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five days? who is withdrawing his thoughts as far as he can from all the prefent world, its customs, and its inanners, to be fully pofleffed and abforpt in the past? When people talk of going to church, I think of facrifices and libations; when I fee the parfon, I addrefs him as Chryfes prieft of Apollo; and inftead of the Lord's prayer, I begin,

God of the filver bow, &c.

While you in the world are concerned about the Proteftant Succeffion, I confider only how Menelaus may recover Helen, and the Trojan war be put to a fpeedy conclufion. I never inquire if the Queen be well or not, but heartily with to be at Hector's funeral. The only things I regard in this life are, whether my friends are well? whether my tranflation go well on? whether Dennis be writing criticifms? whether any body will anfwer him, fince I don't? and whether Lintot be not yet broke? I am, &c.

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Picture in the front,

With bays and wicked rhyme upon't.

I have the greatest proof in nature at prefent of the amusing power of poetry, for it takes me up fo entirely, that I fearte fee what paffes under my nofe, and hear nothing that is faid about me. To follow

what vanity we have expects its gratif cation from other people. It is not I that am to tell you what an artist you are, nor is it you that are to tell me what a poet I am; but it is from the world abroad we hope (piously hope) to hear thefe things. At home we follow our bufinefs, when we have any; and think and talk moft of each other when we have none. It is not unlike the happy friendship of a flayed man and his wife, who are feldom fo fond as to hinder the bufinefs of the houfe from going on all day, or fo indolent as not to find corfolation in each other every evening. Thus well-meaning couples hold in amity to the laft, by not expecting too much from human nature; while romantic friendhips, like violent loves, begin with diquiets, proceed to jealoufies, and conclude in animofities. I have lived to fee the fierce advancement, the fudden turn, and the abrupt period, of three or four of thefe enormous friendships, and am perfectly convinced of the truth of a maxim we once agreed in, that nothing hinders the conftant agree. ment of people who live together, bat merely vanity; a fecret infiling upes what they think their dignity of merit, and an inward expectation of fuch a over-meafure of deference and regard, as answers to their own extravagant fcale; and which nobody can pay, be cause none but themselves can tell, exactly, to what pitch it amounts. I am, &c.

poetry as one ought, one must forget fa-
I
ther and mother, and cleave to it alone.
My reverie has been fo deep, that I have
fcarce had an interval to think myfelf un-
eafy in the want of your company. I
now and then juft mifs you as I ftep into
bed; this minute indeed I want extremely
to fee you, the next I fhall dream of no-
thing but the taking of Troy, or the re-
covery of Brifeis.

I fancy no friendship is fo likely to prove lafting as ours, becaufe, I am pretty fure, there never was a friendship of fo eafy a nature. We neither of us demand any mighty things from each other;

fake

LETTER LXIX
Mr. Jervas to Mr. Pope.
Aug. 20, 1714.
HAVE a particular to tell you at this

time, which pleases me fo much, that you must expect a more than ordinary alacrity in every turn. You know I could keep you in fufpenfe for twenty lines, but I will tell you directly, that Mr. Addi fon and I have had a converfation, that it would have been worth your while to have been placed behind the wainscot, a behind fome half-length picture, to have heard. He affured me, that he would make ufe not only of his intereft, but of his art, to do you fome fervice; he did not mean his art of poetry, but his art at court; and he is fenfible that nothing can

Sect. I.

you

MODERN.

have a better air for himfelf than moving in your favour, efpecially fince infinuations were fpread, that he did not care fhould profper too much as a poet. He protefts that it shall not be his fault, if there is not the beft intelligence in the world, and the most hearty friendship, afraid Dr. &c. He owns, he was Swift might have carried you too far among the enemy during the heat of the animofity; but now all is fafe, and you are escaped even in his opinion. 1, promifed in your name, like a good fhould renounce godfather, not that the devil and all his works, but that you would be delighted to find him your friend merely for his own fake; therefore prepare yourself for fome civilities.

you

I have done Homer's head, fhadowed and heightened carefully; and I enclofe the out-line of the fame fize, that you may determine whether you would have it fo large, or reduced to make room for feuillage or laurel round the oval, or about the fquare of the busto? perhaps there is fomething more folemn in the image itself, if I can get it well per

formed.

If I have been inftrumental in bringing you and Mr. Addison together with all fincerity, I value myfelf upon it as an acceptable piece of fervice to fuch a one as I know you to be. Your, &c.

