talk'd of you. He praises your * Poem, and even outvies me in kind expreffions of you. As if he had not wrote two letters to you, he was for writing every Poft I put him in mind he had already. Forgive me this wrong, I know not whither my talking fo much of your great humanity and tenderness to me, and love to him; or whether the return of his natural disposition to you, was the caufe; but certainly you are now highly in his favour; now he will come this Winter to your houfe, and I must go with him; but first he will invite you fpeedily to town. I arriv'd on Saturday laft much wearied, yet had wrote fooner, but was told by Mr. Gay (who has writ a pretty Poem to Lintot, and who gives you his fervice) that you was gone from home. Lewis fhew'd me your letter, which fet me right, and your next letter is impatiently expected by me. Mr. Wycherley came to town on Sunday laft, and kindly furpriz'd me with a vifit on Monday morning. We din'd and drank together; and I faying, To our Loves, he reply'd, Tis Mr. Pope's health He faid he would go to Mr. 1borold's and leave a letter for you. Tho' I cannot answer for the event of all this, in

Effay on Criticism.

respect

refpect to him; yet I can affure you, that when you please to come you will be most defirable to me, as always by inclination fo now by duty, who fhall ever be

I

Your, &c.

Mr. POPE to Mr. C....

you

Nov. 12, 1711.

Receiv'd the entertainment of your Letter the day after I had fent you one of mine, and I am but this morning return'd hither. The news you tell me of the ma-ny difficulties found in your return from Bath, gives me fuch a kind of pleafure as we ufually take in accompanying our Friends in their mixt adventures; for methinks I fee you labouring thro' all your inconveniencies of the rough roads, the hard faddle, the trotting horfe, and what not? What an agreeable furprize wou'd it have been to me, to have met you by pure accident, (which I was within an ace of doing) and to have carry'd you off triumphantly, fet you on an eafier Pad, and reliev'd the wandring Knight with a Night's lodging and rural Repaft, at our Caftle in the Foreft? But thefe are only

1

the

C

the pleafing Imaginations of a disappointed Lover, who muft fuffer in a melancholy abfence yet these two months. In the mean time, I take up with the Muses for want of your better company; the Mufes, Qua nobifcum pernoctant, peregrinantur, rufticantur. Those aerial Ladies juft discover enough to me of their beauties to urge my purfuit, and draw me on in a wand'ring Maze of thought, ftill in hopes (and only in hopes) of attaining thofe favours from 'em, which they confer on their more happy Admirers. We grasp some more beautiful Idea in our own brain, than our endeavours to exprefs it can set to the view of others; and ftill do but labour to fall fhort of our firft Imagination. The gay Colouring which Fancy gave at the firft tranfient glance we had of it, goes off in the Execution; like those various figures in the gilded clouds which while we gaze long upon, to feparate the parts of each imaginary Image, the whole faints before the eye and decays into confufion. 1

1

I am highly pleas'd with the knowledge you give me of Mr Wycherley's prefent temper, which feems fo favourable to me. Ifhall ever have fuch a Fund of Affection for him as to be agreeable to myself when I am fo to him, and cannot but be

gay

gay when he's in good humour, as the furface of the Earth (if you will pardon a poetical fimilitude) is clearer or gloomier, juft as the Sun is brighter, or more overcaft.I fhould be glad to fee the Verfes to Lintet which you mention, for methinks fomething oddly agreeable may be produc'd from that fubject.For what remains, I am fo well, that nothing but the affurance of your being fo can make me better; and if you wou'd have me live with any fatisfaction thefe dark days in which I cannot fee you, it must be by your writing fometimes to

Your, &c.

Mr. C.... to Mr. POPE.

MR

Dec. 7, 1711.

R. Wycherley has, I believe fent you two or three letters of invitation ; but you, like the Fair, will be long follicited before you yield, to make the favour the more acceptable to the Lover. He is much yours by his talk; for that unbounded Genius which has rang'd at large like a libertine, now feems confin'd to you:

and

7

44

and I shou'd take him for your Mistress too by your fimile of the Sun and Earth: 'Tis very fine, but inverted by the application; for the gaiety of your fancy, and the drooping of his by the withdrawing of your luftre, perfwades me it wou'd be jufter by the reverse.. Oh happy Favourite of the Muses! how per-noctare, all night long with them? but alas! you do but toy, but fkirmish with them, and decline a clofe Engagement. Leave Elegy and Translation to the inferior Clafs, on whom the Mufes only glance now and then like our Winter-Sun, and then leave 'em in the dark. Think on the Dignity of Tragedy, which is of the greater Poetry, as Dennis fays, and foil him at his other weapon, as you have done in Criticifm. Every one wonders that a Genius like yours will not fupport the finking Drama; and Mr Wilks (tho' I think his Talent is Comedy) has exprefs'd a furious ambition to fwell in your Bufkins. We have had a poor Comedy of JohnJon's (not Ben) which held feven nights, and has got him three hundred pounds, for the Town is fharp-fet on new Plays. In vain wou'd I fire you by Intereft or Ambition, when your mind is not fufceptible of either; tho' your Authority (arifing from the General esteem, like that of Pompey) muft infallibly affure you of fuccefs; for Y which