The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Mr. John Ozell

Mr. John Ozell.

This gentleman added conſiderably to the republic of letters by his numerous tranſlations. He received the rudiments of his education from Mr. Shaw, an excellent grammarian, maſter of the free ſchool at Aſhby De la Zouch in Leiceſterſhire: he finiſhed his grammatical learning under the revd. Mr. Mountford of Chriſt’s Hoſpital, where having attamed the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, he was deſigned to be ſent to the univerſity of Cambridge, to be trained up for holy Orders. But Mr. Ozell, who was averſe to that confinement which he mud expect in a college life, choſe to be ſooner ſettled in the world, and be placed in a public office of accounts, having previouſly qualified himſelf by attaining a knowledge of arithmetic, and writing the neceſſary hands. This choice of an occupation in our author, could no other reaſons be adduced, are ſufficient to denominate him a little tinctured with dulneſs, for no man of genius ever yet made choice of ſpending his life behind a deſk in a compting-houſe.

He ſtill retained, however, an inclination to erudition, contrary to what might have been expected, and by much converſation with travellers from abroad, made himſelf maſter of moſt of the living languages, eſpecially the French, Italian, and Spaniſh, from all which, as well as from the Latin and Greek, he has favoured the world with a great^[1] many tranſlations, amongſt which are the following French plays;

1. Britannicus and Alexander the Great. Two Tragedies from Racine.
2. The Litigant, a Comedy of 3 Acts; tranſlated from the French of M. Racine, who took it from the Waſps of Ariſtophanes, 8vo. 1715. Scene in a city of Lower Nornandy.
3. Manlius Capitolinus, a Tragedy from the French of M. La Foſſe, 1715. When the earl of Portland was ambaſſador at the French court, this play was acted at Paris threeſcore nights running; the ſubject is related by Livy. This French author ſtudied ſome time at Oxford, and, upon his return home, applied himſelf to dramatic poetry, in which he acquired great reputation. He died about the year 1713.
4. The Cid, a Tragedy from Corneille.
5. Cato of Utica, a Tragedy from M. Des Champs; acted at the Theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields 1716, dedicated to Count Volkra his Excellency the Imperial Ambaſſador: to which is added a Parallel between this Play and Mr. Addiſon’s Cato.

Beſides theſe, Mr. Ozell has tranſlated all Moliere’s plays, which are printed in 6 vol. 12mo. and likewiſe a collection of ſome of the beſt Spaniſh and Italian plays, from Calderon, Aretin, Ricci, and Lopez de Vega. Whether any of theſe plays, tranſlated from the Spaniſh, were ever printed, we cannot be poſitive. Mr. Ozell’s tranſlation of Moliere is far from being excellent, for Moliere was an author to whom none but a genius like himſelf, could well do juſtice.

His other works are

• The Hiſtory of Don Quixote, tranſlated by ſeveral hands, publiſhed by Peter Motteux; reviſed and compared with the beſt edition, printed at Madrid, by Mr. Ozell, 5th edition, 1725.
• Reflexions on Learning, by M. de Fenelon, Archbiſhop of Cambray, made Engliſh from the Paris Edition 12mo. 1718.
• Common Prayer, not Common Senſe, in ſeveral Places of the Portugueze, Spaniſh, Italian, French, Latin, and Greek Tranſlations of the Engliſh Liturgy; Being a Specimen of the Manifold Omiſſions, &c. in all, or moſt of the ſaid Tranſlations, ſome of which were printed at Oxford, and the reſt at Cambridge, or London, 1722.
• Vertot’s Revolutions of Rome, tranſlated by Mr. Ozell.
• Logic, or the Art of Thinking; from the French of M. Nicole, 1723.
• Mr. Ozell finiſhed a Tranſlation from the Portugueze, begun by Dr. Geddes, of the moſt celebrated, popiſh, eccleſiaſtical Romance; being the the Life of Veronica of Milan, a book certified by the heads of the univerſity of Conimbra in Portugal, to be reviſed by the Angels, and approved of by God.

Theſe are the works of Mr. Ozell, who, if he did not poſſeſs any genius, has not yet lived in vain, for he has rendered into Engliſh ſome very uſeful pieces, and if his tranſlations are not elegant; they are generally pretty juſt, and true to their original.

Mr. Ozell is ſeverely touched by Mr. Pope in the firſt book of the Dunciad, on what account we cannot determine; perhaps that ſatyriſt has only introduced him to grace the train of his Dunces. Ozell was incenſed to the laſt degree by this uſage, and in a paper called The Weekly Medley, September 1729, he publiſhed the following ſtrange Advertiſement^[2]. ‘As to my learning, this envious wretch knew, and every body knows, that the whole bench of biſhops, not long ago, were pleaſed to give me a purſe of guineas for diſcovering the erroneous tranſlations of the Common Prayer in Portugueze, Spaniſh, French, Italian, &c. As for my genius, let Mr. Cleland ſhew better verſes in all Pope’s works, than Ozell’s verſion of Boileau’s Lutrin, which the late lord Hallifax was ſo well pleaſed with, that he complimented him with leave to dedicate it to him, &c. &c. Let him ſhew better and truer poetry in The Rape of the Lock, than in Ozell’s Rape of the Bucket, which, becauſe an ingenious author happened to mention in the ſame breath with Pope’s, viz.

‘Let Ozell ſing the Bucket, Pope the Lock,

‘the little gentleman had like to have run mad; and Mr. Toland and Mr. Gildon publicly declared Ozell’s Tranſlation of Homer to be, as it was prior, ſo likewiſe ſuperior, to Pope’s.——Surely, ſurely, every man is free to deſerve well of his country!’John Ozell. This author died about the middle of October 1743, and was buried in a vault of a church belonging to St. Mary Aldermanbury. He never experienced any of the viciſſitudes of fortune, which have been ſo frequently the portion of his inſpired brethren, for a perſon born in the ſame county with him, and who owed particular obligations to his family, left him a competent proviſion: beſides, he had always enjoyed good places. He was for ſome years auditor-general of the city and Bridge accounts, and, to the time of his deceaſe, auditor of the accounts of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and St. Thomas’s Hoſpital. Though, in reality, Ozell was a man of very little genius, yet Mr. Coxeter aſſerts, that his converſatron was ſurprizingly pleaſing, and that he had a pretty good knowledge of men and things. He poſſibly poſſeſſed a large ſhare of good nature, which, when joined with but a tolerable underſtanding, will render the perſon, who is bleſſed with it, more amiable, than the moſt flaſhy wit, and the higheſt genius without it.

 

End of the Fourth Volume.

 

1. Jacob.
2. Notes on the Dunciad.