LETTER IX.

From Mr. WYCHERLEY.

Nov. 5, 1705.

Yours of the 26th of October I have received, as I have always done yours, with no little fatisfaction, and am proud to discover by it, that you find fault with the fhortness of mine, which I think the beft excufe for it :: And tho' they (as you say) who have most wit or money are moft fparing of either; there are some who appear poor to be thought rich, and are poor, which is my cafe. I cannot but rejoice, that you have undergone fo much difcontent for want of my company; but if you have a mind to punish me for my fault (which I could not help) defer your coming to town,

and

you will do it effectually. But I know your charity always exceeds your revenge, fo that I will not despair of feeing you, and, in return to your inviting me to your foreft, invite you to my foreft, the town; where the beafts that inhabit, tame or wild, of long ears or horns, pursue one another either out of love or hatred. You may have the pleasure to see one pack of blood-hounds pursue another herd of brutes, to bring each other to their fall, which is their whole fport: Or if you affect a

lefs

lefs bloody chace, you may fee a pack of spaniels, called Lovers, in a hot pursuit of a twolegged vixen, who only flies the whole loud pack to be fingled out by one dog, who runs mute to catch her up the fooner from the rest, as they are making a noife to the lofs of their game. In fine, this is the time for all forts of fport in the town, when those of the country ceafe; therefore leave your foreft of beasts for ours of brutes, called men, who now in full cry (pack'd by the court or country) run down in the house of commons a deferted horned beast of the Court, to the fatisfaction of their fpectators: Befides, (more for your diverfion) you may fee not only the two great play-houses of the nation, thofe of the lords and commons, in difpute with one another; but the two other play-houses in high contest, because the members of one house are remov'd up to t'other, as it is often done by the court for reafons of state. Infomuch that the lower houses, I mean the play-houses, are going to act tragedies on one another without doors, and the Sovereign is put to it (as it often happens in the other two houses) to filence one or both, to keep peace between them. Now I have told you all the

news of the town.

C3

I am, &c.

LETTER

I

LETTER X.

From Mr. WYCHERLEY.

Feb. 5, 1705-6.

Have receiv'd your kind Letter, with my

a

paper to Mr. Dryden corrected. I own you have made more of it by making it less, as the Dutch are faid to burn half the spices they bring home, to inhance the price of the remainder, fo to be greater gainers by their lofs, (which is indeed my cafe now.) You have prun'd my fading lawrels of fome fuperfluous, faplefs, and dead branches, to make the remainder live the longer; thus, like your mafter Apollo, you are at once a poet and a phyfician.

Now, Sir, as to my impudent invitation of you to the town, your good nature was the first cause of my confident requeft; but excuse me, I must (I fee) fay no more upon this subject, fince I find you a little too nice to be dealt freely with; tho' you have given me some encouragement to hope, our friendship might be without fhyness, or criminal modefty; for a

a The fame which was Lintot's, and in the Poftprinted in the Year 1717, humous Works of Mr.Wyin a Mifcellany of Bern.

cherly.

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friend,

friend, like a mistress, tho' he is not to be mercenary, to be true, yet ought not to refuse a friend's kindness because it is fmall or trivial: I have told you (I think) what a Spanish lady faid to her poor poetical gallant, that a Queen if she had to do with a groom, would expect a mark of his kindness from him, though it were but his curry-comb. But you and I will difpute this matter when I am so happy as to fee you here; and perhaps 'tis the only dispute in which I might hope to have the better of you.

Now, Sir, to make you another excuse for my boldness in inviting you to town, I defign'd to leave with you fome more of my papers, (fince these return fo much better out of your hands than they went from mine) for I intended (as I told you formerly) to spend a month, or fix weeks this fummer, near you in the country. You may be affured there is nothing I defire fo much, as an improvement of your friendship.

LETTER XI.

April 10, 1706.

BY one of yours of the last month, you de

fire me to select, if poffible, fome things from the first volume of your Miscellanies, a which may be alter'd fo as to appear again. I doubted your meaning in this; whether it was to pick out the best of those verses (as thofe on the Idleness of bufinefs, on Ignorance, on Lazinefs, &c.) to make the method and numbers exact, and avoid repetitions? For tho' (upon reading 'em on this occafion) I believe, they might receive fuch an alteration with advantage; yet they would not be changed fo much, but any one would know 'em for the fame at firft fight. Or if you mean to improve the worst pieces? which are fuch, as, to render them very good, would require great addition, and almoft the entire new writing of them. Or, lastly, if you mean the middle fort, as the Songs and Love-verfes? For these will need only to be shortened, to omit repetition; the words remaining very little different from what they were before. Pray let me know mind in this, for I am utterly at a lofs.

your

Printed in folio, in the year 1704. P.

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