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exact harmony and variety, the paufe at the 4th or 6th fhould not be continued above three lines together, without the interpofition of another; elfe it will be apt to weary the ear with one continued tone, at least it does mine: that at the 5th runs quicker, and carries not quite fo dead a weight, fo tires not fo much, though it be continued longer.

3. Another nicety is in relation to expletives, whether words or fyllables, which are made ufe of purely to fupply a vacancy: Do before verbs plural is abfolutely fuch; and it is not improbable but future refiners may explode did and does in the fame manner, which are almoft always used for the fake of rhime. The fame caufe has occafioned the promifcuous ufe of you and thou to the fame perfon, which can never found fo graceful as either one or the other.

4. I would alfo object to the irruption of Alexandrine verfes, of twelve fyllables, which, I think, fhould never be allowed but when fome remarkable beauty or propriety in them atones for the liberty: Mr. Dryden has been too free of thefe, efpecially in his latter works. I am of the fame opinion as to triple

rhimes.

5. I could equally object to the repetition of the fame rhimes within four or fix lines of each other, as tiresome to the ear through their monotony.

6. Monofyllable lines, unless very artfully managed, are fliff, or languithing; but may be beautiful to exprefs melancholy, flowness, or labour.

7. To come to the hiatus, or gap between two words, which is caufed by two vowels opening on each other (upon which you defire me to be particular); I think the rule in this cafe is either to ufe the cafura, or admit the hiatus, juft as the ear is leaft thocked by either: for the cæfura fometimes offends the ear more than the hiatus itfelf, and our language is naturally overcharged with confonants as for example; if in this verfe,

The old have int'reft ever in their eye, we shall fay, to avoid the hiatus,

But th' old have int'reft.

The hiatus which has the worst effect, is when one word ends with the fame vowel that begins the following; and next o this, thofe vowels whofe founds come

nearest each other, are most to be avoided. O, A, or U, will bear a more full and graceful found than E, I, or Y. I know, fome people will think thefe obfervations trivial, and therefore I am glad to corroborate them by fome great authorities, which I have met with in Tully and Quintilian. In the fourth book of Rhetoric to Herennius, are thefe words: Fugiemus crebras vocalium concurfiones, que vaflam atque biantem reddant orationem; ut hoc eft, Bacca eneœ amxniffima impendebant. And Quintilian, 1. ix. cap. 4. Vocalium concurfus cum accidit, biat et interfiftit, et quafi laborat oratio. Pefine longe que eafdem inter fe literas committunt, fonabunt: præcipuus tamen erit hiatus earum quæ cavo aut patulo ore efferuntur. E plenior litera eft, I anguftior. But he goes on to reprove the excefs, on the other hand, of being too folicitous in this matter, and fays admirably, Nycio an negligentia in hoc, aut folicitudo ft pejor. So likewife Tully (Orat. ad Brut.): Theopompum reprehen dunt, quod eas literas tanto opere fugerit, etfi idem magifter ejus Socrates: which laft author, as Turnebus on Quintilian obferves, has hardly one hiatus in all his works. Quintilian tells us, that Tully and Demofthenes did not much obferve this nicety, though Tully himself fays in his Orator, Crebra ifta vocum concurfio, quam magna ex parte vitiofam, fugit Dimofthenes. If I am not mistaken, Malherbe of all the moderns has been the moft fcrupulous in this point; and I think Menage in his obfervations upon him fays, he has not one in his poems. To conclude, I believe the hiatus fhould be avoided with more care in poetry than in oratory; and I would conftantly try to prevent it, unlefs where the cutting it off is more prejudicial to the found than the hiatus itfelf. I am, &c.

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Mr. Pope to H. Cromwell, Efq.
March 18, 1708.

BELIEVE it was with me when I left

the town, as it is with a great many men when they leave the world, whofe

lofs itself they do not fo much regret, as that of their friends whom they leave behind in it. For I do not know one thing for which I can envy London, but for your continuing there. Yet I guess you will expect me to recant this expreffion, when I tell you that Sappho (by which heathenish name you have christened a very orthodox lady) did not accompany me into the country. Well, you have your lady in the town ftill, and I have my heart in the country still, which, being wholly unemployed as yet, has the more room in it for my friends, and does not want a corner at your fervice. You have extremely obliged me by your frankness and kindness; and if I have abused it by too much freedom on my part, I hope you will attribute it to the natural openness of my temper, which hardly knows how to fhew refpect, where it feels affection. I would love my friend, as my mistress, without ceremony; and hope a little rough ufage fometimes may not be more difpleafing to the one, than it is to the other.

