BROOME, WILLIAM English scholar and poet, the son of a farmer, was born at Haslington, Cheshire. where he was baptized on May 3, 1689, and died at Bath on Nov. 16, 1745. He was educated at Eton, and at St. John's college, Cam bridge. He was rector of Sturston, Norfolk, and married in 1716 a fairly rich widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Clarke. When Pope under took the translation of the Odyssey, he engaged Elijah Fenton and Broome to assist him. Broome translated the 2nd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th and 23rd books, and provided prac tically all the notes. He was a vain, talkative man, and did not fail to make known his real share in the translation, of which Pope had given a very misleading account in the "proposals" issued to subscribers. For the Odyssey Pope received 4,500, of which Broome, who had provided a third of the text and the notes, received 1570. He had hoped to secure fame from his connection with Pope, and when he found that Pope had no intention of praising him he complained bitterly of being under paid. Pope satirised him in the Dunciad and the Bathos.
Broome was also the author of some translations from Anacreon printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, and of Poems on Several Occasions (17 2 7) . His poems are included in Johnson's and other collections of the British poets. His connection with Pope is exhau3tively discussed in Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's Works (viii. pp. 3o-186), where the correspondence between the two is reproduced.