honour to my native country; whose language and poetry would be more esteemed abroad, if they were better understood. Somewhat (give me leave to say) I have added to both of them, in the choice of words, and harmony of numbers, which were wanting, especially the last, in all our poets; even in those, who being endued with genius, yet have not cultivated their mother-tongue with sufficient care or relying on the beauty of their thoughts, have judged the ornament of words and sweetness of sound unnecessary. One is for raking in Chaucer (our English Ennius) for antiquated words, which are never to be revived but when sound or significancy is wanting in the present language. But many of his deserve not this redemption, any more than the crowds of men who daily die, or are slain for sixpence in a battle, merit to be restored to life, if a wish could revive them. Others have no ear for verse, nor choice of words, nor distinction of thoughts; but mingle farthings with their gold, to make up the sum. Here is a field of satire opened to me; but since the Revolution, I have wholly renounced that talent. For who would give physick to the great, when he is uncalled; to do his patient no good, and endanger himself for his prescription? Neither am I ignorant but I may justly be condemned for many of those faults, of which I have too liberally arraigned others : Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admonuit. It is enough for me, if the government will let me pass unquestioned. In the mean time I am obliged in gratitude to return my thanks to many of them, who have not only distinguished me from others of the same party, by a particular exception of grace, but without considering the man, have been bountiful to the poet ;3 have encouraged Virgil to speak such English as I could teach him, and rewarded his interpreter for the pains he has taken in bringing him over into Britain, by defraying the charges of his voyage. Even Cerberus, when he had received the sop, permitted Æneas to pass freely to Elysium. Had it been offered me, and I had refused it, yet still some gratitude is due to such who were willing to oblige me. But how much more to those from whom I have received the favours which they have offered to one of a different persuasion; amongst whom I cannot omit naming the Earls of Derby and of Peterborough. To the first of these I have not the honour to be known; and therefore his liberality [was] as much unexpected as it was undeserved. The present Earl of Peterborough has been pleased long since to accept the tenders of my service his favours are so frequent to me, that I 4 3 Many persons of this description appear among the Subscribers to the translation of Virgil. + William, ninth Earl of Derby, who succeeded to the title in 1672, and died November 5, 1712. s Charles, the celebrated Earl of Peterborough, (afterwards the friend of Pope,) who died at Lisbon in October 1735, aged seventy-seven. receive them almost by prescription. No difference of interests or opinion have been able to withdraw his protection from me; and I might justly be condemned for the most unthankful of mankind, if I did not always preserve for him a most profound respect and inviolable gratitude. I must also add, that if the last neid shine amongst its fellows, it is owing to the commands of Sir William Trumbull, one of the principal 6 Sir William Trumbull was born in the year 1639, and was descended from that William Trumbull, who was Envoy to the Court of Brussels in the time of James the First. Sir William was originally of St. John's College, in Oxford, but afterwards was elected a fellow of All Souls. In October 1659, he was admitted Bachelor, and in July 1667, Doctor, of the Civil Law. He afterwards became an Advocate in Doctors' Commons, was made Judge of the Admiralty Court, Master of the Faculties, and Clerk of the Signet. In Nov. 1684, he was knighted, and in the following year was sent Ambassador Extraor dinary to France. King James the Second, in 1587, sent him Ambassador to Constantinople, to which city, Mr. Ruff head informs us, he went through the continent on foot. In May 1694, he was appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury, from which office, after holding it about eighteen months, he was in 1695 removed to that of Secretary of State, and appointed a Privy Counsellor ; and in the same year he was chosen to represent the University of Oxford in Parliament. Two years afterwards (1697) he resigned all his employments, and retired to East Hampstead, in Berkshire, where he died in Dec. 1716. Here it was that, in 1705, he became acquainted with Pope, who then lived at Binfield. This amiable old Secretaries of State, who recommended it, as his favourite, to my care; and for his sake particularly I have made it mine. For who would confess weariness, when he enjoined a fresh labour? I could not but invoke the assistance of a Muse for this last office: Neither am I to forget the noble present which was made me by Gilbert Dolben, Esq. the worthy son of the late Archbishop of York; who, when I began this work, enriched me with all the several editions of Virgil, and all the commentaries of those editions in Latin: amongst which, I could not but prefer the Dauphin's, as the last, the shortest, and the most judicious. Fabrini I had also sent me from Italy; but either he under statesman, as Pope informed Mr. Spence, "loved very much to read and talk of the classicks in his retirement. We used to take a ride out together three or four days in the week, and at last almost every day." Spence's ANECDOTES. At the commencement of their acquaintance, Pope was only seventeen.-Beside five Letters of Sir William Trumbull in Pope's Works, several written by him while he was Ambassador in France, are preserved in the PaperOffice, and extracts from others have been printed by Sir John Dalrymple. Dr. Warton mentions also an elegant character of Sir William Dolben, Archbishop of York, written by Sir W. Trumbull, which I have not seen. 7 Printed at Venice in 1623. stands Virgil very imperfectly, or I have no knowledge of my author. & Being invited by that worthy gentleman, Sir William Bowyer, to Denham-Court, I translated the first Georgick at his house, and the greatest part of the last Æneid. A more friendly enter tainment no man ever found. No wonder therefore, if both those versions surpass the rest; and own the satisfaction I received in his converse, with whom I had the honour to be bred in Cambridge, and in the same college, The Seventh Æneid was made English at Burghley, the magnificent abode of the Earl of Exeter: in a village "Nature (says our author, in one of his Notes on Virgil,) has conspired with art, to make the garden at Denham-Court, of Sir William's own plantation, one of the most delicious spots of ground in England. It contains not above five acres, just the compass of Alcinous his garden, described in the ODYSSES: but Virgil says in this very Georgick, [the Second,] Laudato ingentia rura, Concerning grafting (he adds) my honoured friend has assured me, that Virgil has shewn more of poetry, than skill, at least in relation to our more northern climates; and that many of our stocks will not bear such grafts as our poet tells us would bear in Italy." 9 John Cecil, the fifth Earl of Exeter, who was born about the year 1650, succeeded to the title in 1687-8, and died at a village near Paris, a few months after our author, August 29, 1700. Being a nonjuror, he lived during the whole of King William's reign in retirement. He |