The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

in. He seems to have had too much regard
to Chapman, whose words he sometimes
copies, and has unhappily followed
him in passages where he wanders from
the original. However, had he translated
the whole work, I would no more have
attempted Homer after him than Virgil:
his version of whom (notwithstanding
some human errors) is the most noble
and spirited translation I know in any
language. But the fate of great geniuses
[pg is like that of great ministers: though they
xlv]
are confessedly the first in the commonwealth
of letters, they must be envied and
calumniated only for being at the head of
it.
That which, in my opinion, ought to be
the endeavour of any one who translates
Homer, is above all things to keep alive
that spirit and fire which makes his chief
character: in particular places, where the
sense can bear any doubt, to follow the