I LETTER XVIII. THE EARL OF OXFORD TO MR. POPE. SIR, Brampton-Castle, Nov. 6, 1721. RECEIVED your packet, which could not but give me great pleasure, to fee you preferve an old friend in your memory; for it must needs be very agreeable to be remembered by those we highly value. But then how much fhame did it caufe me, when I read your very fine verfes enclosed? My mind reproached me how far fhort I came of what your great friendship and delicate pen would partially describe me. You ask my consent to publish it: to what straits doth this reduce me? I look back indeed to thofe evenings I have ufefully and pleasantly spent, with Mr. Pope, Mr. Parnelle, Dean Swift, the Doctor, etc. I fhould be glad the world knew You admitted me to your friendship, and fince your affection is too hard for your Judgment, I am contented to let the world know how well Mr. Pope can write upon a barren fubject. I return you an exact copy of the verses, that I may keep the Original, as a teftimony of the only error have been guilty of. I hope very speedily to embrace you in London, and to affure you of the particular esteem and friendship wherewith I am you Your, etc. SIR, LETTER XIX. TO MR. HOLDSWORTH*. Twitenham, Dec. 1737. s I am not fo happy (though I have long desired it) to be known to you otherwise than in my poetical capacity, fo you will fee, it is in the merit of that only that I take the liberty of applying to you, in what I think the cause of poetry. I understand that the Poetry-Profefforship in Oxford will be vacant, and that Mr. Harte, of St. Mary Hall, is willing to fucceed in it. I think it a condefcenfion in one who practises the art of poetry fo well, to stoop to be a critick, and hope the University will do itself the credit to accept of him. Your intereft is what I would beg for him as a favour to myself. You, who have ufed the Mufes fo ill as to caft them off when they were fo kind to you, ought fome way to atone, by promoting fuch good and faithful fervants to them in your stead. But if Mr. Harte were not as virtuous and as blameless, as he is capable and learned, I should recommend him with an ill grace to one whofe morals only have hindered his fortune, and whose modesty only prevented his fame. If ever you visit these seats of corruption in and about London, I hope you would favour me with a day or two's retirement hither, where I might try to fhow you, with what regard I truly am, Sir, * Author of Mufcipule. Your, etc. I SIR, LETTER XX. MR. POPE TO MR. HUGHES. April 19, 1714. MAKE use of the freedom you fo obligingly allowed me, of fending you a paper of proposals for "Homer," and of intreating your affistance in promoting the fubfcription. I have added another for Mr. Pate, if he thinks fit to oblige me fo far, as you feemed inclined to believe he might. I have left receipts figned with Mr. Jervas, who will give them for any subscriptions you may procure, and be (I am fure) very glad to be better acquainted with you, or entertain you with what paintings or drawings he has. He charges me to give you his moft humble service; and I beg you to think no man is, with a truer esteem than I, dear Sir, Your, etc. Pray make my moft humble fervice acceptable to Sir Richard Blackmore *. * It appears from the above, that Mr. Pope and this poetical Knight were then upon terms of friendship, which were first broken by Sir Richard's accufing Mr. Pope of profaneness and immorality, (fee his "Effays," vol. ii. p. 27.) on a report from Curl that he was author of a "Traveftie on the firft Pfalm." Had it not been for this, all the Knight's bad poetry would fcarcely have procured him a place in the "Dunciad,” as in that poem the author "profeffed to attack no man living who had not before printed or published against him ;" and, on this principle, having ridiculed "Dr. Watts's Pfalms," in the first edition of that fatire, thofe lines were, at the inftance of Mr. Richardfon, the painter, a friend to both, in all the fubfequent editions, omitted. Dear Sir, EVER LETTER XXI. TO THE SAME. Binfield, Oct. 7, 1715. VER fince I had the pleasure to know you, I have believed you one of that uncommon rank of authors, who are undefigning men and fincere friends; and who, when they commend another, have not any view of being praised themselves. I fhould be therefore ashamed to offer at faying any of those civil things in return to your obliging compliments in regard to my translations of "Homer," only I have too great a value for you, not to be pleased with them; and yet, I affure you, I receive praises from you with lefs pleasure than I have often paid them to your merit before, and fhall (I doubt not) have frequent occafions of doing again, from those useful pieces you are still obliging us with. If you was pleased with my preface, you have paid me for that pleasure, in the fame kind, by your entertaining and judicious effays* on Spencer. The present you make me is of the most agreeable nature imaginable, for Spencer has been ever a favorite poet to me: he is like a mistress, whose faults we fee, but love her with them all. What * "An Effay on allegorical Poetry," "Remarks on the Fairy Queen," "On the Shepherd's Calendar," &c. prefixed to Mr. Hughes's edition of Spencer's Works, 1715. What has deferred my thanks till now, was a ramble I have been taking about the country, from which I returned home and found your kind letter but yefterday. A testimony of that kind, from a man of your turn, is to be valued at a better rate than the ordinary estimate of letters will amount to. I fhall rejoice in all opportunities of cultivating a friendship I fo truly esteem, and hope very shortly to tell you in town, how much I am, Sir, Your, etc. Since you defire to hear of my progress in the translation, I must tell you that I have gone through four more books, which (with the remarks) will make the second volume. Dear Sir, LETTER XXII. TO THE SAME. Twickenham, Jan. 22, 1719-20. YOUR OUR letter found me, as I have long been, in a state of health almost as bad as that you complain of; and indeed what makes me utterly incapable of attending to any poetical task, even that of Homer. This minute too I can scarce return you the civility of an answer, being in the full operation of a vomit I have taken. I can only fay, with fincerity, I am heartily |