than Oblitufque meorum, oblivifcendus & illis, but that unluckily I can't forget my friends, and the civilities I received from yourself, and fome others. They fay indeed 'tis one quality of generous minds to forget the obligations they have conferr'd, and perhaps tou it may be fo to forget thofe on whom they conferr'd'em: Then indeed I muft be forgotten to all intents and purposes! I am, it must be own'd, dead in a natural capacity, according to Mr. Bickerstaff; dead in a poetical capacity, as a damn'd author; and dead in a civil capacity, as a ufelefs member of the Commonwealth. But reflect, dear Sir, what melancholy effects may enfue, if dead men are not civil to one another! If he who has nothing to do himfelf, will not comfort and fupport another in his idleness: If those who are to die themselves, will not now and then pay the charity of visiting a tomb and a dead friend, and ftrowing a few flowers over him: In the fhades where I am, the Inhabitants have a mutual compaffion for each other; being all alike Inanes; we faunter to one another's habitations, and daily affift each other in doing nothing at all. This I mention for your edification and example, that all alive as you are, you may not sometimes difdain defipere in loco. Tho' you are no Papift, and have not fo much regard to the dead as to addrefs yourself to them (which I plainly perceive by your filence) yet I hope you are not one of thofe heterodox, who hold them to be totally infenfible of the good offices and kind wishes of their living friends, and to be in a dull ftate of fleep, without one dream of those they left behind them. If you are, let this letter convince you to the contrary, which affures you, I am still, tho' in a state of separation, Your, &c. P. S. This letter of deaths, puts me in mind of poor Mr. Betterton's; over whom I would have this I fentence fentence of Tully for an epitaph, which will ferve him as well in his Moral, as his Theatrical capacity. Vita bene acta jucundiffima eft recordatio. "TIS LETTER XIV. June 24, 1710. IS very natural for a young friend, and a young lover, to think the perfons they love have nothing to do but to please them; when perhaps they, for their parts, had twenty other engagements before. This was my cafe when I wonder❜d I did not hear from you; but I no fooner receiv'd your fhort letter, but I forgot your long filence: and fo many fine things as you faid of me could not but have wrought a cure on my own fickness, if it had not been of the nature of that, which is deaf to the voice of the charmer. 'Twas impoffible you could have better tim❜d your compliment on my philofophy; it was certainly properest to commend me for it just when I moft needed it, and when I could leaft be proud of it; that is, when I was in pain. 'Tis not easy to exprefs what an exaltation it gave to my fpirits, above all the cordials of my doctor; and 'tis no compliment to tell you, that your compliments were fweeter than the fweetest of his juleps and fyrups. But if you will not believe fo much, Pour le moins, votre compliment M'a foulagé dans ce moment; Et des qu'on me l'eft venu faire J'ai chaffé mon apoticaire, Et renvoyé mon lavement. Nevertheless I would not have you entirely lay afide the thoughts of my epitaph, any more than I do thofe of the probability of my becoming (e're VOL. VII. G long) long) the fubject of one. For death has of late been very familiar with fome of my fize; I am told my Lord Lumley and Mr. Litton are gone before me; and tho' I may now, without vanity, efteem myself the least thing like a man in England, yet I can't but be forry, two heroes of fuch a make fhould die inglorious in their beds; when it had been a fate more worthy our fize, had they met with theirs from an irruption of cranes, or other warlike animals, thofe ancient enemies to our Pygmæan an, ceftors! You of a fuperior fpecies little regard what befals us homunciones fefquipedales; however, you have no reafon to be fo unconcern'd, fince all phyficians agree there is no greater fign of a plague among men, than a mortality among frogs. I was the other day in company with a lady, who rally'd my person fo much, as to caufe a total fubverfion of my countenance: fome days after, to be revenged on her, I prefented her, among other company, the following Rondeau on that occafion, which I defire you to fhow Sappho. You know where you did defpife You know where. You, 'tis true, have fine black eyes, You know where. This fort of writing call'd the Rondeau is what I never knew practis'd in our nation, and, I verily believe, it was not in ufe with the Greeks or Romans, neither Macrobius nor Hyginus taking the least notice of it. "Tis to be obferv'd, that the vulgar fpelling and pronouncing it Round O, is a manifest corruption, corruption, and by no means to be allow'd of by critics. Some may mistakenly imagine that it was a fort of Rondeau which the Gallick foldiers fung in Cæfar's triumph over Gaul-Gallias Cafar fubegit, &c. as it is recorded by Suetonius in Julio, and fo derive its original from the ancient Gauls to the mo dern French: but this is erroneous; the words there not being ranged according to the Laws of the Rondeau, as laid down by Clement Marot. If you will fay, that the fong of the foldiers might be only the rude beginning of this kind of poem, and fo con fequently imperfect, neither Heinfius nor I can be of that opinion; and fo I conclude, that we know nothing of the matter. But, Sir, I afk your pardon for all this buffoonery, which I could not addrefs to any one fo well as to. you, fince I have found by experience, you most easily forgive my impertinencies. 'Tis only to fhow you that I am mindful of you at all times, that I write at all times; and as nothing I can say can be worth your reading, fo Imay as well throw out what comes uppermoft, as ftudy to be dull. I am, &c. A LETTER XV. From Mr. CROMWELL. July 15, 1710. T laft I have prevail'd over a lazy humour to tranfcribe this elegy: I have changed the fituation of fome of the Latin verfes, and made some interpolations, but I hope they are not abfurd, and foreign to my author's fenfe and manner; but they are refer'd to your cenfure, as a debt; whom Lesteem no less a critic than a poet: I expect to be treated G 2 with with the fame rigour as I have practis'd to Mr. Dryden and you. Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim. I defire the favour of your opinion, why Priam, in his fpeech to Pyrrhus in the fecond Æneid, fays this to him, At non ille, fatum quo te mentiris, Achilles. He would intimate (I fancy by Pyrrhus's anfwer) only his degeneracy: but then thefe following lines of the verfion (I fuppofe from Homer's history) feem abfurd in the mouth of Priam, viz. I He chear'd my forrows, and for fums of gold I am Your, &c. LETTER XVI. July 20, 1710. Give you thanks for the verfion you fent me of Ovid's elegy. It is very much an image of that author's writing, who has an agreeablenefs that charms us without correctnefs, like a miftrefs, whose faults we fee, but love her with them all. You have very judiciously alter'd his method in fome places, and I can find nothing which I dare infift upon as an error: what I have written in the margins being merely gueffes at a little improvement, rather than criticifms. I affure you I do not expect you should fubfcribe to my private notións but when you fhall judge them agreeable to reafon and good fenfe. What I have done is not as a critic, but as a friend; I know too well how many qualities are requifite to make the one, and that I want almost all I can rec kon |