their age and disposition, could not have united their labours.[he means, their labours could not unite or coalesce] in the same poem to any effect, without such apparent difference in their style, language, and sentiments, as would have defeated Chatterton's intent of imposing his works on the public, as the original and entire composition of Rowley.”–Most readers, I suppose, will more readily agree with his premises than his conclusion. Every part of these poems was undoubtedly writtten by one person; but that person was not Rowley, but Chatterton.
What reason have we to doubt, that he who imitated all the English poets with whom he was acquainted, likewise borrowed his Homerick images from the versions of Chapman and Pope; in the latter of which he found these allusions dressed out in all the splendid ornaments of the eighteenth century?
In the new commentary, indeed, on the Battle of Hastings, we are told again and again, that many of the similies which the poet has copied from Homer, contain circumstances that are found in the Greek, but omitted in Mr. Pope's translation. “Here therefore we have a certain proof that the authour of these poems could read Homer in the original[1].” But the youngest gownsman at Ox-
- ↑ 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
