Now lightly fkimming o'er the ftrings they pass, To which nothing can be obje&ted, but that they are too Dr. Garth's poem I have not feen, but believe I shall be of that critic's opinion you mention at Will's, who fwore it was good: for, tho' I am very cautious of fwearing after critics, yet I think one may do it more fafely when they commend, than when they blame. I agree with you in your cenfure of the ufe of fea terms in Mr. Dryden's Virgil; not only because Helenus was no great prophet in thofe matters, but becaufe no terms of Art or cant words fuit with the majefty and dignity of ftile which epic poetry requires-Gui mens divinior atque os magna fonaturum―The Tarpawlin phrase can please none but fuch qui aurum habent Batavam; they muft not expect auribus Atticis probari, I find by you. (I think I have brought in two phrafes of Martial here very dextrously.) Tho' you say you did not rightly take my meaning in the verfe I quoted from Juvenal, yet I will not explain it; because, though it seems you are refolv'd to take me for a critic, I would by no means be thought a commentator.-And for another reason too, because I have quite forgot both the verfe and the application. I hope it will be no offence to give my moft hearty fervice to Mr. Wycherly, tho' I perceive by his laft to me, I am not to trouble him with my letters, fince he there told me he was going inftantly out of town, and till his return was my servant, etc. I guefs by yours he is yet with you, and beg you to do what you may with all truth and honour, that is, affure him I have ever borne all the respect and kindness imaginable to him. I do not know to this hour what it is that has eftranged him from me; but this I know, that he may for the future be more fafely my friend, fince no invitation of his fhall ever more make me fo free with him. I could not have thought any man fo very cautious and fufpicious, as not to credit his own experience of a friend. Indeed to believe no body, may be a maxim of fafety, but not fo much of honefty. There is but one way I know of converfing fafely, with all men, that is, not by concealing what we fay or do, but by faying or doing nothing that deferves to be conceal'd, and I can truly bort this comfort in my affairs with Mr. Wycherly. But I pardon his Jealoufy, which is become his nature, and fhall never be his enemy whatsoever he fays of me. Your, etc. LETTER XXI. From Mr. CROMWEL L. Nov. 5, 1710. Find I am obliged to the fight of your love-verses, for your opinion of my fincerity; which had never been call'd in queftion, if you had not forced me, upon so many other occafions, to exprefs my eftecm. I have just read and compar'd* Mr. Rowe's verfion of the ixth of Lucan, with very great pleafure, where I find none of thofe abfurdities fo frequent in that of Virgil, Pieces printed in the 6th vol, of Tonfon's Mifcellanies, VOL. III, Bbb except except in two places, for the fake of lashing the priefts; one where Cato fays-Sortilegis egeant dubii-and one in the fimile of the Hæmorrhois-fatidici Sabai-He is so errant a whig, that he strains even beyond his author, in paffion for liberty, and averfion to tyranny; and errs only in amplification. Lucan ix. in initio, deferibing the feat of the Semidei manes, fays, Quodque patet terras inter lunæque meatus, Mr Rowe has this line, Then looking down on the Sun's feeble Ray. Pray your opinion, if there be an Error-Sphæricus in this or no? Your, etc. LETTER XXII. Nov. 11, 1710. γου mistake me very much in thinking the freedom you kindly us'd with my love - verfes, gave me the firft opinion of your fincerity: I affure you it only did what every good-natur'd action of yours has done fince, confirm'd me more in that opinion. The fable of the nightingale in Philips's paftoral, is taken from Famianus Strada's Latin poem on the fame subject, in his Prolufiones Academicia; only the tomb he erects at the end, is added from Virgil's conclufion of the Culex. I can't forbear giving you a paffage out of the Latin poem I mention, by which you will find the English poet is indebted to it. Alternat mira arte fides: dum torquet acutas, Famque manu per fila volat ; fimul hos, fimul illes Nung Nunc cæfim variat, modulifque canora minutis Delibrat vocem, tremuloque reciprocat ore. This poem was many years fince imitated by Crafhaw, out of whose verses the following are very remarkable. From this to that, from that to this he flies, Feels mufic's pulfe in all its arteries; Caught in a net which there Apollo spreads, His fingers ftruggle with the vocal threads. I have (as I think I formerly told you) a very good opinion of Mr. Row's ixth book of Lucan: Indeed he amplifies too much, as well as Breboeuf, the famous French imitator. If I remember right, he sometimes takes the whole comment into the text of the verfion, as particularly in lin. 808. Utque folet pariter totis fe effundere fignis Corycii preffura croci.-And in the place you quote, he makes of those two lines in the Latin, Vidit quanta fub noɛte jaceret Noftra dies, rifitque fui ludibria trunci, по lefs than eight in English. What you obferve, fure, cannot be an Error-Sphæricus, ftrictly speaking, either according to the Ptolemaic, or our Copernican fyftem; Tycho Brahe himself will be on the tranflator's fide. For Mr. Rowe here fays no more, than that he look'd down on the rays of the fun, which Pompey might do, even tho' the body of the fun were above him. You can't but have remarked what a journey Lucan here makes Cato take for the fake of his fine defcriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reason than this; Hæc eadem fuadebat hiems, quæ clauferat æquor. The winter's effects on the fea, it feems, were more to be dreaded than all the ferpents, whirlwinds, fands, etc. by land, which immediately after he paints out in his fpeech to the foldiers: Then he fetches a compass a vast way round about, to the Nafamones and Jupiter AmBbb 2 mon's mon's temple, purely to ridicule the oracles: and La bienus must pardon me, if I do not believe him when he fays-fors obtulit, et fort na vice-either Labienus, or the map, is very much, miftaken here. Thence he returns back to the Syrtes (which he might have taken firft in his way to Utica) and fo to Leptis Minor, where our author leaves him; who feems to have made Cato fpeak his own mind, when he tells his army-Ire fat eft-no matter whither. I am Your, etc. THE LETTER XXIII. From Mr. CROMWELL. Nov. 20, 1710. ། HE fyftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is novel) could have no room here: Lucan, with the reft of the Latin poets, feems to follow Plato, whose order of the fpheres is clear in Cicero De natura Deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The feat of the Semidei mines is Platonic too, for Apuleius De deo Socrates affigns the fame to the Genii, viz. the region of the Air for their intercourfe with gods and men; fo that, I fancy, Rowe miftook the fituation, and I can't be reconcil'd to, Look down on the fun's rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes; and wifh you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, could licenfe his invective againft priefts; but, I fuppofe, you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your protection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the caufe of them, his poetic defcriptions: For the Romans then knew the coast of Africa from Cyrene (to the south-eaft of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: but, pray remember how your Homer nodded while Ulyffes flept, and waking knew not where he was, in the short paffage from Corcyra to Ithaca. I like Trapp's versions for their juftnefs; his Pfalm is excellent, the prodigies in the |