Betterton with kindness and esteem, and after his death published,
under his name, a version into modern English of Chaucer's Prologues
and one of his Tales, which, as was related by Mr. Harte, were
believed to have been the performance of Pope himself by Fenton, who
made him a gay offer of five pounds if he would show them in the
hand of Betterton.

The next year (1713) produced a bolder attempt, by which profit was
sought as well as praise. The poems which he had hitherto written,
however they might have diffused his name, had made very little
addition to his fortune. The allowance which his father made him,
though, proportioned to what he had, it might be liberal, could not
be large; his religion hindered him from the occupation of any civil
employment; and he complained that he wanted even money to buy
books. He therefore resolved to try how far the favour of the
public extended by soliciting a subscription to a version of the
"Iliad," with large notes. To print by subscription was, for some
time, a practice peculiar to the English. The first considerable
work for which this expedient was employed is said to have been
Dryden's "Virgil," and it had been tried again with great success
when the Tatlers were collected into volumes.

There was reason to believe that Pope's attempt would be successful.
He was in the full bloom of reputation and was personally known to
almost all whom dignity of employment or splendour of reputation had
made eminent; he conversed indifferently with both parties, and
never disturbed the public with his political opinions; and it might
be naturally expected, as each faction then boasted its literary
zeal, that the great men, who on other occasions practised all the
violence of opposition, would emulate each other in their