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. With the product of this subscription, which he had too much discretion to squander, he secured his future life from want, by considerable annuities. The estate of the Duke of Buckingham was found to have been charged with five hundred pounds a year, payable to Pope, which doubtless his translation 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. 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 from him to Mallet, and is now, by the solicitation of the late Dr. Maty, reposited in the Museum. Between this manuscript, which is written upon accidental fragments of paper, and the printed edition, 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, distinguished by inverted commas; 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 wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring The stern Pelides' rage, O Goddess, sing, Of all the woes of Greece the fatal spring, Grecian That strew'd with warriors dead the Phrygian plain, And peopled the dark hell with heroes slain; "Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore, Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove." Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove. Declare, O Muse, in what ill-fated hour Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended Power? And heap'd the camp with mountains of the dead; Declare, O Goddess, what offended Power anger Phoebus himself the dire debate procur'd, fierce T'avenge the wrongs his injur'd priest endur'd; "For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain His captive daughter from the Victor's chain! For these as ensigns of his God he bare Ye kings and warriors, may your vows be crown'd, To all he sued, but chief implor'd for grace Ye sons of Atreus, may your vows be crown'd, Kings and warriors Your labours, by the Gods be all your labours crown'd,' So may the Gods your arms with conquest bless, laid And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground; 'But, oh! relieve a wretched parent's pain, But, oh! relieve a hapless parent's pain, avenging Phoebus, son of Jove. "The Greeks, in shouts, their joint assent declare, Not so Atrides; he, with kingly pride, He said, the Greeks their joint assent declare, Atrides Repuls'd the sacred Sire, and thus reply'd Of these lines, and of the whole first book, I am told that there was yet a former copy, more varied, and more deformed with interlineations. The beginning of the second book varies very little from the printed page, and is therefore set down without a parallel; the few differences do not require to be elaborately displayed. "Now pleasing sleep had seal'd each mortal eye; Th' Immortals slumber'd on their thrones above, To honour Thetis' son he bends his care, directs Fly hence delusive dream, and, light as air, Bid him in arms draw forth th' embattled train, Now tell the King 'tis giv'n him to destroy Declare ev'n now The lofty walls of wide-extended Troy; tow'rs For now no more the Gods with fate contend; hangs And nodding Ilium waits th' impending fall." Invocation to the catalogue of ships. "Say, Virgins, seated round the throne divine, Since Earth's wide regions, Heav'ns unmeasur'd height, (We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below, Now, Virgin Goddesses, immortal Nine! Relate what armies sought the Trojan land, What nations follow'd, and what chiefs command; From his broad buckler flash'd the living ray; His beamy shield emits a living ray; The Goddess with her breath the flames supplies, "When first he rears his radiant orb to sight, Where the fight burns, and where the thickest rage. When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight, |