him to pursue the bent
of his own genius, and then lays down a plan upon which an epic poem
might be written: to which, says he, I am more inclined. Whether the
plan proposed is faulty or no, we are not at present to consider; one
thing is certain, a man of Mr. Dryden's genius would have covered by the
rapidity of the action, the art of the design, and the beauty of the
poetry, whatever might have been defective in the plan, and produced a
work which have been the boast of the nation.

We cannot help regretting on this occasion, that Dryden's fortune was
not easy enough to enable him, with convenience and leisure, to pursue
a work that might have proved an honour to himself, and reflected a
portion thereof on all, who should have appeared his encouragers on this
occasion.

In 1695 Mr. Dryden published a translation in prose of Du Fresnoy's Art
of Painting, with a preface containing a parallel between painting and
poetry. Mr. Pope has addressed a copy of verses to Mr. Jervas in praise
of Dryden's translation. In 1697 his translation of Virgil's works came
out. This translation has passed thro' many editions, and of all the
attempts which have been made to render Virgil into English. The
critics, I think, have allowed that Dryden[5] best succeeded:
notwithstanding as he himself says, when he began it, he was past the
grand climacteric! so little influence it seems, age had over him, that
he retained his judgment and fire in full force to the last. Mr. Pope in
his preface to Homer says, if Dryden had lived to finish what he began
of Homer, he, (Mr. Pope) would not have attempted it after him,
'No more, says he, than I would his Virgil, his version of whom
(notwithstanding some human errors) is the most noble and spirited
translation I know in any language.'

Dr. Trap charges Mr. Dryden with grossly mistaking his author's sense in
many places; with adding or retrenching as his turn is best served with
either; and with being least a translator where he shines most as a
poet; whereas it is a just rule laid down by lord Roscommon, that a
translator in regard to his author should

"Fall as he falls, and as he rises rise"

Mr. Dryden, he tells us, frequently acts the very reverse of this
precept, of which he produces some instances; and remarks in general,
that the first six books of the AEneis, which are the best and most
perfect in the original, are the least so in the translation. Dr. Trap's
remarks may possibly be tr