I mention, by which you will find the English Poet is indebted to it. Alternat mira arte fides, dum torquet acutas illos Explorat numeros, chordag; laborat in omni.— Mox filet. Illa modis totidem refpondit, & artem Arte refert; nunc ceu rudis, aut incerta canendi, Præbet iter liquidum labenti è pectore voci, Nunc cafim variat, modulifque canora__mi nutis Delibrat vocem, tremuloque reciprocat ore. This Poem was many years fince imitated by Crafhaw, out of whofe Verfes the following are very remarkable. From this to that, from that to this he flies, I have (as I think I formerly told you) a very good opinion of Mr. Row's 9th book of of Lucan: Indeed he amplifies too much, as well as Brebeuf, the famous French imitator. If I remember right, he fometimes takes the whole Comment into the Text of the Verfion, as particularly in lin. 808. Utq; folet pariter totis fe effundere fignis Corycii prefura croci-And in the place you quote, he makes of thofe two lines in the Latin Vidit quanta fub noƐłe jaceret no less than eight in English. What you obferve fure cannot be an Error Sphæricus, ftrictly speaking, either according to their Ptolomaick, or our Copernican Syftem; Tycho Brahe himself will be on the Tranflator's fide. For Mr. Row here fays no more, than that he look'd down on the Rays of the Sun, which Pompey might do, even tho' the Body of the Sun were above him. You can't but have remark'd what a journey Lucan here makes Cato take for the fake of his fine Descriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reason than this: Hæc eadem fua debat Hyems que clauferat æquor. The The Winter's effects on the Sea, it seems were more to be dreaded than all the Serpents, Whirlwinds, Sands, &c. by Land, which immediately after he paints out in his fpeech to the foldiers: Then he fetches a compass a vaft way round about, to the Nafamones and Jupiter Ammon's Temple, purely to ridicule the Oracles: And Labienus muft pardon me, if I do not believe him when he fays-fors obtulit, & fortuna: via-either Labienus or the Map, is very much mistaken here. Thence he returns back to the Syrtes (which he might have taken firft in his way to Utica) and fo to: Leptis Minor, where our Author leaves him; who feems to have made Cato fpeak his own mind, when he tells his Army Ire fat eft-no matter whither. I am, Your, &c. Mr. C..... to Mr. POP e. TH Nov. 20, 1710. HE Syftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is Novel) cou'd have no room here: Lucan, with the rest of the Latin Poets, feems to follow Plato; whofe order Mr. POPE to H. C. Efq; 297 order of the Spheres is clear in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The Seat of the Semidei manes is Platonick too, for Apuleius de Dea Socratis affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the Region of the Air for their intercourfe with Gods and Men; fo that I fancy, Row mistook the fituation, and I can't be reconcil'd to, Look down on the Sun's Rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes; and wifh you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, cou'd licence his invectives against Priefts? But I fuppofe you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's Errors, and the caufe of 'em, his Poetic defcriptions: for the Romans then knew the coaft of Africa from Cyrene (to the South-east of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: But pray remember how your Homer nodded while Ulyffes flept, and waking knew not where he was, in the fhort paffage from Corcyra to Ithaca. I like Trapp's Verfions for their juftness; his Pfalm is excellent, the Prodigies in the firft Georgick judicious (whence I conclude that 'tis eafier to turn Virgil justly in blank verfe, than rhyme.) The Eclogue of Gallus, and Fable of Phaeton pretty well; but he is very faulty in his Num X 4 1 Numbers; the fate of Phaeton might run thus, -The blafted Phaeton with blazing Hair, Shot gliding thro' the vast Abyss of Air, And tumbled headlong, like a falling Star. T Mr. POPE's Answer. Nov. 24, 1710. O make use of that freedom and familiarity of style which we have taken up in our Correfpondence, and which is more properly Talking upon paper, than Writing; I will tell you without any preface, that I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the Antients, or in the leaft an acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, 'tis a mercy on this occafion that I do not give you an account of his Life and conversation; as how he liv'd fome years like an inchanted Knight in a certain Ifland, with a tale of a King of Denmark's Miftrefs that fhall be nameless. But I have compaffion on you, and wou'd not for the world you shou'd stay |