make a Fool of him. For as when madmen are found incurable, wife men give them their way, and please them as well as they can; fo when thofe incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably be-mus'd, the beft way both to quiet them, and secure yourself from the effects of their frenzy, is to feed their vanity; which indeed, for the most part, is all that is fed in a poet.

You may believe me, I could be heartily glad that all you fay were as true, applied to me, as it would be to yourself, for feveral weighty reafons; but for none so much as that I might be to you what you deserve; whereas I can now be no more than is confiftent with the finall tho' utmoft capacity of, &c.

I

LETTER VIII.

Oct. 26, 1705.

Have now changed the scene from the town to the country; from Will's coffee-houfe to Windfor-foreft. I find no other difference than this, betwixt the common town-wits, and the downright country fools; that the firft are pertly in the wrong, with a little more flourish and gayety; and the laft neither in the right nor the wrong, but confirm'd in a ftupid fettled medium betwixt both. However, methinks, thefe are moft in the right, who quietly and eafily refign themselves over to the gentle reign of dulnefs, which the Wits must do at laft, tho' after a great deal of noise and refiftance. Ours are a fort of modeft inoffenfive people, who neither have sense, nor pretend to any, but enjoy a jovial fort of dulnefs: They are commonly known in the world by the name of honeft, civil gentlemen: They live, much as they ride, at random; a kind of hunting life, pursuing with earneftness and hazard fomething not worth the catching; never in the way, nor out of it. I can't but prefer folitude to the company of all these; for tho' a man's felf may poffibly be the worft fellow to converfe with in the world, yet one would think the company of a person

whom

whom we have the greateft regard to and affection for, could not be very unpleafant. As a man in love with a miftrefs, defires no converfation but hers, fo a man in love with himself (as most men are) may be best pleased with his own. Befides, if the trueft and most useful knowledge be the knowledge of ourselves, folitude, conducing moft to make us look into ourselves, fhould be the moft inftructive ftate of life. We fee nothing more commonly, than men, who for the fake of the circumftantial part and mere outfide of life, have been half their days rambling out of their nature, and ought to be sent into folitude to study themselves over again. People are ufually spoiled, instead of being taught, at their coming into the world; whereas, by being more converfant with Obfcurity, without any pains, they would naturally follow what they were meant for. In a word, if a man be a coxcomb, Solitude is his beft School; and if he be a fool, it is his best San&uary.

Thefe are good reafons for my own ftay here, but I wish I could give you any for your coming hither, except that I earnestly invite you. And yet I can't help saying I have fuffered a great deal of discontent that you do not come, tho' I fo little merit that you should.

I muft complain of the shortnefs of your laft. Those who have moft wit, like thofe who have moft money, are generally moft fparing of either.

LETTER IX.

From Mr. WY CHERLEY.

Nov. 5, 1705.

YOURS of the 20th of October I have received, as I

have always done yours, with no little fatisfaction, and am proud to discover by it, that you find fault with the shortness of mine, which I think the best excufe for it: And tho' they (as you fay) who have moft wit or money are moft fparing of either; there are fome who

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appear

you

appear poor to be thought rich, and are poor, which is my cafe. I cannot but rejoice, that have undergone fo much difcontent for want of my company; but if you have a mind to punish me for my fault (which I could not help) defer your coming to town, and you will do it effectually. But I know your charity always exceeds your revenge, fo that I will not despair of seeing you, and, in return to your inviting me to your foreft, invite you to my foreft, the town; where the beafts that inhabit, tame or wild, of long ears, or horns, pursue one another either out of love or hatred. You may have the pleafure to fee one pack of bloodhounds pursue another herd of brutes, to bring each other to their fall, which is their whole fport: Or if you affect a lefs bloody chace, you may see a pack of spaniels, called Lovers, in a hot pursuit of a two-legged vixen, who only flies the whole loud pack to be fingled out by one dog, who runs mute to catch her up the fooner from the reft, as they are making a noise to the lofs of their game. In fine, this is the time for all forts of fport in town, when those of the country ceafe; therefore leave your foreft of beafts for ours of brutes, called men, who now in full cry (pack'd by the court or country) run down in the house of commons a deserted horned beaft of the Court, to the satisfaction of their fpectators: Befides (more for your diverfion) you may fee not only the two great play-houses of the nation, thofe of the lords and commons, in difpute with one another; but the two other play-houfes in high conteft, because the members of one house are remov'd up to t'other, as it is often done by the court for reasons of ftate. Infomuch that the lower houfes, I mean the playhouses, are going to act tragedies on one another with-out doors, and the Sovereign is put to it (as it often happens in the other two houses) to filence one or both, to keep peace between them. Now I have told you all

