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odd fellows, and the devil of any likeness in them. Yet I can affure you, I honour the good as much as I deteft the bad, and I think, that in condemning thefe, we praise those. The tranflations from Ovid. I have not fo good an opinion as of you; becaufe I think they have little of the main characteristic of this author, a graceful eafinefs. For let the fenfe be ever fo exactly render'd, unless an author looks like himself, in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a difguife, and not a tranflation. But as to the Pfalm, I think David is much more beholden to the tranflator than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a Jew, fo he has made the Jew speak like a Roman.

Your, &c.

T

LETTER XXV.

From Mr. CROMWELL.

Dec. 5, 1710.

HE fame judgment we made on Rowe's ixth of Lucan will ferve for his part of the vith, where I find this memorable line,

Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum
Atque virum.

For this he employs fix verfes, among which is this,

As if on Knightly terms in lifts they ran.

Pray

Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronifm?-Tickel in his version of the Phænix from Claudian,

When nature ceafes, thou shalt ftill remain,
Nor fecond Chaos bound thy endless reign.
Claudian thus,

Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes,
Edomita tellure, manes.

which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final diffolution. Your thought of the priests lottery is very fine you play the wit, and not the critic, upon the errors of your brother.

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Your obfervations are all very juft: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his fentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practife the Profodia of your rules. Your * poem fhews you to be, what you fay of Voiture-with books well bred: the ftate of the fair, tho' fatirical, is touch'd with that delicacy, and gallantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lofe what I lately recovered, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I muft fay, 'tis as faultlefs as the fair to whom 'tis addrefs'd, be the never fo perfect. The M. G. (who, it seems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) tranfcrib'd it by lucubration: From fome discourse of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what

*To a Lady, with the works of Voiture.

the

the men of "fashion call learning) pedantry; but now, he fays, he has no lefs, I affure you, than a veneration for you.

Your, &c.

LETTER XXVI.

Dec. 17, 1710.

T feems that my late mention of Crafhaw, and

I'my from him, hion of and

my quotation from him, has mov'd your curiofity. I therefore fend you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for fome years; in which time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of thofe whose works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman, that is, at leifure hours, and more to keep out of idlenefs, than to establish a reputation fo that nothing regular or juft can be expected from him. All that regards defign, form, fable (which is the foul of poetry) all that concerns exactnefs, or confent of parts (which is the body) will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expreffions, and fomething of a neat caft of verfe (which are properly the drefs, gems, or loofe ornaments of poetry) may be found in these verfes. This is indeed the cafe of moft other poetical writers of mifcellanies; nor can it well be otherwise, fince no man can be a true poet, who writes for diverfion only. Thefe authors fhould

be

be confider'd as verfifiers and witty men, rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the thoughts, the expreffion, and the numbers. Thefe are only the pleafing part of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehended all at once. And (to exprefs myself like a painter) their colouring entertains the fight, but the lines and life of the picture are not to be infpected too narrowly. T

This author form'd himself upon Petrarch, or ra ther upon Marino. His thoughts, one may obferve, in the main, are pretty; but oftentimes far fetch'd, and too often strain'd and stiffen'd to make them appear the greater. For men are never so apt to think a thing great, as when it is odd or wonderful; and inconfiderate authors would rather be admir'd than understood. This ambition of furprizing a reader, is the true natural caufe of all fuftian, or bombaft in poetry. To confirm what I have faid, you need but look into his firft Poem of the Weeper, where the zd, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21ft ftanza's are as fublimely dull, as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, 20th and 23d ftanza's of the fame copy, are foft and pleafing and if these last want any thing, it is an eafier and more unaffected expreffion. The remaining thoughts in that poem might have been fpared, being either but repetitions, or very ry trivial and mean." And by this example in the firft one may guefs at all the reft; to be like this, a mixture of tender gentle thoughts and fuitable expreffions, of forced and inextricable.. conceits, and of needlefs fillers-up to the reft. From

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all

all which it is plain, this Author writ faft, and fet down what came uppermoft. A reader may fkim off the froth, and ufe the clear underneath; but if he goes too deep will meet with a mouthful of dregs; either the top or bottom of him are good for little, but what he did in his own, natural, middle-way, is beft. of ho

To speak of his numbers, is a little difficult, they are so various and irregular, and moftly Pindaric tis evident this heroic verfe (the beft example of which is his Mufic's Duel) is carelefly made up; but one may imagine from what it now is, that, had he taken more care, it had been mufical and pleafing enough, not extremely majestic, but fweet: and the time confider'd of his writing, he was (even as uncorrect as he is) none of the worst verfificators.

I will just obferve, that the beft pieces of this author are, a Paraphrafe on Pfal. xxiii. On Leffius, Epitaph on Mr. Afhton, Wishes to his fuppos'd mifftrefs, and the Dies Ira.

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LETTER XXVII.

Dec. 30, 1710.

Refume my old liberty of throwing out myself upon paper to you, and making what thoughts float uppermoft in my head, the fubject of a letter. They are at prefent upon laughter, which (for ought I know) may be the caufe you might fometimes think

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