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But without Laughter on the one fide, or Compliment on the other, I affure you, I am with real

efteem,

Your's, &c.

Mr C..... Mr POPE.

October 26, 1711.

MR Wycherley visited me at the Bath in my Sick

*

nefs, and exprefs'd much Affection to me; Hearing from me how welcome his Letters would be, he prefently writ to you; in which I inferted my Scrall, and after a fecond. He went to Gloucefter in his way to Salop, but was difappointed of a Boat, and fo return'd to the Bath; then hehew'd me your Anfwer to his Letters in which you fpeak of my good Nature, but I fear you found me very froward at Reading; yet you allow for my illness. I cou'd not poffibly be in the fame House with Mr Wycherley, tho' I fought it earnestly; nor come up to Town with him, he being engag'd with others; but whenever we met we 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 whether my talking fo much of your great humanity and tenderness to me, and love to him; or whether the return of his natural Difpofition 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 firft he will invite you speedily to Town.-I arrived on Saturday laft much wearied, yet had wrote fooner, but was told by Mr Gay (who has writ a pretty Poem to Lintet, and who gives you his fervice) that you was gone from *Effay on Criticism,

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home,

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 visit 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 Thorold's and leave a letter for you. Tho' I cannot anfwer for the event of all this, in refpect to him; yet I can affure that when you you, pleafe to come you will be moft defirable to me, as always by inclination fo now by duty, who fhall ever be

Your, &c.

Mr POPE to Mr C...

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 many difficulties you found in your return from Bath, gives me fuch a kind of pleasure as we ufually take in accompanying our Friends in their mixt adventures; for methinks I fee you labouring thro' all your inconveniences 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 Castle in the Foreft? But thefe are only the pleafing Imaginations of a difappointed Lover, who muft fuffer in a melancholy -absence yet these two months. In the mean time, I take up with the Mufes for want of your better company; the Mufes, Qua nobifcum pernoctant, peregrinantur,

peregrinantur, rufticantur. Thofe aerial Ladies juft difcover 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 those favours from 'em, which they confer on their more happy Admirers. We grasp some more beautiful Idea in our own brain, than our endea vours to exprefs it can fet 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 thofe 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.

I am highly pleas'd with the knowledge you give me of Mr Wycherley's prefent temper, which feems fo favourable to me. I fhall ever have fuch a Fund of Affection for him as to be agreeable to myself when I am so to him, and cannot but be gay when he's in good humour, as the furface of the Earth (if you will pardon a poetical Similitude) is clearer or glomier, juft as the Sun is brighter, or more overcast. I fhould be glad to fee the Verses to Lintot 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

Mr C....to Mr POPE.

Dec. 7, 1711.

MR 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 your's by his talk; for that unbounded Genius which has rang'd at large like a Libertire, now feems confin'd to you and I fhou'd take him for your Mistress too by your Simile 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 reverfe. Oh happy Favourite of the Muses! how per-noctare, all night long with them? but alas! you do but toy," but skirmish with them, and decline a close Engagement. Leave Elegy and Tranflation to the inferior Clafs, on whom the Muses 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 Criticism. Every one wonders that a Genius like your's will not support the finking Drama; and Mr Wilks (tho' I think his Talent is Comedy) has exprefs'd a furious ambition to fwell in your Buskins. We have had a poor Comedy of Johnfon'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 Efteem, like that of Pompey) muft infallibly affure you of Success; for which in all your Wishes you will be attended Your, &c.

with those of

Mr POPE to Mr C- -

December 21, 1711..

IF I have not writ to you so foon as I ought, let

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my writing now attone for the Delay; as it will infallibly do, when you know what a Sacrifice I make you at this time, and that every Moment my Eyes are employ'd upon this Paper, they are taken off from two of the fineft Faces in the Universe. But indeed 'tis fome Confolation to me to reflect, that while I but write this Period, I efcape fome hundred fatal Darts from thofe unerring Eyes, and about a thousand Deaths, or better. Now you, that delight in dying, would not once have dream'd of an abfent Friend in thefe Circumftances; you that are fo nice an Admirer of Beauty, or (as a Critic wou'd fay after Terence) fo elegant a Spectator of Forms? You must have á fober Difh of Coffee, and a folitary Candle at your Side, to write an Epiftle lucubratory to your Friend; whereas I can do it as well with two Pair of radiant Lights, that outfhine the golden God of Day and filver Goddess of Night, with all the refulgent Eyes of the Firmament.-You fancy now that Sapho's Eyes are two of these my Tapers, but 'tis no fuch Matter, Sir; thefe are Eyes that have more Perfuafion in one Glance than all Sapho's Oratory and Gesture together, let her put her Body into what moving Pofture the pleases. Indeed, indeed, my Friend, you cou'd never have found fo improper a time to tempt me with Intereft or Ambition: Let me but have the Reputation of these in my keeping, and as for my own, let the Devil, or let Dennis, take it for ever. How gladly wou'd I give all I am worth, that is to fay, my Paftorals for one of them, and my Essay

for

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