LETTER LXX.
Mr. Pope to Mr. Jervas.

Aug. 27, 1714.

I AM just arrived from Oxford, very
weli diverted and entertained there.
Every one is much concerned for the
No panegyrics ready
Queen's death,

yet for the King.

I admire your whig-principles of refiftance exceedingly, in the fpirit of the Barcelonians: I join in your wish for them. Mr. Addifon's verfes on Liberty, in his letter from Italy, would be a good form of prayer in my opinion, O. Liberts! thou Goddess heavenly bright, &c.

What you mention of the friendly office you endeavoured to do betwixt Mr. Addison and me, deferves acknowledgYou thoroughly ments on my part. know my regard to his character, and my propensity to teftify it by all ways in

485

my power. You as thoroughly know the fcandalous meanness of that proceeding which was ufed by Philips, to make a man I fo highly value fufpect my difpofitions towards him. But as, after all, Mr. Addifon must be the judge in what regards himself, and has feemed to be no very just one to me: fo, I must own to you, I expect nothing but civility from him, how much foever I wish for his friendship. As for any offices of real kindness or fervice which it is in his power to do me, I fhould be ashamed to receive them from any man who had no better opinion of my morals, than to think me a party-man; nor of my temper, than to believe me capable of ma-' ligning or envying another's reputation as a poet. So I leave it to time to convince him as to both, to fhew him the fhallow depths of thofe half-witted creatures who mifinformed him, and to prove that I am incapable of endeavouring to leffen a perfon whom I would be proud In a word, Mr. Addifon is fure of to imitate, and therefore afhamed to flatter. my refpect at all times, and of my real friendship whenever he fhall think fit to know me for what I am.

For all that paffed betwixt Dr. Swift and me, you know the whole (without referve) of our correfpondence. The engagements I had to him were such as the actual fervices he had done me, in relation to the fubfcription for Homer, I must have leave to be obliged me to. grateful to him, and to any one who ferves me, let him be never fo obnoxious. to any party nor did the tory-party ever put me to the hardship of afking this leave, which is the greatest obligation I owe to it; and I expect no greater from the whig-party than the fame liberty.-A curfe on the word Party, which I have been forced to use fo often in this period! I with the prefent reign may put an end to the diftinction, that there may be no other for the future than that of honeft and knave, fool and man of fenfe; these two forts must always be enemies; but for the reft, may all people do as you and I, believe what they pleafe, and be friends. I am, &c.

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LETTER LXXI.

Dec. 1, 1714.

Mr. Pope to the Earl of Hallifax. My Lord, I AM obliged to you both for the favours you have done me, and for thofe you intend me. I diftruft neither your will nor your memory, when it is to do good; and if ever I become troublesome or folicitous, it must not be out of expectation, but out of gratitude. Your Lord fhip may either caufe me to live agreeably in the town, or contentedly in the country, which is really all the difference I fet between an eafy fortune and a fmall one. It is indeed a high ftrain of generofity in you, to think of making me eafy all my life, only because I have been fo happy as to divert you fome few hours but if I may have leave to add, it is because you think me no enemy to my native country, there will appear a better reafon; for I must of confequence be very much (as I fincerely am) yours,

&c.

I

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Dr. Parnelle to Mr. Pope.

AM writing you a long letter, but all the tedioufnefs I feel in it is, that it makes me during the time think more intently of my being far from you. I fancy, if I were with you, I could remove fome of the uneafinefs which you may have felt from the oppofition of the world, and which you should be ashamed to feel, fince it is but the teftimony which one part of it gives you that your merit is unquestionable. What would you have otherwife, from ignorance, envy, or thofe tempers which vie with you in your own way? I know this in mankind, that when our ambition is unable to attain its

end, it is not only wearied, but exafperated too at the vanity of its labours; then we fpeak ill of happier studies, and fighing condemn the excellence which we find above our reach.

My Zoilus †, which you used to write about, I finished laft fpring, and left in town. I waited till I came up to fend it

This and the three extracts concerning the tranflation of the first Iliad, fet on foot by Mr. Addifon, Mr. Pope omitted in his first edition.

+ Printed for B. Lintot, 1715, 8vo, and afterwards added to the last edition of his poems.

you; but not arriving here before your book was out, imagined it a loft piece of labour. If you will still have it, you need only write me word.

