LETTERS

TO AND FROM

SEVERAL PERSON S.

From 1714, to 1721.

LETTER I.

The Rev. Dean BERKLEY to Mr. POPE.

A

Leghorn, May 1, 1714.

S I take ingratitude to be a greater crime than impertinence, I chufe rather to run the rifque of being thought guilty of the latter, than not to return you my thanks for a very agreeable entertainment you juft now gave me. I have accidentally met with your Rape of the Lock here, having never feen it before. Style, painting, judgment, fpirit, I had already admired in other of your writings; but in this I am charm'd with the magic of your invention, with all thofe images, allufions, and inexplicable beauties, which you raise fo furprisingly, and at the fame time fo naturally, out of a trifle. And yet I cannot fay that I was more pleas'd with the reading of it, than I am with the pretext it gives me to renew in your thoughts, the remembrance of one who values no happiness beyond the friendship of men of wit, learning, and good-nature.

I re

I remember to have heard you mention fome halfform'd defign of coming to Italy. What might we not expect from a Mufe that fings fo well in the bleak climate of England, if fhe felt the fame warm fun, and breathed the fame air with Virgil and Horace?

There are here an incredible number of Poets, that have all the inclination, but want the genius, or perhaps the art, of the Ancients. Some among them, who understand English, begin to relish our Authors; and I am informed, that at Florence they have tranflated Milton into Italian verfe. If one who knows fo well how to write like the old Latin poets, came among them; it would probably be a means to retrieve them from their cold, trivial conceits, to an imitation of their predeceffors.

As merchants, antiquaries, men of pleasure, &c. have all different views in travelling; I know not whether it might not be worth a Poet's while, to travel, in order to ftore his mind with strong images of Nature.

Green fields and groves, flowery meadows and purling ftreams are no where in fuch perfection as in England: but if you would know lightfome days, warm funs, and blue skies, you must come to Italy: and to enable a man to defcribe rocks and precipices, it is abfolutely neceffary that he pass the Alps.

You will eafily perceive that it is felf-interest makes me fo fond of giving advice to one who has no need of it. If you came into thefe parts I should fly to fee you. I am here (by the favour of my good friend the Dean of St. Patrick's) in quality of Chaplain to the Earl of Peterborough; who about three months fince left the greateft part of his family in this town. God knows how long we fhall ftay here. I am

LETTER II.

Mr. POPE to Mr. JER VAS in Ireland.

TH

July 9, 1716.

HO', as you rightly remark, I pay my tax but once in half a year, yet you fhall fee by this letter upon the neck of my last, that I pay a double tax, as we non-jurors ought to do. Your acquaintance on this fide of the sea are under terrible apprehenfions from your long ftay in Ireland, that you may grow too polite for them; for we think (fince the great fuccefs of fuch a play as the Non-juror) that politeness is gone over the water. But others are of opinion it has been longer among you, and was introduced much about the fame time with Frogs, and with equal fuccefs. Poor Poetry! the little that is left of it here longs to crofs the feas, and leave Eufden in full and peaceable poffeffion of the British laurel and we begin to wish you had the finging of our poets, as well as the croaking of our frogs, to yourselves, in facula fæculorum. It would be well in exchange, if Parnelle, and two or three more of your Swans would come hither, especially that Swan, who, like a true modern one, does not fing at all, Dr. Swift. I am (like the rest of the world) a fufferer by his idlenefs. Indeed I hate that any man fhould be idle, while I muft tranflate and comment; and I may the more fincerely wish for good poetry from others because I am become a perfon out of the queftion; for a Tranflator is no more a poet, than a Taylor is a man.

You are, doubtless, perfuaded of the validity of that famous verse,

'Tis Expectation makes a Blessing dear :

but

but why would you make your friends fonder of you than they are? There is no manner of need of it. We begin to expect you no more than Anti-chrift; a man that hath abfented himself so long from his friends, ought to be put into the Gazette.

Every body here has great need of you. Many faces have died for want of your pencil, and blooming Ladies have wither'd in expecting your return. Even Frank and Betty (that conftant pair) cannot confole themselves for your abfence; I fancy they will be forced to make their own picture in a pretty babe, before you come home: 'twill be a noble fubject for a family piece. Come then, and having peopled Ireland with a world of beautiful fhadows, come to us, and fee with that eye (which, like the eye of the world, creates beauties by looking on them) fee, I fay, how England has alter'd the airs of all its heads in your absence: and with what fneaking city attitudes our most celebrated perfonages appear, in the mere mortal works of our painters.

Mr. Fortefcue is much yours; Gay commemo rates you; and laftly (to climb by juft fteps and degrees) my Lord Burlington defires you may be put in mind of him. His gardens flourish, his structures rife, his pictures arrive, and (what is far more vaJuable than all) his own good qualities daily extend themselves to all about him: of whom I the meaneft (next, to some Italian Fidlers, and English Bricklayers) am a living inftance. Adieu.

LETTER III

To the fame.

Nov. 14, 1716.

F I had not done my utmost to lead my life for

I pleasantly as to forget all mitfolades, I should

tell you I reckoned your abfence no small one; but I hope you have also had many good and pleasant reafons to forget your friends on this fide the world. If a wifh could tranfport me to you and your prefent companions, I could do the fame. Dr. Swift, I believe, is a very good landlord, and a chearful hoft at his own table: I fuppofe he has perfectly learnt himself, what he has taught fo many others, rupta non infanire lagena: elfe he would not make a proper hoft for your humble fervant, who (you know) tho' he drinks a glafs as feldom as any man, contrives to break one as often. But 'tis a confolation to me, that I can do this, and many other enormities, under my own roof.

But that you and I are upon equal terms, in all friendly laziness, and have taken an 'inviolable oath to each other, always to do what we will; 1 fhould reproach you for fo long a filence. The best amends you can make for faying nothing to me, is by faying all the good you can of me, which is, that I heartily love and efteem the Dean and Dr. Parnelle.

Gay is yours and theirs. His fpirit is awakened very much in the cause of the Dean, which has broke forth in a courageous couplet or two upon Sir Richard Blackmore: He has printed it with his name to it, and bravely affigns no other reason, than that the faid Sir Richard has abused Dr. Swift. I have alfo fuffered in the like caufe, and fhall fuffer more: unless Parnelle fends me his Zoilus and Bookworm (which the Bishop of Clogher, I hear, greatly extols)

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