LETTER XXIV.

Νου. 24, 1710.

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TO make use of that freedom and familiarity of style, which we have taken up in our correfpondence, and which is more properly talking upon paper, than writing; I will tell you without any preface, that I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the ancients, or in the leaft an acquaintance of Lucan's: nay, 'tis a mercy on this occafion, that I do not give you an account of his life and converfation; as how he liv'd fome years like an inchanted knight in a certain island, with a tale of a King of Denmark's mistress that shall be namelefs-But I have compaffion on you, and would not for the world you should stay any longer among the Genii and Semidei Manes, you know where; for if once you get so near the moon, Sappho will want your prefence in the clouds and inferior regions; not to mention the great lofs Drury-lane will fuftain, when Mr. C in the milky way. These celeftial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a fort of Sortilegi in one fenfe, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes; the adventurers being at best in an uncertainty, whereas the fetters up are fure of fomething. Priests indeed in their character, as they represent God, are facred; and fo are conftables as they represent the king; but you will own a great many them are very odd fellows, and the devil of any likenefs in them. Yet I can affure you, I honour the good as much as I deteft the bad, and I think, that in condemning thefe, we praise those. The tranflations from Ovid I have not fo good an opinion of as you; becaufe I think they have little of the main characteristick of this author, a graceful eafinefs. For let the fense be ever fo exactly render'd, unless an author looks like

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himself, in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a disguise, and not a tranflation. But as to the Pfalm, I think David is much more beholden to the tranflator than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a Jew, so he has made the Jew fpeak like a Roman.

Your, etc.

T

LETTER XXV.

From Mr. CROMWELL.

Dec. 5, 1710.

HE fame judgment we made on Rowe's ixth of Lucan will ferve for his part of the vith, where F find this memorable line,

Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum
Atque virum.

For this he employs fix verfes, among which is this,

As if on Knightly terms in lifts they ran.

Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pharamond ? will you allow it an anachronism ?-Tickel in his verfion of the Phoenix from Claudian,

When nature ceafes, thou shalt ftill remain,
Nor fecond Chaos bound thy endless reign.

Claudian thus,

Et clades té nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes,.
Edomita tellure, manes :

which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final diffo-, lution. Your thought of the priests lottery is very fine: you play the wit, and not the critick, upon the errors of your brother.

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Your obfervations are all very just: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his fentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practife the profodia of your rules. Your poem * shews you to be, what you fay of Voiture with books well bred: the ftate of the fair, tho' fatirical, is touch'd with that delicacy, and gallantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lose what I lately recovered, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I muft fay, 'tis as faultlefs as the fair to whom 'tis addrefs'd, be fhe never fo perfect. The M. G. (who, it seems had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcrib'd it by lucubration: From some difcourfe of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion call learning) pedantry; but now, he says, he has no less, I affure you, than a veneration for you.

Your, etc.

LETTER XXVI.

Dec. 17, 1710.

IT feems that my late mention of Craihaw, and my quotation from him, has mov'd your curiofity. I therefore fend you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for fome years; in which time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whofe works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman, that is, at leifure hours, and more to keep out of idlenefs, than to establish a reputation: fo that nothing regular or juft can be expected from him. All that regards defign, form, fable (which is the foul of poetry), all that concerns exactnefs, or confent of parts

*To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture.

(which is the body), will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expreffions, and fomething of a neat cast of verse (which are properly the dress, gems, or loofe ornaments of poetry), may be found in thefe verfes. This is indeed the cafe of most other poetical writers of miscellanies; nor can it well be otherwife, fince no man can be a true poet, who writes for diverfion only. These authors should be confider'd as verfifiers and witty men, rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the thoughts, the expreffion, and the numbers. Thefe are only the pleafing part of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehended all at once. And (to express myfelf like a painter) their colouring entertains the fight, but the lines and life of the picture are not to be infpected too narrowly.

This author form'd himfelf upon Petrarch, or rather upon Marina. His thoughts, one may obferve, in the main, are pretty; but oftentimes far-fetch'd, and too often ftrain'd and ftiffen'd to make them appear the greater. For men are never fo apt to think a thing great, as when it is odd or wonderful; and inconfiderate authors would rather be admir'd than understood. This ambition of surprising a reader, is the true natural caufe of all fuftian, or bombaft in poetry. To confirm what I have faid, you need but look into his first Poem of the Weeper, where the 2d, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21ft ftanzas are as fublimely dull, as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, 20th, and 23d stanzas of the fame copy are soft and pleafing: and if these last want any thing, it is an easier and more unaffected expreffion. The remaining thoughts in that poem might have been spared, being either but repetitions, or very trivial and mean. And by this example in the firft, one may guefs at all the reft; to be like this, a mixture of tender gentle

thoughts and fuitable expreffions, of forced and inextricable conceits, and of needlefs fillers up to the rest. From all which it is plain, this Author writ fast, and fet down what came uppermoft. A reader may skim off the froth, and ufe the clear underneath; but if he goes too deep will meet with a mouthful of dregs; either the top or bottom of him are good for little, but what he did in his own, natural, middle-way, is best.

To fpeak of his numbers, is a little difficult, they are fo various and irregular, and moftly Pindarick: 'tis evident his heroick verfe (the beft example of which is his Mufick's Duel) is carelessly made up; but one may imagine from what it now is, that, had he taken more care, it had been musical and pleafing enough, not extremely majeftick, but fweet: and, the time confidered of his writing, he was (even as uncorrect as he is) none of the worft verfificators.

I will juft obferve, that the best pieces of this author are, a Paraphrase on Pfal. xxiii. On Leffius, Epitaph on Mr. Ashton, Wishes to his fuppos'd mistress, and the Dies Irae.

I

LETTER XXVII.

Dec. 30, 1710.

RESUME my old liberty of throwing out myself upon paper to you, and making what thoughts float uppermoft in my head, the fubject of a letter. They are at present upon laughter, which (for ought I know) may be the cause you might fometimes think me too remifs a friend, when I was most entirely fo: for I am never so inclin❜d to mirth as when I am moft pleas'd and most easy, which is in the company of a friend like yourself.