I have here feen the first book of Ho

mer 1, which came out at a time when it
could not but appear as a kind of fetting
up against you. My opinion is, that
you may, if you pleafe, give them
thanks who writ it. Neither the nom-
bers nor the fpirit have an equal mastery
with yours; but what furprises me more
is, that a fcholar being concerned,
there fhould happen to be fome mistakes
in the author's fenfe; fuch as putting the
light of Pallas's eyes into the eyes of
Achilles, making the taunt of Achiles
to Agamemnon (that he fhould have
fpoils when Troy fhould be taken) to be
a cool and ferious propofal; the tranflat-
ing what you call ablution by the word
offals, and fo leaving water out of the
rite of luftration, &c. ; but you muft have
taken notice of all this before. I write
not to inform you, but to fhew I always
have you at heart.
I am,
&c.

Extract from a Letter of the Reveal
Dr. Berkley, Dean of London-dirry.

July 7, 1715

SOME days ago, three or four gentlemen and myfelf, exerting that right which all readers pretend to over 22thors, fate in judgment upon the two new tranflations of the firft Iliad. With out partiality to my countrymen, I affere you, they all gave the preference where it was due; being unanimoufly of op nion, that yours was equally just to the fenfe with Mr.'s, and without com parifon more eafy, more poetical, more fublime. But I will fay no more on fuch a thread-bare fubject as your le performance is at this time. I am, &c.

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and

HAVE juft fet down Sir Samuel at the opera. He bid me tell you, that every body is pleafed

Written by Mr. Addifon, and published in the name of Mr. Tickell.

with your tranflation, but a few at Button's; and that Sir Richard Steele told him, that Mr. Addifon faid the other tranflation was the best that ever was in any language. He treated me with extreme civility, and out of kindness gave me a squeeze by the fore-finger.-I am informed, that at Button's your character is made very free with as to morals, &c. and Mr. Addison fays that your tranflation and Tickell's are both very well done, but that the latter has more of Homer. I am, &c.

ufe and happiness, give me a little common fenfe. I fay this in regard to some gentlemen, profeffed wits of our acquaintance, who fancy they can make poetry of confequence at this time of day, in the midst of this raging fit of politics. For they tell me, the bufy part of the nation are not more divided about whig and tory, than thefe idle fellows of the feather about Mr. T-'s and my translation. I (like the tories) have the town in general, that is, the mob, on my fide; but it is usual with the smaller party to make up in industry what they want in number, and that is the cafe with the little fenate

Extract from a Letter of Dr. Arbuthnot to of Cato. However, if our principles be

Mr. Pope.

July 9, 1715. I CONGRATULATE you upon Mr. T's first book. It does not indeed want its merit; but I was ftrangely disappointed in my expectation of a tranflation nicely true to the original; whereas in thofe parts where the greatest exactnefs feems to be demanded, he has been the lealt careful, I mean the history of ancient ceremonies and rites, &c. in which you have with great judgment been exact. I am, &c.

LETTER LXXIII.

Mr. Pope to the Hon. James Craggs, Efq.

July 15, 1715.

I LAY hold of the opportunity given me

by my Lord Duke of Shrewsbury, to affure you of the continuance of that efteem and affection I have long borne you, and the memory of fo many agreeable converfations as we have paffed together. I wish it were a compliment to fay, fuch converfations as are not to be found on this fide of the water: for the fpirit of diffenfion is gone forth among us: nor is it a wonder that Batton's is no longer Button's, when old England is no longer old England, that region of hofpitality, fociety, and good humour. Party affects us all, even the wits, though they gain as little by politics, as they do by their wit. We talk much of fine fenfe, refined fenfe, and exalted fenfe; but for

well confidered, I must appear a brave whig, and Mr. Ta rank tory; I tranflated Homer for the public in general, he to gratify the incrdinate defires of one man only. We have, it seems, a great Turk in poetry, who can never bear a brother on the throne; and has his mutes too, a fet of nodders, winkers, and whifperers, whose business is to trangle all other offsprings of wit in their birth. The new translator of Homer is the humbleft flave he has, that is to fay, his firfkt

minifter; let him receive the honours he gives me, but receive them with fear and trembling; let him be proud of the approbation of his abfolute Lord, I appeal to the people, as my rightful judges and masters; and if they are not inclined to condemn me, I fear no arbitrary highflying proceeding from the fmall courtfaction at Button's. But after all I have faid of this great man, there is no rupture between us.