If you have any curiofity to know in what manner I live, or rather lofe a life, Martial will inform you in one line:

Prandeo, puto, cano, ludo, lego, cano, quiefco. Every day with me is literally another yesterday, for it is exactly the fame: it has the fame bufinefs, which is poetry; and the fame pleasure, which is idleness. A man might indeed pass his time much better, but I queftion if any man could pafs it much easier. If you will visit our fhades this fpring, which I very much defire, you may perhaps instruct me to manage my game more wifely; but at prefent I am fatisfied to trifle away my time any way, rather than let it ftick by me; as fhop-keepers are glad to be rid of thofe goods at any rate, which would otherwife always be lying upon their

hands.

Sir, if you will favour me fometimes with your letters, it will be a great fatiffaction to me on feveral accounts; and on this in particular, that it will fhew me (to my comfort) that even a wife man is fometimes very idle; for fo you needs much be when you can find leisure to write to your, &c.

I

LETTER XV.

From the fame to the fame.
April 27, 1708.

HAVE nothing to fay to you in this letter; but I was refolved to write to tell you fo. Why should not I content myfelf with fo many great examples, of deep divines, profound cafuifts, grave philofophers; who have written, not letters only, but whole tomes and voluminous treatises, about nothing? Why should a fellow like me, who all his life does nothing, be ashamed to write nothing? and that to one who has nothing to do but to read it? But perhaps you'll fay, the whole world has fomething to do, fome thing to talk of, fomething to wish for, fomething to be employed about: but pray, Sir, caft up the account, put all these things together, and what is the fum total but just nothing? I have no more to say, but to defire you to give my fervice (that is nothing) to your friends, and to believe that I am nothing more than your, &c.

Ex nihilo nil fit. LUCR.

XVI.

LETTER
From the fame to the fame.
May 10, 1708.

you talk of fame and glory, and of the

great men of antiquity: pray tell me, what are all your great dead men, but fo many little living letters? What a vaft reward is here for all the ink wafted by writers, and all the blood fpilt by princes? There was in old time one Severus a Roman emperor. I dare fay you never called him by any other name in your life and yet in his days he was ftyled Lucius, Septimius, Severus, Pius, Pertinax, Auguftus, Parthicus, Adiabenicus, Arabicus, Maximus, and what not? What a prodigious wafte of letters has time made! what a number have here dropt off, and left the poor furviving feven unattended! For my own part, four are all I have to care for; and I will be judged by you if any man could live in lefs compafs? Well, for the future I will drown all high thoughts in the lethe of cowflip-wine; as for fame, renown, reputation, take them, critics!

Tradam protervis in Mane Criticum

Ventis.

If ever I feek for immortality here, may I be damned, for there is not fo much danger in a poet's being damned: Damnation follows death in other men, But your damn'd poet lives and writes agen.

I

LETTER XVII. Mr. Pope to H. Cromwell, Eq.

apart

Nov. 1, 1708. HAVE been fo well fatisfied with the country ever fince I faw you, that I have not once thought of the town, nor inquired of any one in it befides Mr. Wycherley and yourself. And from him I understand of your journey this fummer into Leicefterfhire; from whence I guess you are returned by this time, to your old ment in the widow's corner, to your old bufmefs of comparing critics, and reconciling commentators, and to your old diverfions of lofing a game at piquet with the ladies, and half a play, or quarter of a play at the theatre: where you are none of the malicious audience, but the chief of amorous fpectators; and for the infirmity of one fenfe *, which there, for the most part, could only ferve to difguft you, enjoy the vigour of another, which ravishes you.

You know, when one fenfe is fupprefs'd,
It but retires into the rest,

according to the poetical, not the learned, Dodwell; who has done one thing worthy of eternal memory; wrote two lines in his life that are not nonfenfe! So you have the advantage of being entertained with all the beauty of the boxes, without being troubled with any of the dulnefs of the ftage. You are fo good a critic, that it is the greatcft happinefs of the modern poets that you do not hear their works: and next, that you are not fo arrant a critic, as to damn them (like the reft) without hearing. But now I talk of thofe critics, I have good news to tell you concerning myfelf, for which I expect you should congratulate with me: it is that, beyond all my expectations, and far above my demerits, I have been moft mercifully reprieved by the fovereign power of Jacob Tonfon, from being brought forth to public punishment; and refpited from

His hearing.

time to time from the hands of thofe barbarous executioners of the mufes, whom I was juft now fpeaking of. It often happens, that guilty poets, like other guilty criminals, when once they are known and proclaimed, deliver themfelves into the hands of justice, only to prevent others from doing it more to their difadvantage; and not out of any ambition to spread their fame, by being executed in the face of the world, which is a fame but of short continuance. That poet were a happy man who could but obtain a grant to preferve his for ninetynine years; for thofe names very rarely lat fo many days, which are planted either in Jacob Tonfon's, or the Ordinary of Newgate's Mifcellanies.

