Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

H. CROMWELL, Efq;

From the Year 1708 to 1711.

LETTER I.

March 18. 1708.

I

Believe it was with me when I left the Town, as

it is with a great many men when they leave the world, whose loss itself they do not fo much regret, as that of their friends whom they leave behind in it. For I do not know one thing for which I can envy London, but for your continuing there. Yet I guess you will expect me to recant this expreffion, when I tell you that Sappho (by which heathenish name you have chriften'd a very orthodox Lady) did not accompany me into the Country. Well, you have your Lady in the Town ftill, and I have my Heart in the Country still, which being wholly unemployed as yet, has the more room in it for my friends, and does not want a corner at your fervice. You have extremely obliged me by your franknefs and kindnefs; and if I have abused it by too much freedom

on my part, I hope you will attribute it to the natu. ral openness of my temper, which hardly knows how to fhow Respect, where it feels Affection. I would love my Friend, as my Mistress, without ceremony; and hope a little rough ufage fometimes may not be more difpleafing to the one than it is to the other. curiofity to know in what manner I live, or rather lose a life, Martial will inform you in one line:

If you have any

Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, cano, quiesco.

Every day with me is literally another yesterday, for it is exactly the fame: It has the fame business, which is Poetry; and the fame pleasure, which is idlenefs. A man might indeed pass his time much better, but I queftion if any man could pafs it much easier. If you will visit our fhades this spring, which I very much defire, you may perhaps inftruct me to manage my game more wifely; but at prefent I am fatisfy'd to trifle away my time any way, rather than let it stick by me; as fhop-keepers are glad to be rid of those goods at any rate, which would otherwise always be lying upon their hands.

Sir, if you will favour me fometimes with your letters, it will be a great fatisfaction to me on feveral accounts; and on this in particular, that it will show me (to my comfort) that even a wife man is fometines very idle; for fo you must needs be when you can find leifure to write to

Your, &c.

LETTER II.

April 27. 1708.

I

Have nothing to fay to you in this letter; but I was refolved to write to tell you fo. Why fhould not I content myself with so many great Examples of deep Divines, profound Cafuifts, grave Philofophers; who have written, not letters only, but whole Tomes and voluminous treatises about Nothing? Why fhould a fellow like me, who all his life does nothing, be afham'd to write nothing? and that to one who has nothing to do but to read it? But perhaps you'll fay, the whole world has fomething to do, fomething to talk of, fomething to wish for, fomething to be employ'd about: But pray, Sir, caft up the account, put all these somethings together, and what is the fum total but just nothing? I have no more to fay, but to defire you to give my service (that is nothing) to your friends, and to believe that I am nothing more than Your, &c.

Ex nihilo nil fit.

LUCR.

LETTER

III.

May 10. 1708.

Yo

great

OU talk of fame and glory, and of the men of Antiquity: Pray, tell me, what are all your great dead men, but so many little living letters? What a vaft reward is here for all the ink wasted by Writers, and all the blood fpilt by Princes? There was in old time one Severus a Roman Emperor. I

dare fay you never call'd him by any other name in your life and yet in his days he was ftyled Lucius, Septimius, Severus, Pius, Pertinax, Auguftus, Parthicus, Adiabenicus, Arabicus, Maximus, and what not? What a prodigious waste of letters has time made! what a number have here dropt off, and left the poor furviving feven unattended! For my own part, four are all I have to care for; and I'll be judg'd by you if any man could live in lefs compass? Well, for the future I'll drown all high thoughts in the Lethe of Cowflipwine as for Fame, Renown, Reputation, take 'em, Critics!

Tradam protervis in Mare Criticum

Ventis.

If ever I feek for Immortality here, may I be damn'd, for there is not fo much danger in a Poet's being damn'd:

Damnation follows death in other men,
But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen.

LETTER IV.

Nov. 1. 1708.

I

Have been fo well fatisfy'd with the country ever

fince I faw you, that I have not once thought of the Town, or enquir'd of any one in it befides Mr. Wycherley and yourself. And from him I understand of your journey this fummer into Leicestershire; from whence I guess you are return'd by this time, to

your old apartment in the widow's corner, to your old business of comparing Critics, and reconciling Commentators, and to your old diverfions of lofing a game at piquet with the ladies, and half a play, or a quarter of a play, at the theatre: where you are none of the malicious audience, but the chief of amorous fpectators; and for the infirmity of one fenfe, which there, for the most part, could only ferve to disgust you, enjoy the vigour of another, which ravishes you.

[+ You know when one fenfe is fupprefs'd

It but retires into the reft.

according to the poetical, not the learned, Dodwell; who has done pne thing worthy of eternal memory; wrote two lines in his life that are not nonsense !] So you have the advantage of being entertaind with all the beauty of the boxes, without being troubled with any of the dulnefs of the stage. You are fo good a critic, that 'tis the greatest happiness of the modern Poets that you do not hear their works: and next, that you are not fo arrant a critic, as to damn them (like the reft) without hearing. But now I talk of thofe critics, I have good news to tell you concerning myself, for which I expect you should congratulate with me: It is, that, beyond all my expectations, and far above my demerits, I have been moft mercifully reprived by the fovereign power of Jacob Tonfon, from being brought forth to public punishment; and refpited from time to time from the hands of those His Hearing.

+ Omitted by the Author in his own Edition.

« ZurückWeiter »