Writers, and all the blood spilt by Princes? There was in old time one Severus a Roman Emperor. I dare say you never call'd him by any other name in your life: and yet in his days he was ftyl'd Lucius, Septimius, Severus, Pius, Pertinax, Auguftus, Parthicus, Adiabenicus, Arabicus, Maximus, and what not? What a prodigious wafte of letters has time made! what a number have here dropt off,and left the poor furviving feven unattended! for my own part, four are all I have to take care for; and I'll be judg'd by you if any man cou'd live in lefs compafs? Well, for the future I'll drown all high thoughts in the Lethe of cowflip-wine; as for Fame, Renown, Reputation, take 'em Critics! Tradam protervis in Mare Criticum Ventis If ever I feek for Immortality here, may I be damn'd, for there's not fo much danger in aPoet's being damn'd: Damnation follows death in other men, But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen. I November 1, 1708. · Have been fo well fatisfy'd with the Country ever fince I faw you, that I have not once thought of the Town, or enquir'd of any one in it befides Mr. Wycherley and your fe f. And from him I understand of your journey this fummer into Leicestershire; from whence I guess you are return'd by this time, to your old apartment in the Widow's corner, to your old bufinefs of comparing Critics, and reconciling Commentators, and to the old diverfions of a lofing game at picquet with the ladies, and half a play, or a quarter of a play, * a play, at the theatre: where you are none of the malicious audience, but the chief of amorous fpectators; and for the infirmity of one fenfe which there for the most part could only ferve to disgust you, enjoy the vigour of another which ravishes you. [t You know, when one fenfe is fuppreft, It but retires into the ref. According to the poetical,not the learned, Dodwell ; who has done one thing worthy of eternal memory; wrote two lines in his life that are not nonfenfe!] So you have the advantage of being entertain'd with all the beauty of the boxes, without being troubled with any of the dulnefs of the ftage. You are fo good a critic, that 'tis the greatest happiness of the modern Poets that you do not hear their works: and next, that you are not fo arrant a critick, as to damn them (like the rest) without hearing. But now I talk of thofe critics, I have good news to tell you concerning my felf, for which I expect you should congratulate with me: It is that beyond all my expectations, and far above my demerits, I have been moft mercifully repriev'd by the fovereign power of Jacob Tonfon, from being brought forth to publick punishment; and refpited from time to time. from the hands of those barbarous executioners of the mufes, whom I was juft now fpeaking of. It often happens, that guilty Poets, like other guilty Criminals, when once they are known and proclaim'd, deliver themfelves into the hands of juftice, only to prevent others from doing it more to their disadvantage; and not out of any ambition to spread their fame,by being executed *His bearing. + Omitted by the Author in his own edition. in in the face of the world, which is a fame but of short continuance. That Poet were a happy man who cou'd but obtain a grant to preserve his for ninety-nine years; for those names very rarely laft fo many days, which are planted either in Jacob Tonfon's, or the Ordinary of Newgate's Mifcellanies. I have an hundred things to fay to you, which shall be deferr'd till I have the happiness of seeing you in town, for the season now draws on, that invites every body thither. Some of them I had communicated to you by letters before this, if I had not been uncertain where you pafs'd your time the last feafon: So much fine weather, I doubt not, has given you all the pleasure you cou'd defire from the country, and your own thoughts the best company in it. But nothing could allure Mr. Wycherley to our foreft, he continued (as you told me long fince he wou'd) an obftinate lover of the town, in spite of friendship and fair weather. Therefore hence-forward, to all thofe confiderable qualities I know you poffeft of, I fhall add that of Prophecy. But I still believe Mr. Wycherly's intentions were good, and am fatisfy'd that he promifes nothing, but with a real defign to perform it: how much foever his other excellent qualities are above my imitation, his fincerity, I hope, is not; and it is with the utmoft that I am, Sir, &c. LETTER I LETTER V. Jan. 22, 1708.9. Had fent you the inclos'd † papers before this time, but that I intended to have brought them my self, and afterwards cou'd find no opportunity of fending them without fufpicion of their mifcarrying; not, that they are of the least value, but for fear fome body might be foolish enough to imagine them fo, and inquifitive enough to difcover thofe faults which I (by your help) would correct. I therefore beg the favour of you to let them go no farther than your chamber, and to be very free of your remarks in the margins, not only in regard to the accuracy, but to the fidelity of the tranflation; which I have not had time to compare with its original. And I defire you to be the more fevere, as it is much more criminal for me to make another speak nonfenfe, than to do it in my own proper perfon. For your better help in comparing, it may be fit to tell you, that this is not an entire verfion of the firft book. There is an omiffion from the 168th line-Fam murmura ferpunt plebis agenorea· to the 312th-Interea patriis olim vagus exul ab oris (between thefe two Statius has a description of the council of the Gods, and a fpeech of Jupiter; which This was a tranflation of the first book of Statius, done when the author was but 14 years old, as appears by an advertisement before the first edition of it in a mifcellany publish'd by B. Lintot. 8o 1711. Thefe be fince tranflated, and they are extant in the printed verfion. contain contain a peculiar beauty and majesty, and were left out for no other reafon, but because the confequence of this machine appears not till the second book.) The tranflation goes on from thence to the words Hic vero ambobus rabiem fortuna cruentam, where there is an odd account of a battle at fifty-cuffs between the two Princes on a very flight occafion, and at a time when one wou'd think the fatigue of their journey in fo tempestuous a night, might have render'd them very unfit for such a scuffle. This I had actually tranflated, but was very ill fatisfied with it, even in my own words, to which an author cannot but be partial enough of confcience; it was therefore omitted in this copy, which goes on above eighty lines farther at the words Hic primum luftrare oculis, &c. book. - to the end of the You will find, I doubt not, that Statius was none of the discreetest Poets, tho' he was the best versifier next Virgil: In the very beginning he unluckily betrays his ignorance in the rules of Poetry, (which Horace had already taught the Romans) when he asks his mufe where to begin his The baid, and feems to doubt whether it should not be ab ovo Ledao? when he comes to the scene in his Poem, and the prize in difpute between the brothers, he gives us a very mean opinion of it Pugna eft de paupere regno. Very diffe - rent from the conduct of his master Virgil, who at the entrance of his Poem informs his reader of the greatnefs of its fubject.- -Tanta molis erat Romanam condere gentem.[Boilu on Epic Poetry.] There are innumerable little faults in him, among which I cannot but take notice of one in this book, where fpeaking of the implacable hatred of the brothers, he fays, The whole world would be too fmall a prize to repay fo much impiety. |