Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_n	gentleman_n	letter_n	942	5	7.5099	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65151	Familiar and courtly letters written by Monsieur Voiture to persons of the greatest honour, wit, and quality of both sexes in the court of France ; made English by Mr. Dryden, Tho. Cheek, Esq., Mr. Dennis, Henry Cromwel, Esq., Jos. Raphson, Esq., Dr. -, &c. ; with twelve select epistles out of Aristanetus, translated from the Greek ; some select letters of Pliny, Jun and Monsieur Fontanelle, translated by Mr. Tho. Brown ; and a collection of original letters lately written on several subjects, by Mr. T. Brown ; to which is added a collection of letters of friendship, and other occasional letters, written by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Wycherly, Mr. -, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Dennis, and other hands.	Voiture, Monsieur de (Vincent), 1597-1648.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Congreve, William, 1670-1729.; Wycherley, William, 1640-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing V682; ESTC R34733	165,593	438

By feeding the Mind with Delicacies it makes it mad after Pleasure and lets all the Passions loose upon us Our Joys it blows up too high and makes our Griefs sit heavier and what is yet worse it kindles in us that foolish Passion Love the ruine of our Ease and Dotage even in Youth Whereas Mathematics improves all our Faculties makes the Judgment stronger and the Memory take in more The Dull it teaches to Perceive and the Giddy to Attend It distinguishes between True and False and enures us to Difficulties Besides it gives us a thousand Advantages in Life By this the Miser counts his Bags and the Country-man knows his Times and Seasons This gives our Cannon aim in War and in Peace furnishes every Workman with his Tools How many noble Engines has it invented In one the Wind labours for us and another turns Bogs and Pools into firm Land This builds us Houses defends our Towns and makes the Sea useful Nor are its Effects less wonderful than advantagious The Mathematician can do more things than any Poet e'er yet conceiv'd He in a Map can contract Asia to a Span and in a Glass shew a City from a single House and an Army from a Man He can set the Heavens a thousand Years forward and call all the Stars by their Names There is scarce any thing without his reach He can gauge the Channel of the Sea and weigh Saturn He sees farthest into the Art and Skill of the Creator and can write the best Comment on the six Days Work Be advis'd therefore to employ your self rather in the improving of your Understanding than debauching of your Passions and to prefer Realities before Appearances In my mind to make a Dial is harder than to find a Motto to it and a Prospect drawn in Lines pleasanter than one in Words Instead of Descriptions of cool Groves and flowry Gardens you may inform your self of the Situation and Extent of Empires and while others are wandring in Elysian-fields and fancy'd Shades below you may raise your Thoughts to the Infinity of Space above and visit all those Worlds that shine upon us here Think most of Mercury when he is farthest off the Sun and mind little in Venus but her Periodic Motion To let you see I have got the start of you I now follow the old Rule of Nulla dies sine Lineâ and am so far advanc'd in Geometry that I defie any Man to make a rounder Circle or cut a Line in two more nicely than my self I am well vers'd in Squares am no stranger to the Doctrine of Proportion and have transpos'd A B C D in all the Mathematical Anagrams they are capable of My Chamber I have survey'd five times over and have at length found out a convenient Place for a South-dial I am at present about a Bargain of Pins which you shall soon see dispos'd into Bastions and Counterscarps I felt at first I must confess a great Confusion in my Head between Rhimes and Angles Fiction and Demonstration But at length Virgil has resign'd to Euclid and Poetical Feet and Numbers to their Namesakes in Geometry and Arithmetic In short I write altogether upon Slate where I make Paralels instead of Couplets and Describe nothing but a Circle Let me for the future therefore catch no Poet in your Hands unless it be Aratus or Dyonisius and follow my Council unless you can make one of these Studies subservient to the other your Poetry wise and learn'd and your Mathematics pleasant and Ingenious I am Sir Yours c. To William Joy the strong Kentishman from the Lady C Dropt out of her Foot-man's Pocket and taken up by a Chair-man in the Pall-mall SIR I Saw you Yesterday with satisfaction exerting your Parts in Dorset-garden on that very Theatre where I have frequently beheld the Alexanders the Caesars the Hercules the Almanzors the greatest Heroes of Greece or Italy of ancient or modern Times taking Towns sacking Cities overturning