As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 1 ACHILLES' Wrath, to Greece the direful Spring Of Woes unnumber'd, heav'nly Goddess, sing! That Wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign The Souls of mighty Chiefs untimely slain; Whose Limbs unbury'd on the naked Shore Devouring dogs and hungry Vultures tore. Since great Achilles and Atrides strove, Such was the sov'reign Doom, and such the Will of Jove. Declare, O Muse! in what ill-fated Hour Sprung the fierce Strife, from what offended Pow'r? Latona's Son a dire Contagion spread, And heap'd the Camp with Mountains of the Dead; The King of Men his Rev'rend Priest defy'd, And, for the King's Offence, the People dy'd.1 'Iliad' I. 1-14

The poetry of Alexander Pope fell from favor not long after his death. This decline was enhanced by the editorial stance of Whitwell Elwin, who published the first two volumes of his collected poetry in 1871 and 1872. Elwin's attitude, as summarized by Mark Pattison, was that "[H]is so-called poetry is ungrammatical, ill-timed, unmeaning trash"(Sherburn 22). The tide of reputation is turning, however, thanks largely to the work of scholars such as George Sherburn, Douglas Knight, and Maynard Mack. That Pope would still be read, and eventually be re-evaluated, is understandable, since while during the nineteenth century "at the worst, he was not considered a poet at all, though he was conceded to be the best substitute for one that an age of prose could offer" (Parkin 4), even when a poet is out of favor something must be found to fill the spaces between Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Coleridge in British literature anthologies, and any out-of-favor poet is attractive to some industrious student. The Norton Anthology of British Literature, volume One, for instance, offers "An Essay on Criticism," "The Rape of the Lock," "Ode on Solitude," "Epistle to Miss 1

All quotations from Pope's 'Iliad' are taken from the Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope, volumes vii-ix.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 2 Blount," "Eloisa to Abelard," "An Essay on Man," "Epistle: To a Lady," "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," and selections from "The Duncaid." These selections, however, represent only the beginning and end of his career, his "original" works. The ten year's work between these two stages of Pope's career is, however, largely overlooked. This time was spent with the great poets: he edited an edition of Shakespeare and translated Homer's epics. That two such exemplars could teach his verses so little is unfortunate, but upon a cursory perusal it seemed that they must have failed: this study was provoked by an initial disgust upon comparing Pope's 'Iliad' to Robert Fitzgerald's 1963 version. They did not seem to be the same piece in any way. The heroic couplets, clamorous for attention, were distractingly artful, making Homer's heroes appear to be acting in a B-movie. It seemed that the couplets, if not "bad," were certainly inappropriate. It must be emphasized, however, that a translation is not a reproduction but an interpretation, and thus a new work of art, and reading the entire epic changes one's perspective. Perhaps the story is simply too powerful to be degraded by its medium, but a grudging respect for, if not an outright enjoyment of, this translation results from further study. Still, the question of why Pope would choose heroic couplets for his translation remains for literary historians and modern readers. Part of the response involves issues of poetic taste. If the heroic couplets clang on today's ears, those ears ought at least seek to understand why such apparently monotonous torture was once found pleasing. This requires some understanding of the author's times and poetic attitudes. The heroic couplet is Pope's primary verse form (Johnson 303), and it has become almost synonymous with his name. The very name suggests that it would, indeed, be an appropriately heroic form for translating the story of a great hero like Achilles. That these verses, once seen as "a performance which no age or nation can

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 3 pretend to equal" (Johnson 320), should now be out of favor with, or even offensive to, poetic tastes indicates how great was the shift to a different sort of artifice following the Augustans. Understanding the value of Pope's translation calls for learning both how then-current poetic attitudes shaped Pope's verses and how his work was in turn received by his audience. This acknowledgment of a different audience is, in all fairness, due Pope's poem; knowing their standards does not, however, imply that these must also be the standards of contemporary judgment. The following biographical study would, most likely, come under the heading of historical criticism; it is, however, a necessary foundation for any further analysis of the Homeric translation which established Pope's freedom to pursue a literary career.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 4

O Parent Goddess! since in early Bloom They Son must fall, by too severe a Doom, Sure, to so short a Race of Glory born, Great Jove in Justice should this Span adorn: Honour and Fame at least the Thund'rer ow'd, And ill he pays the Promise of a God; If yon proud Monarch thus thy Son defies, Obscures my Glories, and resumes my Prize. 'Iliad' I. 460-67

