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Tis with a poet as with a man who defigns to build, and is very exact, as he supposes, in cafting up the coft beforehand; but generally speaking, he is mistaken in his account, and reckons fhort in the expence he firft intended: he alters his mind as the work proceeds, and will have this or that convenance more, of which he had not thought when he began. So has it happened to me: I have built a houfe, where I intended but a lodge: yet with better fuccefs than a certain nobleman, who, beginning with a dog-kennel, never lived to finish the palace he had contrived.

From translating the first of Homer's Iliads (which I intended as an effay to the whole work) I proceeded to the translation of the twelfth book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, because it contains, among other things, the causes, the beginning, and ending of the Trojan "war: here I ought in reafon to have stopped; but the fpeeches of Ajax and Ulyffes lying next in my way, I Could not balk them. When I had compaffed them, I was fo taken with the former part of the fifteenth book, (which is the master-piece of the whole Metamorphofes) that I enjoined myself the pleasing task of rendering it into English. And now I found, by the number of my verses, that they began to fwell into a little volume; which gave me an occafion of looking backward on fome beauties of my author, in his former books: there occurred to me the hunting of the boar, Cinyras and

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Myrrha, the good-natured story of Baucrsant Philemon, with the reft, which I hope I have tranflated clofely enough, and given them the fame turn of verfe which they had in the original; and this, I may fay without vanity, is not the talent of every poet: he who has arrived the nearest to it, is the ingenious and learned Sandys, the beft verfifier of the former ge, if I may properly call it by that name which was the former part of this concluding century. For Spenfer and Fantax both flourished in the reign of queen Elizabeth; greatmatters in our language; and who faw much farther moth beauties of our numbers, than thofe who immedi followed them. Milton was the poetical fon of Spenler, and Mr. Waller of Fairfax; for we have our lineal defcents and clans, as well as other families: Spenfer more than once infinuates, that the foul of Chaucer was transfufed into his body; and that he was begotten by him two hundred years after his deceafe. Milton has acknowledged to me, that Spenfer was his original, and many befides myself have heard our famous Waller own, that he derived the harmony of his numbers from the Godfrey of Bulloing, which was turned into Eng lifh by Mr. Fairfax. But to return: having done with Ovid for this time, it came into my mind, that our eld English poet Chaucer in many things resembl him, and that with no difadvantage on the fide of th modern author, as I fhall endeavor to prove I compare them: and as I am, and always have bee tudious to promote the honor of my native try a fo I foon refolved to put their merits to the trial, by tir ing fome of the Canterbury tales into our language, as it is now refined; for by this means both the pots being fet in the fame light, and dreffed in the fame E glish habit, ftory to be compared with ftory, a certain judgment may be made betwixt them, by the reader,... without obtruding my opinion on him: or if I feem partial to my countryman, and predeceffor in the laurel,

the friends of antiquity are not few: and befides many of the learned, Ovid has almost all the beaux, and the whole fair fex, his declared patrons. Perhaps I have affumed somewhat more to myself than they allow me; because I have adventured to fum up the evidence : but the readers are the jury; and their privilege remains entire to decide according to the merits of the cause, or if they please, to bring it to another hearing, before fome other court. In the mean time, to follow the thread of my discourse, (as thoughts, according to Mr. Hobbs, have always fome connexion) fo from Chaucer I was led to think on Boccace, who was not only his contemporary, but also pursued the fame ftudies; wrote novels in profe, and many works in verfe; particularly is faid to have invented the octave rhyme, or stanza of eight lines, which ever since has been maintained by the practice of all Italian writers, who are, or at least affume the title of, Heroic Poets: he and Chaucer, among other things, had this in common, that they refined their mother tongues; but with this difference, that Dante had begun to file their language, at least in verse, before the time of Boccace, who likewife received no little help from his master Petrarch. But the reformation of their profe was wholly owing to Boccace himself, who is yet the standard of purity in the Italian tongue; though many of his phrases are become obfolete, as in process of time it must needs happen. Chaucer (as you have formerly been told by our learned Mr Rymer) first adorned and amplified our barren tongue from the Provencall, which was then the most polished of all the modern languages; but this fubject has been copiously treated by that great critic, who deferves no little commendation from us his countrymen. For these reasons of time, and resemblance of genius in Chaucer and Boccace, I refolved to join them in my present work; to which I have added fome original papers of my own; which whether they are equal or inferior to my other VOL. III. C

poems, an author is the most improper judge; and therefore I leave them wholly to the mercy of the reader. I will hope the best, that they will not be condemned; but if they should, I have the excufe of an old gentleman, who mounting on horfeback before fome ladies, when I was prefent, got up fomewhat heavily, but defired of the fair fpectators, that they would count fourfcore and eight before they judged him. By the mercy of God, I am already come within twenty years of his number, a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader muft determine. I think myself as vigorous as ever in the faculties of my foul, excepting only my memory, which is not impaired to any great degree; and if I lofe not more of it, I have no great reafon to complain. What judgment I had, increases rather than diminishes; and thoughts, fuch as they are, come crowding in fo faft upon me, that my only difficulty is to chufe or to reject; to run them into verfe, or to give them the other harmony of profe. I have fo long ftudied and practifed both, that they are grown into a habit, and become familiar to me. In thort, though I may lawfully plead fome part of the -old gentleman's excufe; yet I will referve it till I think I have greater need, and afk no grains of allowance for the faults of this my prefent work, but thofe which are given of course to human frailty. I will not trouble my reader with the fhortness of time in which I writ it, or the feveral intervals of ficknefs: they who think too well of their own performances, are apt to boast in their prefaces how little time their works have cost them; and what other business of more importance interfered; but the reader will be as apt to afk the question, why they allowed not a longer time to make their works more perfect? and why they had fo defpicable an opinion of their judges, as to thrust their indigested stuff upon them, as if they deferved no better?

...With this account of my prefent undertaking, I conclude the firft part of this difcourfe: in the fecond part,

as at a fecond fitting, though I alter not the draught, Í muft touch the fame features over again, and change the dead colouring of the whole. In general I will only fay, that I have written nothing which favours of immorality or profanenefs; at least, I am not confcious to myself of any fuch intention. If there happen to be found an irreverent expreflion, or a thought too wanton, they are crept into my verfes through my inadvertency; if the fearchers find any in the cargo, let them be ftaved or forfeited, like contrabanded goods; at leaft, let their authors be anfwerable for them, as being but imported merchandise, and not of my own manufacture. On the other fide, I have endeavoured to choose fuch fables, both ancient and modern, as contain in each of them fome instructive moral, which I could prove by induction, but the way is tedious; and they leap foremost into fight, without the reader's trouble of looking after them. I wish I could affirm with a fafe confcience, that I had taken the fame care in all my former writings; for it must be owned, that fuppofing verses are never fo beautiful or pleafing, yet if they contain any thing which shocks religion, or good manners, they are at beft, what Horace fays of good numbers without good fenfe, Verfus inopes rerum, nugaque canora. Thus far, I hope, I am right in court, without renouncing my other right of felfdefence, where I have been wrongfully accufed, and my fense wire-drawn into blafphemy or bawdry, as it has often been by a religious lawyer, in a late pleading against the ftage; in which he mixes truth with falfhood, and has not forgotten the old rule of calum→ niating strongly, that fomething may remain.

I refume the thread of my difcourfe with the firft of my tranflation, which was the firft Iliad of Homer. If it fhall please God to give me longer life, and moderate health, my intentions are to tranflate the whole Ilias; provided ftill that I meet with thofe encourage