couragement of a poet who had delighted all, and by whom none had been offended.

With those hopes, he offered an English Iliad to fubfcribers, in fix volumes in quarto, for fix guineas; a fum, according to the value of money at that time, by no means inconfiderable, and greater than I believe to have been ever afked before. His propofal, however, was very favourably received; and the patrons of literature were busy to recommend his undertaking, and promote his intereft. Lord Oxford, indeed, lamented that fuch a genius fhould be wafted upon a work not original; but propofed no means by which he might live without it. Addison recommended caution and moderation, and advised him not to be content with the praife of half the nation, when he might be univerfally favoured.

The greatness of the defign, the popularity of the author, and the attention of the literary world, naturally raised fuch expectations of the future fale, that the bookfellers made their offers with great eagerness; but the highest bidder was Bernard Lintot, who became proprietor on condition of fupplying, at his own expence, all the copies which were to be delivered to subscribers, or prefented to friends, and paying two hundred pounds for every volume.

Of the Quartos it was, I believe, ftipulated that none fhould be printed but for the author, that the fubfcription might not be depreciated; but Lintot impreffed the fame pages upon a small Folio, and paper perhaps a little thinner; and fold exactly at half the price, for half a guinea each volume, books fo little inferior to the Quartos, that, by a fraud of trade, those Folios, being afterwards fhortened by cutting away the top

and

and bottom, were fold as copies printed for the fubfcribers.

Lintot printed two hundred and fifty on royal paper in Folio, for two guineas a volume; of the fmall Folio, having printed feventeen hundred and fifty copies of the first volume, he reduced the number in the other volumes to a thousand.

It is unpleasant to relate that the bookseller, after all his hopes and all his liberality, was, by a very unjust and illegal action, defrauded of his profit. An edition of the English Iliad was printed in Holland in Duodecimo, and imported clandeftinely for the gratification of those who were impatient to read what they could not yet afford to buy, This fraud could only be counteracted by an edition equally cheap and more commodious; and Lintot was compelled to contract his Folio' at once into a Duodecimo, and lose the advantage of an ́intermediate gradation. The notes, which in the Dutch copies were placed at the end of each book, as they had been in the large volumes, were now fubjoined to the text in the fame page, and are therefore more eafily confulted. Of this edition two thousand five hundred were first printed, and five thoufand a few weeks afterwards; but indeed great numbers were neceffary to produce confiderable profit,

Pope, having now emitted his propofals, and engaged not only his own reputation, but in fome degree that of his friends who patronifed his fubfcription, began to bę frighted at his own undertaking; and finding himself at firft embarraffed with difficulties, which retarded and oppreffed him, he was for a time timorous and uneafy; had his nights difturbed by dreams of long

journeys through unknown ways, and wifhed, as he faid, that fomebody would hang him *.

This mifery, however, was not of long countinuance; he grew by degrees more acquainted with Homer's images and expreffions, and practice increased his facility of vefification. In a fhort time he reprefents himself as difpatching regularly fifty verfes a day, which would fhew him by an easy computation the ter mination of his labour.

His own diffidence was not his only vexation. He that afks a fubfcription foon finds that he has enemies. All who do not encourage him defame him. He that wants money will rather be thought angry than poor; and he that wishes to fave his money conceals his avarice by his malice. Addison had hinted his fufpicion that Pope was too much a Tory; and fome of the Tories fufpected his principles because he had contributed to the Guardian, which was carried on by Steele.

To those who cenfured his politicks were added enemies yet more dangerous, who called in queftion his knowledge of Greek, and his qualifications for a translator of Homer. To thefe he made no publick oppofition; but in one of his Letters escapes from them as well as he can. At an age like his, for he was not more than twenty-five, with an irregular education, and a courfe of life of which much feems to have paffed in conversation, it is not very likely that he overflowed with Greek. But when he felt himself deficient he fought affiftance; and what man of learning would refuse to help him? Minute enquiries into the force of words are lefs neceffary in tranflating Homer than other poets, because his pofitions are general, and his repre

fentations natural, with very little dependence on local or temporary cuftoms, on thofe changeable fcenes of artificial life, which, by mingling original with accidental notions, and crowding the mind with images which time effaces, produce ambiguity in diction, and obfcurity in books. To this open difplay of unadult terated nature it must be ascribed, that Homer has fewer paffages of doubtful meaning than any other poet either in the learned or in modern languages. I have read of a man, who being, by his ignorance of Greek, compelled to gratify his curiofity with the Latin printed on the oppofite page, declared that from the rude fimplicity of the lines literally rendered, he formed nobler ideas of the Homeric majefty than from the laboured elegance of polished verfions.

Thofe literal translations were always at hand, and from them he could easily obtain his author's fenfe with fufficient certainty and among the readers of Homer the number is very small of thofe who find much in the Greek more than in the Latin, except the mufick of the numbers.

If more help was wanting, he had the poetical tranflation of Eobanus Heffus, an unwearied writer of Latin verfes; he had the French Homers of La Valterie and Dacier, and the English of Chapman, Hobbes, and Ogylby. With Chapman, whose work, though now totally neglected, feems to have been popular almoft to the end of the laft century, he had very frequent confultations, and perhaps never tranflated any paffage till he had read his verfion, which indeed he has been fometimes fufpected of using instead of the original.

6

Notes

Notes were likewife to be provided; for the fix volumes would have been very little more than fix pamphlets without them. What the mere perufal of the text could fuggeft, Pope wanted no affistance to collect or methodize; but more was neceffary; many pages were to be filled, and learning must supply materials to wit and judgement. Something might be gathered from Dacier; but no man loves to be indebted to his contemporaries, and Dacier was acceffible to common readers. Euftathius was therefore neceffarily confulted. To read Euftathius, of whofe work there was then no Latin verfion, I fufpect Pope, if he had been willing, not to have been able; fome other was therefore to be found, who had leisure as well as abilities; and he was doubtlefs most readily employed who would do much work for little money.

The hiftory of the notes has never been traced. Broome, in his preface to his poems, declares himfelf the commentator in part upon the Iliad; and it appears from Fenton's Letter, preferved in the Museum, that Broome was at firft engaged in confulting Euftathius ; but that after a time, whatever was the reafon, he defifted; another man of Cambridge was then employed, who foon grew weary of the work; and a third, that was recommended by Thirlby, is now discovered to have been fortin, a man fince well known to the learned world, who complained that Pope, having accepted and approved his performance, never teftified any curiofity to fee him, and who profeffed to have forgotten the terms on which he worked. The terms which Fenton uses are very mercantile : I think at first fight that his performance is very commendable, and have sent word for him to finish the 17th book, and to fend it with

his