without defacing the copy at all) any repetition of words, matwitho ter, or fense: which if you will be fo kind to do for me, you will fupply my want of memory with your good one, and my deficiencies of fense with the infallibility of yours; in which 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 affur'd I would not forgive you unless you did use it; for I am fo far from thinking your plainness a fault, or an offence to me, that I think it a charity and an obligation; which I shall always acknowledge, with all fort of gratitude to you for it, who am therefore (dear Mr. Pope) Your, &c.

All the news I have to send you, is, that poor Mr. Betterton is going to make his Exit from the ftage of this world, the gout being gotten up into his head, and (as the Physicians fay) will certainly carry him off suddenly.

LETTER XIV.

The Anfwer.

May 2, 1710.

I

AM forry you perfift to take ill my not accepting your invitation, and to find (if I mistake not) your exception not unmix'd with some fufpicion. Be certain I fhall most carefully observe 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 should take your papers out of my hands into your own; and that no alterations may be made but when both of us are present; when you may be satisfied with every blot, as well as every addition, and nothing be put upon the papers but what you fhall give your own fanction and affent to, at the fame time.

Do not be fo unjust, as to imagine from hence that I would decline any part of this task: 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 lose 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 fingle Maxims and Reflexions, in Profe, after the manner of your favourite Rochefoucaut, than in Verfe*: and this, when nothing more is done but marking the repetitions in the margin, will be an eafy task for yourself to proceed upon, notwithstanding the bad memory you complain of. I am unfeignedly, dear Sir,

Your, &c.

*Mr. Wycherley lived five years after, to December 1715, but little progrefs was made in this defign, through his old age, and the increase of his infirmities. However, fome of the verses which had been touch'd by Mr. P. with 308 of these Maxims in Profe, were found among his Papers, which having the misfortune to fall into the hands of a Mercenary, were publifh'd in 1728, in Octavo, under the Title of The Pofthumous Works of William Wycherley, Efq;

LETTERS

LETTERS

TO and FROM

* Mr. WALSH.

I

LETTER XV.

Mr. WALSH to Mr. POPE.

June 24, 1706. Receiv'd the favour of your letter, and shall be very glad of

the continuance of a correfpondence by which I am like to be fo great a gainer. I hope when I have the happiness of seeing you again in London, not only to read over the Verfes I have now of yours, but more that you have written fince; for I make no doubt, but any one who writes fo well, muft write more: Not that I think the moft voluminous Poets always the beft, I believe the contrary is rather true. I mention'd fomewhat to you in London of a Paftoral Comedy, which I fhould be glad to hear you had thought upon fince. I find Menage, in his observations upon Taffo's Aminta, reckons up fourscore Pastoral-Plays in Ita

*Of Abberley in Worcestershire, Gentleman of the Horfe in Queen Ann's Reign, Author of several beautiful pieces in Profe and Verfe, and in the Opinion of Mr. Dryden (in his Poftfcript to Virgil) the beft Critic of our Nation in his time.

lian: And in looking over my old Italian books, I find a great many Paftorals and Pifcatory Plays, which I fuppose Menage reckons together. I find alfo by Menage, that Taffo is not the first that writ in that kind, he mentioning another before him, which he himself had never seen, nor indeed have I. But as the Aminta, Paftor Fido, and Filli di Sciro of Bonarelli, are the three best, so I think there is no difpute but Aminta is the best of the three: Not but that the difcourfes in Paftor Fido are more entertaining and copious in several peoples opinion, tho' not fo proper for Paftoral; and the Fable of Bonarelli more furprizing. I do not remember many in other languages, that have written in this kind with fuccefs. Racan's Bergeries are much inferior to his Lyric Poems; and the Spaniards are all too full of conceits. Rapin will have the design of Paftoral Plays to be taken from the Cyclops of Euripides. I am fure there is nothing of this kind in English worth mentioning, and therefore you have that field open to yourself. You fee I write to you without any sort of conftraint or method, as things come into my head, and therefore pray use the same freedom with me, who am, &c.

I

LETTER XVI.

To Mr. WALS H.

July 2, 1706. Cannot omit the firft opportunity of making you my Acknowledgments for reviewing those Papers of mine. You have no less right to correct me, than the fame hand that rais'd a tree has to prune it. I am convinc’d, as well as you, that one may correct too much; for in Poetry, as in Painting, a man may lay colours one upon another, till they stiffen and deaden the

piece. Befides, to bestow heightning on every part is monftrous: some parts ought to be lower than the reft, and nothing looks more ridiculous, than a work where the thoughts, however different in their own nature, feem all on a level: 'Tis like a meadow newly mown, where weeds, grafs, and flowers are all laid even, and appear undistinguish'd. I believe too, that fometimes our first thoughts are the best, as the first squeezing of the grapes makes the fineft and richeft wine.

I have not attempted any thing of a Paftoral Comedy, because I think the taste of our age will not relish a poem of that sort. People feek for what they call Wit, on all fubjects, and in all places; not confidering that nature loves truth fo well, that it hardly ever admits of flourishing. Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needlefs, but impairs what it wou'd improve. There is a certain majefty in fimplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit: infomuch that the Critics have excluded it from the loftieft poetry, as well as the lowest, and forbid it to the Epic no less than the Paftoral. I should certainly displease all those who are charm'd with Guarini and Bonarelli, and imitate Taffo not only in the fimplicity of his thoughts, but in that of the fable too. If furprizing Discoveries fhou'd have place in the story of a paftoral comedy, I believe it wou'd be more agreeable to probability to make them the effects of chance than of defign; intrigue not being very consistent with that innocence which ought to constitute a fhepherd's character. There is nothing in all the Aminta (as I remember) but happens by meer accident; unless it be the meeting of Aminta with Sylvia at the fountain, which is the contrivance of Daphne, and even that is the most fimple in the world: The contrary is obfervable in Paftor Fido, where Corifca is fo perfect a mistress of intrigue, that the plot cou'd not have been brought to pass without her. I am inclin'd to think the Paftoral Comedy has another disadvan