"that 'tis entirely to be neglected, would be my << own in my own cafe; but I felt more warinth here "than I did when I first saw his book against myself "(though indeed in two minutes it made me "heartily merry).' Addison was not a man on whom fuch cant of fenfibility could make much impreffion. He left the pamphlet to itself, having difowned it to Dennis, and perhaps did not think Pope to have deferved much by his officiousness.

This year was printed in the "Guardian" the ironical comparison between the Paftorals of Philips and Pope; a compofition of artifice, criticism, and literature, to which nothing equal will eafily be found. The fuperiority of Pope is so ingeniously diffembled, and the feeble lines of Philips fo fkilfully preferred, that Steele, being deceived, was unwilling to print the paper, left Pope fhould be offended. Addison immediately faw the writer's defign; and, as it seems, had malice enough to conceal his difcovery, and to permit a publication which, by mak ing his friend Philips ridiculous, made him for ever an enemy to Pope.

It appears that about this time Pope had a strong inclination to unite the art of Painting with that of Poetry, and put himself under the tuition of Jervas. He was near fighted, and therefore not formed by nature for a painter: he tried, however, how far he could advance, and fometimes perfuaded his friends to fit. A picture of Betterton, fuppofed to be drawn by him, was in the poffeffion of Lord Mansfield * ;

*It is ftill at Caen Wood. N.

if this was taken from life, he must have begun to paint earlier; for Betterton was now dead. Pope's ambition of this new art produced fome encomiaftick verses to Jervas, which certainly fhew his power as a poet; but I have been told that they betray his ignorance of painting.

He appears to have regarded Betterton with kindrefs and esteem; and after his death published, under his name, a verfion 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 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 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 refolved to try how far the favour of the publick extended, by foliciting a fubfcription 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,

* Spence.

is faid to have been Dryden's "Virgil ;" and it had been tried 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 difturbed the publick with his political opinions; and it might be naturally expected, as each faction then boafted its literary zeal, that the great men, who on other occafions practifed all the violence of oppofition, would emulate each other in their encouragement of a poet who 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 proposal, however, was very favourably received; and the patrons of literature were busy to recommend his undertaking, and promote his interest. 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 praise of half the nation, when he might be univerfally favoured.

* Earlier than this, viz. in 1688, Milton's "Paradise Loft" had been published with great fuccefs by fubfcription, in folio, under the patronage of Mr. (afterwards Lord) Sommers. R.

The

The greatness of the defign, the popularity of the author, and the attention of the literary world, naturally raised such expectations of the future fale, that the bookfellers made their offers with great eagernefs; 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 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 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 firft volume, he reduced the number in the other volumes to a thoufand.

It is unpleasant to relate that the bookfeller, 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 clandestinely for the gratification of thofe 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 com

pelled

pelled 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 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 patronised his fubfcription, began to be 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 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 difpatching regularly fifty verfes 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 afks a subscription 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

* Spence.