The Royal Progress. This poem is mentioned in the Spectator, in opposition to such performances, as are generally written in a swelling stile, and in which the bombast is mistaken for the sublime. It is meant as a compliment to his late majesty, on his arrival in his British dominions.
An imitation of the Prophesy of Nereus. Horace, Book I. Ode XV.—This was written about the year 1715, and intended as a ridicule upon the enterprize of the earl of Marr; which he prophesies will be crushed by the duke of Argyle.
An Epistle from a Lady in England, to a gentleman at Avignon. Of this piece five editions were sold; it is written in the manner of a Lady to a Gentleman, whose principles obliged him to be an exile with the Royal Wanderer. The great propension of the Jacobites to place confidence in imaginary means; and to construe all extraordinary appearances, into ominous signs of the restoration of their king is very well touched.
Was it for this the sun’s whole
lustre fail’d,
And sudden midnight o’er the Moon
prevail’d!
For this did Heav’n display to mortal
eyes
Aerial knights, and combats in the skies!
Was it for this Northumbrian streams look’d
red!
And Thames driv’n backwards shew’d
his secret bed!
False Auguries! th’insulting victors
scorn!
Ev’n our own prodigies against us
turn!
O portents constru’d, on our side
in vain!
Let never Tory trust eclipse again!
Run clear, ye fountains! be at peace,
ye skies;
And Thames, henceforth to thy green borders
rise!
An Ode, occasioned by his excellency the earl of Stanhope’s Voyage to France.
A Prologue to the University of Oxford.
Thoughts occasioned by the sight of an original picture of King Charles the 1st, taken at the time of his Trial.
A Fragment of a Poem, on Hunting.
A Description of the Phoenix, from Claudian.
To a Lady; with the Description of the Phoenix.
Part of the Fourth Book of Lucan translated.
The First Book of Homer’s Iliad.
Kensington-Gardens.
Several Epistles and Odes.
This translation was published much about the same time with Mr. Pope’s. But it will not bear a comparison; and Mr. Tickell cannot receive a greater injury, than to have his verses placed in contradistinction to Pope’s. Mr. Melmoth, in his Letters, published under the name of Fitz Osborne, has produced some parallel passages, little to the advantage of Mr. Tickell, who if he fell greatly short of the elegance and beauty of Pope, has yet much exceeded Mr. Congreve, in what he has attempted of Homer.
In the life of Addison, some farther particulars concerning this translation are related; and Sir Richard Steele, in his dedication of the Drummer to Mr. Congreve, gives it as his opinion, that Addison was himself the author.
These translations, published at the same time, were certainly meant as rivals to one another. We cannot convey a more adequate idea of this, than in the words of Mr. Pope, in a Letter to James Craggs, Esq.; dated July the 15th, 1715.