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taken quite away, as we take branches from a tree to add to the fruit; others I have entirely new expreffed, and turned more into poetry. Donne (like one of his fucceffors) had infinitely more wit than he wanted verfification; for the great dealers of wit, like thofe in trade, take leaft pains to fet off their goods; while the haberdashers of small wit fpare for no decorations or ornaments. You have commiffioned me to paint your fhop, and I have done my best to brush you up like your neighbours. But I can no more pretend to the merit of the production, than a midwife to the virtues and good qualities of the child fhe helps into the light.

The few things I have entirely added, you will excuse; you may take them lawfully for your own, because they are no more than fparks lighted up by your fire and you may omit them at laft, if you think them but fquibs in your triumphs. I am, &c.

LETTER VII. From the fame to the fame.

Nov. 20, 1707.

MR. Englefyld, being upon his journey to London, tells me I mult write to you by him, which I do, not more to comply with his defire, than to gratify my own; though I did it fo lately by the meffenger you fent hither: I take it too as an opportunity of fending you the fair copy of the poem on Dulnefs +, which was not then finished, and which I fhould not care to hazard by the common poft. Mr. Englefyld is ignorant of the contents, and I hope your prudence will let him remain fo, for my fake no lefs than your own; fince if you fhould reveal any thing of this nature, it would be no wonder reports fhould be raised, and there are thofe (I fear) who would be ready to improve them to my difadvantage. I am forry you told the

great

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man, whom you met in the court of requefts, that your papers were in my hands: no man alive fhall ever know any fuch thing from me; and I give you this warning befides, that though yourfelf fhould fay I had any ways allifted you, I am notwithstanding refolved to deny it.

The method of the copy I fend you is very different from what it was, and much more regular: for the better help of your memory, I defire you to compare it by the figures in the margin, answering to the fame in this letter. The poem is now divided into four parts, marked with the literal figures 1. 2. 3. 4. The first contains the Praife of Dulnefs, and fhews how upon feveral fuppofitions it paffes for, 1. religion; 2. philofophy; 3. example; 4. wit; and 5. the cause of wit, and the end of it. The second part contains the Advantages of Dulness; 1ft, in bufinefs; and 2dly, at Court; where the fimilitudes of the byafs of a bowl, and the weights of a clock, are directly tending to the fubject, though introduced before in a place where there was no mention made of those advantages (which was your only objection to my adding nefs of Dulness in all ftations, and fhews them). The third contains the Happiin a great many particulars, that it is fo fortunate as to be efteemed fome good quality or other in all forts of people; that it is thought quiet, fenfe, caution, policy, prudence, majesty, valour, circumfpection, honefty, . The fourth part I have wholly added, as a climax which fums up all the praife, advantage, and happiness of Dulnefs in a few words, and ftrengthens them by the oppofition of the difgrace, difadvantage, and unhappinefs of wit, with which it con

cludes.

Though the whole be as short again as at firft, there is not one thought omitted, but what is a repetition of fomething in your first volume, or in this very paper: fome thoughts are contracted, where they feemed encompaffed with too many words; and fome new exprefied, or added, where I thought there wanted heightning (as you will fee particularly in the fimile of the clock weights 1); and the versifica

tion

I Thefe two fimilies of the byafs of a bowl, and the weights of a clock, were at length put into the first book of the Dunciad. And thus we

:

tion throughout is, I believe, fuch as nobody can be fhocked at. The repeated permiffions you give me of dealing freely with you, will (I hope) excufe what I have done for if I have not spared you when I thought feverity would do you a kindness, I have not mangled you where I thought there was no abfolute need of amputation. As to particulars, I can fatisfy you better when we meet; in the mean time pray write to me when you can, you cannot too often.

THE

LETTER VIII.
Mr. Pope to Mr. Wycherley.

Nov. 29, 1707.

ceit; but in the better notion of wit, confidered as propriety, furely method is not only neceffary for perfpicuity and harmony of parts, but gives beauty even to the minute and particular thoughts, which receive an additional advantage from thofe which precede or follow in their due place. You remember a fimile Mr. Dryden ufed in converfation, of feathers in the crowns of the wild Indians, which they not only choose for the beauty of their colours, but place them in fuch a manner as to reflect a luftre on each other. I will not difguife any of my fentiments from you: to methodise in your cafe, is full as neceflary as to ftrike out; otherwife you had better destroy the whole frame, and reduce them into ingle thoughts in profe, like Rochefoucault, as I have more than once hinted to you.

