you both, of an unchanging friendfhip, and unalter-
able efteem. I am, dear Sir, moft entirely,

Your, etc.



LETTER CIX.
TO THE SAME.

Dear Mr. Archdeacon,

fi^HouGH my proportion of this epiftle mould be
but a {ketch in miniature, yet I take up half this
page, having paid my club with the good company
both for our dinner of chops and for this paper. The
poets will give you lively defcriptions in their way ; I
mall only acquaint you with that which is directly my
province. I have juft fet the laft hand to a couplet,
for fo I may call two nymphs in one piece. They
are Pope's favourites; and though few, you will
guefs muft have coft me more pains than any
nymphs can be worth. He is fo unreafonable as to
expect that I mould have made them as beautiful upon
canvafs as he has done upon paper. If this fame Mr.

P mould omit to write for the dear frogs, and

the Pervigilium, I muft intreat you not to let me lan-
guifh for them, as I have done ever fince they crofled
the feas. Remember by what neglects, etc. we miffed

them



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 309

them when we loft you, and therefore I have not yet
forgiven any of thofe triflers that let them efcape and
run thofe hazards. I am going on at the old rate,
and want you and the Dean prodigioufly, and am in.
hopes of making you a vifit this fummer, and of
hearing from you both now you are together. For-
tefcue, I am fure, will be concerned that he is not in
Cornhill, to fet his hand to thefe prefents, not only as
a witnefs, but as a

Serviteur tres-humble,

C. JERVAS.

IT is fo great an honour to a poor Scotchman to be
remembered at this time a day, efpecially by an inha-
bitant of the Glaclalis lerne, that I take it very thank-
fully, and have with my good friends remembered
you at our table in the chop-houfe in Exchange- Alley.
There wanted nothing to complete our happinefs but
your company, and our dear friend the Dean's : I
am fure the whole entertainment would have been to
his relifh. Gay has got fo much money by walking
the ftreets, that he is ready to fet up his equipage :
he is jufl going to the Bank to negociate fome ex-
change bills. Mr. Pope delays his fecond volume of
his Homer till the martial fpirit of the rebels is quite
quelled, it being judged that the firft part did fome
harm that way. Our love again and again to the
dear Dean ; fuimus Tories j I can fay no more.

ARBUTHNOT,

x 3 WHEN



3 io LETTERS TO AND

WHEN a man is confcious that he does no good
himfelf, the next thing is to caufe others to do fome.
I may claim fome merit this way, in haflening this
teftimonial from your friends above-writing : their
love to you indeed wants no fpur, their ink wants no
pen, their pen wants no hand, their hand wants no
heart, and fo forth (after the manner of Rabelais,
which is betwixt fome meaning and no meaning); and
yet it may be faid, when prefent thought and oppor-
tunity is wanting, their pens want ink, their hands
want pens, their hearts want hands, etc. till time,
place, and conveniency concur to fet them a-writing,
as at prefent, a fociable meeting, a good dinner, warm
fire, and an eafy fituation do, to the joint labour and
pleafure of this epiflle.

Wherein if I mould fay nothing I mould fay much,
(much being included in my love,) though my love be
fuch, that if I mould fay much, I mould yet fay no-
thing, it being (as Cowley faysj equally impoflible
either to conceal or to exprefs it.

If I were to tell you the thing I wifh above all
things, it is to fee you again ; the next is to fee here
your treatife of Zoilus with the Eatrachomuomachla^
and the Pervigilium Veneris, both which poems are
mailer-pieces in feveral kinds ; and I queftion not the
profe is as excellent in its fort, as the Effay on Homer,
Nothing can be more glorious to that great author,,
than that the fame hand which raifed his beft ftatue,
and decked it with its old laurels, mould alfo hang

up



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 311

up the fcare-crow of his miferable critic, and gibbet
up the carcafe of Zoilus, to the terror of the writings
of pofterity. More, and much more, upon this and
a thoufand other fubjefts will be the matter of my
next letter, wherein I muft open all the friend to
you. At this time I muft be content with telling you,
I am faithfully, your moft affectionate and humble

fervant,

A. POPE.



LETTER CX.

TO THE SAME.

