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Mr. Pope's Answer.

May 20, 1709.

*

Amglad you have received the Miscellany, if it were only to fhew you that there are as bad Poets in this Nation as your Servant. This modern Cuftom of appearing in Mifcellanies, is very useful to the Poets, who, like other Thieves, efcape by getting into a Crowd, and herd together like Banditti, fafe only in their Multitude. Methinks Strada has given a good Defcription of these Kind of Collections: Nullus hodiè mortalium aut nafcitur, aut moritur, aut præliatur, aut rufticatur, aut abit peregrè, aut redit, aut nubit, aut eft, aut non eft, (nam etiam mortuis ifti canunt) cui non illi extemplò cudant Epicadia, Genethliaca, Protreptica, Panegyrica, Epithalamia, Vaticinia, Propemptica, Soterica, Paranetica, Nanias, Nugas. As to the Succefs which you fay my Part has met with, it is to be attributed to what you were pleased to say of me to the World; which you do well to call your Prophecy, fince whatever is faid in my Favour, must be a Prediction of Things that are not yet: you, like a true Godfather, engage on my part for much more than ever I can perform. My Paftoral Mufe, like other: Country Girls, is but put out of Countenance by what you Courtiers fay to her; yet I hope you would not deceive me too far, as knowing that a young Scribler's Vanity needs no Recruits from abroad: for Nature, like an indulgent Mother, kindly takes Care to füpply her Sons with as much of their own, as is neceffary for their Satisfaction. If my Verfes

* Jacob Tonfon's fixth Vol. of Miscellany Poems.

fhould

fhould meet with a few flying Commendations, Virgil has taught me that a young Author has not too much Reafon to be pleased with them, when he confiders, that the natural Confequence of Praise is Envy and Calumny.

----Si ultra placitum laudarit, Baccare frontem Cingite, ne Vati noceat mala lingua futuro:

When once a Man has appeared as a Poet, he
may give up his Pretenfions to all the rich and
thriving Arts: Those who have once made their
Court to thofe Miftrefles without Portions, the
Mufes, are never like to fet up for Fortunes. But
for my part, I fhall be fatisfied if I can lofe my
Time agreeably this Way, without lofing my Re-
putation: As for gaining any, I am as indifferent
in the Matter as Falstaffe was; and may fay of
Fame as he did of Honour : If it comes, it comes
unlooked for; and there is an End on it.
I can
be content with a bare faving Game, without
being thought an Eminent Hand, (with which
Title Jacob has graciously dignified his Adven-
turers and Voluntiers in Poetry.) Jacob creates
Poets, as Kings fometimes do Knights, not for
their Honour, but for Money. Certainly he
ought to be esteem'd a Worker of Miracles, who
is grown rich by Poetry.

What Authors lofe, their Bookfellers have won;
So Pimps grow rich, while Gallants are undone.

I am your, &c.

Mr.

TH

Mr. Wycherley to Mr. Pope.

May 26, 1709.

HE laft I receiv'd from you, was dated the 22d of May. I take your charitable Hint to me very kindly, wherein you do like a true Friend, and a true Chriftian, and I fhall endeavour to follow your Advice, as well as your Example. As for your wishing to see your Friend an Hermit with you, I cannot be faid to leave the World, fince I fhall enjoy in your Converfation, all that I can defire of it; nay, can learn more from you alone, than from my long Experience of the great or little Vulgar in it.

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As to the Succefs of your Poems in the late Mifcellany I told you of in my laft, (upon my Word) I made you no Compliment; for you may be affured, that all Sorts of Readers like them, except they are Writers too; but for them, (I muft needs fay) the more they like them, they ought to be the lefs pleafed with them: So that you do not come off with a bare Saving Game (as you call it) but have gained fo much Credit at first, that you must needs fupport it to the laft: Since you fet up with fo great a Stock of good Senfe, Judgment and Wit, that your Judgment enfures all that your Wit ventures at. Salt of your Wit has been enough to give a Relish to the whole infipid Hotch-Potch it is mingled with; and you will make Jacob's Ladder raife you to Immortality, by which others are turn'd off fhamefully to their Damnation (for poetick Thieves as they are) who think to be fav'd

*

The fixth Volume of Tonfon's Mifcellanies.

The

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by others good Works, how faulty foever their own are. But the Coffee-houfe Wits, or rather Anti-Wits, the Critics, prove their Judgments by approving your Wit; and even the Newsmongers and Poets will own, you have more Invention than they; nay, the Detracters or the Envious, who never fpeak well of any body, (not even of those they think well of in their Abfence) yet will give you (even in your Abfence) their good Word; and the Critics only hate you, for being forced to fpeak well of you whether they will or no: And all this is true, upon the Word

of

Your, &c.

Mr. Wycherley to Mr. Pope.

Aug. 11, 1709.

MY Letters, fo much inferior to yours, can only make up their fcarcity of Senfe by the Number of Lines; which is like the Spaniards paying a debt of Gold with a Load of Brafs Money. But to be a Plain-dealer, I must tell you, I will revenge the raillery of your Letters upon mine, by printing them, (as Dennis did mine) without your Knowledge too; which would be a Revenge upon your Judgment, for the Raillery of your Wit: For fome dull Rogues (that is, the most in the World) might be fuch Fools as to think what you faid of me, was in Earneft. It is not the first time, you great Wits have gained Reputation by their paradoxical or ironical Praifes; your Forefathers have done it, Erafmus and others. For all Mankind who know me muft confefs, he

muft

must be no ordinary Genius, or little Friend, who can find out any thing to commend in me seriously; who have given no fign of my Judgment, but my Opinion of yours, nor Mark of my Wit, but my leaving off Writing to the Public, now you are beginning, to fhew the World, what you can do by yours; whofe Wit is as fpiritual, as your Judgment infallible; in whofe Judgment I have an implicit Faith, and fhall always fubfcribe to it to fave my Works in this World, from the Flames and Damnation. Pray prefent my most

humble Service to Sir W. Trumbull, for whom and whofe Judgment I have fo profound a refpect, that his Example had almoft made me marry, more than my Nephew's ill Carriage to me; having once refolv'd to have reveng❜d my felf upon him by my Marriage, but now am refolv'd to make my Revenge greater upon him by his Marriage.

I

Mr. Wycherley to Mr. Pope.

April 1, 1710.

Have had yours of the 30th of the last Month, which is kinder than I defire it should be, fince it tells me you could be better pleased to be fick again in Town in my Company, than to be well in the Country without it; and that you are more impatient to be deprived of Happiness than of Health. Yet, my dear Friend, fet Raillery or Compliment afide, I can bear your Abfence (which procures your Health and Eafe) better than I can your Company when you are in Pain; for I cannot fee you fo without being fo too. Your Love to the Country I do not doubt, nor do you (I hope)

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