Dennis, "he names Mr. Walsh, who had by no but he might with equal propriety, have placed means the qualifications which this author reckons Prudence and Justice before it, since without Prunecessary to a critic, it being very certain that he dence, Fortitude is mad; without Justice, it is miswas, like this Essayer, a very indifferent poet; he chievous. loved to be well dressed; and I remember a young As the end of method is perspicuity, that series little gentleman whom Mr. Walsh used to take is sufficiently regular that avoids obscurity; and into his company, as a double foil to his person and where there is no obscurity, it will not be difficult capacity. Inquire, between Sunning-hill and Oak-to discover method. ingham, for a young, short, squab gentleman, the In the 'Spectator' was published the 'Messiah,' very Bow of the God of Love, and tell me whether which he first submitted to the perusal of Steele, he be a proper author to make personal reflections?—and corrected in compliance with his criticisms. He may extol the ancients, but he has reason to It is reasonable to infer, from his Letters, that thank the gods that he was born a modern; for had his verses on the 'Unfortunate Lady' were written he been born of Grecian parents, and his father about the time when his Essay' was published. consequently had by law had the absolute disposal The lady's name and adventures I have sought of him, his life had been no longer than that of one with fruitless inquiry.* of his poems, the life of half a day.-Let the per- I can therefore tell no more than I have learned son of a gentleman of his parts be never so con- from Mr. Ruffhead, who writes with the confidence temptible, his inward man is ten times more ridicu- of one who could trust his information. She was a lous; it being impossible that his outward form, woman of eminent rank and large fortune, the ward though it be that of downright monkey, should dif- of an uncle, who, having given her a proper educa fer so much from human shape, as his unthinking, tion, expected, like other guardians, that she immaterial part, does from human understanding." should make at least an equal match; and such he Thus began the hostility between Pope and Den- proposed to her, but found it rejected in favour of a nis, which, though it was suspended for a short young gentleman of inferior condition. time, never was appeased. Pope seems, at first, to have attacked him wantonly; but though he always professed to despise him, he discovers, by mentioning him very often, that he felt his force or his venom. Having discovered the correspondence between the two lovers, and finding the young lady determined to abide by her own choice, he supposed that separation might do what can rarely be done by argument, and sent her into a foreign country, where she was obliged to converse only with those from whom her uncle had nothing to fear. Of this Essay,' Pope declared, that he did not expect the sale to be quick, because "not one gentleman in sixty, even of a liberal education, could Her lover took care to repeat his vows; but his understand it." The gentlemen, and the educa- letters were intercepted and carried to her guartion, of that time, seem to have been of a lower dian, who directed her to be watched with still character than they are of this. He mentioned a greater vigilance, till of this restraint she grew so thousand copies as a numerous impression. Dennis was not his only censurer: the zealous Papists thought the monks treated with too much contempt, and Erasmus too studiously praised; but to these objections he had not much regard. impatient, that she bribed a woman servant to procure her a sword, which she directed to her heart. From this account, given with evident intention to raise the lady's character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise, nor much to compasThe Essay' has been translated into French by sion. She seems to have been impatient, violent, Hamilton, author of the Comte de Grammont,' and ungovernable. Her uncle's power could not whose version was never printed; by Robotham, have lasted long; the hour of liberty and choice secretary to the King for Hanover, and by Resnel; would have come in time. But her desires were and commented by Dr. Warburton, who has dis- too hot for delay, and she liked self-murder better covered in it such order and connexion as was not than suspense. perceived by Addison, nor, as is said, intended by the author. Nor is it discovered that the uncle, whoever he was, is with much justice delivered to posterity as Almost every poem, consisting of precepts, is so "a false guardian;" he seems to have done only far arbitrary and immethodical, that many of the that for which a guardian is appointed; he endeaparagraphs may change places with no apparent in-voured to direct his nicce till she should be able to convenience; for of two or more positions, depend-direct herself. Poetry has not often been worse ing upon some remote and general principle, there employed than in dignifying the amorous fury of a is seldom any cogent reason why one should pre-raving girl. cede the other. But for the order in which they Not long after, he wrote the Rape of the Lock,' stand, whatever it be, a little ingenuity may easily the most airy, the most ingenious, and the most degive a reason. "It is possible," says Hooker, lightful of all his compositions, occasioned by a "that, by long circumduction, from any one truth frolic of gallantry, rather too familiar, in which all truth may be inferred" Of all homogeneous Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's truths, at least of all truths respecting the same hair. This, whether stealth or violence, was so general end, in whatever series they may be pro- much resented, that the commerce of the two faduced, a concatenation by intermediate ideas may milies, before very friendly, was