Besides this help, which was not inconsiderable, Mr. Congreve has
done me the favour to review the "AEneis," and compare my version
with the original. I shall never be ashamed to own that this
excellent young man has shown me many faults, which I have
endeavoured to correct. It is true he might have easily found more,
and then my translation had been more perfect.
Two other worthy friends of mine, who desire to have their names
concealed, seeing me straitened in my time, took pity on me and gave
me the life of Virgil, the two prefaces--to the Pastorals and the
Georgics--and all the arguments in prose to the whole translation;
which perhaps has caused a report that the two first poems are not
mine. If it had been true that I had taken their verses for my own,
I might have gloried in their aid; and like Terence, have farthered
the opinion that Scipio and Laelius joined with me. But the same
style being continued through the whole, and the same laws of
versification observed, are proofs sufficient that this is one man's
work; and your lordship is too well acquainted with my manner to
doubt that any part of it is another's.
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