Besides
the company who had been at dinner, there were Mr. Garrick, Mr. Harris
of Salisbury, Dr. Percy, Dr. Burney, Honourable Mrs. Cholmondeley, Miss
Hannah More, &c. &c.
After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time,
I got into a corner, with Johnson, Garrick, and Harris. GARRICK. (to
Harris,) 'Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's Aeschylus?' HARRIS. 'Yes;
and think it pretty.' GARRICK. (to Johnson,) 'And what think you, Sir,
of it?' JOHNSON. 'I thought what I read of it VERBIAGE: but upon Mr.
Harris's recommendation, I will read a play. (To Mr. Harris,) Don't
prescribe two.' Mr. Harris suggested one, I do not remember which.
JOHNSON. 'We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to
judge of the merit of a translation. Translations are, in general, for
people who cannot read the original.' I mentioned the vulgar saying,
that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original.
JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever
been produced.
Pages:
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761