interrupted. Mr. be formed, such as, when it is once shown, shall Caryl, a gentleman who, being secretary to King appear natural; but if this order be reversed, ano- James's queen, had followed his mistress into ther mode of connexion equally specious may be France, and who, being the author of 'Sir Solomon found or made. Aristotle is praised for naming Single,' a comedy, and some translations, was en. Fortitude first of the cardinal virtues, as that with out which no other virtue can steadily be practised; * Consult, however, Gent. Mag. vol. ii. p. 314 titled to the notice of a Wit, solicited Pope to en About this time he published the Temple of deavour a reconciliation by a ludicrous poem, which Fame,' which, as he tells Steele in their corresmight bring both parties to a better temper. In pondence, he had written two years before; that compliance with Caryl's request, though his name is, when he was only twenty-two years old, an was for a long time marked only by the first and early time of life for so much learning, and so much last letter C-1, a poem of two cantos was writ- observation as that work exhibits. ten (1711,) as is said, in a fortnight, and sent to On this poem Dennis afterwards published some the offended lady, who liked it well enough to remarks, of which the most reasonable is, that show it; and, with the usual process of literary some of the lines represent Motion as exhibited by transactions, the author dreading a surreptitious Sculpture. edition, was forced to publish it. Of the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard,' I do not The event is said to have been such as was de- know the date. His first inclination to attempt a sired, the pacification and diversion of all to whom composition of the tender kind arose, as Mr. Savage it related, except Sir George Brown, who com- told me, from his perusal of Prior's Nut-brown plained with some bitterness, that in the character Maid.' How much he has surpassed Prior's work of Sir Plume, he was made to talk nonsense. it is not necessary to mention, when perhaps it Whether all this be true I have some doubt; for at may be said with justice, that he excelled every Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. Fermor, composition of the same kind. The mixture of rewho presided in an English Convent, mentioned ligious hope and resignation gives an elevation and Pope's work with very little gratitude, rather as dignity to disappointed love, which images merely an insult than an honour; and she may be supposed natural cannot bestow. The gloom of a convent to have inherited the opinion of her family. strikes the imagination with far greater force than the solitude of a grove. At its first appearance it was termed by Addison "merum sal." Pope, however, saw that it was capable of improvement; and, having luckily contrived to borrow his machinery from the Rosicrucians, imparted the scheme with which his head was teeming to Addison, who told him that his work, as it stood, was "a delicious little thing," and gave him no encouragement to retouch it. This piece was, however, not much his favourite in his latter years, though I never heard upon what principle he slighted it. In the next year (1713) he published Windsor Forest:' of which part was, as he relates, written at sixteen, about the same time as his Pastorals; and the latter part was added afterwards; where This has been too hastily considered as an in- the addition begins, we are not told. The lines stance of Addison's jealousy; for, as he could not relating to the Peace confess their own date It is guess the conduct of the new design, or the possi-dedicated to Lord Lansdowne, who was then in bilities of pleasure comprised in a fiction of which high reputation and influence among the Tories; there had been no examples, he might very rea- and it is said, that the conclusion of the poem gave sonably and kindly persuade the author to acqui- great pain to Addison, both as a poet and a poliesce in his own prosperity, and forbear an attempt tician. Reports like this are often spread with which he considered as an unnecessary hazard. Addison's counsel was happily rejected. Pope foresaw the future efflorescence of imagery then budding in his mind, and resolved to spare no art, or industry of cultivation. The soft luxuriance of his fancy was already shooting, and all the gay varieties of diction were ready at his hand to colour and embellish it. boldness very disproportionate to their evidence Why should Addison receive any particular disturbance from the last lines of Windsor Forest?" If contrariety of opinion could poison a politician, he would not live a day; and as a poet, he must have felt Pope's force of genius much more from many other parts of his works. The pain that Addison might feel it is not likely His attempt was justified by its success. The that he would confess; and it is certain that he so well 'Rape of the Lock' stands forward, in the classes suppressed his discontent, that Pope now thought of literature, as the most exquisite example of lu- himself his favourite: for, having been consulted in dicrous poetry. Berkeley congratulated him upon the revisal of 'Cato,' he introduced it by a Prothe display of powers more truly poetical than he logue; and, when Dennis published his Remarks, had shown before: with elegance of description undertook, not indeed to vindicate, but to revenge and justness of precepts, he had now exhibited his friend, by a 'Narrative of the Frenzy of John boundless fertility of invention. Dennis.' He always considered the intermixture of the There is reason to believe that Addison gave no machinery with the action as his most success-encouragement to this disingenuous hostility; for, ful exertion of poetical art. He indeed could never says Pope in a letter to him, "indeed your opinion, afterwards produce any thing of such