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IV
Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Carter was essentially responsible for the translation of Crousaz's prose in the Examination. That she was the translator we have the testimony of Carter herself, her father, Nicholas Carter, Thomas Birch, Samuel Johnson, William Seward, and her nephew, Montagu Pennington. But Johnson probably had an important stake from the beginning in her translation of the Examen, as well as his own of the Commentaire, for the combined project may well have been his own idea. Thomas Kaminski is certainly correct in observing, "That Johnson was instrumental in Cave's decision to publish the Crousaz translations may be inferred from their unique place in all of Cave's publishing ventures. Never before or after did he stray into the area of literary or moral controversy, yet these topics would have had considerable appeal for Johnson" (223 n.49). The appeal of the topic, coupled with the appeal of Elizabeth Carter, was irresistible. Johnson had met Carter through Cave in April 1738. In that month he wrote to Cave, "I have compos'd a Greek Epigram to Eliza, and think She ought to be celebrated in as many different Languages as Lewis le Grand" (Letters, 1:17). The epigram, with a Latin translation, was published in the April issue of the Gentleman's Magazine, and in the July issue Johnson published a second epigram in Latin praising her, with his English translation of it in the August issue.[42] It may have been Johnson's admiration for Carter and a desire to find a literary project for her which would allow them to work together that had suggested the translation to him in the first place. There can be no doubt that there was competition, friendly at least on the surface, for Carter's attention between Johnson and Thomas Birch, both of whom believed that the way to her heart was through her mind.[43] Both men, having chosen to play the role of Mentor, found it necessary to have a literary project for a medium. Johnson had Crousaz, and when it was completed he suggested that Carter "undertake a Translation of Boethius de. Cons. because there is
The competition between Johnson and Birch to decide who would be the director of Elizabeth Carter's next translation project is revealing. Although Carter had an excellent knowledge of languages, she welcomed outside assistance. On all three of her translations, including All the Works of Epictetus (1758), she received generous help, relying first, it appears, on Johnson, then on Birch, and finally on Thomas Secker, always with her father as advisor in the background. An overview of her major projects and the evidence for the assistance she received will make this clear.[45]
To begin with Epictetus, the last translation, because its history is the best documented, it is clear that she relied heavily on the advice of Bishop Thomas Secker and her friend, Catherine Talbot. Both gave advice on the introduction and notes and Secker not only read several drafts of the translation, but even read proofs. Secker's corrections and revisions must have been extensive, for Talbot tells Carter in a letter of 9 July 1755 that "the Bishop of Oxford shut himself up with him [Epictetus] for near a month, never leaving his study but for his morning ride and afternoon walk." James Harris, an excellent Greek scholar who had assisted John Upton with his important edition of Arrian's Epictetus (1739-41), answered queries on the translation. Carter used Upton's edition for her translation and he is frequently cited in the footnotes.[46]
Her second translation, Algarotti's Il Newtonianisimo per le Dame, received extensive assistance from Thomas Birch, who read drafts of it and provided editorial assistance. Anyone who reads through the footnotes to the translation and is familiar with Birch's work will recognize at various points his heavy hand. Numerous notes appear, diminishing in number after the early portion of the work, some lengthy, most unnecessary, reminding the reader of Johnson's description of Birch given to Sir John Hawkins: "a pen is to Tom a torpedo, the touch of it benumbs his hand and his brain; Tom can talk; but he is no writer."[47] Carter's translation of Algarotti, unlike her deservedly praised Epictetus, can best be described as serviceable, lacking the elegance of the original.[48]
Carter's first translating project, the Examen of Crousaz, also received editorial assistance, in this case from Samuel Johnson.[49] As previously mentioned,
The Examination, like Forman's Commentary, substitutes Pope's verses for Crousaz's quotations from the French prose translation of Silhouette. In some instances Pope's verses are inserted in the text and in others placed in footnotes. Johnson at this period was one of the "miners in literature" for Cave, translating, writing occasional pieces in prose and verse, and handling a variety of editorial chores, including revising the parliamentary debates. As Kaminski has shown, much of Johnson's work for Cave had little to do with the Gentleman's Magazine.[52] Johnson would have been the logical person to have gone through Carter's prose translation, inserting Pope's verse into the text and footnotes, especially since he was doing the same thing for his own Commentary about that time.
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