Lines of the Verfion (I fuppofe from Homer's Hif tory) feem'd abfurd in the Mouth of Priam, viz. He chear'd my Sorrows, and for Sums of Gold." I am, Your, &c. Mr POPE's Anfwer. July 20, 1710. Give thanks for the Verfion you sent me of you I Ovid's Elegy. It is very much an Image of that Author's Writing, who has an Agreeablenefs that charms us without Correctnefs, like a Mistress whofe Faults we fee, but love her with them all. You have very judicioufly alter'd his Method in fome Places, and I can find nothing which I dare infift upon as an Error: What I have written in the Margins being merely Gueffes at a little Improvement, rather than Criticisms. I affure you I do not expect you fhou'd fubfcribe to my private Notions but when you fhall judge 'em agreeable to Reafon and good Senfe. What I have done is not as a Critic, but as a Friend; I know too well how many Qualities are requifite to make up the one, and that I want almost all I can reckon up; but I am fure I do not want Inclination, nor I hope Capacity, to be the other. Nor fhall I take it at all amifs, that another diffents from my Opinion: 'Tis no more than I have often done from my own; and, indeed, the more a Man advances in Underftanding, he becomes the more every Day a Critic upon upon himself, and finds fomething or other till to blame, in his former Notions and Opinions. I could be glad to know if you have translated the 11th Elegy of Lib. 2. Ad amicam Navigantem, the 8th of Book 3, or the 11th of Book 3, which are above all others my particular Favourites, efpecially the last of these. As to the Paffage of which you ask my Opinion in the zd Æneid, it is either fo plain as to require no Solution; or else (which is very probable) you fee farther into it than I can. Priam wou'd fay, "That Achilles (whom 'furely you only feign to "be your Father, fince your Actions are fo diffe"rent from his) did not use me thus inhumanly. "He blufh'd at his murder of Hector, when he "faw my Sorrows for him; and restor'd his dead "Body to me to be bury'd." To this the Anfwer of Pyrrhus feems to be agreeable enough. "Go "then to the Shades, and tell Achilles how I dege"nerate from him :" granting the Truth of what Priam had faid of the difference between them. Indeed Mr Dryden's mentioning here what Virgil more judiciously paffes in Silence, the Circumftance of Achilles's felling for Money the Body of Hector, feems not fo proper; it in fome measure leffening the Character of Achilles's Generofity and Piety, which is the very Point of which Priam endeavours in this Place to convince his Son, and to reproach him with the want of. But the Truth of this Circumstance is no way to be queftion'd being exprefsly taken from Homer, who reprefents Achilles weeping for Priam, yet receiving the Gold, Iliad 24: For when he gives the Body, he uses thefe Words, "O my Friend Patroclus! forgive me that I quit the "Corps of him who kill'd thee; I have great "Gifts in ranfom for it, which I will beftow upon "thy Funeral.” I am, &c. Mr Mr C --- to Mr POPE. Aug. 3, 1710, › LOOKING among fome French Rhymes, I was agreeably furpriz'd to find in the Rondeau of *Pour le moins your Apoticaire and Lavement, which I took for your own; fo much is your Mufe of Intelligence with the Wits of all Languages. You have refin'd upon Voiture, whofe Ou Vous Sçavez is much inferiour to your You know where You do not only pay your Club with your Author (as our Friend fays) but the whole Reckoning; who can form fuch pretty Lines from fo trivial a Hint. For my Elegy;' tis confefs'd, that the Topography of Sulmo, in the Latin, makes but an awkward figure in the Verfion. Your couplet of the Dog-ftar is very fine, but may be too fublime in this Place. I laugh'd heartily at your note upon Paradife; for to make Ovid talk of the Garden of Eden, is certainly most abfurd: But Xenophon, in his Oeconomics, fpeaking of a Garden finely planted and watered (as is here described) calls it Paradifos: 'Tis an In terpolation indeed, and ferves for a Gradation to the Cæleftial Orb; which expreffes in fome fort the Sidus Caftoris in parte Cali- how Trees can enjoy, let the Naturalifts determine; but the Poets make 'em fenfivity, Lovers, Bachelors, and married. Virgil in his Georgics Lib. 2. Horace Qde 15. Lib. 2. Platanus cælebs evincet ulmos. Epod. 2. Erge aut adulta vitium propagine Altas maritat populos. Your Critique is a very Dolce-piccante; for after the many Faults you juftly find, you fmooth your Rigour: but an obliging thing is owing (you think) to one who fo much esteems and admires you, and who fhall ever be Your, &c. *In Voiture's Poems. † Ovid's Amorum, 1. 