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(I hope) my love to it or you, fince there I can enjoy your Company without feeing you in Pain to give me Satisfaction and Pleasure; there I can have you without Rivals or Disturbers; without the C-s too civil, or the T----s too rude; without the Noife of the Loud, and the Cenfure of the Silent; and would rather have you abufe me there with the Truth, than at this Distance with your Compliment. Since now, your Bufinefs of a Friend and Kindness to a Friend, is by finding Fault with his Faults, and mending them by your obliging Severity; I hope (in Point of your good Nature) you will have no cruel Charity for thofe Papers of mine, you were willing to be troubled with; which I take moft infinitely kind of you, and shall acknowledge with Gratitude, as long as I live. No Friend can do more for his Friend than preferving his Reputation (nay not by preferving his Life) fince by preferving his Life, he can only make him live about threefcore or fourfccre Years; but by preferving his Reputation, he can make him live as long as the World lafts; fo fave him from Damning, when he is gone to the Devil: Therefore I pray condemn me in private, as the Thieves do their Accomplices in Newgate, to fave them from Condemnation by the Public. Be moft kindly unmerciful to my poetical Faults, and do with my Papers, as you Country Gentlemen do with your Trees, flafh, cut, and lop-off the excrefcencies and dead Parts of my withered Bays, that the little Remainder may live the longer, and increase the Value of them, by diminishing the Number. I have troubled you with my Papers rather to give you Pain than Pleafure, notwithstanding your Compliment, which fays, you take trouble kindly: Such is your Generofity to your Friends, that you take it kindly to be defired by them to do them a Kindnefs; and you think it done to you, when

when they give you an Opportunity to do it to them. Wherefore you may be fure to be troubled with my Letters out of Intereft, if not Kindness, fince mine to you will procure yours to me; fo that I write to you more for my own fake than yours; lefs to make you think I write well, than to learn from you to write better. Thus you fee Intereft in my Kindness, which is like the Friendship of the World, rather to make a Friend than be a Friend; but I am yours, as a true Plain-Dealer.

Mr. Wycherley to Mr. Pope.

April 11, 1710.

IF I can but do Part of my Bufinefs at Shrewsbury in a Fortnight's time (which I propofe to do) I will be foon after with you, and trouble you with my Company, for the Remainder of the Summer. In the mean time, I beg you to give your felf the Pains of altering, or leaving out what you think fuperfluous in my Papers; that I may endeavour to print fuch a Number of them as you and I fhall think fit, about Michaelmas next. In order to which (my dear Friend) I beg you to be fo kind to me, as to be fevere to them; that the Critics may be less fo; for I had rather be condemned by my Friend in private, than exposed to my Foes in publick, the Critics, or common Judges, who are made fuch by having been old Öffenders themselves. Pray believe I have as much Faith in your Friendship and Sincerity, as I have Deference to your Judgment; and as the best Mark of a Friend, is telling his Friend his Faults in Private; fo the next

is

is concealing them from the public, 'till they are fit to appear. In the mean time, I am not a little fenfible of the great Kindness you do me, in putting my Rhymes in Tune, fince good Sounds frequently fet off ill Senfe. As the Italian Songs, whofe good Airs, with the worst Words, or Meaning, make the beft Mufick; fo by your tuning my Welch Harp, my rough Sense may be the lefs offenfive to the nicer Ears of thofe Critics, who deal more in Sound than Senfe. Pray then take Pity at once both of my Readers and me, in fhortning my barren Abundance, and increafing their Patience by it, as well as the Obligations I have to you: And fince no Madrigaller can entertain the Head, unless he pleases the Ear; and fince the crowded Opera's have left the best Comedies with the leaft Audiences, it is a Sign Sound can prevail over Senfe; therefore foften my Words, and strengthen my Sense, and

Eris mihi magnus Apollo.

Mr. Wycherley to Mr. Pope.

April 27, 1710.

You give me an Account in your Letter of

the Trouble you have undergone for me, in comparing my Papers you took down with you, with the old printed Volume, and with one another of that Bundle you have in your Hands; amongst which (you fay) you find numerous Re

*

The Truth of this may be seen in the whole printed Volume of his Mifcellanies in Folio, in 1704, in almoft every Page,

petitions,

petitions of the fame Thoughts and Subjects; all which I must confefs my want of Memory has prevented me from imagining, as well as made me capable of committing them; fince of all Figures, that of Tautology is the laft I would ufe, or leaft forgive my felf for. But Seeing is Believing: wherefore I will take fome Pains to examine and compare thofe Papers in your Hands, with one another, as well as with the former printed Copies or Books of my damned Mifcellanies; all which (as bad a Memory as I have) with a little more Pains and Care, I think I can remedy; therefore I would not have you give your felf more Trouble about them, which may prevent the pleafure you have, and may give the World, in Writing upon new Subjects of your own, whereby you will much better entertain your felf and others. Now as to your Remarks upon the whole Volume of my Papers, all that I defire of you, is to mark in the Margin (without defacing the Copy at all) either any Repetition of Words, Matter, or Senfe, or any Thoughts, or Words too much repeated; which if you will be fo kind as to do for me, you will fupply my want of Memory with your good One, and my Deficiencies of Senfe with the Infallibility of yours; which if you do, you will moft infinitely oblige me, who almoft repent the trouble I have given you, fince fo much. Now as to what you call Freedom with me, (which you, defire me to forgive) you may be affured I would not forgive you unless you did ufe it; for I am fo far from thinking your Plainnefs a Fault, or an Of fence to me, that I think it a Charity and an Obligation; which I fhall always acknowledge with all fort of Gratitude to you for it, who am therefore (Dear Mr. Pope),

Your most obliged bumble Servant,...

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All the News I have to fend you, is, that poor Mr. Betterton is going to make his Exit from the Stage of this World, the Gout being gotten up into his Head, and (as the Phyficians fay) will certainly carry him off fuddenly.

Mr. POPE's Answer..

May 2, 1710.

I Am forry you perfift to take ill my not accepting your Invitation, and to find (if I mistake not). your Exception not unmixt with fome Sufpicion. Be certain I fhall moft carefully obferve your Requeft, not to cross over, or deface the Copy of your Papers for the future, and only to mark in the Margin the Repetitions: But as this can ferve no. further than to get rid of thofe Repetitions, and no way rectify the Method, nor connect the Matter, nor improve the Poetry in Expreffion or Numbers, without further blotting, adding, and altering; fo it really is my opinion, and defire, that you should take your Papers out of my hands into your own; and that no Alterations may be made but when both of us are prefent, when you may be fatisfied with every Blot, as well as every Addition; and nothing be put upon the Papers, but what you shall give your own fanction and affent to at the fame time.

Do not be fo unjuft, as to imagine from hence that I would decline any part of this Task; on the contrary you know, I have been at the pains of tranfcribing fome Pieces, at once to comply with your defire of not defacing the Copy, and yet to lofe no Time in proceeding upon the Correction. I will go on the fame way if you please; tho' truly it is (as I have often told you) my fincere opinion, that

the

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