the news of the town.

I am, &c.

LETTER

I

LETTER X.

From Mr. WYCHERLEY.

Feb. 5, 1705-6.

Have receiv'd your kind Letter, with my paper to Mr. Dryden corrected. I own you have made more of it by making it lefs, as the Dutch are faid to burn half the fpices they bring home, to inhance the price of the remainder, so to be greater gainers by their lofs (which is indeed my cafe now.) You have prun'd my fading laurels of fome fuperfluous, faplefs, and dead branches, to make the remainder live the longer: thus, like your mafter Apollo, you are at once a poet and a physician. Now, Sir, as to my impudent invitation of you to the town, your good nature was the fift caufe of my confident request; but excufe me, I must (I fee) fay no more upon this fubject, fince I find you a little too nice to be dealt freely with; tho' you have given me fome encouragement to hope, our friendship might be without shynefs, or criminal modefty; for a friend, like a mistress, tho' he is not to be mercenary to be true, yet ought not to refufe a friend's kindness because it is fmall or trivial: I have told you (I think) what a Spanish lady faid to her poor poetical gallant, that a Queen, if fhe had to do with a groom, would expect a mark of his kindness from him, tho' it were but his curry-comb. But you and I will difpute this matter when I am fo happy as to fee you here; and perhaps 'tis the only difpute in which I might hope to have the better of you.

Now, Sir, to make you another excufe for my boldnefs in inviting you to town, I defign'd to leave with you fome more of my papers, (fince these return so much better out of your hands than they went from mine) for I intended (as 1 told you formerly) to spend a month or

*The fame which was printed in the year 1717, in a mifcellany of Bern. Lintot's, and in the pofthumous works of Mr. Wycherley.

fix

fix weeks, this fummer, near you in the country. You may be affured there is nothing I defire fo much, as an improvement of your friendship.

LETTER XI.

April 10, 1706.

BY one of Y one of yours of the laft month, you defire me to felect, if poffible, fome things from the * first volume of your Mifcellanies, which may be alter'd fo as to appear again. I doubted your meaning in this; whether it was to pick out the beft of thofe verfes (as thofe on the Idleness of bufinefs, on Ignorance, on Laziness, etc.) to make the method and numbers exact, and avoid repetitions? For tho' (upon reading 'em on this occafion) I believe, they might receive fuch an alteration with advantage; yet they would not be changed fo much, but any one would know 'em for the fame at first fight. Or if you mean to improve the worst pieces which are fuch, as to render them very good, would require great addition, and almost the entire new writing of them. Or, laftly, if you mean the middle fort, as the Songs and Love verses? For these will need only to be shortened, to omit repetition; the words remaining very little different from what they were before. Pray let me know your mind in this, for I am utterly at a lofs. Yet I have try'd what I could do to fome of the fongs, and the poems on Laziness and Ignorance, but can't (even in my own partial judgment) think my alterations much to the purpose. So that I muft needs defire you would apply your care wholly at prefent to those which are yet unpublished, of which there are more than enough to make a confiderable volume, of full as good ones, nay, I believe, of better than Vol. I. which I could wish you would defer, at leaft till you have finish'd these that are yet unprinted,

I fend you a fample of fome few of thefe: namely, the verfes to Mr. Waller in his old age; your new ones Printed in folio, in the year 1704.

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