As a critic of classical epic there can be little reasonable doubt that Trapp stands comparison with either Dryden or Pope, and the honesty and value of his critical endeavor are worth respect. He can be cool and analytical when dispassionate reason is required (witness his account of how in brevity and morality Virgil surpasses Homer); but he is in no sense tied by a rigidly formalistic approach, happy to praise even that "_Variety_" which "justifies the Breach of almost any Rule" (Preface p. xlvi), or the organic development of structure that seems to be "_no Method_ at all" (II. 953). Essentially, behind this firm but flexible criticism, there is a compelling sense that to read a great poem is to submit to an overwhelming experience; and his criticism is always hastening to illustration, with the tacit appeal, "It is like this, isn't it?" What is particularly stimulating, whether one accepts the claim or not that Virgilian style and sensibility are reflected in Milton, is the continual illumination of the classics by the vernacular and particularly by modern example. It seems as if he is claiming that, to understand the past, we must respond to the literature of our own culture and that there are no important barriers between antiquity and the modern world, the appreciation of foreign languages and our own tongue. All true culture is always immediate and felt vitally as part of our being. In attempting to express this, Trapp is in touch with what is best in neoclassicism.
[1] He had held the chair for the maximum period of ten years permitted by the original statute. For further particulars, see Thomas Hearne, _Remarks and Collections_, ed. C. E. Doble (Oxford, 1886), entries for 14 July and 27 July 1708.
[2] There is a translation by William Bowyer, assisted by William Clarke, entitled _Lectures on Poetry_ (London, 1742).
[3] _Comparaison des poèmes d'Homère et de Virgile_ (Paris, ?1688).
[4] He is identified by the Twickenham editor as the "_T--_" of the line "_T--s_ and T--the church and state gave o'er," in _The Dunciad_ of 1728 II. 381, but was dropped from the _Variorum_ in 1729. In the Warburton note of 1743, I.33, he may be alluded to in the gibe at "Professors."