unexampled that 'tis entirely to be neglected, would be my own excellence. Those performances, which strike in my own case; but I felt more warmth here than with wonder, are combinations of skilful genius I did when I first saw his book against myself with happy casualty; and it is not likely that any (though indeed in two minutes it made me heartily felicity, like the discovery of a new race of preterna- merry.") Addison was not a man on whom such tural agents, should happen twice to the same man. cant of sensibility could make much impression. Of this poem the author was, I think, allowed to He left the pamphlet to itself, having disowned it enjoy the praise for a long time without disturbance. to Dennis, and perhaps did not think Pope to have Many years afterwards Dennis published some re-deserved much by his officiousness. marks upon it, with very little force, and with no This year was printed, in the 'Guardian,' the effect; for the opinion of the public was already ironical comparison between the Pastorals of Philips settled, and it was no longer at the mercy of criti- and Pope; a composition of artifice, criticism, and cism. literature, to which nothing equal will easily be found. The superiority of Pope is so ingeniously guineas; a sum, according to the value of money at dissembled, and the feeble lines of Phillips so skil- that time, by no means inconsiderable, and greater fully preferred, that Steele, being deceived, was than I believe to have been ever asked before. His unwilling to print the paper, lest Pope should be proposal, however, was very favourably received; offended. Addison immediately saw the writer's and the patrons of literature were busy to recom design; and, it seems, had malice enough to conceal mend his undertaking, and promote his interest his discovery, and to permit a publication, which, Lord Oxford, indeed, lamented that such a genius by making his friend Phillips ridiculous, made him should be wasted upon a work not original; but for ever an enemy to Pope. | proposed no means by which he might live without It appears that about this time Pope had a strong it. Addison recommended caution and moderation, inclination to unite the art of Painting with that of and advised him not to be content with the praise Poetry, and put himself under the tuition of Jer- of half the nation, when he might be universally vas. He was near-sighted, and therefore not form- favoured. ed by nature for a painter: he tried, however, how The greatness of the design, the popularity of far he could advance, and sometimes persuaded his the author, and the attention of the literary world, friends to sit. A picture of Betterton, supposed to naturally raised such expectations of the fature be drawn by him, was in the possession of Lord sale, that the booksellers made their offers with Mansfield:* if this was taken from life, he must great eagerness; but the highest bidder was Berhave begun to paint earlier; for Betterton was now nard Lintot, who became proprietor on condition dead. Pope's ambition of this new art produced some encomiastic verses to Jervas, which certainly show his power as a poet; but I have been told that they betray his ignorance of painting. He appears to have regarded Betterton with kindness and esteem; and after his death published, under his name, a version into modern English of Chaucer's Prologues, and one of his Tales, which, as was related 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 show them in the hand of Betterton. The next year (1713) produced a bolder attempt, by which profit was sought as well as praise. The poems which he had hitherto written, however they might have diffused 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 resolved to try how far the favour of the public extended, by soliciting a subscription to a version of the Iliad,' with large notes. To print by subscription was, for some time, a practice peculiar to the English. The first considerable work, for which this expedient was employed, is said to have been Dryden's Virgil;' and it had been tried with great success when the Tatlers' were collected into volumes. of supplying at his own expense, all the copies which were to be delivered to subscribers, or presented to friends, and paying two hundred pounds for every volume. Of the Quartos it was, I believe, stipulated, that none should be printed but for the author, that the subscription might not be depreciated; but Lintot impressed the same pages upon a smail Folio, and paper perhaps a little thinner; and sold exactly at half the price, for half a guinea each volume, books so little inferior to the Quartos, that by a fraud of trade, those Folios, being afterwards shortened by cutting away the top and bottom, were sold 23 copies printed for the subscribers. Lintot printed two hundred and fifty on royal paper in Folio, for two guineas a volume; of the small Folio, having printed seventeen 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 clandestinely 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 There was reason to believe that Pope's at- copies were placed at the end of each book, as they tempt would be successful. He was in the full had been in the large volumes, were now subbloom of reputation, and was personally known to joined to the text in the same page, and are therealmost all whom dignity of employment or splen-fore more easily consulted. Of this edition two thou. dour of reputation had made eminent; he conversed sand five hundred were first printed, and five thou indifferently with both parties, and never disturbed the public with his political opinions; and it might naturally be expected, as each faction then boasted its literary zeal, that the great men, who on other occasions practiced all the violence of opposition, would emulate each other in their encouragement of a poet who delighted all, and by whom none had Deen offended. sand a few weeks afterwards: but indeed great numbers were necessary to produce considerable profit. Pope, having now emitted his proposals, and engaged not only his own reputation, but in some degree that of his friends who patronized his subscription, began to be frighted at his own undertaking; and finding himself at first embarrassed with difficulties, which retarded and oppressed him, he was for a time timorous and uneasy, had his nights disturbed by dreams of long journeys through unknown ways, and wished, as he said, "that somebody would hang him.”