"In pursuance, fays he, of the fame method of illuftrating Homer's Writings and his Country from each other, fhall draw fome conjectures with regard to the place of his birth, or at leaft of his education, from his fimiles. Here we may expect the moft fatisfactory evidence, that an enquiry of this obfcure nature will admit. It is from thefe natural and unguarded appeals of original genius, to the obvious and familiar occurrences of common life, that we may not only frequently collect the custom, manners, and arts of remote antiquity; but fometimes difcover the Condition, and, I think, in the following inftances, the Country of the Poet. "I fhall begin with that beautiful comparison of the wavering and irrefolute perplexity of the Greeks, to an agitated fea; and take this paffage into confideration the more willingly, as it has given occafion to fome fevere ftrictures on the Poet's Geography. "Here we not only find a happy allufion, but, if I am not miftaken a beautiful fea piece; and in order to do justice to its perfpective, we should place ourselves on the fpot, or in the point of view, where the Painter made his drawing; which will only anfwer to fome part of the Afiatic coaft, or its islands. "It would be a falfe and affected refinement to fuppofe, that the fimile acquires any additional beauty by the difcovery of a real landfcape in those lines. The Poet's purpofe, which was to paint the ftruggle of wavering indecifion in the people, diftracted between a fenfe of honour and of danger, and alternately refolving to fly or to ftay, is, no doubt, completely fatisfied in the general image, which he makes ufe of. But though his meaning went no farther, I am not lefs of opinion, that, upon this occafion, his imagination fuggefted to him a form, which he had feen: and having myself had more than once an opportunity of obferving from the coaft of Ionia the truth of this picture in every circumstance; I cannot help giving it as an inftance of the poet's conftant original manner of compofition, which faithfully (though perhaps in this cafe inadvertently) recalls the images, that a particular striking appearance of Nature had strongly impreffed upon his youthful fancy, retaining the fame local affociations, which accompanied his first warm conception of them. "But left my teftimony, as an eye witnefs of the exact correfpondence of this copy to the original, from which I fuppofe it taken, fhould not be fatisfactory; I would propofe a teft of this matter, upon which every reader will be enabled to form his own judgment. Suppofe a painter to undertake this fubject from Homer, he will find each object, not only clearly expreffed, though within the com pafs of four hexameters; but its particular place on the canvas diftinctly marked; and the difpofition, as well as peripective, of the whole afcertained, with a precifion of out-line, from which it is impoffible to depart. The Thracian mountains muft form the back ground, thence the tempeft is to burst on the Ægean fea, which has its proper ftormy colouring; while the Ionian fhore, covered with fea-wreck, by a fucceflion of waves breaking on its beach, will make the fore-ground, where the poet views, admires and describes the whole. "A curious and attentive obferver of nature is perhaps most liable to retain those marks of locality, which it has been my object to trace in the poet. An elegant conception of external forms cannot eafily diveft itfelf of the precife order and arrangement of objects, with which it has at any time connected the idea of beauty; and this may account for that Ionian point of view, to which Homer's fcenery is fo much adapted, fometimes even in violation of thofe rules, which critics have fince laid down in regard to unity of place. "We fhall find this negligence more excufable, if we credit that probable tradition of the wandering bard's chanting his compofitions to his countrymen, in the manner practifed at this day in the eaft: a tradition which is favoured by the dramatic caft of the Iliad and Odyfiey." Mr. Wood proceeds to obviate the cenfure, paffed by Eratofthenes on the above paffage; which was the lefs necessary, as he obferves it had been long fince pertinently replied to by Strabo. Our author's arguments on this head are fummed up in the fol lowing conclufion. "I think, nothing leads us more directly towards the poet's home; than his general manner of treating countries, in proportion to their remotenefs from Ionia, in the ftyle of a traveller, and with that re verence and curiofity, which diftance is apt to raife; while this fpot; and (which is more remarkable) even the grand scene of action of the Iliad, in its neighbourhood, feem to have been too familiar and indifferent for defcription, and are introduced, not upon their own account, but from their infeparable connection with facts. And yet it is very obfervable, that, whenever they appear, it is always under that exact and just reprefentation, which fhews a perfect knowledge of the