TH LETTER XXIII. From Mr. CROMWELL. Nov. 20, 1710. HE system of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is novel) could have no room here: Lucan with the reft of the Latin poets, feems, to follow Plato; whofe order of the spheres is clear in Cicero, De natura Deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The feat of the Semidei manes is Platonic too, for Apuleius De deo Socratis affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the region of the Air for their intercourse with gods and men; so that, I fancy, Rowe mistook the fituation, and I can't be reconcil'd to, Look down on the fun's rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes; and wish you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, could license his invective against priests; but, I suppose, you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the cause of them, his poetic defcriptions: for the Romans then knew the coaft of Africa from Cyrene (to the foutheaft of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: but, pray, remember how your Homer nodded, while Ulyffes flept, and wwaking knew not where he was, in the short paffage from Corcyra to Ithaca. I like Trapp's verfions for their justness; his Pfalm is excellent, the prodigies in the firft Georgic judicious (whence I conclude that 'tis easier to turn Virgil justly in blank verse, than rhyme.) The eclogue of Gallus, and fable of Phaeton pretty well; but he is very faulty in his numbers; the fate of Phaeton might run thus, The blafted Phaeton with blazing hair, } I am Your, &c. LETTER XXIV. Nov. 24, 1710. NO make use of that freedom and familia❤ To make of that freedom and fa in rity of style, which we have taken up our correspondence, and which is more properly talking upon paper, than writing; I will tell you without any preface, that I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the ancients, or in the leaft an acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, 'tis a mercy on this occafion that I do not give you an account of his life and conversation; as how he liv'd fome years like an inchanted knight in a certain K 4 a certain island, with a tale of a King of Den mark's mistress that shall be nameless-But I have compaffion on you, and would not for the world you should stay any longer among the Genii and Semidei Manes, you know where; for if once you get fo near the moon, Sappho will want your prefence in the clouds and inferior regions; not to mention the great lofs Drury-lane will fuftain, when Mr. C is in the milky way. These celestial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a fort of Sortilegi in one fenfe, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes; the adventurers being at firft in an uncertainty, whereas the fetters-up are fure of something. Priests indeed in their character, as they reprefent God, are facred; and fo are conftables as they represent the King; but you will own a great many of them are very 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 of as you; because I think they have little of the main characteristic of this author, a graceful eafiness. For let the fenfe be ever fo exactly render'd, unless an author looks like himself, in his air, habit, and manner, 'tis a disguise, and not tranflation. 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. 1 TH 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 For this he employs fix verfes, among which is As if on Knightly terms in lifts they ran. Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pha- When nature ceases, thou shalt ftill remain, Et Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, 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. Your obfervations are all very just: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his sentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practise the Profodia of your rules. Your a poem fhews you to be, what you fay of Voiture with books well bred: the ftate of the fair, tho' satirical, is touch'd with that delicacy, and gallantry, that not the court of Augustus, notBut hold, I fhall lofe what I lately recover'd, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I must say, 'tis as faultlefs as the fair to whom 'tis addrefs'd, be she never so perfect. The M. G. (who, it seems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcrib'd it by lucrubation: From some discourse of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion call learning). pedantry; but now, he fays, he has no less, I affure you, than a veneration for you. Your, &c. a To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. P. LET. |