of Notes; a very curious Remark That. It is not impossible, but Dr. _Busby_ himself might have read and taught _Homer_ 50 Years as a _Grammarian_, without understanding him as a Poet. A Portion of that Genius which inspir'd the Author is requisite for the Reader to see all the Beauties that are in a Poem. I believe the Lord _Roscommon_'s Judgement will be preferred to that of both those Doctors:

_Search every Comment that your Care can find,
Some here, some there, may hit the Poet's Mind._