Pope in that year, called him the best poet in England, and was zealous in obtaining subscriptions, saying, "The author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him.” The translation was announced to appear in six volumes, at one guinea a volume, but, large though the sum was, five hundred and seventyfive subscribers were obtained, and "as many of them," Mr. Courthope observes, "entered their names for more than one copy, he must have found himself in anticipation the possessor of nearly, if not quite £4,000." Swift, who had been in London since 1710, supporting the government of Harley and Bolingbroke as no government, before or since, was ever supported by a man of letters, introduced Pope to the ministers, and did his utmost to promote his interests, but the year in which the first volume of Pope's "Homer" appeared, the ministry for which Swift had done so much had fallen from power, and he had retired in disgust to his Irish deanery. The change in the political world did not affect Pope. His translation, which, as the great critic Bentley told him, was a very pretty poem, but not Homer, proved so brilliant a success, that on the completion of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," the poet had made a profit of about £9,000. He had also, in Johnson's judgment, "tuned the English tongue." The tune is not one that will satisfy an ear accustomed to the divine harmony of Milton or to the music of Coleridge and Shelley, and it needs no great critical sagacity to detect a thousand faults in a version which by general consent has failed in representing the original. At the same time, it would be idle to deny the merit of a translation which, despite its conventional diction, is readable throughout, and 66 carries the reader so smoothly along the road that he does not feel the fatigue of travel. Southey considered that Pope had done grievous harm to English poetry by his "Homer," since, while other versions are as unfaithful, none was ever so well executed in as bad a style." Like Campbell and Rogers, he greatly preferred Cowper's translation as truer to the original and purer in diction, and he was right in doing so, but of the two Pope's being the more vigorous will always be the more popular. The six volumes of the "Iliad" were published in the course of five years (1715-1720), and with the final volume appeared a dedication to Congreve. Two days after the issue of Pope's first volume, a translation of the first book appeared from the pen of Tickell. According to the report of Gay, Addison called this translation "the best that ever was in any language," and then the rumour got abroad that Addison had had a hand in the work himself. On more than one occasion, as already stated, Pope's jealous suspicions had been excited against Addison, and it appears to have been at this time that he wrote the famous satire published after Addison's death in the " Epistle to Arbuthnot." Pope affirmed that he sent the character of Atticus to Addison at the time, and that, to quote his words, "he used me very civilly ever after." But this is probably one of the many false stories which the poet concocted for the benefit of his reputation. Addison had praised Pope's translation warmly in the "Freeholder," and there is no reason to suppose that he knew of the verses or that his praise was not sincere. In 1716, while engaged upon the “Iliad,” Binfield was exchanged for Chiswick, and the poet being near to London was much in society. To a Binfield friend he writes: "I have been here in a constant course of entertainments and visits ever since I saw you, which I partly delight in, and partly am tired with; the common case in all pleasures. I have not dined at home these fifteen days, and perfectly regret the quiet indolence, silence, and sauntering that made up my whole life in Windsor Forest." In another letter he gives a list of the noblemen who were his neighbours and acquaintances, and it is a noteworthy characteristic of Pope that in his frequent intercourse with the nobility and with public men there are no indications of servility. maintained his independence, and knew his own value too well to fall into the vices of the sycophant. The poet had neither birth nor fortune to recommend him, and it was due to his genius alone that, before reaching the age of thirty, he was received on an equal footing into the first society of the land. He In 1717, Pope, in a few pathetic lines addressed to Martha Blount, announced the death of his father: "My poor Father died last night-Believe, since I do not forget you this moment, I never shall." For his parents he had the deepest reverence and affection. "Whatever was his pride," says Dr. Johnson, " to them he was obedient, and whatever was his irritability, to them he was gentle. Life has, among its soothing and quiet comforts, few things better to give than such a son." Teresa Blount, the elder sister, and Pope had a quarrel about the close of this year, too obscure in its origin to be satisfactorily explained. A temporary reconciliation was effected, but Pope continued to regard Teresa with aversion, and did not scruple to asperse her character. And yet, at the beginning of the quarrel, he executed a deed in her favour, binding himself to pay her £40 a year for six years, unless she married during that period. The story is one of many which make Pope's social and literary career a puzzle to his biographers. And now, having been made comparatively easy in circumstances by the success of his Homer," Pope bought the villa at Twickenham, which, with its five acres of land, was to be his home and his plaything for twenty-five years. There he welcomed Bolingbroke and Swift, Congreve and Gay, Peterborough and Bathurst: "There my retreat the best companions grace, Among Pope's friends and guests was Mr. Secretary Craggs, who had taken a house at Chiswick in 1717 for the sake of the poet's society, and followed him to Twickenham in 1720. Craggs had offered Pope a pension of £300 a year out of the secret service money, which he was too independent to accept. He prided him. self upon being : "Unplaced, unpensioned, no man's heir, or slave." A more distinguished associate and correspondent of Pope was Bishop Atterbury, whom Addison regarded as one of the greatest geniuses of his time, and who, in Pope's judgment, was one of the greatest men in all polite learning this nation ever had. Such estimates were in great measure due to the personal attraction exercised by the Bishop, and to the exaggeration of friendship, but his wit and eloquence were great, and the speech with which he defended himself when accused of plotting for the Pretender, made a profound impression. We now know that his declaration of innocence was false, but his earnest asseverations deceived his friends, and both Pope and Swift regarded him as an innocent man. At the trial the poet was called to give evidence in his favour, but he became nervous, and told his friend Spence afterwards: "Though I had but two words to say, and that on a plain point, how the Bishop spent his time whilst I was with him at Bromley, I made two or three blunders in it, and that notwithstanding the first row of lords, which was all I could see, were mostly of my acquaintance." "How pleasing Atterbury's softer hour! How shined the soul unconquered in the Tower! is Pope's poetical tribute to the friend who, on bidding him farewell in 1723, presented the poet with his Bible, and counselled him to study it. The beautiful and witty Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had taken a house at Twickenham, at the poet's request. His friendship for her may be read in his letters, and his enmity in verse which was more disgraceful to the writer than to the object of his satire. But in her retaliation Lady Mary showed she could be vindictive and unfeeling, and it is no excuse for a woman that the quarrel was provoked. Before the rupture came, caused apparently by an ardour of devotion on the poet's part, which led to an "immoderate fit of laughter” on the part of Lady Mary, she had written to her sister: "I see sometimes Mr. Congreve, and very seldom Mr. Pope, who continues to embellish his house at Twickenham. He has made a subter |