Editorial note — P O E M S
Reading edition
C* To show how very weak and inconclusive the arguments of Chatterton’s new Editor are on this head, I shall cite but one passage, from which the reader may form a judgment of all the other illustrations with which he has decorated the Battle of Hastings:
——“Siere de Broque an arrowe longe lett flie, Intending Herewaldus to have sleyne; It miss’d, but hytte Edardus on the eye, And at his pole came out with horrid payne.”
So Homer (says the Commentator):
———ὀϊστὸν ἀπὸ νευρῆφιν ἴαλλεν Ἕκτορος ἀντικρὺ, βαλέειν δὲ ἑ ἵετο θυμός‧ Καὶ τοῦ μέν ῥ’ ἀφάμαρθ’ ὁ δ’ ἀμύμονα Γοργυθίωνα Υἱὸν ἐῢν Πριάμοιο, κατὰ στῆθος βάλεν ἰῷ.
Il. Θ. v. 300.
“He said, and twang’d the string, the weapon flies “At Hector’s breast, and sings along the skies; “He miss’d the mark, but pierc’d Gorgythio’s heart.”
Pope, B. viii. v. 365.
“The imitation here seems to be very apparent, but it is the imitation of Homer, and not of Pope; both Homer and Rowley express the intention of the archer, which is dropped by the translator of the Greek poet.” Chatterton’s Poems, quarto, p. 83. Edit. Milles.
To my apprehension, the intention of the archer is very clearly expressed in Pope’s lines; but it is unnecessary to contest that point, for lo! thus has old Chapman translated the same passage:
“This said, another arrow forth from his stiffe string he sent “At Hector, whom he long’d to wound; but still amisse it went; “His shaft smit faire Gorgythion.”
Of such reasoning is the new Commentary on Chatterton’s poems composed.