[4] There is the usual contradiction as to the date of composition of
_Windsor Forest_. Part seems to have been written early (Pope says
1704), and part certainly not before 1712.
[5] Mr. Dilke, it is perhaps right to say, has given some reasons for
doubting Pope's authorship of this squib; but the authenticity seems to
be established, and Mr. Dilke himself hesitates.
CHAPTER III.
POPE'S HOMER.
Pope's uneasy relations with the wits at Button's were no obstacle to
his success elsewhere. Swift, now at the height of his power, was
pleased by his _Windsor Forest_, recommended it to Stella, and soon made
the author's acquaintance. The first letter in their long correspondence
is a laboured but fairly successful piece of pleasantry from Pope, upon
Swift's having offered twenty guineas to the young Papist to change his
religion. It is dated December 8, 1713. In the preceding month Bishop
Kennet saw Swift in all his glory, and wrote an often quoted description
of the scene. Swift was bustling about in the royal antechamber,
swelling with conscious importance, distributing advice, promising
patronage, whispering to ministers, and filling the whole room with his
presence. He finally "instructed a young nobleman that the best poet in
England was Mr. Pope, a Papist, who had begun a translation of Homer
into English verse, for which he must have them all subscribe; 'for,'
says he, 'the author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand
guineas for him!'" Swift introduced Pope to some of the leaders of the
ministry, and he was soon acquainted with Oxford, Bolingbroke,
Atterbury, and many other men of high position.
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