I am now drawing towards a conclusion, and suspect your lordship is
very glad of it. But permit me first to own what helps I have had
in this undertaking. The late Earl of Lauderdale sent me over his
new translation of the "AEneis," which he had ended before I engaged
in the same design. Neither did I then intend it; but some
proposals being afterwards made me by my bookseller, I desired his
lordship's leave that I might accept them, which he freely granted,
and I have his letter yet to show for that permission. He resolved
to have printed his work, which he might have done two years before
I could publish mine; and had performed it, if death had not
prevented him. But having his manuscript in my hands, I consulted
it as often as I doubted of my author's sense, for no man understood
Virgil better than that learned nobleman. His friends, I hear, have
yet another and more correct copy of that translation by them, which
had they pleased to have given the public, the judges must have been
convinced that I have not flattered him.
Pages:
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310