THE ODYSSEY.—­The success of his version of the Iliad led to his translation of the Odyssey; but this he did with the collaboration of Fenton and Broome, the former writing four and the latter six books.  The volumes appeared successively in 1725-6, and there was an appendix containing the Batrachomiomachia, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, translated by Parnell.  For this work Pope received the lion’s share of profits, his co-laborers being paid only L800.

Among his miscellaneous works must be mentioned portions of Martinus Scriblerus.  One of these, Peri Bathous, or Art of Sinking in Poetry, was the germ of The Dunciad.

Like Dryden, he was attacked by the soi-disant poets of the day, and retorted in similar style and taste.  In imitation of Dryden’s MacFlecknoe, he wrote The Dunciad, or epic of the Dunces, in the first edition of which Theobald was promoted to the vacant throne.  It roused a great storm.  Authors besieged the publisher to hinder him from publishing it, while booksellers and agents were doing all in their power to procure it.  In a later edition a new book was added, deposing Theobald and elevating Colley Cibber to the throne of Dulness.  This was ill-advised, as the ridicule, which was justly applied to Theobald, is not applicable to Cibber.

ESSAY ON MAN.—­The intercourse of the poet with the gifted but sceptical Lord Bolingbroke is apparent in his Essay on Man, in which, with much that is orthodox and excellent, the principles and influence of his lordship are readily discerned.  The first part appeared in 1732, and the second some years later.  The opinion is no longer held that Bolingbroke wrote any part of the poem; he has only infected it.  It is one of Pope’s best poems in versification and diction, and abounds with pithy proverbial sayings, which the English world has been using ever since as current money in conversational barter.  Among many that might be selected, the following are well known: 

    All are but parts of one stupendous whole
    Whose body nature is, and God the soul.

    Know thou thyself, presume not God to scan;
    The proper study of mankind is man.

    A wit’s a feather, and a chief’s a rod;
    An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

Among the historical teachings of Pope’s works and career, and also among the curiosities of literature, must be noticed the publication of Pope’s letters, by Curll the bookseller, without the poet’s permission.  They were principally letters to Henry Cromwell, Wycherley, Congreve, Steele, Addison, and Swift.  There were not wanting those who believed that it was a trick of the poet himself to increase his notoriety; but such an opinion is hardly warranted.  These letters form a valuable chapter in the social and literary history of the period.