Alexander Pope was born 21 May, 1688, to Roman Catholic parents during the height of British anti-papist paranoia (Mack 12). As a Catholic, he was to be denied access to the universities--still largely training centers for the clergy--and the civil service. While his father had been a successful trader in linens, he gave up business and retired to the country soon after his son's birth, thus cutting off that route to employment as well (Mack 24). Pope the father did, however, lead his son to a career. While Catholics were not allowed to establish schools or send children abroad for education, this did not prevent learning. An aunt, living with the family, taught Alexander to read; he taught himself to write by copying from books, and a priest was found to tutor him in Latin and Greek (Mack 47-48). It was during these early years, before going off to an underground Catholic school, that Pope began writing poetry under his father's instruction (Mack 25).2 School offered little to stimulate his mind, though, so at twelve or thirteen Pope returned to his family and took his education upon himself (Mack 52). 2 "Concerning many of his juvenilia Pope adopted the wise procedure of talking--and destroying. Consequently we have a list of boyish efforts, no one of which has survived in its juvenile form. His father early set him to making English verses, so Mrs. Pope told Spence: 'He was pretty difficult in being pleased; and used often to send him back to new turn them. "These are not good rhimes;" for that was my husband's word for verses'" (Sherburn 83).

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 5 This education consisted largely of reading poetry, as he later related to Spence (Mack 76). In a few years I had dipped into a great number of the English, French, Italian, and Greek poets. This I did without any design but that of pleasing myself, and got the languages by hunting after the stories. That his knowledge of poetry and critical habits was extensive should be obvious from the "Essay on Criticism," which offered a systematic rendering of critical theory and suggested how it might best be applied. It would have been during this time that Pope began his efforts in translation, as a part of "getting the languages." He was smitten with Homer long before this, however; Ogilby's translation of the 'Iliad,' which he discovered at eight, "made him 'catch the itch of poetry'" (Mack 44). Later, when his own qualifications for attempting to translate Homer were questioned, Pope wrote to Addison that, "if they can read there are fairly lying before them, some specimens of my translation from this Author in the Miscellanies, which they are heartily welcome to" (Correspondence I: 209). Although he did not have university training in the classics, Pope had skill enough to publish these early efforts. They met with approval, as a letter from Lord Lansdowne, dated 21 October 1713, demonstrates (Correspondence I: 194). I am pleas'd beyond measure with your design of translating Homer: the tryals which you have already made and published on some parts of that author have shewn that you are equal to so great a task: and you may therefore depend upon the utmost services I can do you in promoting this work, or any thing that may be for your service. This letter is the first mention of Pope's "design" of translating Homer; in the interim, Pope had established himself as a poet of some note by publishing not only his "Essay on Criticism," but his pastorals and the original version of "Rape of the Lock."

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 6 So the Alexander Pope who began soliciting subscriptions for a translation, into English verse, of Homer's 'Iliad' was a poet of some reputation. He was not, however, a wealthy man; then, as now, poetry paid but poorly. A successful translation would change that.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 7

Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended Reign, Where Xanthus' Streams enrich the Lycian Plain, Our num'rous Herds that range the fruitful field, And Hills where Vines their purple Harvest yield, Our foaming bowls with purer Nectar crown'd, Our Feasts enhanc'd with Music's sprightly sound? Why on those Shores are we with Joy survey'd, Admir'd as heroes, and as Gods obey'd? Unless great Acts superior Merit prove, And vindicate the bount'ous Pow'rs above. 'Tis ours, the Dignity they give, to grace; The first in Valour, as the first in Place. That when with wond'ring Eyes our martial bands Behold our Deeds transcending our Commands, Such, they may cry, deserve the sov'reign State, Whom those that envy, dare not imitate! Could all our Care elude the gloomy Grave, Which claims no less the fearful than the brave, For Lust of Fame I should not vainly dare In fighting Fields, nor urge thy Soul to War. But since, alas! ignoble Age must come, Disease, and Death's inexorable Doom; The Life which others pay, let us bestow, And give to fame what we to Nature owe; Brave tho' we fall, and honour'd if we live, Or let us Glory gain, or glory give! 'Iliad' XII. 371-96 A biography does not, however, reveal much about the poetry Pope wrote or the way he wrote it. This is because Pope said little about his use of the heroic couplet. While much has been written on his versification3, fairly little has been said of how he came to choose this verse form. John A Jones briefly traces the couplet's development in English poetry from Ben Jonson through Sir John 3 Pope's Couplet Art, by John A. Jones, traces Pope's development as a writer of heroic couplets from his "Pastorals" through "Epilogue to the Satires." the only mention ofhis Homer, however, is a line on page 107 indicating a great difference between his early work and the style he showed in his post-translation works. This would indicate that writing so many lines had an effect on Pope's verse, but does not expand on what that effect mayhave been.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 8 Denham and Edmund Waller, until "the couplet's capacity for pointed balance was developed and accelerated by Dryden and climaxed by Pope" (3). Jones continues, noting that Dryden and Pope were able to write effective sentences and verse paragraphs, using graceful lines, where their predecessors had generally failed (4). To take only one example, from the speech of Sarpedon to Glaucus above, note lines 387-90. As prose, they read thusly: "Could all our Care elude the Gloomy Grave, which claims no less the fearful than the brave, for Lust of Fame I should not vainly dare in fighting Fields, nor urge thy Soul to War." The lines are easily distinguished, because their ends do rhyme; the sentence, however, is clear. As lines 371-76 show, Pope often extended sentences for several couplets; each couplet, however, adds a disticnt and complete image to the effect. So it seems that, in choosing the heroic couplet as his primary verse form, Pope was simply picking up where his idol Dryden had left off: "in many ways [Pope] considers himself to be carrying on Dryden's work" (Tillotson 5). In fact, as Pope related to Spence (Tillotson 105), I learned versification wholly from Dryden. . . who had improved it much beyond any of our former poets; and would, probably, have brought it to its perfection, had he not been unhappily obliged to write so often in haste. Pope's early tulage under his father apparently broke him of this habit. Johnson, in his Life, notes this (304). His publications were. . . never hasty. He is said to have sent nothing to the press till it had lain two years under his inspection: it is at least certain, that he ventured nothing without nice examination. Since the translation was not undertaken until late 1713 and the first volume was published in 1715, it would have been impossible for his Homer to have had

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 9 such a waiting period. Johnson does tell us, however, "He appears to have revised the Iliad, and freed it from some of its imperfections" after its first printing (306). This means, of course, that Pope was sucessful enough to release a second printing.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 10

Thus round Pelides breathing War and Blood, Greece sheath'd in Arms, beside her Vessels stood; While near impending from a neighb'ring Height, Troy's black Battalions wait the Shock of Fight. Then Jove to Themis gives Command, to call The Gods to Council in the starry Hall: Swift o'er Olympus hundred Hills she flies, And summons all the Senate of the Skies. These shining on, in long Procession come To Joves eternal Adamantine dome. Not one was absent; not a Rural Pow'r That haunts the verdant Gloom, or rosy Bow'r, Each fair-hair'd Dryad of the shady Wood, Each azure Sister of the silver Flood; All but old Ocean, hoary Sire! who keeps His ancient Seat beneath the sacred Deeps. On Marble Thrones with lucid Columns crown'd, (The Work of Vulcan) sate the Pow'rs around. Ev'n He whose Trident sways the watry Reign, Heard the loud Summons, and forsook the main, Assum'd his Throne amid the bright Abodes, And question'd thus the Sire of Men and Gods. 'Iliad' XX. 1-22

Yet not everyone wished Pope success. In the letter to Addison mentioned earlier, Pope not only defends his translating skills, but intimates at the political maneuvering that would soon drive the two apart (Correspondence I: 209). As a Catholic, Pope was ineligible for public office. This allowed him to have friends in both the Tory and Whig parties; as he grew closer to Swift and other Tories in the Scriblerus Club, Addison's circle turned against him. this led them to support Thomas Tickell, an Oxford fellow and one of their circle, in a rival translation. Sherburn discusses the circumstances in detail, before concluding (129-30),

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 11 The most plausible explanation is that Tickell and his supporters believed, as they easily might, that Pope was totally incompetent to translate the Greek; that his first volume would burst the bubble, and that a competent translator might then profitably step forward. But considering the fact that Pope and Tickell were from rival political camps and that the fashionable world was all on Pope's side, one can hardly refrain from suspecting a certain amount of malice against Pope in this agreement. Whatever the causes, the proposed second translation led to scrimmages in the press and to attempts by both parties to draw the other's work out first, so corrections could be made based on public response to the competitor. Pope eventually capitulated; Tickell's version, including this note "To the Reader," was published two days later (Sherburn 132-40). I must inform the Reader, that when I begun this first Book, I had some Thoughts of Translating the whole Iliad, but had the pleasure of being diverted from that Design, by finding the Work was fallen into a much abler Hand. This concession was indicative of the general pulic response to Pope's first volume, which contained Books I-IV. "My opinion," said Pope's collaborator Thomas Parnell of Tickell's first Book, "is, that you may if you please, give them Thanks who writ it. Neither the numbers nor the spirit have an equal mastery with yours" (a).4 Even scholars sided with Pope, as a letter from Oxford to Tickell indicates (c). To be very plain the University almost in general gives the Preference to Popes Translation. They say his is written with more Spirit Ornament & Freedom & has more the air of an Original. It was the "air of an Original," however, which brought Pope much of his immediate criticism. Addison is reported to have said of it, "that your translation and Tickell's are both very well done, but that the later has more of Homer"(e),