HE Compliments you make me, in regard of any inconfiderable fervice I could do you, are very unkind, and do but tell me in other words, that my friend has fo mean an opinion cf me, as to think I expect acknowledgments for trifles which, upon my faith, I shall equally take amifs, whether made to myfelf, or to any other. For God's fake (my dear friend) think better of me, I

and believe I defire no fort of favour fo much as that of ferving you more confiderably than I have been yet able to do.

I fhall proceed in this manner with fome others of your pieces; but fince you defire I would not deface your copy for the future, and only mark. the repetitions; I muft, as foon as I have marked thefe, tranfcribe what is left on another paper; and in that blot, alter, and add all I can devife for their improvement. For you are fenfible, the omiffion of repetitions is but one, and the easiest of yours and my defign; there remaining befides, to rectify the method, to connect the matter, and to mend the expreflion and verfification. I will go next upon the poems of Solitude, on the Public, and on the Mixt Life; the Bill of Fare; the Praifes of Avarice, and fome others. I must take notice of what you fay,

part

of my pains to make your dulnefs me"thodical;" and of your hint," that the fprightlinefs of wit defpifes me"thod." This is true enough, if by wit you mean no more than fancy or con

have the hiftory of their birth, fortunes, and final ortablishment.

LETTER IX.
From the fame to the fame.

May 20, 1709

AM glad you received the Mifcellany, if it were only to fhew you that there are as bad poets in this nation as your fervant. This modern cuftom of appear ing in mifcellanies, is very ufeful to the poets, who, like other thieves, efcape by getting into a crowd, and herd toge ther like banditti, fafe only in their multitude. Methinks Strada has given a good defcription of thefe kind of collec tions: Nullus hodie mortalium aut nafcitur aut moritur, aut præliatur, aut rufticatur, aut abit peregre, aut redit, aut nubit, aut tfi, aut non eft (nam etiam mortuis ifli canunt), cui non ille extemplo cadunt Epicedia, Ge ethliaca, Protreptica, Panegyrica, Epibalamia, Vaticinia, Prepemptica, Seterica, Parænetica, Nenias, Nugas. As to the fuccefs which, you fay, my part has met with, it is to be attributed to what you was pleafed to fay of me to the world; which you do well to call your prophecy, fince whatever is faid in my favour, must be a prediction of things that are not yet; you, like a true godfather, engage on my part for much more than ever I can perform. My pal toral mufe, like other country girls, is

Jacob Tonfon's xth vol. of Micellary Poems.

put out of countenance, by what you courtiers fay to her; yet I hope you would not deceive me too far, as knowing that a young fcribler's vanity needs no recruits from abroad: for Nature, like an indulgent mother, kindly takes care to fupply her fons with as much of their own, as is neceffary for their fatisfaction. If my verses should meet with a few flying commendations, Virgil has taught me, that a young author has not too much reafon to be pleafed with them, when he confiders that the natural confequence of praife is envy and calumny.

-Si ultra placitum laudarit, baccare frontem Cingite, ne vati nocea: mala lingua future. When once a man has appeared as a poet, he may give up his pretenfions to all the rich and thriving arts; thofe who have once made their court to thofe miftreffes without portions, the mufes, are never like to fet up for fortunes. But for my part, I shall be satisfied if I can lofe my time agreeably this way, without lofing my reputation as for gaining any, I am as indifferent in the matter as Falstaffe was, and may say of fame as he did of honour, "if it comes, it comes "unlook'd for; and there's an end "on't." I can be content with a bare faving game, without being thought an eminent hand (with which title Jacob has graciously dignified his adventurers and volunteers in poetry). Jacob creates poets, as Kings fometimes do knights, not for their honour, but for their money. Certainly he ought to be eteemed a worker of miracles, who is grown rich by

poetry.

What author kfe, their bookfellers have won,
So pimps grow rich, while gallants are undone.
I am your, ..

LETTER X.

From the fame to the fame..

April 15, 1710.

