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LETTER X.

From Mr. WY CHERLEY.

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, faplefs, and dead branches, to make the remainder live the longer; thus, like your mafter Apollo, you are at once a poet and a physician.

Now, Sir, as to my impudent invitation of you to the town, your good nature was the first cause of my confident request; but excufe me, I must (I fee) fay no more upon this fubject, fince I' find you a lit tle too nice to be dealt freely with; tho' you have given me fome encouragement to hope, our friendfhip 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, tho' 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

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

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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.

LETTER XI.

April 10, 1706.

BY

Y one of yours of the last month, you defire me 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 thofe verfes (as thofe on the Idlenefs of bufinefs, on Ignorance, on Lazinefs, &c.) to make the method and numbers exact, and avoid repetitions? For tho' (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 fuch, 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 these will need only to be shortened, 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 do to 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 purpose.

* Printed in folio, in the year 1704.

So

So that I must needs defire you would apply your care wholly at present to those which are yet unpublifhed, 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 wish you would defer, at least 'till you have finifh'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 those in trade, take least pains to fet off their goods; while the haberdashers of small wit, fpare for no decorations or ornaments. You

have commiffion'd 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 fhe helps into the light.

The few things I have entirely added, you will excufe; 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 am, &c.

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

VOL. VII.

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LETTER XII.

From Mr. WYCHERLEY.

Receiv'd

Nov. 11, 1707.

I yours of the 9th yesterday, which has

(like the rest of your letters) at once pleas'd and instructed me; fo that, I affure 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 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 leffened by you even when you commend me: fince you commend my little sense with so much 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 cuftom of great wits) to fhew even a great deal of good-nature with a great deal of good sense.

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

As to the dama'd verfes I entrufted you with, I hope you will let them undergo your purgatory, to fave them from other people's damning them: fince the critics, who are generally the first damn'd in this life, like the damn'd below, never leave to bring thofe above them under their own circumstances. I beg you to perufe my papers, and felect what you think beft or moft tolerable, and look over them again; for I resolve suddenly to print fome of them, as a harden'd old gamester will (in spite of all for

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mer 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.

LETTER XIII.

Nov. 20, 1707.

Mdon, tells me I muft write to you by him,

R. Englefyld being upon his journey to Lon

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which I do, not more to comply with his defire, than to gratify my own; tho' I did it fo lately by the meflenger you fent hither: I take it too as an opportunity of fending you the fair copy of the poem on Dulness, which was not then finish'd, and which 1 fhould not care to hazard by the common poft. Mr. Englefyld is ignorant of the contents, and I hope your prudence will let him remain fo, for my fake no less than your own: fince if you fhould reveal any thing of this nature, it would be no wonder reports fhould be rais'd, and there are those (I fear) who would be ready to improve them to my disadvantage. I am forry you told the great man, whom you met in the court of requests, that your papers were in my hands; no man alive fhall ever know any fuch thing from me; and I give you this warning befides, that tho' yourfelf fhould fay I had any ways affifted you, I am notwithstanding refolv'd to deny it.

The method of the copy I fend you is very different from what it was, and much more regular :

*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 fuch Brouillons of Mr. Wycherley's poems, corrected by him.

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for