BRO O ME. WILLIAM BROOME was born in Cheshire, as is faid of very mean parents. Of the place of his birth, or the first part of his life, I have not been able to gain any intelligence. He was educated upon the foundation at Eaton, and was captain of the school a whole year, without any vacancy, by which he might have obtained a fcholarship at King's College. Being by this delay, fuch as is faid to have happened very rarely, fuperannuated, he was fent to St. John's College by the contributions of his friends, where he obtained a smallexhibition. At his College he lived for fome time in the fame chamber with the well-known Ford, by whom I have formerly heard him defcribed as a contracted fcholar and a mere verfifier, unacquainted with life, and unfkilful in conversation. His addiction to metre was then fuch, that his companions familiarly called him Poet. When he had opportunities of mingling with mankind, he cleared himfelf, as Ford likewife owned, from great part of his fcholaftick ruft. He appeared early in the world as a tranflator of the "Iliads" into prose, in conjunction with Ozell and Oldifworth. How their feveral parts were diftributed is not known. This is the translation of which Ozell boafted as fuperiour, in Toland's opinion, opinion, to that of Pope: it has long fince vanished, and is now in no danger from the critics. He was introduced to Mr. Pope, who was then vifiting Sir Johu Cotton at Madingley near Cambridge, and gained fo much of his efteem, that he was employed, I believe, to make extracts from Euftathius for the notes to the tranflation of the "Iliad ;" and in the volumes of poetry published by Lintot, commonly called "Pope's Mifcellanies," many of his early pieces were inferted. Pope and Broome were to be yet more clofely connected. When the fuccefs of the "Iliad" gave encouragement to a verfion of the "Odyffey," Pope, weary of the toil, called Fenton and Broome to his affiftance; and taking only half the work upon himself, divided the other half between his partners, giving four books to Fenton, and eight to Broome. Fenton's books I have enumerated in his Life; to the lot of Broome fell the second, fixth, eighth, eleventh, twelfth, fixteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-third, together with the burthen of writing all the notes. As this tranflation is a very important event in poetical history, the reader has a right to know upon what grounds I establish.my narration. That the verfion was not wholly Pope's was always known; he had mentioned the affiftance of two friends in his proposals, and at the end of the work fome account is given by Broome of their different parts, which however mentions only five books as written by the co-adjutors; the fourth and twentieth by Fenton; the fixth, the eleventh, and eighteenth, by himself; though Pope, in an advertisement prefixed afterwards to a new volume of his works, claimed only twelve. A natural curiofity, after after the real conduct of fo great an undertaking, incited me once to inquire of Dr. Warburton, who told me, in his warm language, that he thought the relation given in the note "a lie;" but that he was not able to ascertain the feveral shares. The ན intelligence which Dr. Warburton could not afford me, I obtained from Mr. Langton, to whom Mr. Spence had imparted it. The price at which Pope purchased this affistance was three hundred pounds paid to Fenton, and five hundred to Broome, with as many copies as he wanted for his friends, which amounted to one hundred more. The payment made to Fenton I know not but by hearfay; Broome's is very diftinctly told by Pope, in the notes to the Dunciad. It is evident, that, according to Pope's own estimate, Broome was unkindly treated. If four books could merit three hundred pounds, eight and all the notes, equivalent at leaft to four, had certainly a right to more than fix. Broome probably confidered himself as injured, and there was for fome time more than coldness between him and his employer. He always fpoke of Pope as too much a lover of money, and Pope pursued him with avowed hoftility; for he not only named him difrefpectfully in the "Dunciad," but quoted him more than once in the "Bathos," as a proficient in the "Art of Sinking;" and in his enumeration of the different kinds of poets diftinguished for the profound, he reckons Broome among "the Parrots who repeat another's words "in fuch a hoarfe odd tone as makes them seem "their own." I have been told that they were afterwards reconciled; but I am afraid their peace was without friendship. He He afterwards published a Mifcellany of Poems, which is inferted, with corrections, in the late compilation. He never rose to a very high dignity in the church. He was fome time rector of Sturfton in Suffolk, where he married a wealthy widow; and afterwards, when the King vifited Cambridge (1728), became Doctor of Laws. He was (1733) prefented by the Crown to the rectory of Pulham in Norfolk, which he held with Oakley Magna in Suffolk, given him by the Lord Cornwallis, to whom he was chaplain, and who added the vicarage of Eye in Suffolk; he then refigned Pulham, and retained the other two. Towards the clofe of his life he grew again poetical, and amused himself with translating Odes of Anacreon, which he published in the " Gentle"man's Magazine," under the name of Chester. He died at Bath, November 16th, 1745, and was buried in the Abbey Church. Of Broome, though it cannot be faid that he was a great poet, it would be unjust to deny that he was an excellent verfifier; his lines are fmooth and fonorous, and his diction is felect and elegant. His rhymes are fometimes unfuitable; in his "Melancholy," he makes breath rhyme to birth in one place, and to earth in another. Those faults occur but feldom; and he had fuch power of words and numbers as fitted him for tranflation; but, in his original works, recollection feems to have been his business more than invention. His imitations are so apparent, that it is part of his reader's employment to recal the verfes of fome former poet. Sometimes he copies the most popular writers, for he seems scarcely to endeavour at conceal concealment; and fometimes he picks up fragments in obfcure corners. His lines to Fenton, Serene the fting of pain thy thoughts beguile, brought to my mind fome lines on the death of Queen Mary, written by Barnes, of whom I should not have expected to find an imitator: But thou, O Muse, whofe fweet Nepenthean tongue To detect his imitations were tedious and ufelefs. What he takes he feldom makes worfe; and he cannot be justly thought a mean man whom Pope chofe for an affociate, and whofe co-operation was confidered by Pope's enemies as fo important, that he was attacked by Henley with this ludicrous diftich: Pope came off clean with Homer; but they fay END OF THE THIRD VOLUME. Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street, London. |