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LETTER CV.

FROM MR. PITT, THE TRANSLATOR OF VIRGIL, TO MR. SPENCE.

Dear Jo,

July 18, Blandford, 1726.

AM entering into propofals with a bookseller for printing a little mifcellany of my own performances, confifting of fome originals and felect Tranf lations. I beg you to be altogether filent in the matter. Mr. Pope has used fo little of the 23d Odyssey that I gave Dr. Younge, that if I put it in among the reft I fhall hardly incur any danger of the penalty concerning the patent. However, I will not prefume to publish a single line of it after Mr. Pope's Translation, you advise me (as I defire you to do fincerely) to the contrary. I fhall fend you a small specimen of my Translation, which if you approve of, I can affure you the remainder of the book is not inferior to it.

if

THE nurse all wild with tranfport feem'd to fwim,
Joy wing'd her feet and lighten'd ev'ry limb;
Then to the room with speed impatient born
Flew with the tidings of her lord's return.
There bending o'er the fleeping Queen, fhe cries,
Rife, my Penelope, my daughter, rise
To fee Ulyffes thy long absent spouse,
Thy foul's defire and lord of all thy vows:
Tho' late, he comes, and in his rage has flain,
For all their wrongs, the haughty fuitor train.

Ah

Ah Euryclea, fhe replies, you rave;

The gods refume that reason which they gave;
For Heav'n deep wifdom to the fool fupplies,
But oft infatuates and confounds the wife.
And wifdom once was thine! but now I find
The gods have ruin'd thy distemper'd mind.
How could you hope your fiction to impose?
Was it to flatter or deride my woes?
How could you break a fleep with talk fo vain
That held my forrows in so soft a chain ?
A fleep fo fweet I never could enjoy
Since my dear lord left Ithaca for Troy:
Curst Troy-oh! why did I thy name disclose?
Thy fatal name awakens all my woes:
But fly-fome other had provok'd my rage,
And you but owe your pardon to your age.

No artful tales, no ftudied lies, I frame,
Ulyffes lives (rejoins the rev'rend dame)
In that difhonour'd ftranger's clofe difguife,
Long has he past all unsuspecting eyes,
All but thy fon's-and long has he supprest
The well-concerted fecret in his breast;
Till his brave father fhould his foes defeat,
And the clofe fcheme of his revenge compleat.
Swift as the word the Queen tranfported sprung,
And round the dame in ftrict embraces hung;
Then as the big round tears began to roll,
Spoke the quick doubts and hurry of her soul.

If my victorious hero fafe arrives,

If my dear lord, Ulyffes, ftill furvives,
Tell me, oh tell me, how he fought alone?
How were fuch multitudes deftroy'd by one?

Nought I beheld, but heard their cries, she said,
When death flew raging, and the fuitors bled:
Immur'd we liften'd, as we fat around,
To each deep groan and agonizing found.

Call'd

Call'd by thy fon to view the fcene I fled,
And faw Ulyffes ftriding o'er the dead!
Amidst the rifing heaps the hero ftood

All grim, and terribly adorn'd with blood.

This is enough in conscience for this time; besides I am defired by Mr. Pope or Mr. Lintot, I don't know which, to write to Mr. Pope on a certain affair.

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LETTER CVI.

MR. POPE TO DR. PARNELLE.

Dear Sir,

London, July 29.

wish it were not as ungenerous as vain, to complain too much of a man that forgets me, but I could expoftulate with you a whole day upon your inhuman filence; I call it inhuman; nor would you think it less, if you were truly fenfible of the uneasinefs it gives me. Did I know you fo ill as to think you proud, I would be much lefs concerned than I am able to be, when I know one of the best-natured men alive neglects me; and if you know me fo ill as to think amifs of me, with regard to my friendship for you, you really do not deferve half the trouble you occafion me. I need not tell you that both Mr. Gay and myself have written feveral Letters in vain; that we are constantly enquiring of all who have seen Ireland, if they faw you, and that (forgotten as we are) we are every day remembering you in our most agreeable

agreeable hours. All this is true; as that we are fincerely lovers of you, and deplorers of your abfence; and that we form no wifh more ardently than that which brings you over to us. We have lately had fome diftant hopes of the Dean's defign to revifit England; will not you accompany him? or is England to lofe every thing that has any charms for us, and muft we pray for banishment as a benediction? I have once been witnefs of fome, I hope all, of your fplenetic hours; come and be a comforter in your turn to me, in mine. I am in fuch an unfettled ftate, that I can't tell if I fhall ever see you, unless it be this year; whether I do or not, be ever affured, you have as large a fhare of my thoughts and good wifhes as any man, and as great a portion of gratitude in my heart, as would enrich a monarch, could he know where to find it. I fhall not die without testifying fomething of this nature, and leaving to the world a memorial of the friendship that has been fo great a pleasure and pride to me. It would be like writing my own epitaph, to acquaint you with what I have loft fince I saw you, what I have done, what I have thought, where I have lived, and where I now repofe in obfcurity. My friend Jervas, the bearer of this, will inform you of all particulars concerning me; and Mr. Ford is charged with a thousand loves, and a thoufand complaints, and a thoufand commiffions to you, on my part. They will both tax you with the neglect of fome promises which were too agreeable to us all to be forgot; if you care for any of us, tell them

them fo, and write so to me. I can fay no more, but that I love you, and am in spite of the longest neglect or absence, Dear Sir,

Your, ect.

goes to

Gay is in Devonshire, and from thence he father and mother never fail to comme

Bath; my

morate you.

Dear Sir,

LETTER CVII.

TO THE SAME.

Binfield, near Oakingham,
Tuesday.

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BELIEVE the hurry you were in hindered your giving me a word by the last post, so that I am yet to learn whether you got well to town, or continue fo there. I very much fear both for your health and your quiet; and no man living can be more truly concerned in any thing that touches either, than myfelf. I would comfort myself, however, with hoping that your bufinefs may not be unsuccessful, for your fake; and that, at least, it may foon be put into other proper hands. For my own, I beg earnestly of you to return to us as foon as poffible. You know how very much I want you, and that however your bufiness may depend upon any other, my business depends entirely upon you, and yet still I hope you will find your man, even though I lofe you the mean

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while.