one would think, the fatigue of their journey, in fo tempeftuous a night, might have render'd them very unfit for fuch a fcuffle. This I had actually tranflated, but was very ill fatisfied with it, even in my own words, to which an author cannot but be partial enough of confcience; it was therefore omitted in this copy, which goes on above eighty lines farther, at the words-Hic primum luftrare oculis, &c. -to the end of the book. You will find, I doubt not, that Statius was none of the difcreeteft Pocts, tho' he was the best versifier next Virgil: In the very beginning he unluckily betrays his ignorance in the rules of Poetry (which Horace had already taught the Romans) when he afks his Muse where to begin his Thebaid, and seems to doubt whether it should not be ab ovo Ledeo. When he comes to the fcene of his Poem, and the prize in difpute between the brothers, he gives us a very mean opinion of it-Pugna eft de paupere regno. -Very different from the conduct of his master Virgil, who at the entrance of his Poem informs his reader of the greatness of its fubje&.—Tantæ molis erat Romanam condere gentem [Boflu on Epic Poetry.] There are innumerable little faults in him, among which I cannot but take notice of one in this book, where fpeaking of the implacable hatred of the brothers, he fays, The whole world would be too small a prize to repay so much impiety. Quid fi peteretur crimine tanto Limes uterque poli, quem Sol emiffus Eoo Cardine, quem porta vergens profpectat Ibera? This was pretty well, one would think, already, but he goes on. Quafque procul terras obliquo fidere tangit Avius, aut Borea gelidas, madidive tepentes After all this, what could a Poet think of but Heaven itself for the prize! but what follows is aftonishing. in Quid fi Tyria Phrygiæve fub unum Conve&entur opes? I do not remember to have met with fo great a fall any ancient author whatfoever. I fhould not have infifted fo much on the faults of this Poet, if I did not hope you would take the fame freedom with, and revenge it upon his Tranflator. I fhall be extremely glad if the reading this can be any amusement to you, the rather because I had the diffatisfaction to hear you have been confin'd to your chamber by an illness, which, I fear, was as troublesome a companion as I have fometimes been in the fame place; where, if ever you found any pleasure in my company, it muft furely have been that, which most men take in obferving the faults and follies of another; a pleasure, which, you fee, I take care to give you even in my abfence. If you will oblige me at your leisure with the confirmation of your recovery, under your own hand, it will be extremely grateful to me, for next to the pleasure of feeing my friends, is that I take in hearing from them; and in this particular I am beyond all acknowledgments obliged to our friend Mr. Wycherley. I know I need no apology to you for speaking of him, whofe example, as I am proud of following in all things, fo in nothing more than in profeffing myself, like him, LETTER VI. Your, &c. March 7, 1709. OU had long before this time been troubled with a letter from me, but that I deferred it till I could fend you either the * Mifcellany, or my continuation of the verfion of Statius. The first I imagin'd you might have had before now, but fince the contrary has happen'd, you may draw this moral from it, That authors in general are more ready to write nonfenfe than bookfellers are to publifh it. I had I know not what extraordinary flux of rhyme upon me for three days together, in which time all the verfes you fee added, have been written; which * Jacob Tonfon's fixth volume of Poetical Mifcellanies, in which Mr. Pope's Paftorals, and fome verfions of Homer and Chaucer were first printed. I tell you, that you may more freely be fevere upon them. 'Tis a mercy I do not affault you with a number of original Sonnets and Epigrams, which our modern bards put forth in the spring-time, in as great abundance, as the trees do bloffoms, a very few whereof ever come to the fruit, and please no longer than just in their birth. They make no lefs hafte to bring their flowers of wit to the press, than gardeners to bring their other flowers to the market, which if they can't get off their hands in the morning are fure to die before night. Thus the fame reason that furnishes Covent-garden with thofe nofegays you fo delight in, fupplies the Mufes Mercury and British Apollo (not to fay Jacob's Mifcellanies) with verfes. And it is the happiness of this age, that the modern invention of printing poems for pence a piece, has brought the nofegays of Parnaffus to bear the fame price; whereby the public-fpirited Mr. Henry Hills of black friars has been the cause of great eafe and fingular comfort to all the learned, who never over-abounding in tranfitory coin, fhould not be difcontented (methinks) even though poems were diftributed gratis about the ftreets, like Bunyan's fermons and other pious treatifes, ufually publifh'd in a like volume and character. The time now drawing nigh, when you ufe with Sappho to cross the water in an evening to Springgarden, I hope you will have a fair opportunity of ravishing her I mean only (as Old-fox in the Plain-dealer fays) through the ear, with your well : penn'd verses. I wish you all the pleasures which the season and the nymph can afford; the best company, the best coffee, and the best news you can defire and what more to wish you than this, I do not know; unless it be a great deal of patience to read and examine the verfes I fend you: I promise you in return a great deal of deference to your judgment, and an extraordinary obedience to your fentiments for the future, (to which, you know, I have been fometimes a little refractory.) If you will please to begin where you left off last, and mark the margins, as you have done in the pages immediately before (which you will find corrected to your sense fince your laft 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 profefs'd enemy: tho', 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 pass'd into a rule, but not a rule without exceptions, nor that it ever had been reduced to practice: But this example of one of the moft correct and beft of their Poets has undeceived me, and confirms your opinion very |