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 b, or were approved by Sir Hen.

Comus. P.

2. Secretary of State to | Lycidas, and the Mafque of King William the Third. P. b L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, VOL. VII.

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Wooton,

Wooton, 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 most of them, as yourself. Only do not afford more cause of complaints against you, that you fuffer nothing of yours to come abroad; which in this age, wherein wit and true fenfe is more fcarce than money, is a piece of fuch cruelty as your best friends can hardly pardon. I hope you will repent and amend; I could offer many reafons to this purpose, and fuch as you cannot answer with any fincerity; but that I dare not enlarge; for fear of engaging in a style of Compliment, which has been so abused by fools and knaves, that it is become almoft fcandalous. I conclude therefore with an affurance which shall never vary, of my being ever, &c.

LETTER II.

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. POPE.

April 9, 1708.

Have this moment received the favour of

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

letter,

letter, when I fent back your papers, in hopes of seeing 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 prefumptuously 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. For I am not yet satisfied upon what grounds I can pretend to judge of poetry, who never have been practifed in the art. There may poffibly be fome happy genius's, who may judge of some 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 sometimes be in the right, must be subject to many mistakes, and is certainly but a fuperficial 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 suspect myself, by reason 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 muft fay (and I do it with an old fashioned fincerity) that I entirely approve of your translation of those pieces of Homer, both as to the verfification

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fication and the true fenfe that shines thro' the whole: nay I am confirmed in my former application to you, and give me leave to renew it upon this occafion, that you would proceed in tranflating that incomparable Poet, to make him fpeak good English, to dress his admirable characters in your proper, fignificant, and expreffive conceptions, and to make his works as useful and inftructive to this degenerate age, as he was to our friend Horace, when he read him at Prænefte: Qui, quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, &c. I break off with that quid non? with which I confess I am

charm'd.

Upon the whole matter I intreat you to fend this presently to be added to the Miscellanies, and I hope it will come time enough for that purpose.

I have nothing to fay of my Nephew B―'s obfervations, for he sent them to me so late, that I had not time to confider them; I dare fay he endeavoured very faithfully (though, he told me, very haftily) to execute your commands.

All I can add is, that if your excess of modesty should hinder you from publishing this Effay, I fhall only be forry that I have no more credit with you, to perfuade you to oblige

the

the public, and very particularly, dear Sir, Your, &c.

LETTER III.

Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL to Mr. POPE.

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March 6, 713.

Think a hafty fcribble fhows more what flows from the heart, than a letter after Balzac's manner, in ftudied phrases; therefore I will tell you as fast as I can, that I have received your favour of the 26th past, with your kind prefent of the Rape of the Lock. You have given me the trueft fatisfaction imaginable not only in making good the juft opinion I have ever had of your reach of thought, and my Idea of your comprehenfive genius; but likewife in that pleasure I take as an Englishman to see the French, even Boileau himself in his Lutrin, out-done in your poem ; for you defcend, leviore plectro, to all the nicer touches, that your own obfervation and wit furnish, on such a subject as requires the finest strokes and the livelieft imagination. But I must say no more (tho' I could a great deal) on what pleases me fo much and henceforth, I hope, you will never condemn me of partiality, since I only P 3 fwim