much easier to do?"-" That's true."-" No, he could never be of the high age," (speaking of Manilius.)-P. Shakespeare generally used to stiffen his style with high words and metaphors for the speeches of his kings and great men: he mistook it for a mark of greatness.-This is strongest in his early plays; but in his very last, his Othello, what a forced language has he put into the mouth of the Duke of Venice ?*-This was the way of Chapman, Massinger, and all the tragic writers of those days.—[It was mighty simple in Rowe, to write a play now, professedly in Shakespeare's style, that is, professedly in the style of a bad age.-P.† Milton's style, in his Paradise Lost, is not natural; 'tis an exotic style.-As his subject lies a good deal out of our world, it has a particular propriety in those parts of the poem: and, when he is on earth, wherever he is describing our parents in Paradise, you see he uses a more easy and natural way of writing.-Though his formal style may fit the higher parts of his own poem, it does very ill for others who write on natural and pastoral subjects. Philips, in his Cyder, has succeeded extremely well in his imitation of it, but was quite wrong in endeavouring to imitate it on such a subject.-P. * Dr. Young observed to me, that Shakespeare's style, where the hearts and manners of men was the subject, is always good; his bad lines, generally, where they are not concerned. 1759.Spence: from MS. B. Mr. Spence, in a note, says of this paragraph, " Omitted in vellum Copy," i. e. I presume, in the MS. now in the Duke of Newcastle's library. It would have been as well for Pope's repu. tation as a critic if it had never been recorded.-Editor. Lord Bathurst used to call Prior his verseman, and Lewis his proseman.-Prior, indeed, was nothing out of verse: and was less fit for business than even Addison, though he piqued himself much upon his talents for it.-What a simple thing was it to say upon his tombstone, that he was writing a history of his own times!-He could not write in a style fit for history; and, I dare say, he never had set down a word toward any such thing.—P.* Mr. Addison could not give out a common order in writing, from his endeavouring always to word it too finely.†— He had too beautiful an imagination to make a man of business.-P. Sir Isaac Newton, though so deep in Algebra and Fluxions, could not readily make up a common account: and, when he was Master of the Mint, used to get somebody to make up his accounts for him.—P. Milton was a great master of the Italian Poets; and I have been told, that what he himself wrote in Italian is in exceeding good Italian.—I can't think that he ever meant to make a tragedy of his Fall of Man. At least I have Andreini's Adamo; and don't find that he has taken anything from it.-P. In Queen Elizabeth's time, and a great deal lower, people went from hence to Italy for manners, as they do now * In this Mr. Pope was mistaken, for this history of his own times was subsequently given to the world: it is indeed poorly written enough.— Editor. + Confirmed by Dr. L-'s Account of Russel.-Lord Oxford said, one day before Mr. Sandys (son to Lord Sandys), "This fellow can't write a common letter," and snatched the pen out of Addison's hand, and wrote it himself.-Spence, from pencil note in MS. B. to France. Ascham has a severe letter upon it; and there are many passages relating to it in Shakespeare, and several other of our old dramatic writers.-P. The Profound, though written in so ludicrous a way, may be very well worth reading seriously, as an art of rhetoric.-P. I have so much of the materials for the Memoirs of Scriblerus ready, that I could complete the first part in three or four days.-P. It is idle to say that letters should be written in an easy familiar style: that, like most other general rules, will not hold. The style, in letters as in all other things, should be adapted to the subject.-Many of Voiture's letters on gay subjects, are excellent; and so are Cicero's, and several of Pliny's and Seneca's, on serious subjects.-I do not think so ill even of Balzac, as you seem to do; there are certainly a great many good things in his letters, though he is too apt to run into affectation and bombast.-The Bishop of Rochester's letter is on a grave subject (on the Value of Time), and therefore should be grave.-P. [On my having said that a friend of mine thought that letter of the Bishop's too stiff.-Spence.] I began translating the Iliad in my twenty-fifth year, (1712,) and it took up that, and five years more, to finish it.-Mr. Dryden, though they always talk of his being hurried so much, was as long in translating Virgil: but, indeed, he wrote plays and other things in the same period.* -P. * Mr. Malone observes on this passage, "It is strange that this great poet, who lived so near the time, should have been so inaccurate in his account of his predecessor's performance; for during the period in which this translation was made, Dryden certainly Hutcheson is a very odd man, bad writer: but he has struck out very great lights, and made very considerable discoveries by the way: as I have heard from people who know ten times more of those matters than I do." Does Lord Bolingbroke understand Hebrew?"No, but he understands that sort of learning, and what is wrote about it.-P. Lord Oxford was huddled in his thoughts, and obscure in his manner of delivering them.-It was he who advised Rowe to learn Spanish; and after all his pains and expectations, only said; "Then, Sir, I envy you the pleasure of reading Don Quixote in the original."-" Was not that cruel?"" I don't believe it was meant so; it was more like his odd way."-P. The works of Pindar that remain to us, are by no means equal to his great character.-His Dithyrambics, which were his best things, are lost; and all that is left of his works being on the same subject, is the more apt to be tiresome. This is what induced me to desire Mr. West not to translate the whole, but only to choose out some of them.-P. Monsieur St. Evremond would talk for ever. He was a wrote not a single play; and the work, instead of consuming six years, employed but half that time. It appears to have been begun in the summer of 1694 -- was probably sent to the press in the beginning of 1697; and published in the following July It is painful to learn, from Dryden's letter to Tonson, that he would have made the annotations on this work much more ample, but that the bookseller would not make him any compensation for them. "I am sorry (says he), that you would not allow anything towards the notes; for to make them good, would have cost half a year's time at least......It would require seven years to translate Virgil exactly."—Life of Dryden, p. 234. great epicure, and as great a sloven. He lived, you know, to a great old age, and in the latter part of his life, used to be always feeding his ducks; or the fowls that he kept in his chamber. He had a great variety of these, and other sorts of animals, all over his house. He used always to say, "that when we grow old, and our own spirits decay, it reanimates one, to have a number of living creatures about one, and to be much with them."-P. The French translation of my Essay on Man, gives the sense very well, and lays it more open : which may be of good service to Mr. Dobson in any passages where he may find himself obliged to enlarge a little.-P. [About this time (1736), Lord Oxford was very desirous of having the Essay on Man translated into Latin verse. Mr. Dobson had got a great deal of reputation by his translation of Pryor's Solomon. On my mentioning something of the difficulties which would attend the translation of his essay, Mr. Pope said, "If any man living could do it Dobson could." And by his desire I engaged that gentleman to undertake it. Lord Oxford was to give him a hundred guineas for it. He began upon it, and I think translated all the first epistle: what I showed of it to Lord Oxford and Mr. Pope was very well approved of.-It was then that Mr. Benson offered to give the same gentleman a thousand pounds, if he would translate Milton's Paradise Lost. He told me of that offer, as inclined to close with it if he could; and on my mentioning it to Lord Oxford and Mr. Pope, they readily released him from his first engagement, and so left him at full liberty to enter upon the other.-Spence.] As I was sitting by Sir Godfrey Kneller one day, whilst he was drawing a picture, he stopped and said, "I can't |