fentence of Tully for an epitaph, which will ferve him as well in his Moral, as his Theatrical capacity. Vita bene acte jucundiffima eft recordatio. "T LETTER XIV. June 24, 1710. IS very natural for a young friend, and a young lover, to think the persons they love have nothing to do but to please them; when perhaps they, for their parts, had twenty other engagements before. This was my cafe when I wonder'd I did not hear from you; but I no fooner receiv'd your fhort letter, but I forgot your long filence and fo many fine things as you faid of me could not but have wrought a cure on my own fickness, if it had not been of the nature of that, which is deaf to the voice of the charmer. 'Twas impoffible you could have better tim❜d your compliment on my philofophy; it was certainly propereft to commend me for it juft when I most needed it, and when I could leaft be proud of it; that is, when I was in pain. 'Tis not eafy to express what an exaltation it gave to my fpirits, above all the cordials of my doctor; and 'tis no compliment to tell you, that your compliments were fweeter than the sweetest of his juleps and fyrups. But if you will not believe so much, Pour le moins, votre compliment M'a foulagé dans ce moment; Et des qu'on me l'eft venu faire J'ai chaffé mon apoticaire, Et renvoyé mon lavement. Nevertheless I would not have you entirely lay afide the thoughts of my epitaph, any more than I do thofe of the probability of my becoming (e're VOL. VII. G long) long) the fubject of one. For death has of late been very familiar with fome of my fize; I am told my Lord Lumley and Mr. Litton are gone before me; and tho' I may now, without vanity, esteem myself the least thing like a man in England, yet I can't but be forry, two heroes of fuch a make should die inglorious in their beds; when it had been a fate more worthy our fize, had they met with theirs from an irruption of cranes, or other warlike animals, thofe ancient enemies to our Pygmæan anceftors! You of a fuperior fpecies little regard what befals us homunciones fefquipedales; however, you have no reason to be so unconcern'd, fince all physicians agree there is no greater fign of a plague among men, than a mortality among frogs. I was the other day in company with a lady, who rally'd my perfon fo much, as to cause a total fubverfion of my countenance: fome days after, to be revenged on her, 1 presented her, among other company, the following Rondeau on that occafion, which I defire you to fhow Sappho. You know where you did defpife You know where. You, 'tis true, have fine black eyes, You know where. This fort of writing call'd the Rondeau is what I never knew practis'd in our nation, and, I verily believe, it was not in ufe with the Greeks or Romans, neither Macrobius nor Hyginus taking the leaft notice of it. 'Tis to be obferv'd, that the vulgar fpelling and pronouncing it Round O, is a manifeft corruption, corruption, and by no means to be allow'd of by critics. Some may mistakenly imagine that it was a fort of Rondeau which the Gallick foldiers fung in Cæfar's triumph over Gaul-Gallias Gafar fubegit, &c. as it is recorded by Suetonius in Julio, and fo derive its original from the ancient Gauls to the modern French: but this is erroneous; the words there not being ranged according to the Laws of the Rondeau, as laid down by Clement Marot. If you will fay, that the fong of the foldiers might be only the rude beginning of this kind of poem, and fo con fequently imperfect, neither Heinfius nor I can be of that opinion; and fo I conclude, that we know nothing of the matter. But, Sir, I ask your pardon for all this buffoonery, which I could not addrefs to any one fo well as to you, fince I have found by experience, you moft eafily forgive my impertinencies. 'Tis only to show you that I am mindful of you at all times, that I write at all times; and as nothing I can fay can be worth your reading, fo I may as well throw out what comes uppermoft, as ftudy to be dull. I am, &c. LETTER XV. From Mr. CROMWELL: July 15, 1710. T laft I have prevail'd over a lazy humour to A tranfcribe this elegy: I have changed the fitu ation of fome of the Latin verfes, and made fome interpolations, but I hope they are not abfurd, and foreign to my author's fenfe and manner; but they are refer'd to your cenfure, as a debt; whom I esteem no less a critic than a poet: I expect to be treated G 2 with with the fame rigour as I have practis'd to Mr. Dryden and you. Hanc veniam petimufque damufque viciffim. I defire the favour of your opinion, why Priam, in his fpeech to Pyrrhus in the second Æneid, fays this to him, At non ille, fatum quo te mentiris, Achilles. He would intimate (I fancy by Pyrrhus's answer) only his degeneracy: but then these following lines of the verfion (I fuppofe from Homer's history) seem abfurd in the mouth of Priam, viz. He chear'd my forrows, and for fums of gold I am Your, &c. LETTER XVI. Give you thanks for the verfion July 20, 1710. you sent me of I Ovid's elegy. It is very much an image of that author's writing, who has an agreeablenefs that charms us without correctness, like a mistress, whofe faults we fee, but love her with them all. You have very judiciously alter'd his method in fome places, and I can find nothing which I dare infift upon as an error: what I have written in the margins being merely gueffes at a little improvement, rather than criticisms. I affure you I do not expect you should fubfcribe to my private notions but when you fhall judge them agreeable to reason and good fenfe. What I have done is not as a critic, but as a friend; I know too well how many qualities are requifite to make the one, and that I want almost all I can rec kon I kon up; but I am fure I do not want inclination, nor, I hope, capacity, to be the other. Nor fhall Í take it at all amifs, that another diffents from my opinion: 'Tis no more than I have often done from my own; and indeed, the more a man advances in understanding, he becomes the more every day a critic upon himself, and finds fomething or other ftill to blame in his former notions and opinions. I could be glad to know if you have tranflated the 11th elegy of lib. ii. Ad amicam navigantem. The 8th of book iii, or the 11th of book iii, which are above all others my particular favourites, especially the last of these. As to the paffage of which you afk my opinion in the fecond Æneid, it is either fo plain as to require no folution; or elfe (which is very probable) you fee farther into it than I can. Priam would fay, that "Achilles (whom furely you only feign to be your "father, fince your actions are fo different from his) "did not use me thus inhumanly. He blufh'd at "his murder of Hector, when he faw my forrows "for him; and restored his dead body to me to be "buried." To this the answer of Pyrrhus seems to be agreeable enough. "Go then to the fhades, and "tell Achilles how I degenerate from him :" granting the truth of what Priam had faid of the difference between them. Indeed Mr. Dryden's mentioning here what Virgil more judiciously paffes in filence, the circumftance of Achilles's felling for money the body of Hector, feems not so proper; it in some measure leffening the character of Achilles's generosity and piety, which is the very point of which Priam endeavours in this place to convince his fon, and to reproach him with the want of. But the truth of this circumftance is no way to be queftion'd, being exprefly taken from Homer, who reprefents Achilles weeping for Priam, yet receiving the gold, Iliad XXIV. For when he gives the body, |