Dear Sir,
T MUST own I have long owed you a letter, but you

muft own you have owed me one a good deal
longer. Befides I have but two people in the whole
kingdom of Ireland to take care of; the Dean and
you: but you have feveral who complain of your
neglect in England. Mr. Gay complains, Mr. Har-
court complains, Mr. Jervas complains, Mr. Arbuth-
not complains, my Lord complains ; I complain.
(Take notice of this figure of iteration, when you
make your next fermon.) Some fay, you are in deep
difcontent at the new turn of affairs ; others, that you
are fo much in the Archbifhop's good graces, that
you will not correfpond with any that have feen the
X4 laft



312 LETTERS TO AND

laft rmniftry. Some affirm, you have quarrelled with
Pope (whofe friends they obferve daily fall from him,
on account of his fatirical and comical djfpofition) j
others, that you are infmuating yourfelf into the opi-
nion of the ingenious Mr. What-do-ye-call-him.
Some think you are preparing your Sermons for the
prefs, and others that you will transform them into
eflays, and moral difcourfes. But the only excufe
that I will allow you is, your attention to the life of
Zoilus. The frogs already feem to croak for their
tranfportation to England, and are fenfible how much
that Dodor is curfed and hated, who introduced their
fpecies into your nation ; therefore, as you dread the
wrath of St. Patrick, fend them hither, and rid your
kingdom of thofe pernicious and loquacious animals.
I have at length received your poem out of Mr.
Addifon's hands, which mail be fent as foon as you
order it, and in what manner you mail appoint. I
fhall, in the mean time, give Mr. Tooke a packet for
you, confifling of divers merry pieces; Mr. Gay's new
farce ; Mr. Burnet's Letter to Mr. Pope ; Mr. Pope's
Temple of Fame ; Mr. Thomas Burnet's Grumbler
on Mr. Gay; and the Bifhop of Ailfbury's Elegy,
written either by Mr. Gary or fome other hand. Mr.
Pope is reading a letter > and in the mean time 1 make ufe
of the fen, to teftify my uneafmefs in not hearing
from you. I find fuccefs, even in the moft trivial
things, raifes the indignation of fcribblers : for I, for
my What-d'-ye-call-it, could neither efcape the fury

of



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 313

of Mr. Bui-net, or the German Doctor ; then where
will rage end, when Homer is to be tranflated ? Let
Zoilus haflen to your friend's affiftance, and envious
criricifm mall be no more. I am in hopes that we
order our affairs fo, as to meet this fummer at the
Bath ; for Mr. Pope and myfelf have thoughts of
taking a trip thither. You mall preach, and we will
write lampoons, for it is efteemed as great an honour
to leave the Bath for fear of a broken head, as for a
Terras Fillius of Oxford to be expelled. I have no
place at court, therefore, that I may not entirely be
without one every where, mew that I have a place in
your remembrance.

Your moft affectionate faithful fervants,
A. POPE and J. GAY,

Homer will be publifhed in three weeks.



LETTERS

TO AND FROM

AARON HILL,



LETTER I.
MR. POPE TO AARON HILL,

Dear Sir,

rpHE little thing which you take fo kindly, is but a
very fmall part of what I owe you ; and whatever
my ftudies, or (to ufe a properer word) idlenefs, are
capable of producing, ought to be returned you in
mere gratitude for the pleafure I have received
from your own writings : in which give me leave to
fay, your good-will to me in particular is as diftin-
guifhable, as the obligation you lay on the public in
general. I am very happy in the envy and filly
attacks of fuch people as have awakened the gene-
rofity of fo powerful a defender. Nor am I afhamed
of thofe weaknefles of mine, which they have expofed
in print, (the greateft of which was my thinking too
candidly of them, to whom I wrote my Letters with
fo much unguarded friendlinefs, and freedom,) fince
you have found a way to turn thofe weaknefles into
virtue, by your partial regard of them. The eye
of candour, like the Sun, makes all the beauties

which



316 LETTERS TO AND

which it fees ; it gives colour and brightnefs to the
meaneft objects purely by looking on them. I agree
with you, that there is a pleafure in feeing the nature
and temper of men in the plained undrefs ; but few
men are of confequence enough to deferve, or re-
ward, that curiofity. I mall indeed (and fo will all
mankind) be highly pleafed to fee the great Czar of
Mufcovy in this light, drawn by himfelf, like an an-
cient mailer, in rough ftrokes, without heightening or
fhadowing : what a fatisfa&ion to behold that perfect
likenefs, without art, affectation, or even the glofs of
colouring, with a noble neglect of all that finifhing
and fmoothing, which any other hand would have
been obliged to beftow on fo principal a figure ? I
write this to a man whofe judgment I am certain of,
and therefore am as certain you will give the world
this great depofitum, juft as you have received it :
there will be no danger of your dreffing this Mars too
finely, whofe armour is not gold, but adamant, and
whofe ftile in all probability is much more ftrong
than it is poliflied. I congratulate you, that this
great treafure is fallen into your hands ; and I con-
gratulate all Europe, that it is to be delivered to them
through the hands of one, who will think it facrilege
to touch upon, much lefs to alter, any great lines of
fuch an original.