I have an hundred things to fay to you, which fhall be deferred till I have the happinefs of feeing you in town, for the feafon now draws on, that invites every body thither. Some of them 1 had communicated to you by letters be fore this, if I had not been uncertain where you paffed your time the laft feafon: fo 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 obftinate lover of the town, in fpite of friendship and fair weather. Therefore, henceforward, to all thofe confiderable qualities I know you poffeffed of, I fhall add that of prophecy. But I ftill believe Mr. Wycher ley's intentions were good, and am fauf. fied that he promifes nothing, but with a real defign to perform it: how muca foever his other excellent qualities are above my imitation, his fincerity, I hope is not; and it is with the utmost that i

am,

Sir, &c.

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wards could and a capomanity of fanding them without i camping; not then the tre of the leak vale, but for fear fomebody alone be foolish carogh to imagine them to, and inquintive enraga to callover mole faults which I for your help would correct. I therefore beg the favour of you to let them go no former then your amber, and to be very free of your remarks in the margins, not only in regard to the accuracy, but to fielty of the translation; which I bere not bad ime to compare with its original'. And I de fire you to be the more fevere, as it is mach more criminal for me to make another speak nomine, then to do it in my own proper perion. For your better help in comparing, it may be it to tall you, that this is not an entire version of the fire bonkk. There is an omillion from the 168th Ene-Ja nie je put plebis Apemoree-to the 312Interes patriis alim ozgar coal of or (between these two Statias has a de. fcription of the council of the Gods, and a fpeech of Jupiter; which contains a peculiar beauty and mojets, and were left out for no other region, but becaufe the confequence of this machine appears bet till the fecond book) The tranfa

of

goes on from thence to the words Hie vere embebas roblem forties cTRIESTE, where there is an odd account of a batl'e at Ely-cuffs, between the to Princes on a very flight ocenion, and mad

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try (which Horace had already tangle komane, when he alts his molè where to begin his Thecall, and frems to doubt whether it dould not be af ni Lan. When be comes to frene of his poem, and the prize in dipate between the brothers, he gives as a very mean opinion of n-Pagia et de putere negle Aferent E conduct of his mofer, Virgil, wn9 20 entrance of bis poema informs is reader of the greates of its bee-Thre mirerat Romanan confere gomum. ca Epic Poetry. There are in rable little faults in him, among cannot but take notice of one in th book, where speaking of the implaca hatred of the brother, be fry, " whole world would be top final to repay to meth impiety."

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tremely grateful to me, for next to the pleasure 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 fpeaking of him, whofe example, as I am proud of following in all things, fo in nothing more than in profeffing my felf, like him, your, &c.

LETTER XIX. Mr. Pope to H. Cromwell, Efq.

γου

March 7, 1709.

ou 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 version of Statius. The first I imagined you might have had before now, but fince the contrary has happened, you may draw this moral from it, that authors in general are more ready to write nonfenfe than bookfellers are to publish it. I had I know not what extraordinary flux of rhyme upon me for three days together, in which time all the verses you fee added, have been written; which I tell you, that you may more freely be fevere upon them. It is a mercy I do not affault you with a number of original fonnets and epigrams, which our modern bards put forth in the fpringtime, in as great abundance as trees do bloffoms, a very few whereof ever come to be fruit, and pleafe no longer than just in their birth. They make no lefs hafte to bring their flowers of wit to the prefs, than gardeners to bring their other flowers to the market, which if they cannot get off their hands in the morning are fure to die before night. Thus the fame reafon that furnishes Covent-garden with thofe nofegays you fo delight in, fupplies the Mufes Mercury and British Apollo (not to fay Jacob's Mifcellanies) with veries. And it is the happiness of this age, that the modern invention of printing poems for pence a-piece, has brought the nofegays of Parnaffus to bear the fame price; whereby the public-fpirited Mr. Henry Hills of Black

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friars has been the cause of great eafe and fingular comfort to all the learned, who, never over-abounding in tranfitory coin, fhould not be difcontented (methinks) even though poems were diributed gratis about the firects, like Bunyan's fermons and other pious treatifes, ufually published in a like volume and character.

The time now drawing nigh, when you ufed with Sappho to cross the water in an evening to Spring-garden, I hope you will have a fair opportunity of ravithing her:-I mean only (as Old-fox in the Plain Dealer fays) through the ear, with your well-penned verfes. I wish you all the pleatures which the feafon and the nymph can afford; the best company, the best coffee, and the belt 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 judg ment, and an extraordinary obedience to your fentiments for the future (to which, you know, I have been fometimes 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. Beides thofe places which may deviate from the fenfe of the author, it would be very kind in you to observe 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 profeffed enemy; though, I confefs, I could not think it poflible at all times to be avoided by any writer, till I found by reading Malherbe lately, that there is fcarce any throughout his poems. I thought your obfervation true enough to be paled into a rule, but not a rule without exceptions, nor that it ever had been reduced to practice: but this example of one of the moft correct and best of their pocts has undeceived me, and confirms your opi nion very strongly, and much more than Mr. Dryden's authority, who, though he made it a rule, feldom obferved it. Your, &c.

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