the press.

From the first copy I have procured a few transcripts, and shall
exhibit first the printed lines; then, in a small print, those of
the manuscripts, with all their variations. Those words in the
small print, which are given in italics, are cancelled in the copy,
and the words placed under them adopted in their stead:

The beginning of the first book stands thus:-


The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring
Of all the Grecian woes, O Goddess, sing,
That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain.

The stern Pelides' rage, O Goddess, sing,
wrath
Of all the woes of Greece too fatal spring,
Grecian
That screwed with warriors dead the Phrygian plain,
heroes
And peopled the dark with heroes slain:
filled the shady hell with chiefs untimely

Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore,
Since great Achilles and Atrides strove;
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove.