lated by Mr. Harte, were believed to have been the performance of Pope himself by Fenton, who made him a gay offer of five pounds, if he would fhew them in the hand of Betterton.

The next year (1713) produced a bolder attempt, by which profit was fought as well as praife. The poems which he had hitherto written, however they might have diffufed his name, had made very little addition to his fortune. The allowance which his father made him, though, proportioned to what he had, it might be liberal, could not be large; his religion hindered him from the occupation of any civil employment, and he complained that he wanted even money to buy books *.

He therefore refolved to try how far the favour of the publick extended, by foliciting a subscription to a verfion of the Iliad, with large notes.

To print by fubfcription was, for fome time, a practice peculiar to the English. The first confiderable work, for which this expedient was employed, is faid to have been Dryden's Virgil; and it had been tried again with great fuccefs when the Tatlers were collected into volumes.

There was reafon to believe that Pope's attempt would be fuccefsful. He was in the full bloom of reputation, and was perfonally known to almost all whom dignity of employment or fplendour of reputation had made eminent; he converfed indifferently with both parties, and never disturbed the publick with his political opinions; and it might be naturally expected, as each faction then boasted its literary zeal, that the great men, who on other occafions practifed all the violence of oppofition, would emulate each other in their en• Spence, C 3

couragement

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

With thofe 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 bufy 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. Additon recommended caution and moderation, and advifed 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 raifed 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 fubfcribers, or prefented to friends, and paying two hundred pounds. for every volume.

Of the Quartos it was, I believe, ftipulated that nono should be printed but for the author, that the fubfcription might not be depreciated; but Lintot impreffed the fame pages upon a fmall 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, thofe Folios, being afterwards fhortened by cutting away the top

and

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

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 bookfeller, 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 thoufand five hundred were first printed, and five thousand a few weeks afterwards; but indeed great numbers were neceffary to produce confiderable profit.

Pope, having now emitted his proposals, and engaged not only his own reputation, but in fome degree that of his friends who patronifed his fubfcription, began to be frighted at his own undertaking; and finding himfelf at first embarraffed with difficulties, which retarded and oppreffed him, he was for a time timorous and uncafy; had his nights difturbed by dreams of long journey's

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

This mifery, however, was not of long countinuance; he grew by degrees more acquainted with Homer's images and expreffions, and practice increafed his facility of vefification. In a fhort time he reprefents himfelf as difpatching regularly fifty verfes a day, which would fhew him by an eafy computation the termination 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. Addifon 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 tranf lator of Homer. To thefe he made no publick oppo, fition; but in one of his Letters efcapes 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 converfation, 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 refufe 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

Spence.

fentations

sentations natural, with very little dependence on local or temporary customs, on those changeable scenes 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 unadulterated 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 versions.

Thofe literal tranflations were always at hand, and from them he could eafily obtain his author's fenfe with fufficient certainty and among the readers of Homer the number is very fmall of those 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 Eabanus 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, whofe work, though now totally neglected, feems to have been popular almoft to the end of the last 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 inftead of the original.

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Notes