ation of the version of Statius. The first I imagined you might have had before now; but fince the contrary has happened, you may draw this moral from it, That authors in general are more ready to write nonsense than booksellers are to publish it. I had, I know not what extraordinary flux of rhyme upon me for three days together, in which time all the verses you fee added, have been written; which 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 fpring-time, in as great abundance, as the trees do bloffoms, a very few whereof ever corne to the fruit, and please no longer than just in their birth. They make no less hafte to bring their flowers of wit to the prefs, than gardeners to bring their other flowers to the market, which if they can't get off their hands in the morning, are sure to die before night. Thus the fame reafon 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 ease 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 treati fes, ufually publifh'd in a like volume and charac ter. The time now drawing nigh, when you use 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 wellpenn'd verses. I wish you all the pleasures which the feafon and the nymph can afford; the best company, the best coffee, and the best news you can de. fire: 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 laft, and mark the margins, as you have done in the pages immediately before (which you will find corrected to your fenfe fince your last perufal) you will extremely oblige me, and improve my translation. 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 observation 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 best of their Poets has undeceived me, and confirms your opinion very ftrongly, and much more than Mr Dryden's authority, who, though he made it a rule, seldom observed it. Your, &c. LETTER VII. June 10. 1709. I Have received part of the version of Statius, and return you my thanks for your remarks, which I think to be juft, except where you cry out (like one in Horace's Art of poetry) pulchre, bene, recte! There I have some fears you are often, if not always, in the wrong. One of your objections, namely on that paffage, The last revolving years fhall ripen into fate, may be well grounded, in relation to its not being the exact sense of the words-* Catera reliquo ordine ducam. But the duration of the Action of Statius's poem may as well be excepted againft, as many things befides in him: (which I wonder Boffu has not obferv'd); for instead of confining his narration See the first book of Statius, v. 302. to one year, it is manifeftly exceeded in the very firft two books: The narration begins with Oedipus's prayer to the Fury to promote difcord betwixt his fons; afterwards the Poet exprefsly defcribes their entering into the agreement of reigning a year by turns: and Polynices takes his flight from Thebes on his brother's refusal to refign the throne. the first book; in the next Tydeus is fent ambassador to Eteocles, and demands his resignation in these terms, All this is in Afriferum velox jam circulus orbem Torfit, & amiffe redierunt montibus umbra, But Boffu himself is mistaken in on particular, relatingto the commencement of the action; faying in book ii. cap. 8. that Statius opens it with Europa's Rape; whereas the Poet, at moft, only deliberates whether he fhould or not: Unde jubetis Ire, Dea? gentifne canam primordia dire, but then exprefsly paffes all this with a longa retro fe ries-and fays limes mihi carminis efto Oedipoda confufa domus. Indeed, there are numberless particulars blame-worthy in our author, which I have tried to foften in the verhion: VOL. V. K dubiamque jugo fragor impulit Deten In latus, & geminis vix fluctibus obftitit Ifthmus, is moft extravagantly hyperbolical: Nor did I ever read a greater piece of tautology than Vacua cum folus in aula Refpiceres jus omne tuam, cunctofque minores, In the journey of Polynices is fome geographical error, In mediis audit duo littora campis could hardly be: for the Ifthmus of Corinth is full five miles over: And caligantes abrupto fole Mycenas is not confiftent with what he tells us, in lib. iv. lin. 305. "that thofe of Mycena came not to the war "at this time, because they were then in confufion "by the divifions of the brothers, Atreus and Thy"eftes." Now, from the raifing the Greek army against Thebes, back to the time of this journey of Polynices, is (according to Statius's own account) three years. Yours, &c. LETTER VIII. July 17. 1709. T HE morning after I parted from you, I found myself (as I had prophefied) all alone, in an uneafy Stage coach, a doleful change from that |