not out of any ambition to spread their fame, by being executed in the face of the world, which is a fame but of fhort continuance. That Poet were a happy man who could but obtain a grant to preserve his for ninety-nine years; for those names very rarely last so many days, which are planted either in Jacob Tonfon's, or the Ordinary of Newgate's Mifcellanies.

I have an hundred things to say to you, which fhall be deferr'd till I have the happiness of seeing you in town, for the feafon now draws on, that invites every body thither. Some of them I had communicated to you by letters before this, if I had not been uncertain where you pafs'd your time the last season : So much fine weather, I doubt not, has given you all the pleasure you could defire from the country, and your own thoughts the best company in it. But nothing could allure Mr. Wycherley to our foreft, he continued (as you told me long fince he would) an obstinate lover of the town, in spite of friendship and fair weather. Therefore hence-forward, to all those confiderable qualities I know you poffefs'd of, I shall add that of Prophecy. But I ftill believe Mr. Wycherley's intentions were good, and am fatisfy'd that he promifes nothing, but with a real defign to perform it: how much foever his other excellent qualities are above my imitation, his fincerity, 1hope, is not; and it is with the utmost that I am, Sir, etc.

I

LETTER V.

Jan. 22, 1708-9.

Had fent you the inclos'd* papers before this time, but that I intended to have brought them myself, and afterwards could find no opportunity of sending them without fufpicion of their miscarrying; not that they are of the leaft value, but for fear fomebody might be foolish

*This was a tranflation of the first book of Statius, done when the author was but fourteen years old, as appears by an advertisement before the first edition of it in a miscellany published by B. Lintot, 8yc, 1711.

enough

enough to imagine them fo, and inquifitive enough to discover those faults which I (by your help) would cor rect. I therefore beg the favour of you to let them go no farther than your chamber, and to be very free of your remarks in the margins, not only in regard to the accuracy, but to the fidelity of the tranflation; which I have not had time to compare with its original. And I defire you to be the more fevere, as it is much more criminal for me to make another speak nonsense, than to do it in my own proper perfon. For your better help in comparing, it may be fit to tell you, that this is not an entire verfion of the first book. There is an omiffion from the 168th line-Jam murmura ferpunt Plebis Agenorea—to 312th-Interea patriis olim vagus exul ab oris-(between these * two Statius has a description of the council of the Gods, and a fpeech of Jupiter; which contains a peculiar beauty and majefty, and were left out for no other reafon, but because the confequence of this machine appears not till the fecond book.) The tranflation goes on from thence to the words Hic vero ambobus rabiem fortuna cruentam, where there is an odd account of a battle at fifty-cuffs, between two Princes on a very flight occafion, and at a time when, one would think, the fatigue of their journey, in fo tempeftuous a night, might have render'd them very unfit for fuch a fcuffle. This I had actually tranflated, but was very ill fatisfied with it, even in my own words, to which an author cannot but be partial enough of confcience; it was therefore omitted in this copy, which goes on above eighty lines farther, at the words-Hic primum luftrare oculis, etc.-to the end of the book.

You will find, I doubt not, that Statius was none of the discreetest Poets, tho' he was the best versifier next Virgil: In the very beginning he unluckily betrays his ignorance in the rules of Poetry (which Horace had already taught the Romans) when he afks his Mufe where to be

These he fince tranflated, and they are extant n the printed version,

gin his Thebaid, and feems to doubt whether it should not be ab ovo Ledao. When he comes to the scene of his Poem, and the prize in dispute between the brothers, he gives us a very mean opinion of it-Pugna eft de paupere regno.Very different from the conduct of his mafter, Virgil, who at the entrance of his Poem informs his reader of the greatnefs of its fubje&t.-Tante molis crat Ron aam condere gentem. [Boffu on Epic Poetry.] There are innumerable little faults in him, among which 1 canot but take notice of one in this book, where speaking of the implacable hatred of the brothers, he fays, the whole world would be too fmall a prize to repay fo much impicty.

Quid fi peteretur crimine tanto

Limes uterque poli, quem Sol emiffus Eoo

Cardine, quem porta vergens profpectat Ibera?