* * Spence. This misery, however, was not of long continu- to collect or methodize; but more was necessary; ance; he grew by degrees more acquainted with many pages were to be filled, and learning must Homer's images and expression, and practice in- supply materials to wit and judgment. Something creased his facility of versification. In a short time might be gathered from Dacier; but no man loves to he represents himself as despatching regularly fifty be indebted to his contemporaries, and Dacier was verses a day, which would show him by an easy accessible to common readers. Eustathius was computation the termination of his labour. therefore necessarily consulted. To read EustaHis owt diffidence was not his only vexation. thius, of whose work there was then no Latin verHe that asas subscriptions soon finds that he has sion, I suspect Pope, if he had been willing, not to enemies. All who do not encourage him, defame have been able; some other was therefore to be him. He that wants money will rather be thought found, who had leisure as well as abilities; and he angry than poor: and he that wishes to save his was doubtless most readily employed who would money, conceals his avarice by his malice. Addi-do much work for little money. son had hinted his suspicion that Pope was too much The history of the notes has never been traced. a Tory; and some of the Tories suspected his prin- Broome, in his preface to his poems, declares himciples, because he had contributed to the Guar-self the commentator "in part upon the Iliad;" and dian,' which was carried on by Steele. it appears from Fenton's letter, preserved in the To those who censured his politics were added British Museum, that Broome was at first engaged enemies yet more dangerous, who called in ques-in consulting Eustathius; but that after a time, tion his knowledge of Greek, and his qualifications whatever was the reason, he desisted; another man for a translator of Homer. To these he made no of Cambridge was then employed, who soon grew public opposition; but in one of his Letters escapes weary of the work; and a third, that was recomfrom them as well as he can. At an age like his, mended by Thirlby, is now discovered to have for he was not more than twenty-five, with an been Jortin, a man since well known to the learned irregular education, and a course of life of which world, who complained that Pope, having accepted much seems to have passed in conversation, it is and approved his performance, never testified any not very likely that he overflowed with Greek. curiosity to see him, and who professed to have forBut when he felt himself deficient he sought assist-gotten the terms on which he worked. The terms ance; and what man of learning would refuse to help which Fenton uses are very mercantile: "I think him? Minute inquiries into the force of words are at first sight that his performance is very commend. less necessary in translating Homer than other able, and have sent word for him to finish the 17th poets, because his positions are general, and his book, and to send it with his demands for his trourepresentatious natural, with very little dependence ble. I have here enclosed the specimen; if the rest on local or temporary customs, on those changeable come before the return, I will keep them till I rescenes of artificial life, which, by mingling original ceive your order." with accidental notions, and crowding the mind Broome then offered his service a second time, with images which time effaces, produces ambi- which was probably accepted, as they had afterguity in diction, and obscurity in books. To this wards a closer correspondence. Parnell contributed open display of unadulterated nature it must be the Life of Homer, which Pope found so harsh, that ascribed, that Homer has fewer passages of doubtful he took great pains in correcting it; and by his own meaning than any other poet, either in the learned diligence, with such help as kindness or money or in modern languages. I have read of a man, who could procure him, in somewhat more than five being, by his ignorance of Greek, compelled to years he completed his version of the Iliad,' with gratify his curiosity with the Latin printed on the the notes. He began it in 1712, his twenty-fifth opposite page, declared that, from the rude sim- year; and concluded it in 1718, his thirtieth year. plicity of the lines literally rendered, he formed When we find him translating fifty lines a day, nobler ideas of the Homeric majesty, than from the it is natural to suppose that he would have brought laboured elegance of polished versions. his work to a more speedy conclusion. The Iliad,' Those literal translations were always at hand, containing less than sixteen thousand verses, might and from them he could easily obtain his author's have been despatched in less than three hundred sense with sufficient certainty; and among the read- and twenty days by fifty verses in a day. The ers of Homer, the number is very small of those notes, compiled with the assistance of his mercewho find much in the Greek more than in the naries, could not be supposed to require more time Latin, except the music of the numbers. than the text. If more help was wanting, he had the poetical According to this calculation, the progress of Pope translation