The Iliad of Homer | Page 8

the same sometimes too frequently repeated.
There is no end of passages in HOMER, which must creep unless they are lifted; yet in
such, all embellishment is out of the question. The hero puts on his clothes, or refreshes
himself with food and wine, or he yokes his steed, takes a journey, and in the evening
preparation is made for his repose. To give relief to subjects prosaic as these without
seeming unreasonably tumid is extremely difficult. Mr. Pope much abridges some of
them, and others he omits; but neither of these liberties was compatible with the nature of
my undertaking. These, therefore, and many similar to these, have been new-modeled;
somewhat to their advantage I hope, but not even now entirely to my
satisfaction. The
lines have a more natural movement, the pauses are fewer and less stately, the expression
as easy as I could make it without meanness, and these were all the improvements that I
could give them.

The elisions, I believe, are all cured, with only one exception. An alternative proposes
itself to a modern versifier, from which there is no escape, which occurs perpetually, and
which, choose as he may, presents him always with an evil. I mean in the instance of the
particle (the). When this particle precedes a vowel, shall he melt it into the substantive, or
leave the hiatus open? Both practices are offensive to a delicate ear. The particle
absorbed occasions harshness, and the open vowel a vacuity equally inconvenient.
Sometimes, therefore, to leave it open, and sometimes to ingraft it into its adjunct seems
most advisable; this course Mr. Pope has taken, whose authority recommended it to me;
though of the two evils I have most frequently chosen the elision as the least.
Compound epithets have obtained so long in the poetical language of our country, that I
employed them without fear or scruple. To have abstained from them in a blank verse
translation of Homer, who abounds with them, and from whom our poets probably first
adopted them, would have been strange indeed. But though the genius of our language
favors the formation of such words almost as much as that of the Greek, it happens
sometimes, that a Grecian compound either cannot be rendered in English at all, or, at
best, but awkwardly. For this reason, and because I found that some readers much
disliked them, I have expunged many; retaining, according to my best judgment, the most
eligible only, and making less frequent the repetitions even of these.
I know not that I can add any thing material on the subject of this last revisal, unless it be
proper to give the reason why the Iliad, though greatly altered, has undergone much
fewer alterations than the Odyssey. The true reason I believe is this. The Iliad demanded
my utmost possible exertions; it seemed to meet me like an ascent almost perpendicular,
which could not be surmounted at less cost than of all the labor that I could bestow on it.
The Odyssey on the contrary seemed to resemble an open and level country, through
which I might travel at my ease. The latter, therefore, betrayed me into some negligence,
which, though little conscious of it at the time, on an accurate search, I found had left
many disagreeable effects behind it.
I now leave the work to its fate. Another may labor hereafter in an attempt of the same
kind with more success; but more industriously, I believe, none ever will.
PREFACE
B Y
J. JOHNSON, LL.B.
CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH.

I have no other pretensions to the honorable name of Editor on this occasion, than as a
faithful transcriber of the Manuscript, and a diligent corrector of the Press, which are,
doubtless, two of the very humblest employments in that most extensive province. I have
wanted the ability to attempt any thing higher; and, fortunately for the reader, I have also
wanted the presumption. What, however, I can do, I will. Instead of critical remark, I will
furnish him with anecdote. He shall trace from beginning