Virgil employed eleven years upon his Æneïs; yet he left it, as he thought himself, imperfect; which when I seriously consider, I wish, that, instead of three years which I have spent in the translation of his works, I had four years more allowed me to correct my errors, that I might make my version somewhat more tolerable than it is: for a poet cannot have too great a reverence for his readers, if he expects his labours should survive him. Yet I will neither plead my age nor sickness, in excuse of the faults which I have made: that I wanted time, is all that I have to say; for some of my subscribers grew so clamorous, that I could no longer defer the publication. I hope, from the candour of your lordship, and your often experienced goodness to me, that, if the faults are not too many, you will make allowances with Horace: ----si _plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit, Aut humana parum cavit natura_.-- You may please also to observe, that there is not, to the best of my remembrance, one vowel gaping on another for want of a _cæsura_, in this whole poem: but, where a vowel ends a word, the next begins either with a consonant, or what is its equivalent; for our _W_ and _H_ aspirate, and our diphthongs, are plainly such. The greatest latitude I take is in the letter _Y_, when it concludes a word, and the first syllable of the next begins with a vowel. Neither need I have called this a latitude, which is only an explanation of this general rule--that no vowel can be cut off before another, when we cannot sink the pronunciation of it; as _he_, _she_, _me_, _I_, &c. Virgil thinks it sometimes a beauty to imitate the licence of the Greeks, and leave two vowels opening on each other, as in that verse of the Third Pastoral, _Et succus pecori, et lac subducitur agnis_. But, _nobis non licet esse tam disertis_, at least if we study to refine our numbers. I have long had by me the materials of an English _Prosodia_, containing all the mechanical rules of versification, wherein I have treated, with some exactness, of the feet, the quantities, and the pauses. The French and Italians know nothing of the two first; at least their best poets have not practised them. As for the pauses, Malherbe first brought them into France within this last century; and we see how they adorn their Alexandrines. But, as Virgil propounds a riddle, which he leaves unsolved-- _Dic, quibus in terris, inscripti nomina regum Nascantur flores; et Phyllida solus habeto_-- so I will give your lordship another, and leave the exposition of it to your acute judgment. I am sure there are few who make verses, have observed the sweetness of these two lines in Cooper's Hill: Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full--[73]