"
I give not here my translation of these verses, though I think I
have not ill succeeded in them, because your lordship is so great a
master of the original that I have no reason to desire you should
see Virgil and me so near together. But you may please, my lord, to
take notice that the Latin author refines upon the Greek, and
insinuates that Homer had done his hero wrong in giving the
advantage of the duel to his own countryman, though Diomedes was
manifestly the second champion of the Grecians; and Ulysses
preferred him before Ajax when he chose him for the companion of his
nightly expedition, for he had a headpiece of his own, and wanted
only the fortitude of another to bring him off with safety, and that
he might compass his design with honour.
The French translator thus proceeds:- "They who accuse AEneas for
want of courage, either understand not Virgil or have read him
slightly; otherwise they would not raise an objection so easy to be
answered." Hereupon he gives so many instances of the hero's valour
that to repeat them after him would tire your lordship, and put me
to the unnecessary trouble of transcribing the greatest part of the
three last AEneids.
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