Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum For this he employs fix Verfes, among which As if on Knightly Terms in Lifts they ran. Pray can you trace Chivalry up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an Anachronism ? Tickell, in his Verfion of the Phoenix from Claudian, When Nature ceafes, thou shalt ftill remain, Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, which plainly refers to the Deluge of Deucalion, and the Conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final Diffolution. Your Thought of the Priefts Lottery is very fine; you play the Wit, and not the Critic, upon the Errors of your Brother. you Your Obfervations are all very juft: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his Diction to his Sentiments; and among the Moderns, I find your Practice the Profodia of your Rules. Your Poem fhews to be, what you fay of Voiture, with Books wellbred: The ftate of the Fair, tho' fatirical, is touch'd with that Delicacy and Gallantry, that not the Court of Auguftus, nor-But hold, I fhall lofe what I lately recover'd, your Opinion of my Sincerity; yet I muft fay, 'tis as faultlefs as the Fair to whom 'tis addrefs'd be the never fo perfect. The M. G. (who it feems had no right Notion of you, as you of him) tranfcrib'd it by Lucubration: From fome Difcourfe of your's, he thought your Inclination led you to (what the Men of Fashion To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. Call 4 call Learning) Pedantry; but now he fays he has no lefs, I affure you, than a Veneration for you. IT Your, &c. Mr POPE to Mr C.... Decemb. 17, 1710. T seems that my late mention of Crafhaw, and my Quotation from him, has mov'd your Curiofity. I therefore fend you the whole Author, who has held a Place among my other Books of this Nature for fome Years; in which Time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whose Works may just deserve reading. I take this Poet to have writ like a Gentleman, that is, at leifure Hours, and more to keep out of Idlenefs, than to establish a Reputation: fo that nothing regular or juft can be expected from him. All that regards Defign, Form, Fable, (which is the Soul of Poetry) all that concerns exactness, or confent of Parts, (which is the Body) will probably be wanting; only pretty Conceptions, fine Metaphors, glitt'ring Expreffions, and fomething of a neat Caft of Verfe, (which are properly the Drefs, Gems, or loose Ornaments of Poetry) may be found in › thefe Verses. This is indeed the Cafe of moft other Poetical Writers of Mifcellanies; nor can it well be otherwise, fince no Man can be a true Poet, who writes for Diverfion only. Thefe Authors fhould be confider'd as Verfifiers, and witty Men, rather than as Poets; and under this Head will only fall the Thoughts, the Expreffion, and the Numbers. These are only the pleafing parts of Poetry, which may be judg'd of at a View, and comprehended all at once. And (to exprefs myself like a Painter) their Colouring entertains the Sight, but the Lines and Life of the Picture are not to be inspected too narrowly. This This Author form'd himself upon Petrarch, or rather upon Marino. His Thoughts one may obferve, in the main, are pretty; but oftentimes far fetch'd, and too often ftrainid and stiffned to make them appear the greater. For Men are never fo apt to think a Thing great, as when it is odd or wonderful; and inconfiderate Authors wou'd rather be admir'd than understood. This ambition of furprising a Reader, is the true natural Caufe of all Fuftian, or Bombaft in Poetry. To confirm what I have faid, you need but look into his firft Poem of the Weeper, where the 2d, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21ft Stanza's are as fublimely dull, as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, 20th and 23d Stanza's of the fame Copy, are foft and pleasing: And if these last want any thing, it is an eafier and more unaffected Expreffion. The remaining Thoughts in that Poem might have been fpared, being either but Repetitions, or very trivial and mean. And by this Example in the first one may guefs at all the reft, to be like this; a mixture of tender gentle Thoughts and. fuitable Expreffions, of forc'd and inextricable Conceits, and of needlefs fillers-up to the reft. From all which it is plain, this Author writ faft, and fet down what came uppermoft. A Reader may skim off the Froth, and ufe the Clear underneath; but if he goes too deep, will meet with a mouthful of Dregs either the top or bottom of him are good. for little, but what he did in his own, natural, middle-way, is beft. To fpeak of his Numbers is a little difficult, they are fo various and irregular, and moftly Pindaric: 'tis evident his heroic Verse (the best Example of which is his Mufic's Duel) is carelefly made up ; but one may imagine from what it now is, that had he taken more Care, it had been mu fical and pleafing enough, not extremely majeftic, but . but sweet: And the Time confider'd of his Writing, he was (ev'n as uncorrect as he is): none of the worft Verfificators. I will just obferve, that the best Pieces of this Author are, à Paraphrafe on Pfal. 23. On Leffius, Epitaph on Mr Ahton, Wishes to his fuppos'd Mi ftrefs, and the Dies Ira. I am, &c. Mr POPE to Mr C..... Decemb. 30, 1710. I Refume my old liberty of throwing out my felf upon Paper to you, and making what Thoughts float uppermost in my Head, the Subject of a Letter. They are at prefent upon Laughter, which (for ought I know) may be the Caufe you might fometimes think me too remifs a Friend, when I was moft intirely fo: for I am never fo inclin'd to mirth as when I am moft pleas'd and moft eafy, which is in the Company of a Friend like yourself. As the fooling and toying with a Mistress is a Proof of fondness not difrefpect, fo is raillery with a Friend. I know there are Prudes in Friendship, who expect diftance, awe, and adoration, but I know you are not of them; and I for my part am no Idol-worshipper, thoa Papift. If I were to addrefs Jupiter himself in a heathen Way, I fancy I fhou'd be apt to take hold of his Knee in a familiar Manner, if not of his Beard like Dionyfius; I was just going to say of his Buttons, but I think Jupiter wore none (however I won't be positive to fo nice a Critic as you, but his Robe might be Subnected with a Fibula). I know fome Philofophers define Laughter, A recommending ourselves to our own fa vour, by comparison with the Weakness of another but I am fure I very rarely laugh with that View, nor do I believe Children have any fuch Confidera tion tion in their Heads, when they exprefs their Plea fure this Way: I laugh full as innocently as they, for the most part, and as fillily.. There is a difference too betwixt laughing about a Thing, and Laughing at a Thing: One may find the inferior Man (to make a kind of Cafuistical Distinction) provok'd to folly at the fight or observation of fome Circumftance of a Thing, when the Thing itself appears folemn and auguft to the fuperior Man, that is, our Judgment and Reafon. Let an Ambaffador fpeak the best Senfe in the World, and deport himfelf in the most graceful manner before a Prince, yet if the Tail of his Shirt happen (as I have known it happen to a very wife Man) to hang out behind, more People fhall laugh at that than attend to the other; till they recollect themselves, and then they will not have a jot the lefs Refpect for the Minifter. I must confefs the Iniquity of my Countenance before you; feveral Mufcles of my Face fometimes take an impertinent Liberty with my Judgment, but then my Judgment foon rifes, and fets all right again about my Mouth: And I find I value no Man fo much, as he in whofe Sight I have been playing the Fool. I cannot be Sub-Perfona before a Man I love; and not to laugh with Honefty, when Nature prompts, or Folly (which is more a fecond Nature than any thing I know) is but a knavish hypocritical way of making a Mask of one's own Face. To conclude, thofe that are my Friends I laugh with, and those that are not I laugh at; fo am merry in Company, and if ever I am wife, it is all by myself. You take juft another Course, and to those that are not your Friends, are very civil, and to those that are, very endearing and complaifant: Thus when you and I meet, there will be the Rifus & Blanditia united together in Conversation, as they commonly are in Verfe: But |
