in the tragedy of Bussy d'Amboise, &c. In a word, the nature of the man

may account for his whole performance; for he appears, from his preface

and remarks, to have been of an arrogant turn, and an enthusiast in

poetry. His own boast, of having finished half the Iliad in less than

fifteen weeks, shows with what negligence his version was performed. But

that which is to be allowed him, and which very much contributed to cover

his defects, is a daring fiery spirit that animates his translation, which

is something like what one might imagine Homer himself would have writ

before he arrived at years of discretion.

Hobbes has given us a correct explanation of the sense in general; but for

particulars and circumstances he continually lops them, and often omits

the most beautiful. As for its being esteemed a close translation, I doubt

not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it, which

proceeds not from his following the original line by line, but from the

contractions above mentioned. He sometimes omits whole similes and

sentences; and is now and then guilty of mistakes, into which no writer of

his learning could have fallen, but through carelessness. His poetry, as

well as Ogilby's, is too mean for criticism.

It is a great loss to the poetical world that Mr. Dryden did not live to

translate the Iliad. He has left us only the first book, and a small part

of the sixth; in which if he has in some places not truly interpreted the

sense, or preserved the antiquities, it ought to be excused on account of

the haste he was obliged to write in. He seems to have had too much regard

to Chapman, whose words he sometimes copies, and has unhappily followed

The Iliad of Homer