I can make you no better return for your great
compliment upon me ("which it would be arrogance
in me to mew to any other, and dangerous even to

remember



FROM AARON HILL, ESQ^ 317
remember myfelf ) but by telling you, that it is ho-
nour enough to reward all my ftudies, to find my
character and reputation is part of the care of that
perfon to whom the fame and glory of Peter Alexio-
witz was committed.

SIR,

I am forced to make ufe of another hand than my
own in this letter, having received a wound crofs all
the veins of my right hand, by which the tendons of
two fingers are feparated ; however, it was a fine paid
for my life, which has been very narrowly faved, and
which may now continue me fome years longer.
Dear Sir,

Your, etc.



LETTER II.
TO THE SAME;

SIR, January 5, 1730-1.

j WAS unwilling to anfwer your too obliging letter
(which puts much too great a ftrefs upon my opi-
nion) till I had read your play with the attention it
deferves : I mean, not once, but feveral times over.
In a word, to comply with my judgment will coft you
no trouble, except to your modefty ; which is, to acl
it as foon as poffible. Nothing but trifles have I to

object,



3i8 LETTERS TO AND

object, and which were fuch as did not once flop me
at the firft reading ; the fpirit, defign, and characters,
carrying me on, without flop, check, or even inter-
miflion. You certainly are mafter of the art of the
Stage, in the manner of forming and conducting the
defign, which I think impoflible to be mended ; of
that great part, and of the other, the raifmg the paf-
fions, I will fay nothing to you, who know them fo
much better than myfelf. I would only point out a
few particularities in thought or expreffion, as mate-
rial as excepting to a button on your coat, or a loofe
hair. Two or three lines I have with .great timorouf-
nefs written on one of your blank leaves, in black
lead, half afraid to be legible, and not without fome
hope that before you fee them, they may be vanilhed :
fo may perhaps my objections, every one of them.
Shall I fee you foon, to tell you thefe nothings ?
Whenever I mail fee you, I hope to find we can em-
ploy the time better, than I, in telling, or you, in
hearing them. Or muft I return you the play now ?
Your orders will be obeyed as foon as you give them.
I really rejoice at your Lady's recovery: I would
have her and you think, the air of Richmond is par-
ticularly good to re-eftablifh her. Pray let Mifs Hill
know, I am ready to believe all the good things her
own father can fee in her : I can fafely truft both his
judgments and his affeftions. I am, truly, Sir,

Your, etc.



FROM AARON HILL, ESQ^ 319

LETTER III.
TO THE SAME.

Dear Sir, February 5, 1730-1.

y MADE a ftrong eflay 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 necefiary care
that brought me back immediately, I would have im-
pofed on you. It will pleafe 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 Ta/le, you'll fee, is made ufe
of in the fecond edition. Your opinion alfo of my
giving fome public diffent or proteft againft the filly
malicious mifconft ruction of the town, I agree to ;
but I think no one ftep mould be taken in it, but , m
concert with the Duke whom they injure. It will be
a pleafure felt by you, to tell you, his Grace has writ-
ten to me the flrongeft affurance imaginable of the
rectitude of his opinion, and of his refentment of that
report, which to him is an impertinence ', to me a w/-
lany.

I am afraid of tiring you, and (what is your bed
fecurity) I have not time to do it. I'll only juft tell
you, that many circumftances you have heard, as re-
femblances to the picture of Timon, are utterly in-
ventions



LETTERS TO AND

ventions of liars ; the number of fervants never was
an hundred, the paintings not of Venio or La Guerre,
but Bellucci and Zaman ; no fuch buffet, manner of
reception at the fludy, terras, etc. all which, and many
more, they have not fcrupled to forge, to gain fome
credit to the application : and (which is worfe) 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 defpife both. Adieu ; the firft
day I am near you I will find you out, and mew you
fomething you will like. My beft good wifhes are
yours, and Mifs Urania's.

Your, etc.



LETTER IV.
TO THE SAME.
SIR Parfon's Green, February 5, 1730-1.

QINCE I am fully fatisfied we are each of us fin-

cerely and affectionately fervants to the other, I

defire we may be no further mifled by the warmth of

writing on this fubject. If you think I have (hewn

too much weaknefs, or if I think you have fhewn too

much warmth, let us forgive one another's temper.

