LETTERS

TO AND FROM

W. WALS H*, Efq.

From the Year 1705 to 1707.

LETTER I.

Mr. WALSH to Mr. WY CHERLEY.

I

April 20, 1705.

Return you the +Papers you favour'd me with, and had fent them to you yefterday morning, but that I thought to have brought them to you last night myself I have read them over feveral times with great fatisfaction. The Preface is very judicious and very learned; and the Verfes very tender and eafy. The Author feems to have a parti

*Of Abberley in Worcestershire, Gentleman of the Horfe in Queen Anne's reign, Author of feveral beautiful pieces in Profe and Verfe, and in the opinion of Mr. Dryden (in his Pofticript to Virgil) the beft Critic of our Nation in his time.

P.

Mr. Walsh encouraged our Author much, and ufed to tell him, That there was one way of excelling yet left open for him, which was by correctness: that tho' we had feveral great poets, we had none that were corre&; and therefore he advised him to make this his ftudy.

Mr. Pope's Paftorals.

P.

cular

*

cular genius for that kind of poetry, and a Judgment that much exceeds the years you told me he was of. He has taken very freely from the ancients, but what he has mix'd of his own with theirs, is not inferior to what he has taken from them. "Tis no flattery at all to fay, that Virgil had written nothing fo good at his age I fhall take it as a favour if you will bring me acquainted with him: and if he will give himself the trouble any morning to call at my house, I fhall be very glad to read the verses over with him, and give him my opinion of the particulars more largely than I can well do in this letter. I am, Sir, &c.

LETTER

II.

Mr. WALSH to Mr. POPE.

June 24, 1706.

Receiv'd the favour of your letter, and shall be very glad of the continuance of a correfpondence by which I am like to be fo great a gainer. I hope, when I have the happiness of seeing you again in London, not only to read over the verfes I have now of yours, but more that you have written fince; for I make no doubt but any one who writes fo well, muft write more. Not that I think the moft voluminous poets always the beft; I believe the contrary is rather true. I mention'd fomewhat to you in London of a Paftoral Comedy, which I fhould be glad to hear you had thought upon fince. I find Menage in his obfervations upon Taflo's Aminta, reckons up fourscore paftoral plays in Italian and in looking over my old Italian books, I find a great many paftoral and pifcatory plays, which, I fuppofe, Menage reckons together." I find

* Sixteen. P.

alfo

alfo by Menage, that Taffo is not the first that writ in that kind, he mentioning another before him which he himself had never feen, nor indeed have I. But as the Aminta, Paftor Fido, and Filli di Sciro of Bonarelli are the three beft, fo, I think, there is no difpute but Aminta is the best of the three: not but that the difcourfes in Paftor Fido are. more entertaining and copious in feveral people's opinion, tho' not fo proper for paftoral; and the fable of Bonarelli more furprizing. I do not remember many in other languages, that have written in this kind with fuccefs. Racan's Bergeries are much inferior to his lyric poems; and the Spaniards are all too full of conceits. Rapin will have the defign of paftoral plays to be taken from the Cyclops of Euripides. I am fure there is nothing of this kind in English worth mentioning, and therefore you have that field open to yourself. You fee I write to you without any fort of constraint or method, as things come into my head, and therefore ufe the fame freedom with me, who am, &c.

LETTER III.

To Mr. WALS H.

Windfor-Foreft, July 2, 1706.

Cannot omit the first opportunity of making yout my acknowledgments for reviewing those papers of mine. You have no less right to correct me, than the fame hand that rais'd a tree has to prune it.. I am convinced as well as you, that one may correct too much; for in poetry, as in painting, a man may lay colours one upon another, till they stiffen and deaden the piece. Befides, to, beftow heightening on every part is monftrous: fome parts ought to

be

be lower than the reft; and nothing looks more ridiculous than a work, where the thoughts, however different in their own nature, seem all on a level : 'tis like a meadow newly mown, where weeds, grafs, and flowers, are all laid even, and appear undistinguifh'd. I believe too that fometimes our first thoughts are the beft, as the first squeezing of the grapes makes the finest and richest wine.

I have not attempted any thing of a Pastoral comedy, because, I think, the taste of our age will not relish a poem of that fort. People feek for what they call wit, on all fubjects, and in all places; not confidering that nature loves truth fo well, that it hardly ever admits of flourishing: Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needlefs, but impairs what it would improve. There is a certain majefty in fimplicity which is far above all the quaintnefs of wit: infomuch that the critics have excluded wit from the loftieft poetry, as well as the loweft, and forbid it to the Epic no less than the Paftoral. I should certainly displease all those who are charm'd with Guarini and Bonarelli, and imitate Taffo not only in the fimplicity of his Thoughts, but in that of the Fable too. If furprifing difcoveries fhould have place in the ftory of a paftoral comedy, I believe it would be more agreeable to probability to make them the effects of chance than of defign; intrigue not being very confiftent with that innocence, which ought to conftitute a fhepherd's character. There is nothing in all the Aminta (as I remember) but happens by mere accident; unless it be the meeting of Aminta with Sylvia at the fountain, which is the contrivance of Daphne; and even that is the moft fimple in the world: the contrary is obfervable in Pastor Fido, where Corifca is fo perfect a mistress of intrigue, that the plot could not have been brought to pafs without her. I am inclin'd to think the paftoral

comedy

comedy has another disadvantage, as to the manners: its general design is to make us in love with the innocence of a rural life, fo that to introduce fhepherds of a vicious character muft in fome measure debase it; and hence it may come to pass, that even the virtuous characters will not shine so much, for want of being oppos'd to their contraries. These thoughts are purely my own, and therefore I have reason to doubt them: but I hope your judgment will fet me right.

I would beg your opinion too as to another point: it is, how far the liberty of borrowing may extend? I have defended it fometimes by faying, that it feems not so much the perfection of fenfe, to fay things that had never been faid before, as to express those beft that have been faid ofteneft; and that writers, in the cafe of borrowing from others, are like trees which of themselves would produce only one fort of fruit, but by being grafted upon others may yield variety. A mutual commerce makes poetry flourish; but then poets, like merchants, fhould repay with fomething of their own what they take from others; not, like pyrates, make prize of all they meet. I defire you to tell me fincerely, if I have not stretch'd this licence too far in these Pastorals? I hope to become a critic by your precepts, and a poet by your example. Since I have seen your Eclogues, I cannot be much pleas'd with my own; however, you have not taken away all my vanity, fo long as you give me leave to profefs myfelf Yours, &c.

He hould rather have faid, the perfetion of conception.

LET