Tickell's version of the first book appeared soon after this conversation.In the preface all rivalry was earnestly disclaimed.Tickell declared that he should not go on with the Iliad.That enterprise he should leave to powers which he admitted to be superior to his own.His only view, he said, in publishing this specimen was to bespeak the favour of the public to a translation of the Odyssey, in which he had made some progress.
Addison, and Addison's devoted followers, pronounced both the versions good, but maintained that Tickell's had more of the original.The town gave a decided preference to Pope's.We do not think it worth while to settle such a question of precedence.
Neither of the rivals can be said to have translated the Iliad, unless, indeed, the word translation be used in the sense which it bears in the Midsummer Night's Dream.When Bottom makes his appearance with an ass's head instead of his own, Peter Quince exclaims, "Bless thee! Bottom, bless thee! thou art translated."In this sense, undoubtedly, the readers of either Pope or Tickell may very properly exclaim, "Bless thee! Homer; thou art translated indeed."Our readers will, we hope, agree with us in thinking that no man in Addison's situation could have acted more fairly and kindly, both towards Pope and towards Tickell, than he appears to have done.But an odious suspicion had sprung up in the mind of Pope.
He fancied, and he soon firmly believed, that there was a deep conspiracy against his fame and his fortunes.The work on which he had staked his reputation was to be depreciated.The subscription, on which rested his hopes of a competence, was to be defeated.With this view Addison had made a rival translation:
Tickell had consented to father it; and the wits of Button's had united to puff it.
Is there any external evidence to support this grave accusation?
The answer is short.There is absolutely none.
Was there any internal evidence which proved Addison to be the author of this version? Was it a work which Tickell was incapable of producing? Surely not.Tickell was a Fellow of a College at Oxford, and must be supposed to have been able to construe the Iliad; and he was a better versifier than his friend.We are not aware that Pope pretended to have discovered any turns of expression peculiar to Addison.Had such turns of expression been discovered, they would be sufficiently accounted for by supposing Addison to have corrected his friend's lines, as he owned that he had done.
Is there anything in the character of the accused persons which makes the accusation probable? We answer confidently--nothing.
Tickell was long after this time described by Pope himself as a very fair and worthy man.Addison had been, during many years, before the public.Literary rivals, political opponents, had kept their eyes on him.But neither envy nor faction, in their utmost rage, had ever imputed to him a single deviation from the laws of honour and of social morality.Had he been indeed a man meanly jealous of fame, and capable of stooping to base and wicked arts for the purpose of injuring his competitors, would his vices have remained latent so long? He was a writer of tragedy: had he ever injured Rowe? He was a writer of comedy: had he not done ample justice to Congreve, and given valuable help to Steele? He was a pamphleteer: have not his good nature and generosity been acknowledged by Swift, his rival in fame and his adversary in politics?
That Tickell should have been guilty of a villany seems to us highly improbable.That Addison should have been guilty of a villany seems to us highly improbable.But that these two men should have conspired together to commit a villany seems to us improbable in a tenfold degree.All that is known to us of their intercourse tends to prove, that it was not the intercourse of two accomplices in crime.These are some of the lines in which Tickell poured forth his sorrow over the coffin of Addison:
Or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind, A task well suited to thy gentle mind?
Oh, if sometimes thy spotless form descend, To me thine aid, thou guardian genius, lend, When rage misguides me, or when fear alarms, When pain distresses, or when pleasure charms, In silent whisperings purer thoughts impart, And turn from ill a frail and feeble heart;Lead through the paths thy virtue trod before, Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more."In what words, we should like to know, did this guardian genius invite his pupil to join in a plan such as the Editor of the Satirist would hardly dare to propose to the Editor of the Age?