has been applauded so much, that I am in danger of commencing poet, perhaps laureat, (pray desire my good friend Mr. Rowe to enter a caveat,) provided you will further increase my stock in this bank. In which proceeding I have laid the foundation of my estate, and as honestly as many others have begun theirs. But now being a little fearful, as young beginners often are, I offer to you (for I have concealed the true author) whether you will give me orders to declare who is the father of this fine child or not. Whatever you determine, my fingers, pen, and ink are so frozen, that I cannot thank you more at large. You will forgive this and all other faults of, dear Sir, Your, etc. space, Such, such a man extends his life's short Pope. THE following correspondence between Pope and Wycherley has unaccountably been rendered the medium of abuse and obloquy on both the parties. According to Johnson, " Wycherley was a man who was esteemed without virtue, and caressed without goodhumour. Pope was proud of his notice. Wycherley wrote verses in his praise, which he was charged by Dennis with writing to himself, and they agreed for a time to flatter one another." "It is pleasant," he adds, "to remark how soon Pope learned the cant of an author, and began to treat critics with contempt, though he had yet suffered nothing from them."-Life of Pope. Mr. Bowles has ventured a step further. "The applause and compliments," says he, "which they mutually bestowed on each other, were not less ridiculous, than a friendship between a sentimental libertine and a young man perfectly ignorant of the world, was unnatural."—Life of Pope, p. 23. And at the close of the correspondence he has asserted, that the whole transaction brings to our recollection the character and language of Trissotin, in the inimitable comedy of Moliere, the Femmes Savantes! If, however, we open the correspondence without the advantage of the foregoing observations, what does it discover to us? A connexion highly honourable to both parties; in which a striking disparity of age has disappeared before a similarity of dispositions and studies; and a veteran professor of the art has, with a degree of modesty of which the world has seen but few instances, submitted to his young friend the revision of his poetical works. When Pope was introduced by Sir William Trumbull to Mr. Wycherley, he was about sixteen, Wycherley about sixty-nine. A correspondence soon commenced between them, to which the difference of age served only to give additional ardour. This correspondence was of great use to both. The poems of Wycherley were improved by the suggestions and emendations of Pope; and Wycherley repaid this assistance by a commendatory copy of verses, prefixed by Pope to his Pastorals. But the advantages to Pope were yet more striking. This early employment of his talents, facilitated in an eminent degree his own improvement, and led to those investigations into the nature of language and the essence of poetry, which were soon afterwards embodied in the Essay on Criticism. Many of the letters from Pope to Wycherley in this collection, are not less beautifully illustrative 22 of the subject, than critically correct; and there seems no reason to attribute the expressions of kindness, which occasionally occur in the correspondence, to any other motives than admiration and gratitude on the one hand, and attachment and respect on the other. That some degree of dissatisfaction arose between them is, however, certain; and indications of it appear in the latter part of their correspondence. Johnson says, that "when Pope, perhaps proud of the confidence of Wycherley, was sufficiently bold in his criticisms, and liberal in his alterations, the old scribbler was angry to see his pages defaced, and felt more pain from the detection, than content from the amendment of his faults." Subsequent explanations, and the interference of their common friend Mr. Cromwell, appear however to have effected a reconciliation; and, in a letter from that gentleman to Pope, dated Oct. 16, 1711, being upwards of a year after the close of the correspondence between Pope and Wycherley, it seems that Pope "was highly in his favour." During the remainder of Wycherley's life, which was extended to the end of the year 1715, Pope continued to visit him, which gave occasion to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to say, that "he courted Wycherley, as he did other rich men, with the view of a legacy." Of the singular circumstances attending the death of Wycherley, Pope has left a curious account in a letter to Mr. Blount, in the present edition, which may also serve to shew that he preserved his regard for him to the last. |