if not, I fhall fend it, by the first safe hand, to him. I am truly glad of any occafion of proving myself, with all the respect that is confiftent with fincerity, Sir, Your, etc. SIR, LETTER XVIII. TO THE SAME. June 9, 1738. THE 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 else in particular, As to the fubject matter of the letter, I found what I have often done in receiving letters from those I moft efteemed, and moft wished to be efteemed by; a great pleasure in reading it, and a great inability to anfwer it. I can only fay, you oblige me, in feeming fo well to know me again; as ́one extremely willing that the free exercise 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 great deal, when exerted by you. I am fenfible of the honour you do me, in propofing to fend me your work before it appears: if you do, I must infist, that no use 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 letter I think juft; only I would acquit myself in one point: I could not have the least pique to Mr. Th. in what is cited in the treatise 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 those, 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 seem 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, unless 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 spare my character as an honest man, over which he can have no private, much less 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 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 first you will do with lenity, the last with excefs. But I could be glad to part with some share 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, Sir, Your, etc. SIR, LETTER XIX. TO THE SAME. I NEED not affure July 21, 1738. you in many words, that I join my fuffrage entirely with Lord B.'s in general, after a fourth reading your tragedy of Cæfar. I think no characters were ever more nobly fuftained than those of Cæfar and Brutus in particular: you excel throughout in the greatnefs of fentiment; and I add, that I never met with more ftriking fentences, or lively fhort reprizes. There is almost every-where fuch a dignity in the scenes, that instead of pointing out any one scene, I can fcarce point out any that wants it, in any degree (except you would a little raise that of the plebeians in the last act). That dignity is admirably reconciled with foftnefs, in the scenes be tween tween Cæfar and Calpurnia: and all those between Cæfar and Brutus are a noble ftrife between greatness and humanity. The management of the whole is as artful as it is noble. Whatever particular remarks we have made further, will be rather the fubject of converfation than a letter, of which we fhall both be glad of an opportunity, either here at Twickenham, or in town, as shall best suit your conveniency. Pray, Sir, let this confirm you in the opinion you kindly, and indeed justly, entertain of the wish I feel (and ever felt, notwithstanding mistakes) to be, and to be thought, Sincerely your, etc. LETTER XX. TO THE SAME. I SIR, September 12, 1738. HAVE now little to fay of your tragedy, which I return with my thanks for your indulgence to my opinion, which I see so abfolutely deferred to, that I wish I had croffed lefs frequently. I cannot find another thing I think a fault in you. But my Lord thinks three things may yet be reconfidered. Brutus, on fight of the warrant figned for his death, takes at once the resolution of murdering Cæfar, as none of his father. Quere, Whether in the scene that follows between him and Cæfar, all tenderness on the fide of Brutus, and all beyond the point of honour that friendship exacted, fhould not rather be avoided than heightened? Another quere is, Whether it would not beget more indignation in the audience against Caffius, and more compaffion for Cæfar, to fhew that Caffius fufpected Brutus to be Cæfar's fon, and therefore exacted from Brutus the oath of fparing neither father, relation, etc. The third thing is, Whether the efforts made by Cæfar to prevent the civil war, not only by the equal offer he made, while the matter was under debate in the fenate, (and which the confuls Lentulus and Marcellus refused to report to the senate,) but by the meffage he fent to Pompey, when he was at Brundufium, to defire a meeting, to fettle the matter, and avoid the civil war.-Vid. Caf. Com. de Bell. Civili, lib. 1. The mention of these fomewhere in the play might help to remove the prepoffeffion against Cæfar, After our little cavils (for fo we will rather call minute and verbal points of criticifm) we owe you the justice to extol highly, what we highly approve, and you need not defire us to speak as we think: 'tis what we have (in different ways) done all our lives, where it was to our prejudice, and cannot but do here, where it is to our honour. I only wish you a ftage, actors, and an audience worthy of you, and it. I have often wished to live to fee the day when prologues 3 |