at least till you have finished these that are yet unprinted.

I send you a sample of some few of these; namely, the verses to Mr. Waller in his old age; your new ones on the Duke of Marlborough, and two others. I have done all that I thought could be of advantage to them: some I have contracted, as we do sunbeams, to improve their energy and force; some I have taken quite away, as we take branches from a tree, to add to the fruit; others I have entirely new expressed, and turned more into poetry. Donne (like one of his successors) had infinitely more wit than he wanted versification; for the great dealers of wit, like those in trade, take least pains to set off their goods; while the haberdashers of small wit spare for no decorations or ornaments. You have commissioned me to paint your shop, and I have done my best to brush you up like your neighbours.* But I can no more pretend to the merit of the production, than a midwife to the virtues and good qualities of the child she helps into the light.

The few things I have entirely added, you will excuse; you may take them lawfully for your own, because they are no more than sparks lighted up by your fire and you may omit them at last, if you think them but squibs in your triumphs. I am, &c.

* Several of Mr. Pope's lines, very easy to be distinguished, may be found in the Posthumous Editions of Wycherley's Poems; particularly in those On Solitude, On the Public, and On the Mixed Life.

Warburton.

LETTER XII.

FROM MR. WYCHERLEY.

February 19, 1706-7.

I HAVE received yours of the 26th, as kind as it is ingenious, for which therefore I most heartily thank you. It would have been much more welcome to me, had it not informed me of your want of health; but you who have a mind so vigorous, may well be contented with its crazy habitation; since (you know) the old similitude says, the keenness of the mind soonest wears out the body, as the sharpest sword soonest destroys the scabbard: so that (as I say) you must be satisfied with your apprehension of an uneasy life, though I hope not a short one; notwithstanding that generally your sound wits (though weak bodies) are immortal hereafter, by that genius, which shortens your present life, to prolong that of the future. But I yet hope, your great, vigorous, and active mind will not be able to destroy your little, tender, and crazy carcass.

Now to say something to what you write concerning the present epidemic distemper of the mind and age, calumny; I know it is no more to be avoided (at one time or another of our lives) than a fever or an ague; and, as often those distempers attend or threaten the best constitutions, from the worst air; so does that malignant air of calumny soonest attack the sound and elevated in

mind, as storms of wind the tallest and most fruitful trees; whilst the low and weak, for bowing and moving to and fro, are by their weakness secure from the danger and violence of the tempest. But so much for stinking rumour, which weakest minds are most afraid of;

LETTER XIII.

FROM MR. WYCHERLEY.

Nov. 11, 1707.

I RECEIVED yours of the 9th yesterday, which has (like the rest of your letters) at once pleased and instructed me; so that I assure you, you can no more write too much to your absent friends, than speak too much to the present. This is a truth that all men own, who have either seen your writings, or heard your discourse; enough to make others shew their judgment, in ceasing to write or talk, especially to you, or in your company. However, I speak or write to you, not to please you, but myself; since I provoke your answers; which, whilst they humble me, give me vanity; though I am lessened by you, even when you commend me; since you commend my little sense with so much more of yours, that you put me out of countenance, whilst you would keep me in it. So that you have found a way (against the custom of great wits) to shew even a great

deal of good-nature with a great deal of good

sense.

I thank you for the book you promised me, by which I find you would not only correct my lines, but my life.

As to the damned verses I entrusted you with, I hope you will let them undergo your purgatory, to save them from other people's damning them: since the critics, who are generally the first damned in this life, like the damned below, never leave to bring those above them under their own circumstances. I beg you to peruse my papers, and select what you think best or most tolerable, and look over them again; for I resolve suddenly to print some of them, as a hardened old gamester will (in spite of all former ill usage by fortune) push on an ill hand in expectation of recovering himself; especially since I have such a Croupier or second to stand by me as Mr. Pope.

LETTER XIV.

TO MR. WYCHERLEY.

Nov. 20, 1707.

MR. Englefyld being upon his journey to London, tells me I must write to you by him, which I do, not more to comply with his desire, than to gratify my own; though I did it so lately by the messenger you sent hither: I take it too as

an opportunity of sending you the fair copy of the poem on Dulness,* which was not then finished, and which I should not care to hazard by the common post. Mr. Englefyld is ignorant of the contents, and I hope your prudence will let him remain so, for my sake no less than your own: since, if you should reveal any thing of this nature, it would be no wonder reports should be raised, and there are some (I fear) who would be ready to improve them to my disadvantage. I am sorry you told the great man, whom you met in the court of requests, that your papers were in my hand; no man alive shall ever know any such thing from me; and I give you this warning besides, that though yourself should say I had any ways assisted you, I am notwithstanding resolved to deny it.

is very

dif

The method of the copy I send you ferent from what it was, and much more regular: for the better help of your memory, I desire you to compare it by the figures in the margin, answering to the same in this letter. The poem is now divided into four parts, marked with the literal figures, 1, 2, 3, 4. The first contains the praise of Dulness, and shews how upon several

* The original of it in blots, and with figures of the references from copy to copy, in Mr. Pope's hand, is yet extant, among other such broüillons, of Mr. Wycherley's Poems, corrected by him. Warburton.

† This assertion on the part of Pope was skilfully used by Curll, to prove that Pope would deny his own works, whenever he found it expedient.