from you, or from him on that head; as, I suppose, I might have done if you had found him.

I am fick of these men of quality; and the more fo, the oftener I have any business to tranfact with them. They look upon it as one of their distinguishing privileges, not to be punctual in any business, of how great importance foever; nor to fet other people at ease, with the lofs of the least part of their own. This conduct of his vexes me; but to what purpofe? or how can I alter it?

I long to fee the original MS. of Milton: but don't know how to come at it, without your repeated affift

ance.

I hope you won't utterly forget what paffed in the coach about Samfon Agonistes *. I fhall not prefs you

as

* Dr. Johnson thought differently about this Tragedy; written evidently and happily in the style and manner of Eschylus; and said, “that it was deficient in both requifites of a true Ariftotelic middle. Its intermediate parts have neither cause nor confequence; neither haften, nor retard the catastrophe." To which opinion the judicious Mr. Twining accedes. What Dr. Warburton faid of it is wonderfully ridiculous; that Milton "chose the subject for the fake of the fatire on bad wives ;" and that the subjects of this tragedy, and Paradise Loft, were not very different, “the fall of two heroes by a woman." Milton, in this drama, has given an example of every species of measure which the English language is capable of exhibiting; not only in the Chorufes, but in the Dialogue part. The chief parts of the Dialogue (though there is a great variety of measure in the Chorufes of the Greek Tragedies) are in Iambic Verfe. I recollect but three places in which Hexameter verfes are introduced in the Greek Tragedies, once in the Trachinia, once in the Philoctes of Sophocles, and once in the Troades

as to time, but fome time or other, I wish you would review, and polish that piece. If upon a new perufal of it (which I defire you to make) you think as I do, that it is written in the very spirit of the Ancients; it deserves your care, and is capable of being improved, with little trouble, into a perfect model and standard of Tragic poetry-always allowing for its being a story taken out of the Bible; which is an objection that at this time of day, I know is not to be got over.

LETTER XIX.

I am, etc.

July 27.

I

HAVE been as conftantly at Twitenham as your Lordship has at Bromley, ever fince you faw Lord Bathurst. At the time of the Duke of Marlborough's funeral, I intend to lie at the Deanery, and moralize

Tröades of Euripides. Voltaire wrote an opera on this fubject of Samfon, 1732, which was set to mufic by Rameau, but was never performed. He has inferted Chorufes to Venus and Adonis; and the piece finishes by introducing Samfon, actually pulling down the Temple, on the ftage, and crufhing all the Affembly, which Milton has flung into fo fine a narration; and the Opera is ended by Samfon's faying, "J'ai reparé ma honte, & j'expire en vainqueur." And yet this was the man that dared to deride the irregularities of Shakespeare.

moralize one evening with you on the vanity of human Glory.

n

The Duchefs's letter concerns me nearly, and you know it, who know all my thoughts without disguise: I must keep clear of Flattery; I will, and as this is an honeft refolution, I dare hope your Lordship will not be fo unconcerned for my keeping it, as not to affist me in fo doing. I beg therefore would reprefent

you

thus much at least to her Grace, that as to the fear fhe feems touched with, [That the Duke's memory should have no advantage but what he must give himfelf, without being beholden to any one friend] your Lordship may certainly, and agreeable to your character, both of rigid honour and Christian plainness, tell her, that no man can have any other advantage: and that all offerings of friends in such a case pass for nothing. Be but fo good as to confirm what I've reprefented to her, that an infcription in the ancient way, plain, pompous, yet modeft, will be the most uncommon, and therefore the most diftinguishing manner of doing it. And fo, I hope, fhe will be fatisfied, the Duke's honour be preserved, and my integrity alfo which is too facred a thing to be forfeited, in confideration of any little (or what people of quality may call great) Honour or distinction whatever, which thofe of their rank can beftow on one of mine and which indeed they are apt to over-rate, but never

fo

The Duchefs of Buckingham.

W.

fo much, as when they imagine us under any obligation to say one untrue word in their favour.

I can only thank you, my Lord, for the kind tranfition you make from common business, to that which is the only real business of every reasonable creature. Indeed I think more of it than you imagine, though not fo much as I ought. I am pleased with those Latin verfes extremely, which are fo very good that I thought them yours, till you called them an Horatian Cento, and then I recollected the disjecta membra poeta. I won't pretend I am fo totally in thofe fentiments which you compliment me with, as I yet hope to be: you tell me I have them, as the civileft method to put me in mind how much it fits me to have them. I ought, first, to prepare my mind by a better knowledge even of good profane writers, especially the Moralifts, etc. before I can be worthy of tasting that fupreme of books, and fublime of all writings. In which, as in all the intermediate ones, you may (if your friendship and charity toward me continue fo far) be the best guide to

Your, etc.

I

LETTER XX.

FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

July 30, 1722.

HAVE written to the Duchefs juft as you defired, and referred her to our meeting in town for a further account of it. I have done it the rather because your opinion in the cafe is fincerely mine: and if it had not been fo, you yourself should not have induced me to give it. Whether, and how far fhe will acquiesce in it, I cannot fay, especially in a cafe where fhe thinks the Duke's honour concerned; but fhould fhe feem to perfift a little at prefent, her good fense (which I depend upon) will afterwards fatisfy her that we are in the right.

I go to-morrow to the Deanery, and, I believe, I shall stay there, till I have faid duft to duft, and shut up that last scene of pompous vanity *.

• Duchefs of Buckingham.

'Tis

W.

℗ This was the funeral of the Duke of Marlborough, at which the Bishop officiated as Dean of Westminster, in Aug. 1722. P. * His portrait has been elegantly drawn by Lord Chesterfield. "Of all the men I ever knew in my life, (and I knew him extremely well,) the late Duke of Marlborough poffeffed the graces in the highest degree, not to fay engroffed them; and indeed he got the moft by them; for I will venture (contrary to the custom of profound historians, who always affign deep causes for great events) to ascribe the better half of the Duke of Marlborough's greatness and riches to thofe graces. He was eminently illiterate; wrote bad English, and fpelled it still worse. He had no fhare of what is commonly called parts; that is, he had no brightness, nothing fhining in his genius. He had, most undoubtedly, an ex

cellent