This was pretty well, one would think, already, but he goes on.

Quafque procul terras obliquo fydere tangit

Arius, aut Borea gelidas, madidive tepentes

Igne Noti?

After all this, what could a Poet think of but Heaven itself for the prize: but what follows is astonishing.

Quid fi Tyria Phrygiæve fub unum

Convectentur opes?

any

I do not remember to have met with fo great a fall in ancient author whatsoever. I fhould not have infifted fo much on the faults of this Poet, if I did not hope you would take the fame freedom with, and revenge it upon his Tranflator. I fhall be extremely glad if the reading this can be any amusement to you, the rather because I had the diffatisfaction to hear you have been confin'd to your chamber by an illness, which, I fear, was as troublefome a companion as I have fometimes been in the fame place; where, if ever you found any pleasure in my company, it must furely have been that, which most men

take

take in obferving the faults and follies of another; a pleafure, which, you fee, I take care to give you even in my abfence. If you will oblige me at your leifure with the confirmation of your recovery, under your own hand, it will be extremely grateful to me, for next to the pleafure of feeing my friends, is that I take in hearing from them; and in this particular I am beyond all acknowledgments obliged to our friend Mr. Wycherley. I know I need no apology to you for speaking of him, whose example, as I am proud of following in all things, fo in nothing more than in profeffing myself, like him, Your, etc.

LETTER VI.

March 7, 1709.

YOU had long before this time been troubled with a letter from me, but that I deferred it till I could fend you either the Mifcellany, or my continuation of the verfion of Statius. The firft 1 imagin'd you might have had before now, but fince the contrary has happen'd, you may draw this moral from it, That authors in general are more ready to write nonsense than booksellers are to publish it. I had I know not what extraordinary flux of rhime upon me for three days together, in which time all the verfcs you fee added, have been written; which I tell you, that you may more freely be severe upon them. 'Tis a mercy I do not affault you with a number of original Sonnets and Epigrams, which our modern bards put forth in the fpring-time, in as great abundance, as trees do bloffoms, a very few whereof ever come to be fruit, and please no longer than juft in their birth. They make no less hafte to bring their flowers of wit to the prefs, than gardeners to bring their other flowers to the market, which if they can't get off their hands in the

Jacob Tonfon's fixth volume of Poetical Mifcellanies, in which Mr. Pope's Pastorals, and some versions of Homer and Chaucer, were first printed. morning

morning are fure to die before night. Thus the fame reason that furnishes Covent-garden with thofe nofegays you fo delight in, fupplies the Males Mercury and British Apollo (not to fay Jacob's Mifcellanies) with verfes. And it is the happiness of this age, that the modern invention of printing poems for pence apiece, has brought the nosegays of Parnaffus to bear the fame price; whereby the public - fpirited Mr. Henry Hills of Black-friars has been the cause of great and fingular comfort to all the fearned, who never over abounding in tranfitory coin, fhould not be discontented (methinks) even though poems were diftributed gratis about the ftreets, like Bunyan's fermons and other pious treatises, usually published in a Like volume and character.

The time now drawing nigh, when you use with Sappho to cross the water in an evening to Spring garden, I hope you will have a fair opportunity of ravishing her :I mean only as (Old-fox in the Plain Dealer fays) thro the ear, with your well penn'd verfes. I wish you all the pleasures which the season and the nymph can afford; the beft company, the best coffee, and the best news you can defire and what more to wish you than this, I do not know; unless it be a great deal of patience to read and examine the verfes I fend you: I promife you in return a great deal of deference to your judgment, and an extraordinary obedience to your fentiments for the future, (to which, you know, I have been fome times a little refractory.) If you will pleafe to begin where you left off laft, and mark the margin, as you have done in the pages immediately before (which you will find corrected to your fenfe fince your last perufal) you will extremely oblige me, and improve my tranflation. Befides thofe places which may deviate from the fenfe of the author, it would be very kind in you to obferve any deficiencies in the diction or numbers. The Hiatus in particular I would avoid as much as poffible, to which you are certainly in the right to be a profefs'd enemy: tho', I confefs, I could not think it poffible at all times to be avoided

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