For a farther preservation of this air of simplicity, a
particular care should be taken to express with all
plainness those moral sentences and proverbial speeches
which are so numerous in this poet. They have something
venerable and, as I may say, oracular in that unadorned
gravity and shortness with which they are delivered, a
grace which would be utterly lost by endeavouring to
give them what we call a more ingenious (that is, a more
modern) turn in the paraphrase.
Perhaps the mixture of some Graecisms and old words
after the manner of Milton, if done without too much
affectation, might not have an ill effect in a version of this
particular work, which most of any other seems to
require a venerable antique cast. But certainly the use of
modern terms of war and government, such as ‘platoon’,
‘campaign’, ‘junto’, or the like, (into which some of his
translators have fallen) cannot be allowable, those only
excepted without which it is impossible to treat the
subjects in any living language.
First published 1715
from the second book of the IliadThe trial of the army
and catalogue of forces‘But now, ye warriors, take a short repast;
And, well refreshed, to bloody conflict haste.
His sharpened spear let every Grecian wield,
And every Grecian fix his brazen shield;
Let all excite the fiery steeds of war,
And all for combat fit the rattling car.
This day, this dreadful day, let each contend;
No rest, no respite, till the shades descend;
Till darkness, or till death, shall cover all:
Let the war bleed, and let the mighty fall; 10
Till bathed in sweat be every manly breast,
With the huge shield each brawny arm depressed,
270
280
[270–8]