A Burlesque Translation
In contrast to the great number of scholarly studies on any single aspect of the Homeric text that were published throughout the eighteenth century, an approach to the poems that became very popular among a general audience was that of pure satire. First published in 1762, a burlesque version by Thomas Bridge was eagerly read for decades, although its vulgarity would be eventually censored by Victorian readers. The following is a transcription of the opening verses of book 1 of the Iliad:
Come, Mrs. Muse, but, if a maid,
Then come Miss Muse, and lend me aid!
Ten thousand jingling verses bring,
That I Achilles' wrath may sing,
That I may chant in curious fashion
This doughty hero'sboiling passion
Which plagu'd the Greeks; and gave'em double
A Christian share of toil and trouble,
And, in a manner quite uncivil,
Sent many a Broughton to the devil.
Samuel Clarke