LETTER

XXIII.

To Mrs. ARABELLA FERMOR.

You

On her Marriage.

are by this time satisfied how much the tenderness of one man of merit is to be preferred to the addreffes of a thousand. And by this time the Gentleman you have made choice of is fenfible, how great is the joy of having all thofe charms and good qualities which have pleased fo many, now applied to please one only. It was but just, that the same Virtues which gave you reputation, should give you happiness; and I can wish you no greater, than that you may receive it in as high a degree yourself, as fo much good humour must infallibly give it to your husband.

It may be expected, perhaps, that one who has the title of Poet should say something more polite on this occafion : But I am really more a well-wisher to your felicity, than a celebrater of your beauty. Befides, you are now a married woman, and in a way to be a great many better things than a fine lady; fuch as an excellent wife, a faithful friend, a tender parent, and at laft, as the confequence of them all, a faint in heaven. You ought now to hear nothing but that, which was all you ever defired to hear (whatever

(whatever others may have spoken to you) I mean Truth: and it is with the utmost that I affure you, no friend you have can more rejoice in any good that befals you, is more fincerely delighted with the prospect of your future happiness, or more unfeignedly defires a long continuance of it.

I hope, you will think it but just, that a man who will certainly be spoken of as your admirer, after he is dead, may have the happiness to be esteemed, while he is living,

Your, &c.

LETTERS

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL,

From 1705 to 1716.

LETTER I.

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. POPE.

I

SIR,

Oct. 19, 1705. Return you the Book you were pleased to fend me, and with it your obliging letter, which deferves my particular acknowledgment; for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of fo good a friend, the welcomeft thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met with, an admirable genius in those Poems, not only because they were Milton's ', or were approved by Sir Hen.

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Secretary of State to | Lycidas, and the Masque of King William the Third. P.

L'Allegro Il Penferofo,

Comus.

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P.

Wootton,

Wootton, but because you had commended them; and give me leave to tell you, that I know no body fo like to equal him, even at the age he wrote moft of them, as yourself. Only do not afford more caufe of complaints against you, that you suffer nothing of yours to come abroad; which in this age, wherein wit and true sense is more scarce than money, is a piece of such cruelty as your best friends can hardly pardon. I hope you will repent and amend; I could offer many reasons to this purpose, and fuch as you cannot answer with any fincerity; but that I dare not enlarge, for fear of ingaging in a style of Compliment, which has been fo abused by fools and knaves, that it is become almost scandalous. I conclude therefore with an affurance which fhall never vary, of my being ever, &c.

LETTER II.

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. POPE.

I

April 9, 1708.

you

Have this moment received the favour of yours of the 8th inftant; and will make a true excufe (tho' perhaps no very good one) that I deferred the troubling you with a letter,

when

when I fent back your papers, in hopes of feeing you at Binfield before this time. If I had met with any fault in your performance, I should freely now (as I have done too presumptuously in conversation with you) tell you my opinion; which I have frequently ventured to give you, rather in compliance with your defires than that I could think it reasonable.

upon

For I am not yet fatisfied what grounds I can pretend to judge of poetry, who never have been practised in the art. There may poffibly be fome happy genius's, who may judge of fome of the natural beauties of a poem, as a man may of the proportions of a building, without having read Vitruvius, or knowing any thing of the rules of architecture: but this, tho' it may fometimes be in the right, must be subject to many mistakes, and is certainly but a superficial knowledge; without entring into the art, the methods, and the particular excellencies of the whole composure, in all the parts of it.

Besides my want of fkill, I have another reason why I ought to fufpect myself, by reafon of the great affection I have for you; which might give too much bias to be kind to every thing that comes from you. But after all, I must say (and I do it with an old-fashioned fincerity) that I entirely approve

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of

your

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