Christopher Pitt, of whom whatever I shall relate, more than has been
already published, I owe to the kind communication of Dr. Warton, was
born, in 1699, at Blandford, the son of a physician much esteemed.
He was, in 1714, received as a scholar into Winchester college, where he
was distinguished by exercises of uncommon elegance, and, at his removal
to New college, in 1719, presented to the electors, as the product of
his private and voluntary studies, a complete version of Lucan's poem,
which he did not then know to have been translated by Rowe.
This is an instance of early diligence which well deserves to be
recorded. The suppression of such a work, recommended by such uncommon
circumstances, is to be regretted. It is, indeed, culpable to load
libraries with superfluous books; but incitements to early excellence
are never superfluous, and, from this example, the danger is not great
of many imitations.
When he had resided at his college three years, he was presented to the
rectory of Pimpern, in Dorsetshire, 1722, by his relation, Mr. Pitt, of
Stratfield Say, in Hampshire; and, resigning his fellowship, continued
at Oxford two years longer, till he became master of arts, 1724.
He probably about this time translated Vida's Art of Poetry, which
Tristram's splendid edition had then made popular. In this translation
he distinguished himself, both by its general elegance, and by the
skilful adaptation of his numbers to the images expressed; a beauty
which Vida has, with great ardour, enforced and exemplified.
He then retired to his living, a place very pleasing by its situation,
and, therefore, likely to excite the imagination of a poet; where he
passed the rest of his life, reverenced for his virtue, and beloved for
the softness of his temper and the easiness of his manners. Before
strangers he had something of the scholar's timidity or distrust; but
when he became familiar he was, in a very high degree, cheerful and
entertaining. His general benevolence procured general respect; and he
passed a life placid and honourable, neither too great for the kindness
of the low, nor too low for the notice of the great.
At what time he composed his Miscellany, published in 1727, it is not
easy or necessary to know: those which have dates appear to have been
very early productions, and I have not observed that any rise above
mediocrity.
The success of his Vida animated him to a higher undertaking; and in his
thirtieth year he published a version of the first book of the Æneid.
This being, I suppose, commended by his friends, he, some time
afterwards, added three or four more; with an advertisement, in which he
represents himself as translating with great indifference, and with a
progress of which himself was hardly conscious. This can hardly be true,
and, if true, is nothing to the reader.
At last, without any farther contention with his modesty or any awe of
the name of Dryden, he gave us a complete English Æneid, which I am
sorry not to see, joined in this publication with his other poems[159].
It would have been pleasing to have an opportunity of comparing the two
best translations that, perhaps, were ever produced by one nation of the
same author.
Pitt, engaging as a rival with Dryden, naturally observed his failures,
and avoided them; and, as he wrote after Pope's Iliad, he had an example
of an exact, equable and splendid versification. With these advantages
seconded by great diligence, he might successfully labour particular
passages, and escape many errours. If the two versions are compared,
perhaps the result would be that Dryden leads the reader forward by his
general vigour and sprightliness, and Pitt often stops him to
contemplate the excellence of a single couplet; that Dryden's faults are
forgotten in the hurry of delight, and that Pitt's beauties are
neglected in the languor of a cold and listless perusal; that Pitt
pleases the criticks, and Dryden the people; that Pitt is quoted, and
Dryden read.
He did not long enjoy the reputation which this great work deservedly
conferred; for he left the world in 1748, and lies buried under a stone
at Blandford, on which is this inscription:
In memory of
CHR. PITT, clerk, M.A.
Very eminent
for his talents in poetry;
and yet more
for the universal candour of
his mind, and the primitive
simplicity of his manners.
He lived innocent;
and died beloved,
Apr. 13, 1748,
aged 48.
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[Footnote 159: It has since been added to the collection. R.]