*historians in our own tongue, and, what is more *for the honour of our language, it hath been

taught to express with elegance the greatest of "their poets in each nation. The illiterate among 86 our own countrymen may leafn to judge from Dry"den's Virgil of the most perfect epic performance; "and those parts of Homer which have been pub"lished already by Mr. Pope, give us reason to think "that the Iliad will appear in English with as little "disadvantage to that immortal poem."

As to the rest, there is a slight mistake; for this younger muse was an elder: nor was the gentleman (who is a friend of our Author) employed by Mr. Addison to translate it after him, since he saith himself that he did it before* Contrariwise, that Mr. Addison engaged our Author in this work, appeareth by declaration thereof in the Preface to the Iliad, printed some 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 Shakespeare on the stage: "Let "him" (quoth one, whom I take to be

MR. THEOBALD, MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728,) publish such an author as he has least studied, * and forget to discharge even the dull duty of an

* Vide Preface to Mr. Tickel's translation of the First Book of the Iliad, 4to.

66

"editor. In this project let him lend the book-. "seller his name (for a competent sum of money) to promote the credit of an exorbitant subscription." Gentle Reader, be pleased to cast thine eye on the proposal below quoted, and on what follows (some months after the former assertion) in the same Journals of June 8. "The bookseller proposed the "book by subscription, and raised some thousands "of pounds for the same: I believe the gentleman "did not share in the profits of this extravagant sub66 scription."

"After the Iliad, he undertook (saith

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728,)

"the sequel of that work, the Odyssey; and having "secured the success by a numerous subscription, "he employed some underlings to perform what, ac"cording to his Proposals, should come from his own "hands." To which heavy charge we can in truth oppose nothing but the words of

MR. POPE'S PROPOSAL for the ODYSSEY,

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

"I take this occasion to declare, that the sub66 scription for Shakespeare belongs wholly to Mr. "Tonson: and that the benefit of this Proposal is not "solely for my own use, but for that of two "of my friends, who have assisted me in this "work." But these very gentlemen are extolled above our Poet himself in another of MIST'S

JOURNALS, March 30, 1728, saying, "That he "would not advise Mr. Pope to try the expe

"riment again of getting a great part of a book done "by assistants, lest those extraneous parts should "unhappily ascend to the sublime, and retard the de"clension of the whole." Behold! these underlings are become good writers!

If any say, that before the said Proposals were' printed, the subscription was begun, without declaration of such assistance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as the term is) secured it, to wit, the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Harcourt, were he living, would testify, and the Right Honourable the Lord Bathurst, now living, doth testify, the same is a falsehood.

Sorry I am that persons professing to be learned, or of whatever rank of authors, should either falsely tax, or be falsely taxed. Yet let us, who' are only reporters, be impartial in our citations, and proceed.

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.

"Mr. Addison raised this Author from cb"scurity, obtained him the acquaintance and "friendship of the whole body of our nobility, "and transferred his powerful interests with those

great men to this rising bard, who frequently "levied, by that means, unusual contributions on "the Public." Which surely cannot be, if, as the author of the Dunciad Dissected reporteth, "Mr. Wycherly had before introduced him into a "familiar acquaintance with the greatest peers and "brightest wits then living."

"No, sconer (saith the same Journalist) was his body lifeless, but this Author, reviving his re"sentment, libelled the memory of his departed "friend; and, what was still more heinous, made "the scandal public." Grievous the accusation ! unknown the accuser! the person accused no witness in his own cause; the person, in whose regard accused, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman, whose friendship, yea, any one gentleman, whose subscription, Mr. Addison procured to our Author, let him stand forth, that truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, sed magis amica veritas. In verity, the whole story of the libel is a lie; witness those persons of integrity who, several years before Mr. Addison's decease, did see and approve of the said verses, in no wise a libel, but a friendly rebuke, sent 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 same. One name alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will sufficiently evince the truth, that of the Right Honourable the Earl of Burlington.

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

JAMES MOORE-SMITH, GENT. "Upon reading the third volume of Pope's * Daily Journal, March 18, 1728.

"Miscellanies, I found five lines which I thought "excellent; and happening to praise them, a gen"tleman produced a modern comedy (the Rival "Modes) published last year, where were the same 66 verses to a title.

"These gentlemen are undoubtedly the first "plagiaries, that pretend to make a reputation by "stealing 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 said 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 given him "leave to insert in it, would be known for his, 66 some copies being got abroad. He desires, ne"vertheless, that since the lines had been read in "his Comedy, to several: Mr. P. would not de"prive it of them," &c. Surely if we add the testimonies of the Lord Bolingbroke, of the lady to whom the said verses were criginally addressed, of Hugh Bethel, Esq. and others, who knew them as our Author's, long before the said gentleman composed his play; it is hoped the ingenuous, that` affect not error, will rectify their opinion by the suffrage of so honourable personages.

And yet followeth another charge, insinuating no less than his enmity both to Church and State, which could come from no other informer than the said