ground. "Should it be objected, that, notwithstanding the distance of Egypt and Phoenicia from lonia, we do not find the fpeciofa miracula of the poet in thofe countries, nor are they chofen for fcenes of the marvellous; it may be answered, that they were too much diftinguished, the one by arts, commerce, and navigation, and the other by fertility, population, and science, to have admitted any reprefentations, not coinciding, in fome measure, with these notorious circumstances. While the unfrequented fouthern coast of Italy, with the ifland of Sicily, and the kingdoms of Alcinous and Ulyffes, though not more diftant, were less known, and of course gave a freer fcope to the poet's fancy. The "The major è longinquo reverentia is an obfervation too well founded in nature to have efcaped Homer. And though I may be accused of refinement, fhould I carry my conjectures on this head fo far as to fufpect, that it influenced him in chufing the hero of one of his poems from a country very remote from his own; yet I muft obferve, that, whether it was a matter of accident or choice, of all the Grecian princes, who went to Troy, Ulyffes was the most diftant; it certainly was a circumftance, which accommodated the Odyffey particularly to an Ionian meridian. "Were I to be guided by the faint lights which history has thrown upon this fubject, I fhould fay, that Homer was of Chios or Smyrna; and were I, upon the fame information, to take a part in that competition, which has fubfifted above two thousand years between these places, I fhould declare for the first: though when I collect my evidence merely from the Iliad and Odyffey, I fee nothing that can be feriously urged on either fide of that question. To fay the truth, whatever has been offered, as mere conjecture, to fhew that the poet was an Afiatic, cannot, without refinement, be alledged as a reason to determine whether, he was an Ionian or an Æolian, and ftill lefs to decide between Chios or Smyrna: if, therefore, I am at all prepoffeffed in favour of either place, I am ready to give it up for any other part of the Afiatic coaft, from Rhodes to Tenedos, which future travellers may, upon more careful examination, find most worthy of that honour*.' The next divifion, of our author's effay, treats of Homer's travels, particularly of his navigation. This leads him to make his obfervations on Homer's winds; on which he remarks that, as the mariner's compafs confifted then of only four points, we ought not to expect more than a general idea of the nature and qualities of them: fuch lift of winds, however imperfect, correfponding with the imperfect state of the coafting navigation of the times. The next object, and that the most fatisfactory evidence, to be obtained of Homer's travels, is his geographical accuracy; a thorough examination of which Mr. Wood had referved for a more enlarged plan of the prefent work, had he lived to compleat it. Of this we must now despair, and make the most of what is here communicated: which is little more than an exculpation of the ancient Greek Homer from the blunders and mifrepresentations of our modern English Homer. In cenfuring Mr. Pope, however, as an unfaithful geographer, our author does him juftice as a poet. "That Homer, fays he, fhould efcape fo entire, out of the hands of lawyers and grammarians, is a piece of good fortune to letters, upon which his friends have great reafon to congratulate themfelves. For, confidering how cruelly both his compofitions and the countries they defcribe have been tortured by barbarous treatment of various * See Homer's Mythology, page 33, 36, for further illuftration of his country. C VOL. II. kinds, kinds, and the changes they have undergone in fo great a length of time, his deferiptions correfpond more with prefent appearances, than could be reafonably expected. "Not only the permanent and durable objects of his description, fuch as his rock, hill, dale, promontory, &c. continue in many inftances to bear unquestionable teftimony of his correctnefs, and fhew, by a frict propriety of his epithets, how faithfully they were copied; but even his more fading and changeable landscape, his fhady grove, verdant lawn, and flowery mead, his pafture and tillage, with all his varieties of corn, wine, and oil, agree furpfifingly with the prefent face of those countries. "So remarkable a refemblance between periods fo diftant from each other would induce us to believe, what is not otherwise improbable, that agriculture is pretty much in the fame neglected flate, in that part of the world, at prefent, as it was in the time of the Poet. I doubt much, whether his defcriptions of this kind could have so well ftood the test of our examination, two thousand years ago, in those days of elegance and refinement, when nature was probably decked out in a studied drefs, unlike the elegant dishabille in which Homer and we found her. "But, I must own that great part of the amusement, which we enjoyed in Homer and Strabo's company, on