Whether that bleffing be deny'd, or giv'n, Excufe this, in a man who is weak and wounded, but not by his enemies, but for his friends. I wish you the continuance of all that is yet dear to you in life, and am truly, &c. LETTER V. From Mr. POPE, to AARON HILL, Efq; Twickenham, Dec. 22, 1731 Thank you for your tragedy, which I have now read over a fixth time, and of which I not only preferve, but increafe, my efteem. You have been kind to this age, in not telling the next, in your preface, the ill tafte of the town, of which the reception you describe it to have given of your play (worfe, indeed, than I had heard, or could have imagined) is a more flagrant inftance than any of those trifles mentioned in my epiftle; which yet, I hear, the fore vanity of our pretenders to tafte flinches at extremely.-. The title you mention had been a propérer to that epistleI have heard no criticifms about it, nor do I listen after: them; Nos hæc novimus effe nibil (I mean, I think the verscs to be fo): but as you are a man of tender fentiments of honour, I know it will grieve you to hear another undefervedly charged with a crime his heart is free from: for if there be truth in the world, I declare to you, I never imagined the leaft application of what I faid of Timon could be made to the D. of Ch-s, than whom there is fcarce a more blamelefs, worthy and generous, beneficent character, among all our nobility: and if I have not loft my fenfes, the town has loft them, by what I heard fo late, as but two days ago, of the uproar on this head. I am certain, if you calmly read every particular of that defcription, you'll find almoft all of them point-blank the reverfe of that perfon's Villa. It is an aukward thing for a man to print, in defence of his own work, against a chimæra: you know not who, or what, you fight againft: the objections start up in a new fhape, like the armies and phantoms of magicians, and no weapon can cut a mift, or a fhadow. Yet it would have been Q a pleasure to me, to have found fome friend saying a word in my juftification, against a moft malicious falfhood. I fpeak of fuch, as have known by their own experience, these twenty years, that I always took up their defence, when any stream of calumny ran upon them. If it gives the duke one moment's uneafinefs, I fhould think myself ill paid, if the whole earth admired the poetry; and believe me, would rather never have written a verse in my life, than that any one of them should trouble a truly good man. It was once my cafe before, but happily reconciled; and among_generous minds nothing fo endears friends, as the having offended one another. I lament the malice of the age, that studies to fee its own likeness in every thing; I lament the dulnefs of it, that cannot fee an excellence: the firft is my unhappiness, the fecond yours. I look upon the fate of your piece, like that of a great treasure, which is buried as foon as brought to light; but it is fure to be dug up the next age, and enrich posterity. I have been very fenfible, on these two occafions, to feel them (as I have done) at a time, when I daily feared the lofs of (what is, and ought to be dearer to me than any reputation, but that of a friend, or than any thing of my own, except my morals) the lofs of a most tender parent-She is alive, and that is all! I have perceived my heart in this, and you may believe me fincerely, &c. From Mr. POPE, to AARON HILL, Efq; MADE a ftrong effay to have told you in perfon how very kindly I took your two laft letters. The only hours I had in my power from a neceflary care that brought me back immediately, I would have imposed on you. It will please you to know the poor woman is rather better, though it may be but like the improvement of a light on the end of a dying taper, which brightens a little before it expires-Your hint about my title of falfe tafte, you will fee, is made ufe of in the fecond edition. Your opinion alfo of His Mother.. my my giving fome public diffent or protest against the filly malicious mifconftruction of the town, I agree to; but I think no one step should be taken in it, but in concert with the Duke whom they injure. It will be a pleasure felt by you, to tell you, his Grace has written to me the strongest affurance imaginable of the rectitude of his opinion, and of his refentment of that report, which to him is an impertinence, to me a villainy. I am afraid of tiring you, and (what is your best security) I have not time to do it. I'll only juft tell you, that many circumftances you have heard, as refemblances to the picture of Timon, are utterly inventions of lyars; the number of fervants never was an hundred, the paintings not of Verrio or La Guerre, but Bellucci and Zaman; no fuch buffet, manner of reception at the ftudy, terras, &c. all which, and many more, they have not fcrupled to forge, to gain fome credit to the application: and (which is worse) belied teftimonies of noblemen, and of my particular friends, to condemn me. In a word, the malice is as great as the dulnefs, of my calumniators.: the one I forgive, the other I pity, and I despise both. Adieu; the