wifhes of their living friends, and to be in a dull ftate of fleep, without one dream of those they left behind them. If you are, let this letter convince you to the contrary, which affures you, I am still, tho' in a state of feparation, Your, &c. P. S. This letter of deaths, puts me in mind of poor Mr. Betterton's; over whom I wou'd have this fentence of Tully for an epitaph, which will serve him as well in his Moral, as his Theatrical capacity. Vita bene ada jucundiffima eft recordatio. "T LETTER XIV. June 24, 1710: IS very natural for a young friend, and a young lover, to think the perfons they love have nothing to do but to please them; when perhaps they, for their parts, had twenty other engagements before. This was my cafe when I wonder'd I did not hear from you; but I no fooner receiv'd your fhort letter, but I forgot your long filence and fo many fine things as you faid of me cou'd not but have wrought a cure on my own fickness, if it had not been of the nature of that, which is deaf to the voice of the charmer. 'Twas impoffible you cou'd have better tim'd your compliment on my philofophy; it was certainly propereft to commend me for it just when I moft needed it, and when I cou'd leaft be proud of it; that is, when I was in pain. 'Tis not eafy to express what an exaltation it gave to my fpirits, above all the cordials of my doctor; and 'tis no compliment to tell you, that your compliments were sweeter than the sweetest of his juleps and fyrups. But if you will not believe fo much, G 3 Pour Pour le moins, votre compliment Nevertheless I wou'd not have you entirely lay afide the thoughts of my epitaph, any more than I do those of the probability of my becoming (e're long) the fubject of one. For death has of late been very familiar with fome of my fize; I am told my Lord+Lumley and Mr. Litton are gone before me; and tho' I may now without vanity esteem myself the least thing like a man in England, yet I can't but be forry, two heroes of fuch a make shou'd die inglorious in their beds; when it had been a fate more worthy our fize, had they met with theirs from an irruption of Cranes, or other warlike animals, thofe ancient enemies to our Pygmæan ancestors! You of a superior species little regard what befals us bomuncioles fefquipedales; however you have no reason to be fo unconcern'd, fince all phyficians agree there is no greater fign of a plague among men, than a mortality among frogs. I was the other day in company with a lady, who rally'd my perfon fo much, as to cause a total fubverfion of my countenance: fome days after, to be reveng'd on her, I prefented her among other company the following Rondeau on that occafion, which I defire you to fhow Sapho. You know where you did defpife You know where. The names left out in the Author's Edit. What follows, with the Rondeau itself, is alfo omitted. You, 'tis true, have fine black eyes, You know where.] This fort of writing call'd the Rondeau is what I never knew practis'd in our nation, and I verily believe it was not in use with the Greeks or Romans, neither Macrobius nor Hyginus taking the leaft notice of it. 'Tis to be obferv'd, that the vulgar fpelling and pronouncing it Round O, is a manifeft corruption, and by no means to be allow'd of by critics. Some may mistakenly imagine that it was a fort of Rondeau which the Gallick foldiers fung in Cæfar's triumph over Gaul Gallias Cæfar fubegit, &c. as it is recorded by Suetonius in Julio, and fo derive its original from the ancient Gauls to the modern French but this is erroneous; the words there not being rang'd according to the Laws of the Rondeau, as laid down by Clement Marot. If you will fay, that the fong of the foldiers might be only the rude beginning of this kind of poem, and fo confequently imperfect, neither Heinfius nor I can be of that opinion; and so I conclude, that we know nothing of the matter. But, Sir, I ask your pardon for all this buffoonry, which I could not addrefs to any one fo well as to you, fince I have found by experience, you most easily forgive my impertinencies. 'Tis only to fhow you that I am mindful of you at all times, that I write at all times; and as nothing I can fay can be worth your reading, fo I may as well throw out what comes uppermoft, as ftudy to be dull. I am, &c. G 4. LET July 15, 1710. T laft I have prevail'd over a lazy humour to AT tranfcribe this elegy: I have chang'd the fitu ation of fome of the Latin verses, and made fome interpolations, but I hope they are not abfurd, and foreign to my author's fense and manner; but they are refer'd to your cenfure, as a debt; whom I esteem no lefs a critic than a poet : I expect to be treated with the fame rigour as I have practis'd to Mr. Dryden and you. Hanc veniam petimufq; damufq; vicefim. I defire the favour of your opinion, why Priam, in his fpeech to Pyrrhus in the second Æneid, fays this to him, At non ille fatum quo te mentiris, Achilles. He wou'd intimate (I fancy by Pyrrhus's answer) only his degeneracy: but then these following lines of the verfion (I fuppofe from Homer's hiftory) seem abfurd in the mouth of Priam, viz. He chear'd my forrows, and for fums of gold, I LETTER XVI. July 20, 1710. Give you thanks for the verfion you fent me of Ovid's elegy. It is very much an image of that author's writing, who has an agreeableness that charms us without correctnefs, like a miftrefs whofe faults we fee, but love her with them all. You have very judiciously alter'd his method in fome places, and I can find nothing which I dare infift upon as an error: what I have written in the margins being meerly gueffes at a little improvement, rather than criticisms. I affure you I do not expect you fhou'd fubfcribe to my private notions but when you fhall judge 'em agreeable to reafon and good fenfe. What I have done is not as a critic, but as a friend; I know too well how many qualities are requifite to make up the one, and that I want almost all I can reckon up; but I am fure I do not want inclination, nor I hope capacity, to be the other. Nor fhall I take it at all amifs, that another diffents from my opinion: 'Tis no more than I have often done from my own; and indeed, the more a man advances in understanding, he becomes the more every day a critic upon himself, and finds fomething or other ftill to blame in his former notions and opinions. I cou'd be glad to know if you have tranflated the 11th elegy of lib. 2. Ad amicam navigantem. The 8th of book 3, or the 11th of book 3, which are above all others my particular favourites, especially the laft of these. As to the paffage of which you ask my opinion in the fecond Eneid, it is either fo plain as to require no |