Of. 12, 1710. I Deferr'd anfwering your laft, upon the Advice I receiv'd that you were leaving the Town for fome time, and expected your Return with Impatience, having then a Defign of feeing my Friends there, among the firft of which I have reafon to account yourself. But my almoft continual Illneffes prevent that, as well as moft other Satisfactions of my life: However I may fay one good thing of Sickness, that it is the best Cure in Nature for Ambition, and Defigns upon the World or Fortune : It makes a man pretty indifferent for the future, provided he can but be eafy, by Intervals, for the prefent. He will be content to compound for his Quiet only, and leave all the circumftantial Part and Pomp of Life to thofe, who have a Health vigorous enough to enjoy all the Miftreffes of their Defires. I thank God, there is nothing out of myself which I would be at the trouble of feeking, except a Friend; a Happiness I once hop'd to have poffefs'd in Mr Wycherley; but-Quantum mutatus ab illo! I have for fome Years been employ'd much like Children that build Houses with Cards, endeavouring very bufily and eagerly to raise a Friendship, which the first Breath of any ill-natur'd By-stander cou'd puff away.-But I will trouble you no farther with writing, nor myself with thinking, of this Subject. I was mightily pleas'd to perceive by your Quotation from Voiture, that you had track'd me fo far as France. You fee 'tis with weak Heads as with weak Stomachs, they immediately throw out what they receiv'd laft; and what they read floats upon the Surface of their Mind, like Oil upon Water, without incorporating. This, I think however, can't be faid of the Love-verfes I laft troubled you with, where all (I am afraid) is fo puerile, and fo like like the Author, that no body will fufpect any thing to be borrow'd. Yet you, (as a Friend, entertain ing a better Opinion of 'em) it feems fearch'd in Waller, but fearch'd in vain. Your Judgment of 'em is (I think) very right,--for it was my own Opinion before. If you think 'em not worth the trouble of correcting, pray tell me fo freely, and it will fave me a Labour; if you think the contrary, you wou'd particularly oblige me by your Remarks on the feveral Thoughts as they occur. I long to be nibbling at your Verfes, and have not forgot who promis'd me Ovid's Elegy ad Amicam Navigantem? Had Ovid been as long compofing it, as you in fending it, the Lady might have fail'd to Gades, and receiv'd it at her Return. I have really a great Itch of Criticism upon me, but want Matter here in the Country; which I defire you to furnish me with, as I do you in the Town, Sic fervat ftudii Foedera quifque fui. I am oblig'd to Mr Caryl (whom you tell me you met at Epfom) for telling you Truth, as a man is in thefe days to any one that will tell Truth to his advantage, and I think none is more to mine, than what he told you, and I fhou'd be glad to tell all the world, that I have an extreme Affection and efteem for you. Tecum etenim longos memini confumere foles, By thefe Epula, as I take it, Perfius meant the Portugal Snuff and burn'd Claret, which he took with his mafter Cornutus; and the Verecunda Menfa was, without difpute, fome Coffe-house table of the Antients.-I will only obferve, that these four lines are as elegant and musical as any in Perfius, O 3 not not excepting those fix or feven which Mr Dryden quotes as the only fuch in all that Author. I could be heartily glad to repeat the fatisfaction defcrib'd in them, being truly, Your, &c. I October 28,, 1710. Am glad to find by your laft letter that you write to me with the freedom of a friend, fetting down your thoughts as they occur, and dealing plainly with me in the matter of my own Trifles, which I affure you I never valu'd half fo much as I do that Sincerity in you, which they were the occafion of difcovering to me; and which while I am happy in, I may be trufted with that dangerous weapon, Poetry; fince I shall do nothing with it but after asking and following your advice. I value Sincerity the more, as I find by fad experience, the practice of it is more dangerous; Writers rarely pardoning the executioners of their Verfes, ev❜n tho' themselves pronounce fentence upon them.----As to Mr Philips's Paftorals, I take the first to be infinitely the beft, and the second the worft; the third is for the greatest part a Tranflation from Virgil's Daphnis. I will not foreftal your judgment of the reft, only observe in that of the Nightingale thefe lines, (fpeaking of the Mufician's playing on the Harp) Now lightly skimming o'er the Strings they pass, To which nothing can be objected, but that they are too lofty for Paftoral, especially being put into the mouth of a Shepherd, as they are here; in in the Poet's own person they had been (I believe) more proper. These are more after Virgil's manner than that of Theocritus, whom yet in the character of Paftoral he rather feems to imitate. In. the whole, I agree with the Tatler, that we have. no better Eclogues in our language. There is a fmall copy of the fame Author publifh'd in the Tatler No. 12. on the Danish Winter: 'Tis Poetical Painting, and I recommend it to your perufal. Dr Garth's Poem I have not feen, but believe I fhall be of that Critic's opinion you mention at Will's, who fwore it was good: For tho I am very cautions of fwearing after Critics, yet I think one may do it more fafely when they commend, than when they blame.. I agree with you in your cenfure of the ufe of Sea-Terms in Mr Dryden's Virgil; not only because Helenus was no great Prophet in those matters, but because no Terms of Art, or Cant-Words, fuit with the Majefty and dignity of Style which Epic Poetry requires. ----- Cui mens divinior atque os magne foniturum. ----- The Tarpawlin Phrafe can please none but fuch Qui aurem habent Batavam; they must not expect Auribus Atticis probari, I find by you (I think I have brought in two phrafes of Martial here very dexterously). Tho' you fay you did not rightly take my Meaning in the verfe I quoted from Juvenal, yet I will not explain it; because tho' it seems you are refolv'd to take me for a Critic, I wou'd by no means be thought a Commentator. And for another reason too, because I have quite forgot both the Verfe and the Application. I hope it will be no offence to give my most hearty fervice to Mr Wycherley, tho' I perceive by his laft to me, I am not to trouble him with my letters, fince he there told me he was going in ftantly out of Town, and till his return was my Servant, &c. I guess by your's he is yet with you, and beg you to do what you may with all Truth and Honour, that is, affure him I have ever borne all the Refpect and Kindness imaginable to him. I do not know to his hour what it is that has eftrang'd him for me; but this I know, that he may for the future be more fafely my friend, since no invitation of his fhall ever more make me fo free with him. I cou'd not have thought any man had been fo very cautious and fufpicious, as not to credit his own Experience of a friend. Indeed to believe no body, may be a Maxim of Safety, but not fo much of Honefty. There is but one way I know of converfing fafely with all men, that, is, not by concealing what we fay or do, but by faying or doing nothing that deferves to be conceal'd, and I can truly boaft this comfort in my affairs with Mr Wycherley. But I pardon his Jealoufy, which is become his Nature, and fhall ne→ ver be his enemy whatsoever he says of me. I Your, &c. Mr. C..... to Mr POPE Nov. 5, 1710. Find I am oblig'd to the fight of your Loveverfes, for your opinion of my fincerity; which had never been call'd in question, if you had not forc'd me, upon fo many other occafions, to exprefs my esteem. I have just read and compar'd Mr Rowe's Verfion of the 9th of Lucan, with very great pleasure, where I find none of thofe abfurdities frequent in that of Virgil, except in two pla * Piccer printed in the 6th Vol, of Tonson's Mifcellanies. ces, |