203. TO MRS. STEELE. HAMPTON-COURT, THURSDAY NOON, DEAREST WIFE, SEPT. 17, 1712. THE finest women in nature should not detain me an hour from you; but you must sometimes suffer the rivalship of the wisest men. Lords Halifax and Somers leave this place after dinner; and I go to Watford, to speak with the Solicitor-general *, and from thence come directly to Bloomsbury-square. Yours faithfully, RICH. STEELE. 204. FROM MR. POPE. NOV. 7, 1712. I WAS the other day in company with five or six men of some learning; where chancing to mention the famous verses which the Emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed, they were all agreed that it was a piece of gaiety unworthy of that Prince in those circumstances. I could not but differ from this opinion: methinks it was by no means a gay, but a very serious soliloquy to his soul, at the point of its departure; in which sense I naturally took the * Sir Robert Raymond; afterwards, in regular succession, Attorney-general, a Serjeant at Law, Chief-justice of the King's Bench, and a Commissioner of the Great Seal. verses at my first reading them, when I was very "Animula vagula, blandula, "Alas, my soul! thou pleasing companion of this I confess, I cannot apprehend where lies the trifling in all this: it is the most natural and obvious reflection imaginable to a dying man: and, if we consider the Emperor was a Heathen, that doubt concerning the future fate of his soul will seem so far from being the effect of want of thought, that it was scarce reasonable he should think otherwise; not to mention that here is a plain confession included of his belief in its immortality. The diminutive epithets of vagula, blandula, and the rest, * * These sort of epithets are carried to a great degree of affectation by the modern Latin Poets of Italy, in their many imitations of the Hendeca-syllabi of Catullus; even by such charming writers as Naugerius, Cotta, and Flaminius, and many others. Nothing can be more unlike Catullus than these luscious, florid, and meretricious ornaments; whose style is remarkable for purity, simplicity, and a certain austerity that is peculiarly charming. Mr. Wilkes has done honour to the English press, and to his own exquisite taste and judgment in polite 1 appear not to me as expressions of levity, but rather of endearment or concern; such as we find in Catullus, and the authors of Hendeca-syllabi after him, where they are used to express the utmost love and tenderness for their mistresses. If you think me right in my notion of the last words of Adrian, be pleased to insert it in the Spectator*; if not, to suppress it. I am, &c. A. POPE. Ah, fleeting spirit! wandering fire, That long hast warm'd my tender breast, Thou seem 'st all trembling, shivering, dying, polite literature, in giving us, a few years ago, the best and most elegant edition of Catullus extant. London, 4to. 1788. He has since given us as elegant an edition of Theophrastus, 1790, which, from his wit and humour, and knowledge of life and characters, it were to be wished he had enriched with notes and illustrations. To the taste and erudition of Mr. Wilkes I was indebted for many remarks in my edition of his favourite writcr. WARTON. ↑ See Spectator, N° DXXXII. Nov. 10, 1712. 205. TO I 205. TO MR. POPE. NOV. 12, 1712. HAVE read over your "Temple of Fame" twice; and cannot find any thing amiss, of weight enough to call a fault, but see in it a thousand, thousand beauties. Mr. Addison shall see it tomorrow: after his perusal of it, I will let you know his thoughts. I desire you would let me know whether you are at leisure or not? I have a design *, which I shall open a month or two hence, with the assistance of the few like yourself. If your thoughts are unengaged, I shall explain myself further. I am your, &c. RICH. STEELE. 206. FROM MR. POPE. NOV. 16, 1712. YOU oblige me by the indulgence you have shewn to the poem I sent you, but will oblige me much more by the kind severity I hope for from you. No errors are so trivial but they deserve to be mended. But, since you say you see nothing that may be called a fault, can you but think it so, *This was "The Guardian," in which Popę assisted. It is observed by Bp. Lowth, that these are improperly used here as corresponding conjunctions. that that I have confined the attendance of guardian spirits to Heaven's favourites only * ? I could point you to several: but it is my business to be informed of those faults I do not know; and as for those I do, not to talk of them, but to correct them. You speak of that poem in a style I neither merit, nor expect; but, I assure you, if you freely mark or dash out, I shall look upon your blots to be its greatest beauties: I mean, if Mr. Addison † and yourself should like it in the whole; otherwise the trouble of correction is what I would not take; for I was really so diffident of it as to let it lie by me these two years, just as you now see it. I am afraid of nothing so much as to impose any thing on the world which is unworthy of its acceptance. As to the last period of your letter, I shall be very ready and glad to contribute to any design that tends to the advantage of mankind, which, I am sure, all yours do §. I wish I had but as much *This is not now to be found in the " Temple of Fame," which is the poem here spoken of. + It appears from this passage how solicitous at the time Pope was of Addison's name and recommendation. BOWLES. Hence it appears this poem was written before the author was twenty-two years old, an early time of life for so much learning and so much observation as it exhibits. "As I § In a subsequent letter to Mr. Addison, Pope says, hope, and would flatter myself, that you know me and my thoughts so entirely as never to be mistaken in either, so it is a pleasure so me that you have guessed so right in regard to the author of that Guardian you mentioned. But I am sorry to find it has taken air that I have some hand in those papers, because I writ so very few, as neither to deserve the credit of such a report with some people, nor the disrepute of it with others. An honest Jacobite spoke to me the sense or nonsense of the weak |