 However, on discovering that Nicholas Rowe had already made a good translation of Lucan’s work, he never submitted his for publication.However, in 1721 he published two shorter works, the "Poem on the death of the late Earl Stanhope" and - anonymously as "a person of quality" - "The Plague of Marseilles".His translation of Marco Girolamo Vida’s "Art of Poetry" in 1725 brought him some reputation and also the friendship of Alexander Pope, whose own "An Essay on Criticism" (a work that Pitt judiciously echoed in homage) covered much the same ground.