first day I am near you, I will find you out, and fhew you fomething you will like. My best good wishes are yours, and Mifs Urania's. I LETTER VII. From Mr. POPE, to AARON HILL, Efq; June 2, 1738. SENT you as honeft an answer as I could, to the letter you you favoured me with; and am forry you imagine any civil reproach, or latent meaning, where I meant to exprefs myself with the utmoft opennefs. I would affure you, if you please, by my oath, as well as my word, that I am in no degree difpleafed at any freedom you can take with me in a private letter, or with my writings in public. I again infift, that you alter or soften no one criticism of yours in my favour; nor deprive yourself of the liberty, nor the world of the profit, of your freeft remarks on my errors. In what I faid, I gave you a true picture of my own heart, as far as I know it myself. It is true, I have shewn a feørn of some writers; but it proceeded from an experience that 002 that they were bad men, or bad friends, or vile hirelings; in which cafe, their being authors did not make them, to me, either more refpectable, or more formidable. As for any other pique, my mind is not fo fufceptible of it as you have feemed, on each occafion, too much inclined (I think) to believe. What may have fometimes feemed a neglect of others, was rather a laziness to cultivate or contract new friends, when I was fatisfied with those I had; or when I apprehended their demands were too high for me to answer. I thank you for the confidence you flew you have in me, in telling me what you judge amifs in my nature. If it be (as you too partially fay) my only fault, I might soon be a perfect character: for I would endeavour to correct this fault in myself, and intreat you to correct all those in my writings, I fee, by the fpecimen you generously gave me in your late letter, you are able to do it; and I would rather owe (and oun I owe) that correction to your friendship, than to my own induftry. For the last paragraph of yours, I fhall be extremely ready to convey what you promife to fend me, to my Lord B. I am in hopes very fpeedily to fee him myfelf, and will, in that cafe, be the bearer; if not, I fhall fend it, by the first fafe hand, to him. I am truly glad of any occafion of proving myfelf, with all the refpect that is confiftent with fincerity, Your, &c. LETTER VIII. Erom Mr. POPE, to AARON HILL, Efq; TH June 9, 1738. HE favour of yours of May the 11th, had not been unacknowledged fo long, but it reached me not till my return from a journey, which had carried me from scene to fcene, where Gods might wander with delight. I am forry yours was attended with any thoughts lefs pleafing, either from the conduct towards you of the world in general, or of any one elfe, in particular. As to the fubject-matter of the letter, I found what I have often done in receiving letters from those I moft esteemed, and most wifhed to be efteemed by; a great pleafure in reading it, and a great inability to anfwer it. I can only fay, you oblige.me, in feeming fo well to know know me again; as one extremely willing that the free exercife of criticism should extend over my own writings, as well as thofe of others, whenever the public may receive the leaft benefit from it; as I queftion not they will a great deal, when exerted by you. I am fenfible of the honour me, in propofing to fend me your work before it appears: you do , if you do, I must infift, that no ufe in my favour be made of that distinction, by the alteration or foftening of any cenfure of yours on any line of mine. What you have obferved in your let er I think juft; only I would acquit myfelf in one point: I could not have the leaft pique to Mr. Th. in what is cited in the treatife of the Bathos from the play which I never fuppofed to be his: he gave it as Shakespear's, and I take it to be of that age and indeed the collection of thofe, and many more of the thoughts cenfured there, was not made by me, but Dr. Arbuthnot. I have had two or three occafions to lament, that you feem to know me much better as a poet, than as a man. You can hardly conceive how little either pique or contempt I bear to any creature, unlefs for immoral or dirty actions: any mortal is at full liberty, unanswered, to write and print of me as a poet, to praise me one year, and blame me another; only I defire him to fpare my character as an honeft man, over which he can have no private, much lefs any public, right, without fome perfonal knowledge of my heart, or the motives of my conduct: nor is it a fufficient excufe, to alledge he was fo or fo informed, which was the cafe with those men. I am fincere in all I fay to you, and have no vanity in faying it. You really over-value me greatly in my poetical capacity; and I am fure your work would do me infinitely too much honour, even if it blamed me oftener than it commended for the firft you will do with lenity, the last with excefs. But I could be glad to part with fome fhare of any good man's admiration, for fome of his affection, and his belief that I am not wholly undeferving to be thought, what I am to you. |