LETTERS

TO AND FROM

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL,

From 1705 to 1716.

LETTER L

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. POPE.

I

SIR,

Oct. 19, 1705.

Return you the Book you were pleased to fend me, and with it your obliging letter, which deferves my particular acknowledgment: for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of fo good a friend, the welcomeft thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met with, an admirable genius in those Poems, not only because they were Milton's †, or were approved by Sir Hen. Wootton, but because you had commended them; and give me leave to tell you, that I know no body fo like to equal him, even at the age he wrote moft of them, as yourself. Only do not afford more caufe of complaints againft you, that you fuffer no

*Secretary of State to King William the Third. P. L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, Lycidas, and the Mafque of

Comus.

P.

thing of yours to come abroad; which in this age, wherein wit and true fenfe is more scarce than money, is a piece of fuch cruelty as your best friends can hardly pardon. I hope you will repent and amend; I could offer many reafons to this purpose, and fuch as you cannot answer with any fincerity; but that I dare not enlarge, for fear of engaging in a ftyle of Compliment, which has been fo abused by fools and knaves, that it is become almoft fcandalous. I conclude therefore with an affurance which shall never vary, of my being ever, &c.

LETTER II.

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. Pop

I

April 9, 1708.

Have this moment received the favour of yours of the 8th inftant; and will make you a true excufe (tho' perhaps no very good one) that I deferred the troubling you with a letter, when I fent back your papers, in hopes of feeing you at Binfield before this time. If I had met with any fault in your performance, I fhould freely now (as I have done too prefumptuously in conversation with you) tell you my opinion; which I have frequently ventured to give you, rather in compliance with your defires than that I could think it reasonable. For I am not yet satisfied upon what grounds I can pretend to judge of poetry, who have never been practifed in the art. There may poffibly be fome happy genius's, who may judge of fome of the natural beauties of a poem, as a man may of the proportions of -a building, without having read Vitruvius, or knowing any thing of the rules of architecture: but this, tho' it may fometimes be in the right, must be fub

L 4

ject

ject to many mistakes, and is certainly but a fuperficial knowledge; without entring into the art, the methods, and the particular excellencies of the whole compofure, in all the parts of it.

Befides my want of fkill, I have another reafon why I ought to fufpect myself, by reafon of the great affection I have for you; which might give too much bias to be kind to every thing that comes from you. But after all, I muft fay (and I do it with an old-fashioned fincerity) that I entirely approve of your tranflation of thofe pieces of Homer, both as to the verfification and the true sense that shines thro the whole Nay I am confirmed in my former application to you, and give me leave to renew it upon this occafion, that you would proceed in tranflating that incomparable Poet, to make him speak good English, to dress his admirable characters in your proper, fignificant, and expreffive conceptions, and to make his works as useful and inftructive to this degenerate age, as he was to our friend Horace, when he read him at Prænefte: Qui, quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, &c. I break off with that quid non? with which I confess I am

charm'd.

Upon the whole matter I intreat you to fend this prefently to be added to the Miscellanies, and, I hope, it will come time enough for that purpose.

I have nothing to say of my Nephew B.'s obfervations, for he fent them to me fo late, that I had not time to confider them; I dare fay he endeavoured very faithfully (though, he told me, very hastily) to execute your commands.

All I can add is, that if your excess of modefty fhould hinder you from publishing this Effay, I fhall only be forry that I have no more credit with you, to perfwade you to oblige the public, and very particularly, dear Sir,

Your, &c.

LET

LETTER III.

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. POPE.

I

March 6, 1713.

Think a hafty fcribble fhows more what flows from the heart, than a letter after Balzac's manner in studied phrases; therefore I will tell you as faft as I can, that I have received your favour of the 26th paft, with your kind prefent of The Rape of the Lock. You have given me the trueft fatiffaction imaginable not only in making good the juft opinion I have ever had of your reach of thought, and my Idea of your comprehenfive genius; but likewife in that pleasure I take as an Englishman to fee the French, even Boileau himself in his Lutrin, out-done in your poem: for you defcend, leviore plectro, to all the nicer touches, that your own obfervation and wit furnish, on fuch a subject as requires the finest strokes and the livelieft imagination. But I must say no more (tho' I could a great deal) on what pleases me fo much : and henceforth, I hope, you will never condemn me of partiality, fince I only fwim with the ftream, and approve of what all men of good tafte (notwithstanding the jarring of Parties) muft and do univerfally applaud. I now come to what is of vaft moment, I mean the prefervation of your health, and beg of you earnestly to get out of all Tavern-company, and fly away tanquam ex incendio. What a mifery is it for you to be destroy'd by the foolish kindness ('tis all one whether real or pretended) of those who are able to bear the poison of bad wine, and to engage you in fo unequal a combat? As to Homer, by all I can learn, your bufinefs is done: therefore come away and take a little time to breathe in the country: I beg

now

now for my own fake, but much more for yours; methinks Mr. has faid to you more than once,

Heu fuge, nate dea, teque his, ait, eripe flammis!

I am,

Your, &c.

LETTER IV.

T

To Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL,

I

March 12, 1713,

Hough any thing you write is fure to be a pleasure to me, yet I must own your last letter made me uneafy; you really ufe a ftyle of compliment, which I expect as little as I deferve it. I know 'tis a common opinion that a young feribler is as ill pleas'd to hear truth as a young lady. From the moment one fets up for an author, one must be treated as ceremoniously, that is as unfaithfully,

As a King's Favourite, or as a King.

This proceeding, join'd to that natural vanity which firft makes a man an author, is certainly enough to render him a coxcomb for life. But I muft grant it is a juft judgment upon poets, that they, whofe chief pretence is Wit, fhould be treated as they themselves treat Fools, that is, be cajol'd with praifes. And, I believe, Poets are the only poor fellows in the world whom any body will flatter.

I would not be thought to fay this, as if the obliging letter you fent me defery'd this imputation, only it put me in mind of it; and I fancy one may apply to one's friend what Cæfar faid of his wife: "It was not fufficient that he knew her to be chafte himself, but the fhould not be fo much as fuf«pected."

A's