Mr. Wilks (though I think his talent is Comedy) has expreffed a furious ambition to fwell in your buskins. We have had a poor Comedy of Johnson's (not Ben) which held seven nights, and has got him three hundred pounds, for the town is fbarp-fet on new plays. In vain would I fire you by intereft or ambition, when your mind is not fufceptible of either; though your authority (arifing from the general esteem, like that of Pompey) must infallibly affure you of success; for which in all your wishes you will be attended with thofe of Your, etc. LETTER XXXI. December 21, 1711. IF I have not writ to you fo foon as I ought, let my writing now atone for the delay; as it will infallibly do, when you know what a facrifice I make you at this time, and that every moment my eyes are em ployed upon this paper, they are taken off from two of the finest faces in the universe. But indeed 'tis fome confolation to me to reflect, that while I but write this period, 1 escape fome hundred fatal darts from those unerring eyes, and about a thousand deaths or better. Now you, that delight in dying, would not once have dreamt of an absent friend in these cir VOL. VII. M cumstances ; cumstances; you that are so nice an admirer of beauty, or (as a Critic would fay after Terence) fo elegant a Spectator of forms; you must have a fober difh of coffee, and a folitary candle at your fide, to write an epiftle lucubratory to your friend, whereas I can do it as well with two pair of radiant lights, that outshine the golden god of day and filver goddefs of night, and all the refulgent eyes of the firmament.-You fancy now that Sappho's eyes are two of these my tapers, but it is no fuch matter; these are eyes that have more perfuafion in one glance than all Sappho's oratory and gefture together, let her put her body into what moving postures fhe pleases. Indeed, indeed, my friend, you never could have found fo im proper a time to tempt me with intereft or ambition : let me but have the reputation of thefe in my keeping, and as for my own, let the devil, or let Dennis, take it for ever. How gladly would I give all I am worth, that is to say, my Paftorals, for one of them, and my Effay for the other; I would lay out all my Poetry in Love; an Original for a Lady, and a Tranflation for a Waiting-maid * ! Alas! what have I to do with Jane Gray, as long as Mifs Molly, Mifs Betty, or Mifs Patty are in this world? Shall I write of beauties murdered long ago, when there are those at this inftant that murder me? I'll e'en compofe my own Tragedy, and *This evidently alludes to the circumftance of Pope's being half-perfuaded to attempt a Tragedy on the subject of Lady Jane Gray. and the Poet shall appear in his own perfon, to move compaffion: 'twill be far more effectual than Bays's entering with a rope about his neck, and the world will own, there never was a more miserable object brought upon the stage. Now you that are a critic, pray inform me, in what manner I may connect the foregoing part of this letter with that which is to follow, according to the rules? I would willingly return Mr. Gay my thanks for the favour of his poem, and in particular for his kind mention of me; I hoped, when I heard a new Comedy had met with fuccefs upon the stage, that it had been his, to which I really wish no less; and (had it been any way in my power) fhould have been very glad to have contributed to its introduction into the world. His verses to Lintot have put a whim into my head, which you are like to be troubled with in the oppofite page: take it as you find it, the production of half an hour t'other morning. I defign very foon to put a task of a more serious nature upon you. in reviewing a piece of mine that may better deserve criticism; and by that time you have done with it, I hope to tell you in person with how much fidelity I am X Your, etc. These verses are printed in Dr. Swift's and our Author's Miscellanies. WARBURTON. M 2 POPE, it has been obferved, early learned the cant of gallantry from Cromwell. Some paffages in his firft Letters to this pedantic beau, which Warburton has fuppreffed, and which it does not become me to reftore, fufficiently explain the progrefs the "youthful Bard" made under fo edifying a Tutor. Cromwell's prime vanity seems to have been, his being in "the graces of the Ladies ;" and he correfponded with Pope, poffibly, to fhew those whom he so much affected to "admire," what a genius and cholar he was. With all this abfurdity, and the affectation of fingularity, he was most probably a generous man, as Mrs. Thomas, once his "chere ami," amidst all her disappointments and forrows, fpeaks of him with kindnefs and gratitude. The following paffages from fome Letters of Pope will more readily enable the reader to form an idea of his character, and they also are the best comment on his correfpondence, the tone of which is divided between his " admiration" of the "fair fex," and of that charming Poet, Ovid, the author of that charming poem called the "Art of Love." Cromwell vifited Pope in the Foreft 1708, and in a letter from thence after his departure, Pope writes thus: "However, I will confefs myfelf the lefs concerned on that ac"count, as I have no violent inclination to lofe my heart, especially "in fo wild a place as this Foreft is: in the Town 'tis ten to one "but a young fellow may find his ftrayed heart again, with fome Wild"street or Drury-lane damfel; but here, where I could have met "with no redrefs from an unmerciful, virtuous dame, I muft for "ever have loft my little traveller, &c." Thefe little traits I have thought not uninterefting, as they tend to elucidate Cromwell's character. In another Letter he fays: "All you faw in this country charge "me to affure you of their humble fervice, and the Ladies, in "particular, who look upon usas but plain country-fellows fince they faw you, and heard more civil things in that fortnight, than they ex"pect from a whole fhire of us in an age. The trophy you bore "away from one of them, in your fnuff-box, will doubtless pre"serve her memory, and be a teftimony of your admiration for "ever." Το To these circumstances may be added something of Cromwell's perfonal appearance, notwithstanding Johnfon fays, he could find out no more of him than that he wore "red breeches." "What an afcendance have you over all the fex, who could gain "the fair-one's heart by appearing before her in a long black “ unpowdered periwig; nay, without fo much as the very extremi"ties of clean linen, in neck-cloths and cuffs. I guess that your "friend Vertumnus, among all the forms he affumes to win the good graces of Pomona, never took upon him that of a flovenly "beau." Pope to Cromwell. ،، He is thus described by Gay, in his Ballad : |