Letter from Edward Thurlow, place not identified, to William Cowper, 1791 August? : autograph manuscript.

Discussing the origins and function of rhyme: "I think, I could not mean to patronise Rhime. I have fancied, that it was introduced to mark the measure in modern Languages, because they are less numerous, and metrical than the antient ; and the name seems to import as much. Perhaps there was Melody in antient Songs without straining it to musical notes ; as the common Greek Pronunciation is said to have had the compass of four parts of the Octave;" discussing euphony: "I have fancied also, that Euphony is an Impression derived a good deal from habit, rather than suggested by Nature ; therefore in some degree accidental, and consequently conventional. else why can't we bear a Drama with Rhime, or the French one without it? Suppose the Rape of the Lock, Windsor Forest, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and many other little Poems, which please, stript of the Rhime ; which might easily be done : would they please as well?"; offering this as an explanation for the use of rhyme in translations ("neither Dryden nor Pope would have dared to give their great authors in Blank verse"); discussing the way rhyme shapes word choice in both original compositions and translations; mentioning the role of meter; discussing the way language changes over time: "Words and Phrases contract from time, and use, such strong shades of difference from their original Import. In a living living [sic] language, with the familiarity of a whole life, It is not easy to conceive truly the actual sense of current expressions ; much less of older authors. No two languages furnish equipollent words ; their Phrases differ, Their Syntax, and Their Idioms still more widely. But a Translation strictly so called requires an exact conformity in all these particulars, and also in Numbers : Therefore it is impossible;" offering a description of what a translator does: "a Translator asks Himself a good question, How would my author have expressed the sentence, I am turning, in English? for Every Idea conveyed in the original should be expressed in English, as literally, and fully, as the Genius and use, and character of the Language will admit of;" analyzing in detail a passage from Book IX of the Iliad, in terms of the denotations and connotations of various Greek words; using one line as an example and writing "But you must not translate that literally. Old Daddy Phoenix, a God-send for us to maintain;" proposing a method for translation; adding "I will end this by giving you the strictest Translation, I can invent, leaving to you the double task of bringing it closer, and of polishing it into the stile of Poetry;" including his translation of seventeen lines from Book IX of the Iliad (Achilles's reply to Phoenix); discussing different possible translations of the word "hero" and referring to the use of enclitics; concluding with "The Euphony I leave entirely to you" and one additional comment about a Greek word.