teft, because the members of one house are remov'd up to t'other, as it is often done by the court for reasons of state. Infomuch that the lower houses, I mean the play-houses, are going to act tragedies on one another without doors, and the Sovereign is put to it (as it often happens in the other two houses) to filence one or both, to keep peace between them. Now I have told you all the news of the town.

LETTER X.

I am, &c.

I

From Mr. WYCHERLE Y.

Feb. 5, 1705-6.

Have receiv'd your kind Letter, with my paper

*

to Mr. Dryden corrected. I own you have made more of it by making it lefs, as the Dutch are faid to burn half the spices they bring home, to inhance the price of the remainder, fo to be greater gainers by their lofs (which is indeed my cafe now.) You have prun'd my fading lawrels of some superfluous, fapless, and dead branches, to make the remainder live the longer; thus, like your mafter Apollo, you are at once a poet and a physician.

* The fame which was printed in the year 1717, in a mifcellany of Bern. Lintot's, and in the Pofthumous Works of Mr. Wycherley.

Now, Sir, as to my impudent invitation of you to the town, your good nature was the firft caufe of my confident request; but excuse me, I must (I see) fay no more upon this fubject, fince I find you a little too nice to be dealt freely with; tho' you have given me fome encouragement to hope, our friendship might be without fhynefs, or criminal modesty; for a friend, like a mistress, tho' he is not to be mercenary, to be true, yet ought not to refuse a friend's kindness because it is fmall or trivial: I have told you (I think) what a Spanish lady faid to her poor poetical gallant, that a Queen, if fhe had to do with a groom, would expect a mark of his kindness from him, though it were but his curry-comb. But you and I will difpute this matter when I am so happy as to fee you here; and perhaps 'tis the only dispute in which I might hope to have the better of you.

Now, Sir, to make you another excufe for my boldness in inviting you to town, I defign'd to leave with you fome more of my papers, (fince these return fo much better out of your hands than they went from mine) for I intended (as I told you formerly) to spend a month or fix weeks, this fummer, near you in the country. You may be affured there is nothing I defire fo much, as an improvement of your friendship.

BY

LETTER XI.

April 10, 1705. defire me

you

Y one of yours of the last month, to felect, if poffible, fome things from the * first volume of your Mifcellanies, which may be alter’d fo as to appear again. I doubted your meaning in this; whether it was to pick out the beft of those verfes (as thofe on the Idleness of business, on Ignorance, on Laziness, &c.) to make the method and numbers exact, and avoid repetitions? For though (upon reading 'em on this occafion) I believe, they might receive fuch an alteration with advantage; yet they would not be changed fo much, but any one would know 'em for the fame at first fight. Or if you mean to improve the worst pieces? which are such, as, to render them very good, would require great addition, and almoft the entire new writing of them. Or, laftly, if you mean the middle fort, as the Songs and Love-verfes? For thefe will need only to be fhortened, to omit repetition; the words remaining very little different from what they were before. Pray let me know your mind in this, for I am utterly at a lofs. Yet I have try'd what I could to do fome of the fongs, and the poems on Laziness and Ignorance, but can't (even in my own partial judgment) think my alterations much to the purpofe. So that * Printed in folio, in the year 1704.

I must needs defire you would apply your care wholly at present to those which are yet unpublished, of which there are more than enough to make a confiderable volume, of full as good ones, nay, I believe, of better than any in Vol. I. which I could with you would defer, at least till you have finish'd thefe that are yet unprinted.

I send you a fample of fome 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: fome I have contracted, as we do fun beams, to improve their energy and force: fome I have taken quite away, as we take branches from a tree, to add to the fruit; others I have entirely new exprefs'd, and turn'd more into poetry. Donne (like one of his fucceffors) had infinitely more wit than he wanted verfification; for the great dealers of wit, like thofe in trade, take leaft pains to fet off their goods; while the haberdashers of fmall wit, fpare for no decorations or ornaments. You have commiffion'd me to paint your shop, and I have done my beft 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 fhe helps into the light.

* Several of Mr. Pope's lines, very eafy to be diftinguish'd, may be found in the Pofthumous Editions of Wycherley's Poems: particularly in those on Solitude, on the Public, and on the Mixed life.

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 laft, if you think them but fquibs in your triumphs.

I

LETTER XII.

From Mr. WY CHERLEY.

Nov. 11, 1707.

Received yours of the 9th yesterday, which has

(like the rest of your letters) at once pleas'd and inftructed me; fo that, I affure you, you can no more write too much to your abfent friends, than speak too much to the prefent. This is a truth that all men own who have either feen your writings, or heard your difcourfe; enough to make others fhow their judgment, in ceafing to write or talk, especially to you, or in your company. However, I fpeak or write to you, not to please you, but myfelf; fince I provoke your anfwers; which whilft they humble me, give me vanity; tho' I am leffen'd by you even when you commend me: fince you commend my little fenfe with fo much more of yours, that you put me out of countenance, whilft you would keep me in it. So that you have found a way (against the custom of great wits) to fhew even a