4

These lettered quotations are taken from Pope: The Critical Heratage pp 118-29.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 12 while Thomas Burnet claims that "Pope's, if you were extravagant enough to buy it, woud appear only like a smooth soft Poem, rather of Dryden's than Homer's Composing" (f). Johnson notes perhaps the most damning of these remarks, Dr. Bentley's alleged comment, "it is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope; but you must not call it Homer" (322). Pope, however, “translated Homer for the publick in general." In this task, he must have been successful; otherwise, he could not have claimed in the same letter that "I have the town in general, that is to mob, on my side" (Correspondence I: 306). The politically motivated criticism his work received has little to do with its poetic quality; for a more honest assessment of how he faired in his attempt to render Homer truly, later, less partial, commentators should be consulted.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 13 Achilles, musing as he roll'd his eyes O're the dead Hero, thus (unheard) replies. Die thou the first! When Jove and Heav'n ordain, I follow thee--He said, and stripp'd the Slain. Then forcing backward from the gaping Wound The reeking Jav'lin, cast it on the Ground. The thronging Greeks behold with wond'ring Eyes His manly Beauty, and superiour Size: While some ignobler, the great Dead deface With Wounds ungen'rous, or with Taunts disgrace. "How chang'd that Hector! who like Jove of late, Sent Lightning on our Fleets, and scatter'd Fate?" 'Iliad" XXII. 460-470

Matthew Arnold, in 1905, undertook the task of establishing what one must do to translate Homer properly. He noted the following four qualities in the original text (Arnold 41): --that he [Homer] is eminently rapid; that he is eminently plain and direct, both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his syntax and in his words; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas; and, finally, that he is eminently noble. Given these basic premises, Arnold proceeds to critique each of the English 'Iliads,' to provide his audience of future translators with examples of what to avoid. Pope, he states, fails "for want of duly appreciating the second-named quality, [Homer's] plainness and directness of style and dictation" (41). The blame for this falls upon Pope's rhyming. Arnold grants that Pope is, indeed, heroic in his rapidity. This rapidity is not, however, "of the same kind as Homer's" (45). Translating Homer in rhyme is impossible, he indicates, not because English lacks sufficient rhymes, but because rhyming necessarily pairs

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 14 lines in inaccurate ways, thus changing the movement--and meaning--of the poem (45-6). Yet it must not be forgotten that any translation is not the original work, but a new piece of art. Arnold seems to admit this when he says, "[Pope] does not render Homer; but he and his style are in themselves strong" (50). This does not, however, exonerate Pope; Arnold is showing how to best render Homer, and Pope, as he says, does not do that (49): One feels that Homer's thought has passed through a literary and rhetorical crucible, and come out highly intellectualized; come out in a form which strongly impresses us, indeed, but which no longer impresses us in the same way as when it was uttered by Homer. Neither does it impress as much as when uttered by Fitzgerald, the current point of reference for those not fluent in Greek. Pope, however, did not write for this age, nor for the Victorians. He wrote for the Augustans. While recasting Homer in an Augustan image earned him scathing criticism from the author of a 1699 French version5 , this is, ultimately, also what saves him. Pope was not such a poor scholar that he was unaware of what makes Homer great. What Arnold notes as being "eminently rapid," Pope in his Preface (4) describes as that unequal'd Fire and Rapture, which is so forcible in Homer, that no Man of a true Poetical Spirit is Master of himself while he reads him. What he writes is of the most animated Nature imaginable; every thing moves, every thing lives, and is put into action. The Preface, however, also shows great respect for Homer's ability to "throw his Language more out of Prose" (10). This, after all, is what makes Homer's verse "eminently noble": it is ordinary language used extraordinarily.

