to begin where you left off laft, and mark the margins, as you have done in the pages immediately before, (which you will find corrected to your sense fince your last perufal,) you will extremely oblige me, and improve my tranflation. Befides thofe places which may deviate from the fenfe of the author, it would be very kind in you to obferve any deficiencies in the diction or numbers. The Hiatus in particular I would avoid as much as poffible, to which you are certainly in the right to be a profeffed enemy; though, I confefs, I could not think it poffible at all times to be avoided by any writer, till I found by reading Malherbe lately, that there is fcarce any throughout his poems. I thought your obfervation true enough to be paffed into a rule, but not a rule without exceptions, nor that ever it had been reduced to practice: But this example of one of the most correct and beft of their Poets has undeceived me, and confirms your opinion very strongly, and much more than Mr. Dryden's authority, who, though he made it a rule, feldom obferved it. * Your, etc. *The first correct Poet of France; to whom their language had inestimable obligations. The notes of Menage on the Works of Malherbe, abound in many curious critical remarks and digreffions. Ronfard had a more vigorous imagination than Malherbe, but not fo true a tafte and judgment; his ftyle is harsh, and full of barbarifms and foreign idioms. LETTER VII. June 10, 1709. I HAVE received part of the verfion of Statius, and return you my thanks for your remarks, which I think to be just, except where you cry out (like one in Horace's Art of Poetry) pulchre, bene, recte! There I have fome fears you are often, if not always, in the wrong. One of your objections, namely on that paffage, The reft revolving years shall ripen into fate, may be well grounded, in relation to its not being the exact sense of the wordsf Certo reliqua ordine ducam. But the duration of the Action of Statius's poem may as well be excepted against, as many things befides in him; (which I wonder Boffu has not observed;) for instead of confining his narration to one year, it is manifeftly exceeded in the very first two books: The narration begins with Oedipus's prayer to the Fury to promote difcord betwixt his fons; afterwards the Poet expressly describes their entering into the agreement of reigning a year by f See the first book of Statius, v. 302. turns; P. 8 Boffu did not write a critique upon Statius, but only used him, as he did other poets, occafionally, for an example. So that it is no wonder there fhould be faults and beauties in Statius which he did not take notice of. W. All turns*; and Polynices takes his flight from Thebes on his brother's refusal to refign the throne. this is in the first book; in the next Tydeus is fent ambaffador to Eteocles, and demands his refignation in these terms, Aftriferum velox jam circulus orbem Torfit, et amiffæ redierunt montibus umbræ, But Boffu himself is mistaken in one particular, relating to the commencement of the action; faying, in book ii. cap. 8. that Statius opens with Europa's Rape, whereas the Poet at most only deliberates whether he should or not ". Unde jubetis Ire, Dex? gentifne canam primordia diræ, but then expressly paffes all this with a longa retro feries-and fays, limes mihi carminis efto Edipodæ confufa domus. Indeed * It is rather strange that our Poet should make no mention of the Phænifs of Euripides, if indeed he had ever read that Tragedy. That was the fame to Boffu's purpofe; which was only to fhew, that there were èpic Poets fo ignorant, or fo negligent of compofition, as not to know where their fubject should begin. W. Indeed there are numberlefs particulars blameworthy in our author, which I have tried to foften in the verfion : dubiamque jugo fragor impulit Eten In latus, et geminis vix fluctibus obftitit Ifthmus, is moft extravagantly hyperbolical: Nor did I ever read a greater piece of tautology than Vacua cum folus in aula Refpiceres jus omne tuum, cunctofque minores, In the journey of Polynices is fome geographical error, lin. 305. 66 In mediis audit duo litora campis could hardly be; for the Ifthmus of Corinth is full five miles over: And caligantes abrupto fole Mycenas, is not confiftent with what he tells us, in lib. iv. "that those of Mycenæ came not to the war at this time, because they were then in con"fufion by the divifions of the brothers, Atreus and "Thyeftes." Now from the raising the Greek army against Thebes, back to the time of this journey of Polynices, is (according to Statius's own account) three years. Yours, etc. LETTER VIII. THE July 17, 1709. you, I found my-. HE morning after I parted from felf (as I had prophefied) all alone, in an uneafy Stage-coach; a doleful change from that agreeable company I enjoyed the night before! without the least hope of entertainment but from my laft resource in such cases, a Book. I then began to enter into acquaintance with your Moralifts, and had juft received from them fome cold confolation for the inconveniencies of this life, and the uncertainty of human affairs; when I perceived my vehicle to stop, and heard from the fide of it the dreadful news of a fick woman preparing to enter it. 'Tis not easy to guess at my mortification, but being fo well fortified with philofophy, I ftood refigned with a ftoical conftancy to endure the worst of evils, a fick woman. I was indeed a little comforted to find by her voice and dress, that she was young and a gentlewoman; but no fooner was her hood removed, but I faw one of the fineft faces I ever beheld, and, to increase my furprife, heard her falute me by my name. I never had more reason to accuse nature for making me fhort-fighted than now, when I could not recollect I had ever seen those fair eyes which knew me fo well, and was utterly at a lofs how to addrefs myself; till with a great deal of fimplicity and innocence fhe let me |