of Eobanus Hessus,' an unwearied wri- may seem to have been slow; but the distance is ter of Latin verses; he had the French Homers of commonly very great between actual performances La Valtiere and Dacier, and the English of Chap-and speculative possibility. It is natural to suppose man, Hobbes, and Ogilby. With Chapman, whose that as much as has been done to-day may be done work, though now totally neglected, seems to have to-morrow; but on the morrow some difficulty emerbeen popular almost to the end of the last century, ges, or some external impediment obstructs. Inhe had very frequent consultations, and perhaps dolence, interruption, business, and pleasure, all never translated any passage till he had read his take their turns of retardation; and every long work version, which indeed he has been sometimes sus- is lengthened by a thousand causes that can, and pected of using instead of the original. ten thousand that cannot, be recounted. Perhaps Notes were likewise to be provided: for the six no extensive and multifarious performance was ever volumes would have been very little more than six effected within the term originally fixed in the unpamphlets without them. What the mere perusal dertaker's mind He that runs against Time has of the text could suggest, Pope wanted no assistance an antagonist not subject to casualties B That strew'd with warriors dead the Phrygian plain, Heroes And peopled the dark hell with heroes slain; The encouragement given to this translation, [ though report seems to have overrated it, was such as the world has not often seen. The subscribers were five hundred and seventy-five. The copies, for which subscriptions were given, were six hun-Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore, dred and fifty-four; and only six hundred and sixty Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore, were printed. For these copies Pope had nothing Since great Achilles and Atrides strove; to pay; he therefore received, including the two Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove hundred pounds a volume, five thousand three hundred and twenty pounds four shillings without deduction, as the books were supplied by Lintot. Whose limbs, unburied on the hostile shore, By the success of his subscription Pope was re- Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove lieved from those pecuniary distresses with which, notwithstanding his popularity, he had hitherto Declare, O Muse, in what ill-fated hour struggled. Lord Oxford had often lamented his Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended Power? Latona's son a dire contagion spread, disqualification for public employment, but never And heap'd the camp with mountains of the dead; proposed a pension. While the translation of Ho-The King of men his reverend priest defy'd, mer' was in its progress, Mr. Craggs, then secre- And for the King's offence the people dy'd. tary of state, offered to procure him a pension, which, at least during his ministry, might be enjoyed with secrecy. This was not accepted by Pope, who told him, however, that if he should be pressed with want of money, he would send to him for occasional supplies. Craggs was not long in power, and was never solicited for money by Pope, who disdained to beg what he did not want. Declare, O Goddess, what offended Power T' avenge the wrongs his injured priest endured; With the product of this subscription, which he had too much discretion to squander, he secured his future life from want, by considerable annuities. For Chryses sought, with costly gifts, to gain The estate of the Duke of Buckingham was found His captive daughter from the Victor's chain; to have been charged with five hundred pounds a Suppliant the venerable Father stands, year, payable to Pope, which doubtless his trans-Apollo's awful ensigns grace his hands; lation enabled him to purchase. It cannot be unwelcome to literary curiosity, that I deduce thus minutely the history of the English Iliad.' It is certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen; and its publication must therefore be considered as one of the great events in the annals of Learning. By these he begs, and, lowly bending down For Chryses sought by presents to regain For these are ensigns of his God he bare, To those who have skill to estimate the excellence and difficulty of this great work, it must be very desirable to know how it was performed, and by what gradations it advanced to correctness. Of such an intellectual process the knowledge has very rarely been attainable; but happily there remains the original copy of the Iliad,' which, being obtained by Bolingbroke as a curiosity, descended He sued to all, but chief implor'd for grace, from him to Mallet, and is now, by the solicitation ye kings and warriors, may your vows be crown'd of the late Dr. Maty, reposited in the Museum. And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground: Between this manuscript, which is written upon May Jove restore you, when your toils are o'er, accidental fragments of paper, and the printed edi- Safe to the pleasures of your native shore. tion, there must have been an intermediate copy, that was perhaps destroyed as it returned from the press. From the first copy I have procured a few transcripts, and shall exhibit first the printed lines; then those of the manuscripts, with all their variations. Those words which are given in Italics, are cancelled in the copy, and the words placed under them adopted in their stead. The beginning of the first book stands thus: The stern Pelides' rage O Goddess, sing, Of all the woes of Greece the fatal spring, The brother kings of Atreus' royal race: To all he sued, but chief implored for grace, Your labours, by the Gods be all your labours crown'd; So may the Gods your arms with conquest bless, laid Till But oh! relieve a hapless parent's pain, |