John Ozell (died 15 October 1743) was an English translator and accountant who became an adversary to

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...

and

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

. He moved to London from the country at around the age of twenty and entered an accounting firm, where he was successful in managing the accounts of several large entities, including the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

itself. He was a Whig and probably a

dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, ...

who associated with the prominent figures of the whig establishment in the 18th century. He was particularly associated with

Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richar ...

and the "little senate" that met at Button's Coffee House in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. He was financially well off, due to his accounting work. He died on 15 October 1743, a lifelong bachelor.

Works

Ozell taught himself several contemporary languages and had a good grounding in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

and Greek from school. He began to act as a translator in addition to his work in accounting. Ozell's translations were not very strict, but they were of a better quality than those of his contemporaries. In 1705, Jonathan Swift's '' Battle of the Books'' had appeared as a preface to '' A Tale of a Tub.'' The ''Battle of the Books'' was part of a general quarrel of the ancients and the moderns, where the question was between ancient authors (

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, and

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

) and contemporary ones and whether contemporary philosophy and science had surpassed what could be gathered from the classics. Swift's version of the Battle has all contemporary authors, and he names several of them, swept away by the ancient authors that they glossed. The ''Battle'' was based on ''Le Lutrin'' by Boileau, and Ozell performed his own translation of ''Le Lutrin'' in 1708. In his version, the contemporaries being blasted away were

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

authors, and, in particular, William Wycherley. Boileau was a great favorite of the "ancients" camp and the Scriblerus Club in particular. In 1711 through 1713, Ozell published ''The Works of Monsieur Boileau.'' He thus took the French

neoclassicist Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism wa ...

for the Whig side. This infuriated the Tory defenders of Wycherley, and both Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope struck back at Ozell. In 1708, Pope wrote ''Epigram, Occasion'd by Ozell's Translation of Bioleau's Lutrin'' and said, "those were slander'd most whom Ozell praised." Swift satirized Ozell in the ''Introduction to Polite Conversation,'' and Pope mentioned Ozell again in ''

The Dunciad ''The Dunciad'' is a landmark, mock-heroic, narrative poem by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bri ...

''. In that poem, Dulness shows her champion her powers of conception and :"How, with less reading than makes felons 'scape, :Less human genius than God gives an ape, :Small thanks to France and none to Rome or Greece, :A past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new piece, :'Twixt

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the g ...

, Fletcher, Congreve, and

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patrona ...

, :Can make a Cibber,

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

, or Ozell." (I. 235-40) In 1712, he translated

Anne Dacier Anne Le Fèvre Dacier (1647 – 17 August 1720), better known during her lifetime as Madame Dacier, was a French scholar, translator, commentator and editor of the classics, including the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. She sought to champion a ...

's French retelling of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...

'' into blank verse. He was also at pains to express his anti-Catholicism with a translation of the life of

Veronica of Milan Veronica of Milan (c. 1445 – 13 January 1497) was an Italian nun in the Augustinian Order. She was reputed to have received frequent visions of the Virgin Mary, and her local ''cultus'' was confirmed by Pope Leo X in 1517. Life Veronica grew ...

, whom he termed a saint, in 1716 (just after a Jacobite uprising), and he took a political stance by translating

Paul de Rapin Paul de Rapin (25 March 1661 – 25 April 1725), sieur of Thoyras (and therefore styled de Rapin de Thoyras), was a Huguenot historian writing under English patronage. His ''History of England'', written and first published in French in 1724– ...

's ''Dissertation sur les Whig et les Torys'' with a pro-Whig slant. In 1728, the ''Dunciad Variorum'' appeared, and, the same year, Richard Bundy published a translation of ''Histoire romaine, depuis la fondation de Rome,'' a work Ozell was planning to translate. Ozell wrote a long treatise enumerating Bundy's mistakes and Pope's villainy, and he took out an ad to attack his enemies. In 1738, Ozell translated ''L'Embarras des richesses'' (''The Embarrassment of Riches'') by

Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval Léonor-Jean-Christin Soulas d'Allainval, called abbé d'Allainval, 2 October 1696, in Chartres – 2 May 1753, in Hôtel-Dieu de Paris) was an 18th-century French playwright. Life He lived all his life in misery and died an indigent. None of ...

, in so doing popularising the English phrase 'an

embarrassment of riches An embarrassment of riches is an idiom that means an overabundance of something, or too much of a good thing, that originated in 1738 as John Ozell John Ozell (died 15 October 1743) was an English translator and accountant who became an adver ...

References

* Williams, Abigail. "John Ozell". In Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. ''

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

.'' vol. 42, 295. London: OUP, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozell, John 1710s British translators 1743 deaths Year of birth unknown Translators of Homer