Binfield in Windfor Forest, Dec. 26, 1704†. T was certainly a great fatisfaction to me to fee and converfe with a man, whom in his writings I I had fo long known with pleasure; but it was a high addition to it, to hear you, at our very first meeting, doing juftice to your dead friend Mr. Dry * If one were to judge of this fet of Letters by the manner of thinking and turn of expreffion, one fhould conclude they had been all miftitled; and that the letters given to the boy of fixteen, were written by the man of feventy, and fo on the contrary: fuch fober fenfe, fuch gravity of manners, and so much judgment, and knowledge of compofition, enlivened with the sprightliness of manly wit, distinguish those of Mr. Pope: while, on the other hand, a childish jealousy, a puerile affectation, an attention and lying at catch for turns and points, together with a total ignorance and contempt of order, of method, and of all relation of the parts to one another to compofe a reafonable whofe make up the character of thofe of Mr. Wycherley. The Author's Age then fixteen. den. den. I was not fo happy as to know him: Virgilium tantum vidi. Had I been born early enough, I must have known and lov'd him: For I have been affured, not only by yourself, but by Mr. Congreve and Sir William Trumbul, that his perfonal qualities were as amiable as his Poetical, notwithstanding the many libellous mifreprefentations of them, against which the former of thefe Gentlemen has told me he will one day vindicate him*. I fuppofe those injuries were begun by the violence of Party, but 'tis no doubt they were continued by envy at his fuccefs and fame : And thofe Scriblers who attacked him in his latter times, were only like gnats in a fummer's evening, which are never very troublefome but in the finest and moft glorious feafon; for his fire, like the fun's, fhined cleareft towards its fetting. You must not therefore imagine, that when you told me my own performances were above those Critics, I was fo vain as to believe it; and yet I may not be fo humble as to think myfelf quite below their notice. For critics, as they are birds of prey, have ever a natural inclination to carrion: and tho' fuch poor writers as I are but beggars, no beggar is fo poor but he can keep a cur, and no author is fo beggarly but he can keep a critic. I am far from thinking the attacks of fuch people either any honour or difhonour even to me, much lefs to Mr. Dryden. I He fince did fo, in his dedication to the Duke of Newcastle, prefix'd to the duodecimo Edition of Dryden's Plays, 1717. agree 5 agree with you, that whatever leffer Wits have rifen fince his death, are but like ftars appearing when the fan is fet, that twinkle only in his abfence, and with the rays they have borrowed from him. Our wit (as you call it) is but reflection or imitation, therefore scarce to be called ours. True Wit, I believe, may be defined a juftness of thought, and a facility of expreffion; or (in the midwives phrafe) a perfect conception, with an eafy delivery. However, this is far from a complete definition; pray, help me to a better, as, I doubt not, you can. I am, &c. LETTER II. From Mr. WYCHERLEY. Jan. 25, 1704-5. Have been fo bufy of late in correcting and tranferibing fome of my madrigals for a great man or two who defired to fee them, that I have (with your pardon) omitted to return you an answer to your moft ingenious letter: fo fcriblers to the public, like bankers to the public, are profufe in their voluntary loans to it, whilft they forget to pay their more private and particular, as more juft debts, to their best and nearest friends. However, I hope, you who have as much good nature as good fenfe (fince they generally are companions) will have patience with a B 3 debtor debtor who has an inclination to pay you his obliga tions, if he had wherewithal ready about him; and in the mean time fhould confider, when you have obliged me beyond my present power of returning the favour, that a debtor an honest man, if may be he but intends to be just when he is able, tho' late. But I should be less juft to you, the more I thought I could make a return to fo much profuseness of Wit and Humanity together; which tho' they feldom accompany each other in other men, are in you fo equally met, I know not in which you most abound. But fo much for my opinion of you, which is, that your Wit and Ingenuity is equalled by nothing but your Judgment, or Modefty, which (though it be to please myself) I must no more offend, than I can do either right. Therefore I will fay no more now of them, than that your good wit never forfeited your good judgment, but in your partiality to me and mine; fo that if it were poffible for a hardened fcribler to be vainer than he is, what you write of me would make me more conceited than what I fcrible myself: yet, I must confefs, I ought to be more humbled by your praise than exalted, which commends my little fense with so much more of yours, that I am difparaged and disheartened by your commendations; who give me an example of your wit in the first part of your letter, and a definition of it in the laft; to make writing well (that is, like you) more difficult to me than ever it was before. Thus the more great and juft |