face and Contents, has a very particular Errata; and in general, Errata the whole Book. In his latter Days wanting Money, (tho' poffeffing a small Eftate) he was defirous of publishing fome Madrigals, which he had compos'd many Years before, with fome other Pieces, all which he fent Mr. Pope, defiring him to correct, purge them, and felect the beft, refolving to risque them in the Press: See his Letters upon that Head, as well as Mr. Pope's Replies. Mr. WYCHERLEY to Mr. POPE. S to the damn'd Verfes I entrusted you with, I Ahope you will deve them undergo your Purga tory, to fave them from other Peoples damning them; fince the Criticks, who are generally the first damn'd in this Life, like the Damn'd below, never leave to bring those above them under their own Circumftances. I beg you to perufe my Papers, and select what you think best, or most tolerable, and look over them again; for I refolve suddenly to print fome of them, as a harden'd old Gamefter will (in spite of all former ill Ufage by Fortune) push on an ill Hand, in Expectation of recovering himself; efpecially, fince I have fuch a Croupier, or Second, to ftand by me as Mr. Pope. Mr. WYCHERLEY to Mr. POPE. April 1, 1710. HAVE had your's of the 30th of the last Month, tells me you could be better pleased to be fick again in Town, in my Company, than to be well in the Country without it; and that you are more impa tient to be depriv'd of Happiness than of Health: Yet, my dear Friend, fet Raillery or Compliment afide, I can bear your Abfence (which procures your Health and Eafe) better than I can your Company when you are in Pain; for I cannot see you so, without being fo too. Your Love to the Country I do not doubt, nor do you (I hope) my Love to it or you, fince there I can enjoy your Company, without feeing you in Pain to give me Satisfaction and Pleasure; there I can have you without Rivals or Difturbers; without the Cs too civil, or the Ts too rude; without the Noife of the Loud, and the Cenfure of the Silent; and would rather have you abuse me there with the Truth, than at this Diftance with your Compliment: Since now your Bufinefs of a Friend and Kindness to a Friend, is by finding Fault with his Faults, and mending them by your obliging Severity. I hope (in point of your good Nature) you will have no cruel Charity for those Papers of mine, you were fo willing to be troubled with; which I take moft infinitely kind of you, and shall acknowledge with Gratitude, as long as I live. No Friend can do more for his Friend than preferving his Reputation (nay not by preferving his Life, fince by preserving his Life he can only make him live about threescore or fourscore Years; but by preferving his Reputation, he can make him live as long as the World lafts; so save him from damning, when he is gone to the Devil : Therefore I pray condemn in private, as the Thieves do their Accomplices in Newgate, to fave them from Condemnation by the Publick. Be most kindly unmerciful to my poetical Faults, and do with my Papers, as you Country-Gentlemen do with your Trees, flash, cut, and lop off the Excrefcencies and dead Parts of my wither'd Bays, that the little Re mainder mainder may live the longer, and encrease the Value of them, by diminishing the Number. I have troubled you with my Papers, rather to give you Pain than Pleasure, notwithstanding your Compliment, which fays, you take the Trouble kindly: Such is the Generofity to your Friends, that you take it kindly to be defired by them to do them a Kindness ; and you think it done to you, when they give you an Opportunity to do it to them. Wherefore you may be fure to be troubled with my Letters out of Intereft, if not Kindnefs; fince mine to you will procure your's to me, so that I write to you more for my own Sake than your's; lefs to make you think I write well, than to learn from you to write better. Thus you fee Intereft in my Kindness, which is like the Friendship of the World, rather to make a Friend than to be a Friend; but I am your's as a true Plain-dealer. Mr. WYCHERLEY to Mr. Pope. YOU April 27, 1710. You give me an Account in your Letter of the Trouble you have undergone for me, in comparing my Papers you took down with you, with the old printed Volume, and with one another of that Bundle you have in your Hands; amongst which, you fay, you find numerous (*) Repetitions of the fame Thoughts and Subjects: all which I muft confess my want of Memory has prevented me from imagining, as well as made me capable of committing them; fince of all Figures, that of Tautology is the laft (*) The Truth of this may be seen in the whole printed Volume of his Miscellanies, in Folio 1704, in almost every Page. VOL. I. D laft I would ufe, or leaft forgive myself for; but. feeing is believing; wherefore I will take fome Pains to examine and compare those Papers in your Hands with one another, as well as with the former printed Copies or Books of my damn'd Mifcellanies; all which (as bad a Memory as I have) with a little more Pains and Care, I think I can remedy; therefore I would not have you give yourself more Trouble about them, which may prevent the Pleafure you have, and may give the World, in writing upon new Subjects of your own, whereby you will much better entertain yourfelf and others. Now as to your Remarks upon the whole Volume of my Papers; all that I defire of you, is to mark in the Margin (without defacing the Copy at all) either any Repetition of the Words, Matter, or Senfe, or any Thoughts or Words too much repeated; which if you will be fo kind as to do for me, you will fupply my Want of Memory with your good one, and my Deficiencies of Senfe, with the Infallibility of your's; which if you do, you will most infinitely oblige me, who almost repent the Trouble I have given you, fince fo much. Now as to what you call Freedom with me, (which you defire me to forgive) you may be affured I would not forgive you unlefs. you did ufe it; for I am fo far from thinking your Plainefs a Fault, or an Offence to me, that I think it a Charity and an Obligation; which I fhall always acknowledge, with all Sort of Gratitude to you for it, who am therefore (Dear Mr. POPE) Your moft oblig'd humble Servant, All the News I have to fend you, is, that poor Mr. Betterton is going to make his Exit from the Stage Stage of this World, the Gout being gotten up into his Head, and (as the Phyficians fay) will certainly carry him off fuddenly. I Mr. POPE's Answer. May 2, 1710. AM forry you perfift to take ill my not accepting your Invitation, and to find (if I mistake not) your Exception not unmixt with fome Sufpicion. Be certain I fhall moft carefully obferve your Requeft, not to cross over, or deface the Copy of your Papers for the future, and only to mark in the Margin the Repetitions: But as this can ferve no further than to get rid of those Repetitions, and no way rectify the Method, nor connect the Matter, nor improve the Poetry in Expreffion or Numbers, without further blotting, adding, and altering; fo it really is my Opinion, and Defire, that you fhould take your Papers out of my Hands into your own; and no Alterations may be made but when both of us are prefent; when you may be fatisfied with every Blot, as well as every Addition, and nothing be put upon the Papers but what you shall give your own Sanction and Affent to, at the fame Time. that Do not be fo unjust, as to imagine from hence, that I would decline any Part of this Tafk: On the contrary, you know, I have been at the Pains of tranfcribing fome Pieces, at once to comply with your Defire of not defacing the Copy, and yet to lofe no Time in proceeding upon the Correction. I will go on the fame way if you please; tho' truly it is (as I have often told you) my fincere Opinion, that the greater Part would make a much better Figure as Single Maxims and Reflections in Profe, after the D 2 Manner |