the fpot, arofe as much from the investigation, as the difcovery of the correfpondence and refemblance. Nor can I, for that reafon, promife the fame entertainment to the Reader, fhould I live to lay before him our further obfervations on this head; yet I hope my labour will not be entirely loft, if I can raise the attention of future commentators and tranflators to a matter, which has, I think, been too negligently treated. I cannot, perhaps, more effectually point out the ufe of a more extenfive confideration of this fubject, than by fhewing how much a neglect of it has been injurious to the Poet's truth, to which I fhall at prefent confine myfelf. "I chufe to take the inftances, which I fhall produce for this purpose, from Mr. Pope's elegant tranflation, rather than from others of lefs merit: becaufe I think they muft have more weight, when collected from that quarter, to which the Iliad and Odyssey have the greatest obligations for though Madam Dacier comes nearest to the poet's meaning, I believe it will be acknowledged, that of all the languages we know, in which Homer has hitherto appeared, it is in English alone that he continues to be a poet. While, upon this occafion, I fhall take that liberty with Mr. Pope, which a free enquiry demands, I fhall not forget how much is due to fo great an ornament of our country; nor am I infenfible of the great merit of his very poetical tranflation. I could with pleasure enlarge upon his improvements of the original, were the beauties of that work as much connected with my fubject, as the ungrateful task of finding fault, in which I happen to be engaged: but, as the fcope of this effay is to vindicate the truth and confiftence of Homer's defcription, the tranflation comes properly before us only fo far, as it contradicts that character. "Now "Now, though it must be acknowledged, that Mr. Pope is the only tranflator, who has, in a certain degree, kept alive that divine fpirit of the Poet, which has almoft expired in other hands; yet I cannot help thinking, that thofe, who wish to be thoroughly acquainted, either with the manners and characters of Homer's age, or the landscape and geography of his country, will be difappointed, if they expect to find them in this tranflation. Had Mr. Pope preferved the first; viz. the manners and characters, Homer would have continued to speak Greek to most of his English readers. For, though the difguife of feveral paffages in a modern drefs may fometimes proceed from his not being very converfant with ancient life and manners; yet he often purpofely accommodates his author to the ideas of thofe, for whom he tranflates; fubftituting beauties of his own (as fimilar as he can bring them to the original) in the room of thofe which he defpaired of making intelligible. "But as a truly poetical tranflation could not be effected, even by Mr. Pope, without his venturing to open the profpect a little, by the addition of a few epithets, or fhort hints of defcription;' fo the most valuable piece of geography left us, concerning the ftate of Greece in that early period,' has of courfe fuffered by fuch liberties; and, when every defcriptive epithet in Homer should have been religiously preferved, Mr. Pope's alterations have produced a new map of his own, and deprived us of that merit of the original which he called upon us to admire." Of Mr. Pope's poetical mifreprefentations Mr. Wood gives feveral ftriking inftances; for which he affects to apologize, by imputing them partly to the reftraint of rhime, and partly to other caufes. "Much of this is, no doubt, owing to that unhappy restraint of English rhime, which fo unworthily engroffes his thoughts, that he not only frequently lofes fight of his author, but is fometimes even diverted from a juft fenfe of his beauties, and betrayed into an unfaithful tranflation, of what he perfectly well understood. Of this distracted attention we find a ridiculous effect in that paffage of the Iliad, which expreffes Hector's eagerness to retrieve the honour of his brother Paris, who had proposed to decide the war by fingle combat with Menelaus. The fpirit of the original is as juftly conceived in Mr. Pope's note, as it is unhappily mifreprefented in his tranfla tion; and both together produce the following contradictory medley; Hector ftays not to reply to his brother, but runs away with the challenge immediately, with fteps majestically flow.' "When thefe difcordant pictures of the fame object are thus clofely confronted, the falling off is fo ftriking, that we muit, in candour, fuppofe it the work of different hands haftily revised. "It is impoflible to account, in any other way, for fome of the inaccuracies of the map of Troy prefixed to the English tranflation. So capital an error as that of discharging the Scamander into the Ægean fea, inftead of the Hellefpont, is a friking fpecimen of the carlefs and fuperficial manner in which this matter has been See Pope's obfervations on the catalogue. treated. |