BROOME, WILLIAM

born May 3, 1689, Haslington, Cheshire, Eng. died Nov. 16, 1745, Bath, Somerset British scholar and poet, best known as a collaborator with Alexander Pope and Elijah Fenton in a project to translate Homer's Odyssey, of which Broome translated books 2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, and 23. He seems to have undertaken the work mainly to add lustre to his reputation, but when he found that little fame came his way because of it, he began to complain of underpayment. In fact Pope was more generous than originally had been supposed. Broome also made translations from the Greek of Anacreon, and his own Poems on Several Occasions was published in 1727.