addition, and nothing be put upon the papers but what you you fhall give your own fanction and affent to, at the fame time.

way,

if you

Do not be fo unjuft, as to imagine from hence that I would decline any part of this task; on the contrary you know, I have been at the pains of tranfcribing fome pieces, at once to comply with your defire of not defacing the copy, and yet to lose no time in proceeding upon the correction. I will go on the fame please; tho' truly it is (as I have often told you) my fincere opinion, that the greater part would make a much better figure as Single Maxims and Reflections in profe, after the manner of your favourite Rochefoucault, than in verse a: And this, when nothing more is done but marking the repetitions in the margin, will be an easy task to proceed upon, notwithstanding the bad Memory you complain of. I am unfeignedly, dear Sir, Your, &c.

Mr. Wycherley lived | five years after, to December, 1715, but little progrefs was made in this defign, thro' his old age, and the increase of his infirmities. However, fome of the Verfes, which had been touch'd by Mr. P. with cccvIII of these

A. POPE.

Maxims in Profe were found among his papers, which having the misfortune to fall into the hands of a Mercenary, were published in 1728 in octavo, under the Title of The Pofthumous Works of William Wycherley, Efq. P.

LET

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

W. WALSH, Efq;

From the Year 1705 to 1707.

LETTER I.

Mr. WALSH to Mr. WY CHERLEY.

I

April 20, 1705.

Return you the b papers you favour'd me with, and had fent them to you yesterday morning, but that I thought to have brought them to you last night myself. I have read them over feveral times with great fatisfaction. The Preface is very judicious and very learned;

* Of Abberly in Worcefterfhire, Gentleman of the Horse in Queen Anne's reign, Author of feveral beautiful pieces in Profe and Verfe,

and in the opinion of Mr. Dryden (in his postscript to Virgil) the best critic of our nation in his time.

P. Mr. Pope's Paftorals. P.

and

and the verses very tender and easy. The Author feems to have a particular genius for that kind of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds the years you told me he was of. He has taken very freely from the ancients, but what he has mixed of his own with theirs, is not inferior to what he has taken from them. 'Tis no flattery at all to fay, that Virgil had written nothing fo good at his age a. I fhall take it as a favour if you will bring me acquainted with him; and if he will give himself the trouble any morning to call at my house, I fhall be very glad to read the verses over with him, and give him my opinion of the particulars more largely than I can well do in this letter, I am, Sir, &c.

I

LETTER II.

Mr. WALSH to Mr. POPE.

June 24, 1706.

Received the favour of your letter, and shall be very glad of the continuance of a correfpondence, by which I am like to be fo great a gainer. I hope when I have the happiness of

you

feeing you again in London, not only to read over the verses I have now of yours, but more that you have written fince; for I make no doubt but any one who writes fo well, must write more. Not that I think the most voluminous poets always the best; I believe the contrary is rather true. I mentioned somewhat to you in London of a Paftoral Comedy, which I fhould be glad to hear had thought upon fince. I find Menage in his obfervations upon Taffo's Aminta, reckons up fourfcore paftoral plays in Italian: and in looking over my old Italian books, I find a great many pastoral and pifcatory plays, which, I fuppofe, Menage reckons together. I find alfo by Menage, that Taffo is not the firft that writ in that kind, he mentioning another before him which he himself had never feen, nor indeed have I. But as the Aminta, Paftor Fido, and Filli di Sciro of Bonarelli are the three beft, fo, I think, there is no difpute but Aminta is the beft of the three: not but that the difcourfes in Paftor Fido are more entertaining and copious in feveral people's opinion, tho' not fo proper for paftoral; and the fable of Bonarelli more furprising. I do not remember many in other languages, that have written in this kind with fuccefs. Racan's Bergeries are much inferior to his lyric poems; and the Spaniards are all too full of conceits. Rapin

will have the defign of paftoral plays to be taken from the Cyclops of Euripides. I am sure there is nothing of this kind in English worth men¬ tioning, and therefore you have that field open to yourself. You fee I write to you without fort of constraint or method, as things come. into my head, and therefore use the same freedom with me, who am, &c.

y

I

LETTER III.

To Mr. WALSH.

Windfor-Foreft, July 2, 1706.

Cannot omit the first opportunity of making

you my acknowledgments for reviewing thofe papers of mine. You have no less right to correct me, than the fame hand that rais'd a tree has to prune it. I am convinced as well as you that one may correct too much; for in poetry as in painting, a man may lay colours one upon another till they stiffen and deaden the piece. Befides, to bestow heightening on every part is monftrous: fome parts ought to be lower than the reft; and nothing looks more ridiculous than a work, where the thoughts, however different in their own

nature,