ly rebuke his fellow-sinner. He had, in fact,
conspired with Pope to attract the public by the use of the most popular
name, and could not even claim his own afterwards. He had, indeed,
talked too much, according to Pope; and the poet's morality is oddly
illustrated in a letter, in which he complains of Broome's indiscretion
for letting out the secret; and explains that, as the facts are so far
known, it would now be "unjust and dishonourable" to continue the
concealment. It would be impossible to accept more frankly the theory
that lying is wrong when it is found out. Meanwhile Pope's conduct to
his victims or accomplices was not over-generous. He made over 3500_l._
after paying Broome 500_l._ (including 100_l._ for notes) and Fenton
200_l._, that is, 50_l._ a book. The rate of pay was as high as the work
was worth, and as much as it would fetch in the open market. The large
sum was entirely due to Pope's reputation, though obtained, so far as
the true authorship was concealed, upon something like false pretences.
Still, we could have wished that he had been a little more liberal with
his share of the plunder. A coolness ensued between the principal and
his partners in consequence of these questionable dealings. Fenton seems
never to have been reconciled to Pope, though they did not openly
quarrel and Pope wrote a laudatory epitaph for him on his death in 1730.
Broome--a weaker man--though insulted by Pope in the _Dunciad_ and the
Miscellanies, accepted a reconciliation, for which Pope seems to have
been eager, perhaps feeling some touch of remorse for the injuries which
he had inflicted.

The shares of the three colleagues in the Odyssey are not to be easily
distinguished by internal evidence. On trying the experiment by a
cursory reading I confess (though a critic does not willingly admit his
fallibility) that I took some of Broome's work for Pope's, and, though
closer study or an acuter perception might discriminate more accurately,
I do not think that the distinction would be easy. This may be taken to
confirm the common theory that Pope's versification was a mere
mechanical trick. Without admitting this, it must be admitted that the
external characteristics of his manner were easily caught; and that it
was not hard for a clever versifier to produce something closely
resembling his inferior work, especially when following the same
original. But it may be added that Pope's Odyssey was really inferior to
the Iliad, b