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[Boffu on Epic Poetry.] There are innumerable little Faults in him, among which I cannot but take notice of one in this Book, where fpeaking of the implacable hatred of the Brothers, he fays, The whole World wou'd be too fmall a Prize to repay fo much Impiety.

Quid fi peteretur crimine tanto

Limes uturque Poli, quem Sol emiffus Eoo
Cardine, aut portu vergens profpectat Ibero?

This was pretty well, one wou'd think already, but he goes on.

Quafque procul terras obliquo fydere tangit
Avius, aut Borea gelidas, madidive tepentes
Igne Noti?

After all this, what cou'd a Poet think of but Heaven itfelf for the Prize? but what follows is aftonishing.

Quid fi Tyrie Phrygiæne fub unum
Convectentur Opes?

2

I do not remember to have met with fo great Fall in any antient Author whatfoever. I fhou'd not have infisted so much on the Faults of this Poet, if I did not hope you wou'd take the fame Freedom with, and revenge it upon his Tranflator. I shall be extremely glad if the Reading this can be any Amusement to you, the rather because I had the Diffatisfaction to hear you have been confin'd to your Chamber by an Illness, which I fear was as troublefome a Companion as I have fometimes been to you in the fame Place; where if ever you found any Pleasure in my Company, it must furely have

been

been that which most Men take in obferving the Faults and Follies of another; a Pleafure which you fee I take care to give you even in my absence.

If you will oblige me at your leisure with the Confirmation of your Recovery, under your own Hand, it will be extreme grateful to me; for next to the Pleafure of feeing my Friends, is that I take in hearing from them; and in this particular, I am beyond all acknowledgments oblig'd to your Friend Mr Wycherley, who, as if it were not enough to have excell'd all Men in Wit, is refolv'd to excel them in Good-nature too. I know I need no Apology to you for fpeaking of Mr Wycherley, whofe Example as I am proud of following in all Things, fo in nothing more than in profeffing myself, like him,

Your, &c.

May 7, 1709.

You U had long before this Time been troubled

with a Letter from me, but that I deferr'd it till I cou'd fend you either the* Mifcellany, or my continuation of the Verfion of Statius. The firft I imagin'd you might have had before now; but fince the contrary has happen'd, you may draw this Moral from it, That Authors in general are more ready to write Nonsense, than Booksellers are to publish it. I had I know not what extraordinary flux of of Rhyme upon me for three Days together, in which Time all the Verfes you fee added, have been

Jacob Tonfon's fixth Volume of Poetical Miscellanies, in which Mr Pope's Paftorals and fome Verfions of Homer and Chaucer were first printed,

written;

written; which I tell you, that you may more freely be fevere upon them. 'Tis a Mercy I do not affault you with a Number of original Sonnets and Epigrams, which our modern Bards put forth in the Spring-time, in as great abundance, as Trees do Bloffoms, a very few whereof ever come to be Fruit, and please no longer than just in their Birth. So that they make no less hafte to bring their Flowers of Wit to the Prefs, then Gardeners to bring their other Flowers to the Market, which if they can't get off their Hands in the Morning, are sure to die before night. Thus the fame Reason that furnishes Covent-Garden with those Nofegays you fo delight in, fupplies the Muses Mercury, and British Apollo (not to fay Jacob's Mifcellanies) with Verfes. And it is the Happinesfs of this Age, that the modern Invention of printing Poems for Pence apiece, has brought the Nofegays of Parnaffus to bear the fame Price; whereby the publick-fpirited Mr Henry Hills of Black-fryers has been the Caufe of great Eafe and fingular Comfort to all the Learned, who never overabounding in transitory Coin, should not be difcontented (methinks) even tho' Poems were diftributed gratis about the Streets, like Bunyan's Sermons, and other pious Treatifes, ufually publifh'd in a like Volume and Character.

The Time now drawing nigh, when you use with Sapho to crofs the Water in an Ev'ning to Spring-Garden, I hope you will have a fair Opportunity of ravishing her.-I mean only (as Oldfox in the Plain-dealer fays) thro' the Ear, with your well penn'd Verfes. I have been told of a very lucky Compliment of an Officer to his Mistress in the very fame Place, which I cannot but fet down (and defire you at present to take it in good part instead of a Latin Quotation) that it may fome time or other be improv'd by your Pronunciation,

while you walk Solus cum Sola in those amorous Shades.

When at Spring-garden Sapho deigns t'appear,
The Flow'rs march in her Van, Musk in her Rear.

I wish you all the Pleafures which the Season and the Nymph can afford; the best Company, the beft Coffee, and the beft News you can defire. And what more to with you than this, I do not know; unless it be a great deal of Patience to read and examine the Verses I fend you; and I promise you in return a great deal of Deference to your Judgment, and an extraordinary Obedience to your Sentiments for the future (to which you know I have been fometimes a little Refractory). If you will pleafe to begin where you left off last, and mark the Margins, as you have done in the Pages immediately before, (which you will find corrected to your Senfe fince your last perufal) you will extremely oblige me, and improve my Tranflation. Befides those places which may deviate from the Sense of the Author, it wou'd be very kind in you to obferve any deficiencies in the Diction or Numbers. The Hiatus in particular I wou'd avoid as much as poffible, to which you are certainly in the right to be a profcfs'd Enemy; tho' I confess I cou'd not think it poffible at all times to be avoided by any Writer, till I found by reading Malherbe lately, that there is fcarce any throughout his Poems. I thought your Obfervation true enough to be pafs'd into a Rule, but not a Rule without Exceptions, nor that ever it had been reduc'd to practice: But this Example of one of the moft correct and beft of their Poets has undeceiv'd me, and confirms your Opinion very strongly, and much N

more

more than Mr Dryden's Authority, who tho' he made it a Rule, feldom obferv'd it.

Your, &c.

IHA

June 10. 1709.

HAVE received part the Verfion of Statius, and return you my Thanks for your Remarks, which I think to be juft, except where you cry out (like one in Horace's Art of Poetry) Pulchrè, benè, recte! there I have fome fears, you are often, if not always in the wrong.

One of your Objections, namely on that Paffage,

The reft, revolving Years shall ripen into Fate,

may be well grounded, in Relation to it's not being the exact Sense of the Words-* Cætera reliquo ordine ducam. But the Duration of the Action of Statius's Poem may as well be excepted against, as many things besides in him (which I wonder Boffu has not obferv'd): For inftead of confining his Narration to one year, it is manifeftly exceeded in the very first two Books: The Narration begins with Oedipus's Prayer to the Fury, to promote difcord betwixt his Sons; afterward the Poet exprefly defcribes their entring into the Agreement of reigning a Year by turns; and Polynices takes his flight for Thebes on his Brother's refufal to refign the Throne. All this is in the firft Book; in next, Tydeus is fent Ambaffador to Etheocles, and demands his Refignation in thefe Terms,

* See the first Book of Statius, verfe 302.

-Aftri

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