The pain that Addison might feel it is not likely that he would confefs; and it is certain that he fo well fuppreffed his discontent, that Pope now thought himfelf his favourite; for having been confulted in the revifal of Cato, he introduced it by a Prologue; and, when Dennis published his Remarks, undertook not indeed to vindicate but to revenge his friend, by a Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis.

There is reafon to believe that Addifon gave no encouragement to this difingenuous hoftility; for, fays Pope, in a Letter to him, "indeed your opinion, that 'tis entirely to be

neglected, would be my own in my own "cafe; but I felt more warmth here than I "did when I firft faw his book against my"self (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 deserved much by his officioufnefs.

This year was printed in the Guardian the ironical comparison between the Pastorals 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 lest Pope should be offended. Addison immediately faw the writer's design; and, as it seems, had malice enough to conceal his discovery, and to permit a publication which, by making his friend Philips ridiculous, made him for ever an enemy to Pope.

It appears that about this time Pope had a ftrong inclination to unite the art of Painting with that of Poetry, and put himself under the tuition of Jervas. He was nearfighted, 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, supposed to be drawn by him, was in the poffeffion of Lord Mansfield: if this was taken from

from the life, he must have begun to pain earlier; for Betterton was now dead. Pope's ambition of this new art produced fome encomiaftick verses to Jervas, which certainly shew 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 efteem; 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 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 refolved to try how far the favour of the publick extended, by faliciting a fubfcription to a verfion of the Iliad, with large notes.

To print by fubfcription was, for some time, a practice peculiar to the English. The firft 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 reason 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 em- . ployment or splendour 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

*

VOL. IV.

• Spence.
D

other

other occafions practised all the violence of oppofition, would emulate each other in their encouragement of a poet who had 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 propofal, however, was very favourably received, and the patrons of literature were busy to recommend his undertaking, and promote his intereft. Lord Oxford, indeed, lamented that fuch a genius fhould be wasted 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.

The greatness of the defign, the popularity of the author, and the attention of the literary world, naturally raifed fuch expectations of

the