Gallias Cæfar fung in Cæfar's triumph over Gaul fubegit, &c. at it is recorded by Suetonius in Julio, and fo derive its original from the ancient Gauls to the modern French: but this is erroneus; the words there not being ranged according to the Laws of the Laws of the Rondeau, as laid down by Clement Mafot. 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 Hein. fius nor I can be of that opinion; and fo I conclu de, that we know nothing of the matter. But, Sir, I afk your pardon for all this buffoone. ry, which I could not addrefs to any one fo well as to you, fince I have found by experience, you moft cafily 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 say can be worth your reading, fo I may as well throw out what comes uppermoft, as ftudy to be dull. I am, &c. LETTER XV. July 15, 1710. AT 1 T laft I have prevail'd over a lazy humour to tranfcribe this elegy: I have changed the fituation of fome of the Latin 'verses, and made fome interpolations, but I hope they are not abfurd, and foreign to my author's fenfe and manner; but they are refer'd to your cenfure, as a debt; whom I efteem no less 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 petimusque damusque vicissim. I defire the favour of your opinion, why Priam, in his speech to Pyrrhus in the second Æneid, fays this to him, At non ille, fatum quo te mentiris, Achilles. He would intimate (I fancy by Pyrrhus's answer) only his degeneracy: but then thefe 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 am Your, &c. LETTER XVI. July 20, 1710. I 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 correctness, like a mistress, whose faults we fee, but love her with them all. You have very ju dicioufly 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 merely gueffes at a little improvement, rather than criticisms. I affure you I do not expect you should subscribe to¡ my, pri VOL. VII. G vate notions but when you shall judge them agreeable to reason and good fenfe. What I have done is not as a critic, but as a friend; I know too well how many qualities are requisite to make 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 amis, that another diffents from my opinion: 'Tis no more than I have often do ne from my own; and indeed, the more a man advan. ces 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 opini ons. I could be glad to know if you have tranflated the 11th elegy of lib. ii. Ad amicam navigantem. The 8th of book iii, or the 11th of book iii, which are abo ve all others iny particular favourites, especially the last of thefe. As to the paffage of which you ask my opinion in the fecond Eneid, it is either fo plain as to require no folution; or elf (which is very probable) you fee farther into it than I can. Priam would fay, that "Achilles (whom furely you only feign to be your fa'ther, fince your actions are fo different from his) did 'not use me thus inhumanly. He blush'd at his mur"der of Hector, when he faw my forrows for him; and "restored his dead body to me to be buried." To this the answer of Pyrrhus feems to be agreeable enough, "Go then to the shades, and tell Achilles how I dege 'nerate from him: " granting the truth of what Priam had faid of the difference between them. Indeed Mr. Dryden's mentioning here what Virgil more judici. oufly paffes in filence, the circumstance of Achilles's felling for money the body of Hector, feems not fo pro per; it in fome measure lesfening the character of Achilles's generosity and piety, which is the very point of which Priam endeavours in this place to convince his fon, and to reproach him with the want of. But the truth of this circumftance is no way to be que tion'd being exprefly taken from Homer, who reprefents Achilles weeping for Priamn, yet receiving the gold, Iliad xxiv. For when he gives the body, he ufes thefe words, "✪ my friend Patroclus! forgive me that "I quit the corpse of him who kiil'd thee;'I have great "gifts in ransom for it, which I will bestow upon thy 'funeral." I am, &c. LETTER XVII. From Mr. CROMWELL. (a) Pour le moins agreeably furpriz'd to find in the Rondeau of your Apoticaire and Lavement, which I took for your own; fo much is your Muse of. intelligence, with the wits of all languages. You have refin'd upon Voiture, whofe Où vous faves is much inferior to your Yon know where You do not only pay your club with your auther (as our friend says) () In Voiture's Poems. A but the whole reckoning; who can form fuch pretty lines from fo trivial a hint. For my (b) Elegy: 'tis confefs'd, that the topogra phy of Sulino in the Laţin makes but an awkward figu re in the verfion. Your couplet of the dog - ítar is ve ry fine, but may be too fublime in this place. I laugh'd heartily at your note upon Paradife; for to make Ovid talk of the garden of Eden, is certainly most abfurd; but Xenophon in his Oeconomics, speaking of a garden finely planted and watered (as is here described) calls it Paradifos: 'Tis an interpolation indeed, and ferves for a gradation to the celestial orb; which expreffes in fome fort the Sidus Caftoris in parte cæli - How trees can enjoy, let, the naturalifts determine; but the poets make them sensitive, lovers, batchelors, and married. Virgil in his Georgics, lib. ii. Horace Ode xv. lib. ii. Platanus cælebs evincet ulmos. Epod ii. Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine Altas maritat populos. Your critique is a very Dolcepiccante; for after the many faults you justly find, you smooth your rigour: but an obli ging thing is owing (you think) to one who fo much efteems and admires you, and who shall ever be YOUR Your, &c. LETTER XVIII. August 21, 1710. Letters are a perfect charity to a man in retirement, utterly forgotten of all his friends but you; for fince Mr. Wycherley left London, I have not ·(6) Ovid's Amorum, 1. ii. el. xvi. Pars me Suimo &c. P. |