LETTER VI. FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. THE ceived not till Monday night, together with your letter; for which I thank you. I have had a fit of the gout upon me ever fince I returned hither from Westminster on Saturday night laft: it has found its way into my hands as well as legs, fo that I have been utterly incapable of writing. This is the first letter that I have ventured upon; which will be written, I fear, vacillantibus literis, as, Tully fays, Tyro's letters were, after his recovery from an illness. What I faid to you in mine about the Monument, was intended only to quicken, not to alarm you. It is not worth your while to know what I meant by it: but when I fee you, you fhall. I hope you may be at the Deanery towards the end of October, by which time, I think of fettling there for the winter. What do you think of fome fuch fhort infcription as this in Latin, which may, in a few words, fay all that is to be faid of Dryden, and yet nothing more than he deferves? JOHANNI DRYDENO, CVI POESIS ANGLICANA VIM SVAM AC VENERES DEBÈT; ET SI QVA IN POSTERVM AVGEBITVŔ LAVDE, EST ADHVC DEBITVRA: HONORIS ERGO P. etc. Το To fhew you that I am as much in earnest in the affair, as you yourself, fomething I will fend you too of this kind in English. If your design holds of fixing Dryden's name only below, and his bufto abovemay not lines like these be graved juft under the name? This Sheffield rais'd, to Dryden's ashes juft, Here fix'd his Name, and there his laurel'd Bust. Or thus More needs not; where acknowledg'd Merits reign, This you'll take as a proof of my zeal at least, though it be none of my talent in Poetry. When you have read it over, I'll forgive you, if you fhould not once your lifetime again think of it. in And now, Sir, for your Arabian Tales. Ill as I have been, almost ever fince they came to hand, I have read as much of them, as ever I fhall read while I live *. Indeed they do not please my taste; they are writ with fo romantic an air, and, allowing for the difference of eastern manners, are yet, upon any fupposition that can be made, of fo wild and abfurd a contrivance, (at least to my northern understanding,) that I have not only no pleafure, but no patience, in perufing * How contemptuously foever the Bishop thought of thofe Tales, yet was Addison very fond of them, and we know how beautifully he imitated them. WARTON. perufing them. They are to me like the odd paintings on Indian fcreens, which at first glance may furprize and please a little: but, when you fix your eye intently upon them, they appear fo extravagant, difproportioned, and monftrous, that they give a judicious eye pain, and make him feek for relief from fome other object. They may furnish the mind with fome new images: but I think the purchase is made at too great an expence: for to read those two volumes through, liking them as little as I do, would be a terrible penance; and to read them with pleasure would be dangerous on the other fide, because of the infection. I will never believe, that you have any keen relish of them, till I find you write worse than you do, which I dare fay, I never shall. Who that Petit de la Croix is, the pretended author of them, I cannot tell: but obferving e Not the pretended Author, but the real Translator, of an Arabic MS. in the French King's library. What he has given in ten fmall Volumes, is not more than the tenth part of the Original. The Eastern people have been always famous for this fort of Tales; in which much fine morality is often conveyed; not indeed in a flory always reprefenting real life and manners, but what the eastern superftitions have made pafs for fuch amongst the people. Their great genius for this kind of writing appears from what the Tranflator has here given us-But the policy of some of the latter princes of the Eaft greatly hurt the elegance and use of the compofition, by fetting all men upon compofing in this way, to furnish matter for their coffee-houfes and public places of refort; which were enjoined to entertain their customers with a rehearsal of thefe works, in order to divert them from politics, and matters of state. The Collection in queftion is so strange a med ley of fenfe and nonfenfe, that one would be tempted to think it the ferving how full they are in the defcriptions of drefs, furniture, etc. I cannot help thinking them the product of fome Woman's imagination: and, believe me, I would do any thing but break with you, rather than be bound to read them over with attention. I am forry that I was so true a prophet in respect of the S. Sea; forry, I mean, as far as your lofs* is concerned for in the general I ever was and ftill am of opinion, that had that project taken root and flourifhed, it would by degrees have overturned our conftitution. the compilation of fome coffee-man, who gathered indifferently from good and bad. The contrivance he has invented of tying them together is fo blunderingly conducted, that after fuch an inftance of the want of common fenfe one can wonder at no abfurdity we find in them. The tales are fuppofed to be told to one of the Kings of Perfia of the Dynasty of the Saffanides, an ancient race before Mahomet, and yet the scene of fome of them is laid in the Court of Harown Alrafcid the 26th Chalif, and the 5th of the Race of the Abafides. These, where the scene is fo laid, are amongst the best; and it may be eafily accounted for. Alrafcid was one of the most magnificent of the Chalifs, and the greatest encourager of Letters; fo that it was natural for men of Genius in after-times to do this honour to his memory.-But the Bishop talks of Petit de la Croix. M. Galland was the tranflator of the Arabian Tales. The name of the other is to the collection called the Perfian Tales, of which I have nothing to say. WARBURTON. * Pope's lofs has never been afcertained. Dr. Johnson feems to think it was imaginary, or that he loft only what he dreamed he fhould have gained. The above paffage, and others in his Correfpondence, fhew, however, that he was a real lofer, of perhaps the half of the property risked, if we may apply the quotation from Hefiod in p. 56. and p. 87. literally. C. ftitution. Three or four hundred millions was fuch a weight, that whichfoever way it had leaned, must have borne down all before it-But of the dead we must speak gently; and therefore, as Mr. Dryden fays fomewhere, Peace be to its Manes! Let me add one reflection, to make you easy in your ill luck. Had you got all that you have loft beyond what you ventured, confider that your fuperfluous gains would have sprung from the ruin of feveral families that now want neceffaries! A thought, under which a good and good-natured man that grew rich by fuch means, could not, I perfuade myself, be perfectly eafy. Adieu, and believe me, ever Your, etc. LETTER VII. FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. March 26, 1721. You are not yourfelf gladder you are well than I am; especially fince I can please myself with the thought that when you had loft your health elfewhere, you recovered it here. May these lodgings never treat you worse, nor you at any time have lefs reafon to be fond of them! I thank |