certain of them not at all complimentary to the ancient poet. For example, he wrote to Mr. Bagot (January 3, 1787): "You wish to hear from me at any calm interval of epic frenzy. An interval presents itself, but whether calm or not is perhaps doubtful. Is it possible for a man to be calm who for three weeks past has been perpetually occupied in slaughter; letting out one man's bowels, smiting another through the gullet, transfixing the liver of another, and lodging an arrow in a fourth? Read the thirteenth book of the Iliad, and you will find such amusing incidents as these the subject of it, the sole subject. In order to interest myself in it, and to catch the spirit of it, I had need discard all humanity. It is woeful work; and were the best poet in the world to give us at this day such a list of killed and wounded, he would not escape universal censure,—to the praise of a more enlightened age be it spoken. I have waded through much blood, and through much more I must wade before I shall have finished. I determine in the meantime to account it all very sublime, and for two reasons: first, because all the learned think so, and secondly, because I am to translate it. But, were I an indifferent bystander, perhaps I should venture to wish that Homer had applied his wonderful powers to a less disgusting subject he has in the Odyssey, and I long to get at it."

Of the Odyssey he spoke as follows: "In the speeches made by the shade of Agamemnon there is more insight into the human heart discovered than I ever saw in any other work, unless in Shakespeare's ; but he also observes: "The battle with which the

book concludes is, I think, a paltry battle, and there is a huddle in the management of it altogether unworthy of my favourite, and the favourite of all ages."

The following is a summary of the principal facts connected with this undertaking. It was commenced November 21, 1784, and completed August 25, 1790. Consequently it took the poet some six years, but during eight months of the intervening time he was hindered by indisposition (his fourth derangement.) On the 8th of September, 1790, it was carried to London. Afterwards Cowper gave the work a second revision, which he concluded on March 4, 1791. The work was published, as we have seen, on July 1st of that year, but the poet continued to revise it, on and off, right up to the time of his death, with a view to a second edition. The following are the principal

translations of Homer :

Iliad.-Chapman, 1611; Pope, 1725; Cowper, 1791; Lord Derby, 1864; Professor Blackie, 1866; Worsley and Conington, 1868; Way, Wright, Green, Andrew Lang, Ernest Myers, and Walter Leaf (in prose, 1883).

Odyssey. Chapman, 1616; Pope, 1725; Cowper, 1791; William Morris, Philip Stanhope Worsley, Lord Carnarvon, 1886; Way, Schomberg, "Avia," Andrew Lang, and Professor Butcher (in prose), 1879.

One of the results of the publication of Homer was that it put the poet into communication with Thurlow again, the subject of their correspondence being the propriety of translating Homer in blank verse.

166. The Bodhams Stay a Parson's Week.

On June 15th Cowper wrote: "The absence of Homer (for we have now shaken hands and parted) is well supplied by three relations of mine from Norfolk -my cousin Johnson, an aunt of his, and his sister. I love them all dearly, and am well content to resign tothem the place in my attentions so lately occupied by the chiefs of Greece and Troy. His aunt and I have spent many a merry day together, when we were some forty years younger; and we make shift to be merry together still. His sister is a sweet young woman, graceful, good-natured, and gentle, just what I had imagined her to be before I had seen her."

The aunt was Mrs. Balls. The name of Johnson's sister was Catharine. On the 23rd he wrote: "Mrs. Balls is an unaffected, plain-dressing, good-tempered, cheerful, motherly sort of a body. Her niece is an amiable young woman in all respects, a handsome likeness of Johnson, and with a smile so like my mother's, that in this cousin of mine she seems almost restored to me again. I would she had better health. Johnny, with whom I have been always delighted, is also so much in love with me that no place in the world will suit him to live in at present except Weston.. Where he lives his sister will live likewise, and their aunt is under promise to live with them, at least till Catharine shall have attained under her tuition some competent share of skill in the art of housekeeping. They have looked at a house, the next but one to ours. It is an old house with girt casement windows, and

has a fir tree in the little court in front of it. Here they purpose to settle, if Aunt Bodham, who is most affectionately attached to them all, can be persuaded not to break her heart about it."

On July 7th, writing to Mrs. Bodham, who had been won over, Cowper, after telling her that Kitty had improved and that Johnny ailed nothing, observed: "Great preparation is making in the empty house. The spiders have no rest, and hardly a web is to be seen where lately there were thousands."

By the 11th, however, the idea had been given up, an accurate survey of the house proving that it was "so mean a ruin that it would have cost its value to make it habitable. They could only take it from year to year, for which reason the landlord would do nothing."

Writing on June 28th, Cowper had said: "I expect to see shortly Mrs. Bodham here and her husband. If they come, which depends on the recovery of a relation of theirs, at present very much disposed, they will stay, I imagine, a parson's week,1 that is to say, about a fortnight and no longer."

On July 28th he says: "Our house is brimful, as it has been all the summer, with my relations from Norfolk."

167. The Milton Scheme and the Delphic Teedon.

Cowper was now "idle," and for two reasons: first,

Literally, the period from a Monday till the Saturday week following.

on account of his eyes, which were troubling him again; and secondly, because he knew not to what to attach himself in particular. He says: "Many

different plans and projects are recommended to me. Some call aloud for original verse, others for more translation, and others for other things. Providence, I hope, will direct me in my choice, for other guide I have none, nor wish for another."

As we have before noticed, the weakness of his eyes was a continual source of anxiety. By care, however, and by saving them when they were tired, they stood him in stead, as the sequel proved, as long as he had need of them.

Whilst thus undecided what to do, an offer came from Mr. Joseph Johnson, the bookseller. A splendid edition of Milton was in contemplation, which should rival the celebrated Shakspere of John Boydell. Would Cowper accept the responsible office of editor?

For such an undertaking Cowper had but few qualifications. It is true that he possessed a refined critical taste and discernment, and it is also true that all his life he had been an admirer and a student of Milton. But he had had only trifling experience as an annotator, his knowledge of history was superficial, he had no books, and was situated in a spot where it was next to impossible to procure any-that is, of the particular sort that would be wanted. He saw the difficulties, but at the time they did not seem insurmountable. Moreover, a portion of the work would consist in translating the Latin poems of Milton into English verse, and translating was just then the occupation that best accorded with his taste.