my best to brush you up like your neighbours b But I can no more pretend to the merit of the production, than a midwife to the virtues and good qualites of the child she helps into the light. The few things I have entirely added, you will excuse; you may take them lawfully for your own, because they are no more than sparks lighted up by your fire: and you may omit them at last, if you think them but squibs in your triumphs. I am, &c. I LETTER XII. From Mr. WyCHERLEY. Received Nov. 11, 1707. yours of the 9th yesterday, which has (like the rest of your letters) at once pleas'd and inftructed me; so that I affure you, you can no more write too much to your abfent friends, than speak too much to the prefent. This is a truth that all men own, who have either feen your writings, or heard your 'dif courfe; enough to make others fhow their judgment, in ceafing to write or talk, especially to you, or in your company. However, I speak or write to you, not to please you, but myself; fince I provoke your answers; which, whilst they humble me, give me vanity; tho' I am leffened by you, even when you commend me: fince you commend 'my little fense with so much more of yours, that you put me out of countenance, whilst you would keep me in it. So that you have found a way (against the cuftom of great wits) to fhew even a great deal of good-nature with a great deal of good fenfe. I thank you for the book you promis'd me, by which I find you would not only correct my lines, but my life. As to the damn'd verfes I entrusted you with, I hope you will let them undergo your purgatory, to fave them from other people's damning them fince the critics, who are generally the first damn'd in this life, like the damn'd below, never leave to bring thofe above them under their own circumftances. I beg you to perufe my papers, and felect what you think best or most tolerable, and look over them again; for I refolve fuddenly to print some of them, as a harden'd old gamefter will (in spite of all former ill ufage by fortune) push on an ill hand in expectation of recovering himself; especially fince I have fuch a Croupier or Second to ftand by me as Mr. Pope. LETTER XIII. Nov. 20, 1707. R. Englefyld being upon his journey to London, tells me I muft write to you by him, which I do, not more to comply with his defire, than to gratify my own; tho' I did it fo lately by the meffenger you fent hither: I take it too as an opportunity of fending you the fair copy of the poem a on Dulness, which was not then finish'd, and which I fhould not care to hazard by the common post. Mr. Englefyld is ignorant of the contents, and I hope your prudence will let him remain fo, for my fake no less than your own: fince, if you should reveal any thing of this nature, it would be no wonder reports should be rais'd, and there are thofe (I fear) who would be ready to improve them to my disadvantage. I am forry you told the great man, whom you met in the court of requests, that your papers were in my hands; no man alive fhall ever know any a The original of it in | is yet extant, among other blots, and with figures of fuch Brouillons of Mr. Wythe References from copycherley's Poems, corrected to copy, in Mr. Pope's hand, by him. fuch fuch thing from me; and I give you this warning befides, that tho' yourself should fay I had any ways affisted you, I am notwithstanding refolv'd to deny it. is very The method of the copy I send you different from what it was, and much more regular for the better help of your memory, I defire you to compare it by the figures in the margin, answering to the fame in this letter. The poem is now divided into four parts, mark'd with the literal figures 1. 2. 3. 4. The firft contains the Praife of Dulnefs, and fhews how upon feveral fuppofitions it paffes for 1. religion. 2. philosophy. 3. example. 4. wit. and 5. the cause of wit, and the end of it. The second part contains the Advantages of Dulness; 1ft, in business; and 2dly, at Court, where the fimilitudes of the Byafs of a bowl, and the Weights of a clock, are directly tending to the subject, tho' introduced before in a place where there was no mention made of those advantages (which was your only objection to my adding them.) The third contains the happiness of Dulness in all stations, and shews in a great many particulars, that it is fo fortunate as to be efteemed fome good quality or other in all forts of people; that it is thought quiet, fenfe, caution, policy, prudence, majefty, valour, circumfpection, honefty, &c. The fourth fourth part I have wholly added, as a climax which fums up all the praise, advantage, and happiness of Dulness in a few words, and strengthens them by the oppofition of the difgrace, disadvantage, and unhappiness of Wit, with which it concludes b. Tho' the whole be as fhort again ás át first, there is not one thought omitted, but what is a repetition of fomething in your first volume, or in this very paper: fome thoughts are contracted, where they feem'd encompass'd with too many words; and fome new express'd or added, where I thought there wanted heightening, (as you'll fee particularly in the Simile of the clock-weights c) and the verfification This is totally omitted in the present Edition: Some of the lines are these : d; "Thus Dulness, the fafe opiate of the mind, < It was originally thus express'd: "As Clocks run fastest when most lead is on." in a Letter of Mr. Pope to Mr. Wycherley, dated April 3, 1705, and in a Paper of verfes of his, To the Author of a Poem called Succeffio, which got out in a Miscellany | in 1712, three years before Mr. Wycherley died, and two after he had laid afide the whole defign of publifhing any poems. P. Thefe two fimilies of the through |