Rev. William Broome

William Broome was born in Cheshire and educated at Eton and St. John's College Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the team of translators who assisted Pope with Homer. He spent his later years living in rural retirement as rector of Oakley Magna, Vicar of Eye, Suffolk, and chaplain to Lord Cornwallis. Broome published some of his later verse in the Gentleman's Magazine under the pseudonym, "Charles Chester, M.D."

TEXT RECORDS:

1714A Pastoral.
1723 ca.Melancholy, an Ode.
1728The Oak, and the Dunghill. A Fable.

PUBLICATIONS:

The Iliad of Homer done from the French [with Ozell and Oldisworth]. 1712.
The Iliad of Homer, translated from the Greek into blank verse, by Mr. Ozell, Mr. Broome, and Mr. Oldisworth. 1714.
The Iliad of Homer, translated by Mr. Pope [notes by Broome]. 6 vols, 1715-20.
The Odyssey of Homer [with Pope and Fenton]. 5 vols, 1725-26.
Poems on several occasions. 1727, 1739.
The oak and the dunghill. 1728.
A sermon preach'd at the assizes of Norwich. 1737.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Eton College
St. John's College Cambridge

clergyman
poet
translator

Gentleman's Magazine
London Journal

Rev. Christopher Pitt
Alexander Pope
Elijah Fenton
William Oldisworth

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

[Portrait in Poems, 1722]; Alexander Pope, Dunciad (1728; 1743); Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82) [portrait]; Samuel Johnson, Life in Works of the English Poets (1779-81); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Edward S. Creasy, Memoirs of Eminent Etonians (1850); T. W. Barlow, Memoir of Broome with Selections from his Works (1855); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature 3rd ed. (1876); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Dobree, OHEL (1959); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. William Broome:

1.	1725  Elijah Fenton to William Broome, 20 November 1725; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:103-04.
2.	1728  Anonymous, "An Epigram, occasion'd by Pope's Abuse of Mr. Broome, Author of the Dissertation and Notes upon Homer" Daily Journal (2 October 1728).
3.	1728  Mr. Thurston, "To the Rev. Mr. Broom, on the late publication of his Poems" London Journal (6 January 1728).
4.	1735  Edmund Curll to William Broome, 22 July 1735; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:168.
5.	1742  Alexander Pope, in The Dunciad (1728; 1742); Works, ed. Warton (1796-97) 5:377-78.
6.	1746  Anonymous, "On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Broome" Gentleman's Magazine 16 (February 1746) 103.
7.	1779  Vicesimus Knox, in "Minor English Poets" Essays Moral and Literary (1779) 2:280.
8.	1780  Samuel Johnson to Joseph Warton, 23 May 1780; Wooll, Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton (1806) 390.
9.	1795  Robert Anderson, in Works of the British Poets (1795) 8:724-25.
10.	1807  Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 2:34.
11.	1872  Whitwell Elwin, Note in Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:30n.
12.	1882  W. J. Courthope, Note in Works of Alexander Pope (1871-89) 4:318-19.
13.	1913  George Saintsbury, in Cambridge History of English Literature (1913) 9:205.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. William Broome:

1.	1779  Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 3:75-81.
2.	1780  John Nichols, in Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 4:283-86.
3.	1781  Anonymous, "Life of William Broome" in Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1781) v-x.
4.	1808  Samuel Jackson Pratt, in Cabinet of Poetry (1808) 3:385-86.
5.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 7:62-64.
6.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:519-20.
7.	1850  Edward S. Creasy, "William Broome" Memoirs of Eminent Etonians (1850) 325-26.
8.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876; 1879) 3:197.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1722  Elijah Fenton:   William Broome to Elijah Fenton, 29 May 1722; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:53-55.
2.	1725  Elijah Fenton:   William Broome to Elijah Fenton, 1 December 1725; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:105-07.
3.	1726  Elijah Fenton:   William Broome, "An Epistle to my Friend, Mr. Elisha Fenton, 1726" London Journal (7 January 1727).
4.	1726  Alexander Pope:   William Broome to Alexander Pope, 2 January 1726; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:110-11.
5.	1726  Alexander Pope:   William Broome, "To Mr. A. Pope, who corrected my Verses" 1726; Broome, Poems (1739) 192-94.
6.	1728  Alexander Pope:   William Broome to Elijah Fenton, 3 May 1728; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:146-48.
7.	1730  Elijah Fenton:   William Broome to Alexander Pope, 17 August 1730; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:163.
8.	1730  Elijah Fenton:   William Broome, "On the Death of my dear Friend, Mr. Elijah Fenton, 1730" in Broome, Poems (1739) 206-14.
9.	1742  Rev. Christopher Pitt:   William Broome to Christopher Pitt, 24 March 1742; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 8:183-85.