5

Mme Anne Dracier. See Pope: The Critical Heratage pp 130-34.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 15 Using ordinary language extraordinarily is what forced Pope to translate in heroic couplets. "One means by which English could readily distinguish itself from prose and thereby elevate itself above the everyday," Steven Shankman states, "was through rhyme" (134). Our modern aversion to rhyme stems from the late-eighteenth century assumption, "that the greatest and most 'sublime' art is the least confined, and that the couplet is therefore perhaps too restricting a medium" (Shankman 132). This was not true when Pope wrote. Thus, while blank verse was an option, other considerations lead him to use couplets. The first, though probably least important, of these was predominantly financial: Mme Dracier's French prose translation had been translated into English blank verse in 1711 (Shankman 134). With this already available, it is doubtful that much demand for a new blank-verse translation would have existed. The real problem with blank verse, however, was that it "might very well appear indistinguishable from prose to an [Augustan] eighteenth-century ear" (Shankman 134). Pope was well aware of this, as he was aware of the lengths Milton had been forced to when composing his own epics in blank verse. His partner Thomas Parnell explained Pope's thoughts on this (Sherburn 192). The next Point I ventur'd to speak on, was the sort of Poetry he intended to use; how some may fancy, a Poet of the greatest Fire wou'd be imitated better in the Freedom of Blank Verse, and the Description of War sounds more pompous out of Rhime. But, will the Translation, said he, be thus remove'd enough from Prose, without greater Inconveniences? What Transpositions is Milton force'd to, as an Equivalent for Want of Rhime, in the Poetry of a Language which depends upon a natural Order of Words? And even this wou'd not have done his business, had he not given the fullest Scope to his Genius, by choosing a Subject upon which there could be no Hyperboles. We see that the Ridicule of his Manner succeeds better

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 16 than the Imitation of it; because Transpositions, which are unnatural to the Language, are to be fairly derided, if they ruin it by being frequently introduced; and because Hyperboles, which outrage every lesser Subject where they are seriously us'd, are often beautiful in Ridicule. Let the French, whose Language is not copious, translate in Prose; but ours, which exceeds it in copiousness of Words, may have a more frequent Likeness of Sounds, to make the Unison or Rhime easier; a Grace of Musick, that attones for the Harshness our Consonants and Monosyllables occasion. Remember, Pope was translating "for the masses"; he needed to achieve the elevation of poetry, to do Homer justice, while maintaining the most natural diction and syntax possible. Rhyme would distance his language from the everyday, would make it, therefore, extraordinary; that would free him to be ordinary, and thus comprehensible, in other ways. Yet in spite of the benefits, even Pope expressed some concern over the suitability of his couplets, in response to a question from the Bishop Atterbury: "I promise your Lordship, as soon as Homer is translated, to allow [rhyme] unfit for long works; but to say so at present would be what your second thought could never approve of" (Correspondence I: 500). That modern readers agree with Atterbury is, really, of no consequence. Pope achieved what he had hoped; his translation stands as a monument to sustained poetic endeavor and as a testament to his skill. It's dignity is of a much more gentlemanly sort, like cricket, than Fitzgerarld's rugby-like blank verse, but it does carry that air of noblesse which surrounds great things. It may be ignored, but it does exist, and while it should not, perhaps, be one's introduction to Homer, it should, nonetheless, be acknowledged as the masterpiece it is. All Troy then moves to Priam's Court again, A solemn, silent, melancholy Train. Assembled there, from pious Toil they rest, And sadly shar'd the last Sepulcral Feast.

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 17 Such Honours Ilion to he Hero paid, And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's Shade. XXIV. 1011-16

As When a Flame the Winding Valley Fills: An Inquiry into Pope's 'Iliad' Wiggins 18 Works Cited Arnold, Matthew. On Translating Homer. London: John Murray, 1905. Pope: The Critical Heritage. John Barnard, ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973. Johnson, Samuel. "Pope." The Works of Samuel Johnson. Troy, NY: Pafraets Press, 1903. Jones, John A. Pope's Couplet Art. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1969. Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope: A Life. New York: Norton, 1985. Norton Anthology of English Literature. v. I. M.H. Abrams, gen. ed. 5th ed. New York: Norton, 1986. Parkin, Rebecca P. Poetic Workmanship of Alexander Pope. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955. Pope, Alexander. Correspondence of Alexander Pope. George Sherburn, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956. ---. The Iliad of Homer. Maynard Mack, ed. New Haven: Yale University 1967.

Press,

Shankman, Steven. Pope's 'Iliad': Homer in the Age of Passion. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1983.

NJ:

Sherburn, George W. The Early Career of Alexander Pope. New York: Russell and Russell, 1963. Tillotson, Geoffrey. On the Poetry of Pope. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950.