LETTER XXIII.

TO MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR*.

ON HER MARRIAGE.

YOU ou are by this time fatisfied how much the tendernefs of one man of merit is to be preferred to the addreffes of a thousand. And by this time the gentleman you have made choice of is fenfible, how great is the joy of having all thofe charms and good qualities which have pleased fo many, now applied to please one only. It was but juft, that the fame Virtues which gave you reputation, fhould give you happiness; and I can wish you no greater, than that you may receive it in as high a degree yourself, as so much good humour must infallibly give it to your husband.

It may be expected, perhaps, that one who has the title of Poet fhould fay fomething more polite on this occafion but I am really more a well-wisher to your felicity, than a celebrater of your beauty. Befides, you are now a married woman, and in a way to be a great many better things than a fine lady; fuch as an excellent wife, a faithful friend, a tender parent, and at laft, as the confequence of them all, a faint in heaven. You ought now to hear nothing but that,

*This Letter, though very elegant and well-turned, muft yield to Waller's Letter to Sacchariffa, on her marriage. WARTON.

that, which was all you ever defired to hear, (whatever others may have spoken to you,) I mean Truth: and it is with the utmost that I affure you, no friend you have can more rejoice in any good that befals you, is more fincerely delighted with the profpect of future happiness, or more unfeignedly defires a long continuance of it.

your

I hope you will think it but juft, that a man who will certainly be spoken of as your admirer, after he is dead, may have the happiness to be esteemed, while he is living,

Your, etc.

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL'

From the Year 1705 to 1716.

I

LETTER I.

SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL TO MR. POPE.

SIR,

October 19, 1705.

RETURN you the book you were pleased to fend me, and with it your obliging letter, which deferves my particular acknowledgment: for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of fo good a friend, the welcomeft thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met with, an admirable genius in those Poems, not only because they were Milton's, or were approved by Sir Hen.

a

Secretary of State to King William the Third.

Wooton,

POPE. Sir William Trumbull was by far, excepting Walsh, the most respectable and valuable of Pope's early correfpondents. Cromwell and Wycherley were old debauchees.

'L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, Lycidas, and the Masque of Comus. POPE.

From hence it appears, that these four exquifite Poems of Milton were read, and relished, and recommended by our Author,

Wooton, but because you had commended them; and give me leave to tell you, that I know nobody fo like to equal him, even at the age he wrote moft of them, as yourself. Only do not afford more cause of complaints against you, that you fuffer nothing of yours to come abroad; which in this age, wherein wit and true fenfe is more fcarce than money, is a piece of fuch cruelty as your best friends can hardly pardon. I hope you will repent and amend; I could offer many reasons to this purpose, and fuch as you cannot answer with any fincerity; but that I dare not enlarge; for fear of engaging in a style of Compliment, which has been fo abused by fools and knaves, that it is become almost scandalous. I conclude therefore with an affurance which fhall never vary, of my being ever, etc.

much earlier than they are fuppofed to have been. He has taken many expreffions from them in the Eleifa, and the Temple of Fame, and other pieces. See the Preface to the second edition, 1791, p. 10, of Milton's fmaller Poems, by T. Warton. That a perfon of Trumbull's taste and literature fhould not have been before acquainted with thefe Poems of Milton, is a clear proof how little they were known and regarded in general. WARTON.

LETTER II.

FROM SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.

April 9, 1708.

I

any

HAVE this moment* received the favour of yours of the '8th inftant; and will make you a true excufe (though perhaps no very good one) that I deferred the troubling you with a letter, when I fent back your papers, in hopes of feeing you at Binfield before this time. If I had met with fault in your performance, I fhould freely now (as I have done too prefumptuously in conversation with you) tell you my opinion; which I have frequently ventured to give you, rather in compliance with your defires than that I could think it reafonable. For I am not yet fatisfied upon what grounds I can pretend to judge of poetry, who never have been practifed in the art. There may poffibly be fome happy genius's, who may judge of fome of the natural beauties of a poem, as a man may

of

There is fomething particularly pleafing in the Letters of this amiable and honeft old ftatefman; they breathe an air of uncommon good temper, good fenfe, candour, and tranquillity of mind. See particularly Letters III. VI. and VIII. Several curious Letters of Sir W. Trumbull, written while he was Ambassador in France, are preferved in the Paper office and fome relating to the cruel Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, are published in the Memoirs of Sir John Dalrymple, vol. i. p. 123.

:

WARTON.

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