We are each of us fo civil and obliging, that neither thinks he is obliged: and I, for my part, treat with who has too many great qualities not to him as we do with the grand monarch, be refpected, though we know he watches any occafion to opprefs us.

When I talk of Homer, I muft not forget the early prefent you made me of Monfieur de la Motte's book: and I cannot conclude this letter without telling you a melancholy piece of news, which affects our very entrails, L is dead, and foupes are no more! you e I write in the old familiar way.

"This is not to

• Sir Richard Steele afterwards, in his preface to an edition of the Drummer, a comedy by Mr. Addifon, fhews it to be his opinion, that "Mr. "Addifon himself was the perfon who tranflateded in the Report of the Secret Committer.

"the minifter, but to the friend †.”

+Alluding to St. John's letter to Prict, puni:fb

"this book."

114

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However, it is fome mark of uncommon
regard to the minifter, that I fteal an ex-
preflion from a Secretary of State.
I am, &c.

M ΜΕΤ

LETTER LXXIV.

Mr. Pope to Mr. Congreve.

Jan. 16, 1714-15. ETHINKS when I write to you, I am making a confeffion; I have got (I cannot tell how) fuch a cultom of throwing myfelf out upon paper without referve. You were not mistaken in what you judged of my temper of mind when I writ laft. My faults will not be hid from you, and perhaps it is no difpraife to me that they will not: the cleanness and purity of one's mind is never better proved, than in difcovering its own fault at first view; as when a fream fhews the dirt at its bottom, it fhews alfo the tranfparency of the water.

I write this from Binfield, whither I came yesterday, having paiied a few days in my way with my Lord Bolingbroke; I go to London in three days time, and will not fail to pay a visit to Mr. M—, whom I faw not long fince at my Lord Hallifax's. I hoped from thence he had fome hopes of advantage from the prefent adminiftration; for few people (I think) but I pay refpects to great men without any profpects. I am in the fairest way in the world of being not worth a groat, being born both a papift and a poet. This puts me in mind of reacknowledging your continued endeavours to enrich me. But, I can tell you, it is to no purpose, for without the opes, a quem mi animum ifje parabo.

LETTER LXXV.

From the fame to the fame.

March 19, 1714-15

My fpleen was not occafioned, how- THE farce of the What-d'ye-call-it ever, by any thing an abufive ΤΗ angry critic could write of me. I take very kindly your heroic manner of congratulation upon this fcandal; for I think nothing more honourable, than to be involved in the fame fate with all the great and the good that ever lived; that is, to be envied and cenfured by bad writers.

You do more than answer my expectations of you, in declaring how well you take my

freedom, in fometimes neglect ing, as I do, to reply to your letters fo foon as I ought. Thofe who have a right tate of the fubftantial part of friendship, can wave the ceremonial: a friend is the only one that will bear the omiffion; and one may find who is not fo, by the very

trial of it.

As to any anxiety I have concerning the fate of my Homer, the care is over with me: the world must be the judge, and I thall be the first to confent to the juice of its judgment, whatever it be. I am not fo arrant an author as even to defire, that if I am in the wrong, all mankind fhould be fo.

I am mightily pleafed with a faying of Monfieur Tourreil: When a man writes, he ought to animate himfelf "with the thoughts of pleafing all the

"world: but he is to renounce that de"fire or hope the very moment the book goes out of his hands."

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has occafioned many different fpeculations in the town. Some looked upon it as a mere jeft upon the tragic poets, others as a fatire upon the late war. Mr. Cromwell hearing none of the words, and fecing the action to be tragical, was much aftonifhed to find the audience laugh; and fays the prince and princefs muft doubtlefs be under no lefs amazement on the fame account. Several templars, and others of the more vociferous kind of critics, went with a refolution to hifs, and confeffed they were forced to laugh fo much, that they forgot the defign they came with. The court in general has in a very particular manner come into the jeft, and the three first nights (notwithftanding two of them were court-nights) were diftinguished by very full audiences of the first quality. The common people of the pit and gallery received it at firft with great gravity and fedatenefs, fome few with tears; but after the third day they alfo took the hint, and have ever fince been very loud in their claps. There are fill fome fober men who can

not be of the general opinion; but the laughers are fo much the majority, that one or two critics feem determined to undeceive the town at their proper coft, by

Written by Gay.

writing

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