vours in this place to convince his fon, and to reproach him with the want of. But the truth of this circumstance is no way to be queftioned, being exprefsly taken from Homer, who represents Achilles weeping for Priam, yet receiving the gold, Iliad xxiv. For when he gives the body, he uses these words: "O my friend Patroclus! forgive me that I quit the "corpfe of him who killed thee; I have great gifts "in ransom for it, which I will beftow upon thy "funeral."

LETTER XVII.

I am, etc.

L

FROM MR. CROMWELL.

Aug. 5, 1710. OOKING among fome French rhymes, I was agreeably furprized to find in the Rondeau of Pour le moins-your Apoticaire and Lavemant, which I took for your own; fo much is your Mufe of intelligence with the wits of all languages. You have refined upon Voiture †, whofe Où vous favez is much inferior to your You know where.-You do not

* Pope was willing Cromwell fhould take “ which he knew belonged to another!

• In Voiture's Poems.

only

for his own," that

POPE.

WARTON.

In which paffage there is as little decency as gallantry.

only pay your club with your author (as our friend fays) but the whole reckoning; who can form fuch pretty lines from so trivial a hint.

For my Elegy; it is confeffed, that the topography of Sulmo in the Latin makes but an awkward figure in the verfion. Your couplet of the dog-ftar is very fine, but may be too fublime in this place. I laughed heartily at your note upon paradife; for to make Ovid talk of the garden of Eden, is certainly most abfurd; but Xenophon in his Economics, fpeaking of a garden finely planted and watered (as is here described) calls it Paradifos; 'tis an interpolation indeed, and ferves for a gradation to the celestial orb; which expreffes in fome fort the Sidus Caftoris in parte cali-How trees can enjoy, let the naturalist determine; but the poets make them fenfitive*, lovers, batchelors, and married. Virgil in his Georgics, lib. ii. Horace, Ode xv. lib. ii. Platanus cælebs evincet ulmos. Epod. ii. Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine Altas maritat populos. Your critique is a very Dolcepiccante; for after the many faults you justly find, you fmooth your rigour but an obliging thing is owing (you think) to one who fo much efteems and admires you, and who fhall ever be

Your, etc.

POPE.

Ovid's Amorum, 1. ii. el. xvi. Pars me Sulmo, etc.. *The reader may confult Darwin's "Loves of the Plants,"

for an illuftration of this remark.

LETTER XVIII.

August 21, 1710.

In what I fent you verse enough to be

YOUR OUR Letters are a perfect charity to a man in retirement, utterly forgotten of all his friends but you; for fince Mr. Wycherley left London, I have not heard a word from him; though just before, and once fince, I writ to him, and though I know myself guilty of no offence but of doing fincerely juft what he bid me-Hoc mihi libertas, hoc pia lingua dedit! But the greatest injury he does me is the keeping me in ignorance of his welfare, which I am always very folicitous for, and very uneafy in the fear of any indifpofition that may befal him. fome time ago, you have not fevere upon, in revenge for my laft criticism: in one point I must persist, that is to fay, my dislike of your Paradife, in which I take no pleasure; I know very well that in Greek it is not only used by Xenophon, but is a common word for any garden; but in England it bears the fignification and conveys the idea of Eden, which alone is (I think) a reason against making Ovid use it; who will be thought to talk too much like a Christian, in your verfion at least, whatever it might have been in Latin or Greek. As for all the rest of my remarks, fince you do not laugh at

them

Correcting his verfes. See the Letters in 1706, and the fol

lowing years, of Mr. Wycherley and Mr. Pope.

POPE,

them as at this, I can be fo civil as not to lay any stress upon them (as, I think, I told you before); and in particular in the point of trees enjoying, you have, I must own, fully satisfied me that the expreffion is not only defenfible, but beautiful. I fhall be very glad to fee your tranflation of the elegy, Ad amicam navigantem, as foon as you can; for (without a compliment to you) every thing you write, either in verse or prose, is welcome to me; and you may be confident (if my opinion can be of any fort of confequence in any thing) that I will never be unfincere, though I may be often mistaken. To ufe fincerity with you is but paying you in your own coin, from whom I have experienced fo much of it; and I need not tell you how much I really esteem you, when I esteem nothing in the world fo much as that quality. I know, you fometimes fay civil things to me in your epiftolary ftyle, but those I am to make allowance for, as particularly when you talk of admiring; it is a word you are fo used to in converfation of Ladies, that it will creep into your discourse, in spite of you, even to your friends. But as women, when they think themfelves fecure of admiration, commit a thousand negligences, which show them fo much at difadvantage and off their guard, as to lose the little real love they had before: fo when men imagine others entertain fome esteem for their abilities, they often expofe all their imperfections and foolish works, to the difparagement of the little wit they were thought masters

of. I am going to exemplify this to you, in putting into your hands (being encouraged by fo much indulgence) fome verses of my youth, or rather childhood; which (as I was a great admirer of Waller) were intended in imitation of his manner'; and are, perhaps, such imitations, as those you see in awkward country dames, of the fine and well-bred ladies of the court. If you will take them with you into Lincolnshire, they may fave you one hour from the converfation of the country gentlemen' and their tenants (who differ but in drefs and name), which, if it be there as bad as here, is even worse than my poetry. I hope your stay there will be no longer than (as Mr. Wycherley calls it) to rob the country, and run away to London with your money. In the mean time I beg the favour of a line from you, and am (as I will never cease to be) Your, etc.

* One or two of these were fince printed among other Imitations done in his youth.

РОРЕ.

• However Pope might affect to despise the "country gentlemen" of his days, they muft furely have been as refpectable, and as ufeful in their station, as his own friend was, whom he advised "to ftay no longer in the country, than to rob it, and run away with the money!"