2. El. 15. Pars me Sulmo, &c. Auguft YOUR August 21, 1710. OUR Letters are a perfect Charity to a Man in retirement, utterly forgotten of all his Friends but you; for fince Mr Wycherley left London, I have not heard a word from him; tho' juft before, and once fince, I writ to him, and tho' I know my felf guilty of no Offence but of doing fincerely just what he bid me. Hoc mihi libertas, hoc pia lingua dedit! But the greatest Injury he does me is the keeping me in Ignorance of his welfare, which I am always very follicitous for, and very uneafy in the fear of any Indifpofition that may befal him. In what I fent you fome time ago, you have not verse enough to be fevere upon, in revenge for my laft Criticism: In one Point I muft perfift, that is to fay, my diflike of your Paradife, in which I take no pleafure; I know very well that in Greek 'tis not only us'd by Xenophon, but is a common word for any Garden; but in English it bears the Signification and conveys the Idea of Eden, which alone is (I think) a Reafon against making Ovid ufe it; who will be thought to talk too like a Chriftian in your Verfion at leaft, whatever it might have been in Latin or Greek. As for all the reft of my Remarks, fince you do not laugh at them as at this, I can be fo civil as not to lay any ftrefs upon 'em (as I think I told you before) and in particular in the point of Trees enjoying, you have, I muft own, fully fatisfy'd me that the Expreffion is not only defenfible, but beautiful. I fhall be very glad to fee your Tranflation of the Elegy, Ad Amicam navigantem, as foon as you can; for (without a Compliment to you) every thing you write either in Verfe or Profe, is welcome to me; and you may be confident, (if my Opinion can be *Correcting his Verfes. See the Letters in 1706 and the following Years, of Mr Wycherley and Mr Pope. of of any fort of confequence in any thing) that I will never be unfincere, tho' I may be often mistaken. To use Sincerity with you is but paying you in your own Coin, from whom I have experienc'd fo much of it; and I need not tell you how much I really esteem you, when I efteem nothing in the World fo much as that Quality. I know you fometimes fay civil things to me in your Epiftolary Style, but thofe I am to make allowance for, as particularly when you talk of Admiring; 'tis a word you are fo us'd to in Converfation of Ladies, that it will creep into your discourse in spite of you, ev'n to your Friends.. But as Women when they think themselves fecure of Admiration, commit a thoufand Negligences, which show them fo much at difadvantage and off their guard, as to lofe the little real Love they had before: So when Men imagine others entertain fome esteem for their Abilities, they often expose all their Imperfections and foolish Works, to the dif paragement of the little Wit they were thought Mafters of. I am going to exemplify this to you, in putting into your Hands (being encourag'd by fo much Indulgence) fome Verfes of my Youth, or rather Childhood; which (as I was a great Admirer of Waller) were intended in Imitation of his Manner; and are, perhaps, fuch Imitations, as thofe you fee in awkard Country Dames of the fine and well-bred Ladies of the Court. If you will take 'em with you into Lincolnshire, they may fave you one hour from the Converfation of the Country Gentlemen and their Tenants, (who differ but in Drefs and Name) which if it be there as bad as here, is even worse than my Poetry. I hope your Stay there will be no longer than (as Mr Wycherley calls it) to rob the Country, and run away to London with your Money. In the mean time, I beg the Favour of a Line from you, and am (as I will never cease to be) Your, &c. |