I told you I thought my letter a filly one j but the

2 more



FROM AARON HILL, ESQ^ 321

more I thought fo, the more in fending it I {hewed
my truft in your good difpofition toward me. I am
forry you took it to have an air of neglect, or fupe-
riority: becaufe I know in my heart, I had not the
lead thought of being any way fuperior to Mr. Hill ;
and, far from the leaft defign to mew negleft to a
gentleman who was mewing me civility, I meant in
return to mew him a better thing, fincerity ; which I
am forry mould be fo ill exprefled as to feem rude-
nefs. I meant but to complain as frankly as you, that
all complaints on both fides might be out, an4 at a
period for ever : I meant by this to have laid a furer
foundation for your opinion of me for the future,
that it might no more be fhaken by miftakes or
whifpers.

I am fure, Sir, you have a higher opinion of my
poetry than I myfelf. But I am fo defirous you mould
have a juft one of me every way, that I wifti you un-
derftood both my temper in general, and my juftice
to you in particular, better than I find my letter re-
prefented them. I wifh it the more, fmce you tell me
how ill a picture my enemies take upon 'era to give,
of the mind of a man they are utter ftrangers to.
However, you will obferve, that much fpken and
emotion are a little inconfiftent with neglett, and an
opinion of fuperiority. Towards them, God knows,
I never felt any emotions, but what bad writers raife
in all men, thofe gentle ones of laughter or pity:
that I was fo open, concerned, and ferious, with re-

VOL. VIII. Y



322 LETTERS TO AND

fpec~l to you only, is fure a proof of regard, not ne-
gleft. For in truth, nothing ever vexed me, till I faw
your epigram againft Dr. S. and me come out in their
papers: and this, indeed, did vex me, to fee, one
fwan among the geefe.

That the letters A. H. were applied to you in the
papers, I did not know (for I feldom read them) ; I
heard it only from Mr. Savage, as from yourfelf, and
fent my aflurances to the contrary. But I don't fee
how the annotator on the D. could have rectified that
miftake, publicly, without particularizing your name,
in a book where I thought it too good to be inferted.
No doubt he has applied that paflage in the D. to
you, by the flory he tells ; but his mention of bom-
baft , only in fome of your juvenile pieces, I think,
was meant to mew, that paflage hinted only at that
allegorical muddinefs, and not at any worfe fort of
dirt, with which fome other writers were charged. I
hate to fay what will not be believed : yet when I told
you, " Many afked me to whom that oblique praife
" was meant ?" I did not tell you I anfwered it was you.
Has it efcaped your obfervation, that the name is a
fyllable too long ? Or (if you will have it a Chriftian
name) is there any other in the whole book ? Is there
no author of two fyllables whom it will better fit, not
only as getting out of the allegorical muddinefs, but
as having been dipt in the dirt of party-writing, and
recovering from it betimes ? I know fuch a man, who
would take it for a compliment, and fo would his pa-
trons



FROM AARON HILL, ESC^ 323

trons too But I afk you not to believe this, except
you are vaftly inclined to it. I will come clofer to the
point : would you have the note left out ? It fhalL
Would you have it exprefsly faid y you were not
meant? It mall, if I have any influence on the editors.
I believe the note was meant only as a gentle re-
buke, and friendlily : I underflood very well the ca-
veat on your part to be the fame ; and complained
(you fee) of nothing but two or three lines reflecting
on my behaviour and temper to other writers; be-
caufe I knew they were not true, and you could not
know they were.

You cannot in your cool judgment think it fair to
fix a man's character on a point, of which you do not
give one inftance ? Name but the man, or men, to
whom I have unjuftly omitted approbation or en-
couragement, and I'll be ready to do them juftice. I
think I have publicly praifed all the beft writers of
my time, except yourfelf, and fuch as I have had no
fair opportunity to praife. As to the great and po-
pular, I've praifed but few, and thofe at the times
when they were leaft popular. Many of thofe writers
have done nothing elfe but flattered the great and po-
pular, or been worfe employed by 'em in party-fluff.
I do indeed think it no great pride in me, to fpeak
about them with fome air of fuperiority ; and this,
Sir, muft be the caufe (and no other) that made me
addrefs that declaration of my temper towards them,
to you 9 who had accufed me of the contrary, not, I
Y 2 affure



324 LETTERS TO AND

affure you, from the leaft imagination of any refem-
blance between you and them, either in merit or cir-
cumftances.