I RECEIVED your most extreme kind letter but just now. It found me over thofe papers you mention, which have been my employment ever fince Eaftermonday: 1 hope before Michaelmas to have difcharged my tak; which, upon the word of a friend, is the most pleading

one I could be put upon. Since you are
fo near going into Shropshire (whither I
fhall not care to write of this matter for
fear of the mifcarriage of any letters), I
muft defire your leave to give you a plain
and fincere account of what I have found
from a more ferious application to them.
Upon comparison with the former vo
lume, I find much more repeated than I
till now imagined, as well as in the pre-
fent volume, which, if (as you told me
laft) you would have me dafh over with
a line, will deface the whole copy ex-
tremely, and to a degree that (I fear)
may difplease you. I have every where
marked in the margins the page and line,
both in this and the other part. But if
you order me not to cross the lines, or
would any way elfe limit my commiffion,
you will oblige me by doing it in your
next letter; for I am at once equally fear-
ful of fparing you, and of offending you
by too impudent a correction. Hitherto,
however, I have croffed them so as to be
legible because you bade me. When I
think all the repetitions are ftruck out in
a copy, I fometimes find more upon dip
ping in the first volume, and the num-
ber increases fo much, that I believe
more fhortening will be requifite than
you may be willing to bear with, unless
you are in good earneft refolved to have
no thought repeated. Pray forgive this
freedom, which as I must be fincere in
this cafe, fo I could not but take; and
let me know if I am to go on at this
rate, or if you would prefcribe any other
method.

I am very glad you continue your refo-
lution of feeing me in my hermitage this
fummer; the fooner you return, the fooner
I shall be happy, which indeed my want
of any company that is entertaining or
efteemable, together with frequent infir-
mities and pains, hinder me from being
in your abfence. It is (I am fure) a
real truth, that my fickness cannot make
me quite weary of myself when I have
you with me; and I fhall want no com-
pany but yours, when you are here.

You fee how freely and with how little care I talk rather than write to you: this is one of the many advantages of friendship, that one can fay to one's friend the things that ftand in need of pardon, and at the fame time be fure of it. Indeed I do not know whether or no the letters of friends are the worfe for being fit for

none

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none elfe to read. It is an argument of the trust repofed in a friend's good-nature, when one writes fuch things to him as require a good portion of it. I have experienced yours fo often and fo long, that I can now no more doubt of the greatnefs of it, than I hope you do of the greatnefs of my affection, or of the fincerity with which I am, &c.

I

LETTER XI.

Mr. Pope to Mr. Wycherley.

May 10, 1710.

AM forry you perfift to take ill my not accepting your invitation, and to find (if 1 mistake not) your exception not unmixed with fome fufpicion. Be certain I fhall most carefully obferve your requeft, not to crofs 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 fhall 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 may be fatisfied with every blot, as well as every addition, and nothing be put upon the papers but what you fhall give your own fanction and affent to, at the

fame time.

you

Do not be fo unjust, 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; though truly it is (as I have often told you) my fincere opinion, that the greater part would make a much better figure as fingle maxions and reflections in profe, after the manner of your favourite Rochefoucault, than in verfe *

:

Mr. Wycherley lived five years after, to December 1715, but little progrefs was made in this defign, through his old age, and the increate of his infirmities. However, fome of the verfes which had been touched by Mr. P. with ccCVIII of thefe maxims in profe, were found among his

and this, when nothing more is done but marking the repetitions in the margin, will be an eafy talk to proceed upon, notwithstanding the bad memory you complain of. I am unfeignedly, dear Sir, your, &c.

I

LETTER XII.

Mr. Pope to Mr. Walsh.

Windfor Foreft, July 2, 1706. CANNOT omit the first opportunity of making you my acknowledgments for have no lefs right to correct me, than the reviewing thofe papers of mine. You

it. I am convinced as well as you, that one may correct too much; for in poetry, as in painting, a man may lay colours one upon another, till they fiffen and deaden the piece. Befides, to bestow heightening on every part is monftrous;

fame hand that raifed a trec has to prune

fome

parts ought to be lower than the reft; and nothing looks more ridiculous than a work, where the thoughts, howall on a level: it is like a meadow newly ever different in their own nature, feem mown, where weeds, grafs, and flowers, are all laid even, and appear undiftinguifhed. I believe too that fometimes our first thoughts are the best, as the firft fqueezing of the grapes makes the finest

and richeft wine.

