the future fale, that the booksellers 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 none should 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 shortened by cutting away the top and bottom, were fold as copies printed for the subfcribers,

Lintot printed fome on royal paper in Folio for two guineas a volume; but of this experiment he repented, and his fon fold copies of the first volume with all their extent of margin for two fhillings.

It is unpleasant to relate that the bookseller, after all his hopes and all his liberality, was, by a very unjuft 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 lofe 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 the fale was doubtless very numerous; but indeed great numbers were neceflary 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 patronised his fubfcription, began to be frighted

at

at his own undertaking; and finding himself at first embarraffed with difficulties, which retarded and oppressed him, he was for a time timorous and uneafy; had his nights disturbed by dreams of long journeys through unknown ways, and wished, as he said, that fomebody would hang him*.

This mifery, however, was not of long continuance; he grew by degrees more acquainted with Homer's images and expreffions, and practice increased his facility of verfification. In a fhort time he represents himself as dispatching regularly fifty verses a day, which would fhew him by an easy computation the termination of his labour.

His own diffidence was not his only vexation. He that asks 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 fuf

pected 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 question his knowledge of Greek, and his qualifications for a tranflator of Homer. To these 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 seems 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 representations 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,

t

diction, and obfcurity in books. To this open difplay of unadulterated nature it must be afcribed, 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 lished versions.

po

Thofe literal translations were always at hand, and from them he could always 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 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.

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