I named Mr. Dennis, becaufe you diftinguifh him
from the reft : So do I. But, moreover, he was up-
permofl in my thoughts, from having endeavoured
(before your admonition) to promote his affair, with
Lord Wilmington, Lord Lanfdown, Lord Blandford,
and Mr. Pulteney, etc. who promifed me to favour it.
But it would be unjuft to meafure my good-will by
the effe&s of it on the great, many of whom are the
laft men in the world who will pay tributes of this
fort, from their own ungiving nature ; and many of
whom laugh at me when I ferioufly petition for Mr.
Dennis. After this, I muft not name the many whom
I have fruitlefsly folicited: I hope yet to be more
fuccefsful. But, Sir, you feem too iniquitous in your
conceptions of me, when you fancy I called fuch
things fervices. I called 'em but humane offices :
Services I faid I 'would render him, if I could. I
would afk a place for life for him ; and I have ; but
that is not in my power : if it was, it would be zfer-
<vice, and I wifh it.

I mentioned \hepojfibility of Mr. D.'s abufing me for
forgiving him, becaufe he actually did, in print, lately
reprefent my poor, undefigning, fubfcriptions to him,
to be the effeft of fear and defire, to flop his critiques
upon me. I wifh Mr. Hill would (for once) think fo
candidly of me, as to believe me fmcere in one de-
4 claration,



FROM AARON HILL, ESQ^ 325

claration, that " I defire no man to belie his own
" judgment in my favour/' Therefore, though I ac-
knowledge your generous offer to give examples of
imperfeftions rather out of your own works than
mine, in your intended book ; I confent, with all my
heart, to your confining them to mine ; for two rea-
fons : the one, that I fear your fenfibility that way is
greater than my own (by obferving you feem too con-
cerned at that hint given by the notes on the D. of a
b'ttle fault in the works of your youth only) : the
other is a better, namely, that I intend to amend by
your remarks, and correct the faults you find, if they
are fuch as I expect from Mr. Hill's cool judgment.

I am very fenfible, that my poetical talent is all that
may (I fay not, will) make me remembered : but it
is my morality only that muft make me beloved, or
happy : and if it be any deviation from greatnefs of
?nind, to prefer friendfhips to fame, or the honeft en-
joyments of life to noify praifes ; I fairly confefs that
meannefs. Therefore it is, Sir, that I much more re-
fent any attempt againft my moral character (which I
know to be unjuft) than any to leflen my poetical one
(which, for all I know, may be very juft).

Pray, then, Sir, excufe my weak letter, as I do your
warm one. I end as I begun. You guefTed right, that
I was fick when I wrote it : yours are very well writ-
ten, but I have neither health nor time to make mine
fo. I have writ a whole book of retractations of my
writings (which would greatly improve your criti-
Y 3 cifms



326 LETTERS TO AND

cifms on ray errors), but of my life and manners I do
not yet repent one jott, efpecially when I find in my
heart I continue to be, without the leaft acrimony,
(even as little as I defire you mould bear to myfelf,)

fmcerely, Sir,

Yours affe&ionately.

If I did not acknowledge 'MS I ought, both the fa-
ther's agreeable prefent, and the daughter's pretty
one, which you fent me, I very ill expreffed myfelf.
If Mifs Urania Hill has not my . t to edition of the
Odyffey, I beg your leave to fend it her. You had
fooner heard from me, but I faw yours, here, but
three days ago. I return home to-morrow.



LETTER V.
SQ ; THE SAME.

'SIR, February 15, 1731.

T? VER fmce I returned home, I have been in almoft
** roaring: pain, with a violent rheumatifm in my
moulder, fo that all I am able to do is to return you
thanks for yours. The fatisfaction it gave me is pro-
portioned to the regard I have for you. I will not
praife your poem further than to fay, the generofity of
its fentiments muft charm every man : its other merit
you know well. You'll pardon the few doubts I flart
in the interlinings ; they are fuch as you can efface

as



FROM AARON HILL, ESQ^ 327

as eafily as they may deferve. I wifh to tell my Lord
Peterborough (who has fo long honoured me with fo
particular and familiar an acquaintance) the honour
done him.

I am very defirous to leave out that Note, if you
like fo. The two lords, and one gentleman, who
really took and printed that edition, I can (I doubt
not) bring eafily to it.

The chief objection I have to what you fay of my-
felf in this poem, is, that the praife is too flrong. I
may well compound for the reft.

Suffer me to fend the young lady the Odyfley, full
of faults, as I know it to be, before me grows old
enough to know how mean a prefent it is. I am,

with great truth, Sir,

Your, etc.



LETTER VI.
TO THE SAME.
SIR, March 2, 1731.

T AM extremely pleafed with the favour you have

done me in fending me your poem, and the more,

as it gives me the opportunity of aifuring you I never

did, or meant you the leaft injury; in which I

mould have fully fatisfied you long fmce, had you