I have not attempted any thing of a Paftoral Comedy, because, I think, the tatte of our age will not relish a poem of that fort. People feek for what they call wit, on all fubjects, and in all places; not confidering that nature loves truth fo well, that it hardly ever admits of flourifhing: conceit is to nature, what paint is to beauty; it is not only needlefs, but impairs what it would improve. There is a certain majefty in fimplicity, which is far above all the quaintnefs of wit: infomuch that the critics have excluded wit from the loftieft poetry, as well as the loweft, and forbid it to the Epic no lefs than the Pastoral. I fhould certainly dif please all those who are charmed with Guarini and Bonarelli, and imitate Taffo not only in the fimplicity of his thoughts,

papers, which, having the misfortune to fall into the hands of a mercenary, were published in 1728, in octavo, under the title of the Pofthumous Works of William Wycherley, Esq. but

but in that of the fable too. If furprifing difcoveries fhould have place in the ftory of a paltoral comedy, I believe it would be more agreeable to probability to make them the effects of chance than of defign; intrigue not being very

confiftent with that innocence which ought to conflitute a fhepherd's character. There is nothing in all the Aminta (as I remember) but happens by mere accident; unless it be the meeting of Aminta with Sylvia at the fountain, which is the contrivance of Daphne; and even that is the moft fimple in the world: the contrary is obfervable in Paftor Fido, where Corifca is fo perfect a mistress of intrigue, that the plot could not have been brought to pafs without her. I am inclined to think the Paftoral Comedy has another difadvantage, as to the manners: its general defig is, to make us in love with the innocence of a rural life, fo that to introduce fhepherds of a vicious character muit in fo me measure debafe it; and hence it may come to pafs, that even the virtuous characters will not shine fo much, for want of being oppofed to their contraries. These thoughts are purely my own, and therefore I have reafon to doubt them; but I hope your judgment will fet me right.

I would beg your opinion too as to another point it is, how far the liberty of borrowing may extend? I have defended it fonetimes by faying, that it feems not fo much the perfection of fenfe, to fay things that had never been faid before, as to exprefs thofe beft that have been faid ofteneft; and that writers, in the cafe of borrowing from others, are like trees which of themfelves would produce only one fort of fruit, but by being grafted upon others may yield variety. A mutual commerce makes poetry flourish; but then poets, like merchants, fhould repay with fomething of their own what they take from others; not, like pirates, make prize of all they meet. I defire you to tell me fincerely, if I have not stretched this licence too far in thefe paftorals; I hope to become a critic by your precepts, and a poet by your example. Since I have feen your Eclogues, I cannot be much pleafed with my own; however, you have not taken away all my vanity, fo long as you give me leave to profefs myself yours, &c.

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oa. 22, 1706.

Aent you on the fubject of English FTER the thoughts I have already verfification, you defire my opinion as to fome farther particulars. There are indeed certain niceties, which, though not much obferved even by correct verfifiers, I cannot but think deserve to be better regarded.

1. It is not enough that nothing offends the ear, but a good poet will adapt the very founds, as well as words, to the thing he treats of. So that there is (if one may exprefs it fo) a ftyle of found. As in defcribing a gliding stream, the numbers fhould run eafy and flowing; in defcribing a rough torrent or deluge, fonorous and fwelling; and fo of the rest. This is evident every where in Homer and Virgil, and no where elfe, that I know of, to any obfervable degree. The following examples will make this plain, which I have taken from Vida.

Molle viam tacito lapfu per levia radit.
Incedit tardo molimine fubfidendo.
Luftantes ventos, tempeftatefque foneras.
Immenfo cum præcipitans ruit Oceano Nox.
Telum imbelle fine itu, conjecit.

Tolle moras, cape faxa manu, cape robora, Paftor
Ferte citi flammas, date tela, repellite peftem.

This, I think, is what very few obferve in practice, and is undoubtedly of wonderful force in imprinting the image on the reader: we have one excellent

example of it in our language, Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, intitled Alexander's Feaft.

2. Every nice ear muft (I believe) have obferved, that in any fmooth English verfe of ten fyllables, there is naturally a paufe at the fourth, fifth, or fixth fyllable. It is upon these the ear refts, and upon the judicious change and management of which depends the variety of verfification. For example, At the fifth.

Where'er thy navy | fpreads her canvass wings. At the fourth.

Homage to thee and peace to all the brings. At the fixth.

Like tracks of leverets in morning fnow. Now I fancy, that, to preferve an

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