Empires singly routing whole Armies but yet performing less Wonders than You. Yet I must tell you it grieves me to see so Noble a Talent mis-employed and that Strength thrown away upon undeserving Horses that cannot reward your Labour which might much better divert the requiting Woman Meet me therefore thou puissant Man in another Garden on a better Theatre where you may employ your Abilities with more Profit to Yourself and Satisfaction to the expecting MELESINDA The End of the First Part. LETTERS OF Friendship AND Several other OCCASIONS The Second Part. Written by Mr. Dryden Mr. Wycherly Mr. Mr. Congreve and Mr. Dennis WITH LETTERS written between Mr. Dennis and Mr. Congreve Concerning Humour in Ancient and Modern Comedy London Printed for Sam. Briscoe in Russel-street in Covent-garden MDCC To the Right Honourable Charles Montague Esq. One of the Lords of the Treasury Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council SIR AS soon as I had resolv'd to make this Address to you that the Present might not be altogether unworthy of you I took care to obtain the Consent of my Friends to publish some Letters which they had writ as Answers to mine When I look upon my self I find I have reason to beg Pardon for my Presumption But when I consider those Gentlemen I am encourag'd to hope that you will not be offended to find your self at the Head of no Vulgar Company a Company whose Names and Desert are universally known a Company rais'd far above the Level of Mankind by their own extraordinary Merit and yet proud to do Homage to yours They are Gentlemen 't is true who are divided in their Interests and who differ in their Politick Principles but they agree in their Judgments of Things which all the World admires and they always consent when they speak of you In presenting this little Book to you I only design'd to shew my Zeal and my Gratitude but they assure me unanimously that I have likewise shewn my Judgment Tho' indeed Sir the number of the Great who cast a favourable Eye upon Human Learning is not so considerable but that a Man who would Address any thing of this nature to one of them may soon determine his Choice Proficients in other Arts are encouraged by Profit which is their main Design but he who bestows all his time upon Human Studies is incited by Glory alone and the World takes care that he should have no more than he seeks for The Enthusiast the Quack the Pettifogger are rewarded for torturing and for deluding Men but Humanity has met with very barbarous Usage only for Pleasing and for Instructing them The very Court which draws most of its Ornament from it has but too often neglected it there Learning in general has been disregarded For none but great Souls are capable of great Designs and few Courtiers have had Greatness of Mind enough to procure the Promotion of Science which is the Exaltation of Human Nature and the Enlargement of

An Abridgment of a Letter to Mons. d' Avaux By the same Hand 74 To Madam By Henry Cromwel Esq 77 To Mons. de Chaudebonne By Tho. Cheek Esq 80 To my Lady-Abbess to thank her for a Cat which she sent him By Mr. Oldys 85 A Comical Letter out of the famous Mons. de Colletier to Mademoiselle de Choux By Sir D. Clark Kt. 87 Aristaenetus's EPISTLES Translated from the Greek by Mr. T. Brown TWo Ladies that were conquer'd by a Gentleman 's singing 89 A Lawyer 's Wife to her Friend complaining that her Husband did not manage her Law-Case so well as he ought 92 A Fisherman to his Friend being a Description of a lovely Damosel that wash'd her self in the Sea whilst he was fishing 95 An Adventure with a Harlot 97 A Cure for Love 100 From a Filt to her serenading Gallant acquainting him that his Mony wou'd charm her more than his Musick 103 A Relation of a Maid that fell in love with her Mistress's Gallant 104 A Letter of Gallantry from a young Gentleman to his perjured Mistress 108 A Love-Letter to his Mistress 110 An Account of the ill Success of his Friend Damon in his Amour 112 A Lady to Gentlewoman to acquaint her that she was in love with her Husband and she with her Page 115 A Relation of a Lady that satisfied her Longing with with her Gallant before her Husband's Face 117 Some Select EPISTLES out of Pliny Jun. Made English by Mr. T. Brown To his dear Friend Romanus Lib. 3. 120 To his dear Friend Geminius Lib. 8. 121 To his Wife Calphurnia Lib. 8. 124 To the same Lib. 7. 125 To his dear Friend Ferox Lib. 7. 126 To Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 8. 127 To Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 6. 129 To Sura Lib. 7. 135 LETTERS out of Mons. le Chevalier d' Her *** By Mr. T. Brown To Mademoiselle de J upon sending her a Boar in a Pasty who had liked to have wounded him at the Chace 140 To Mons. C on the Cartesian Philosophy 142 To Madam D V upon sending her a Black and a Monky 145 To the same on the Death of the Monky 147 To Mademoiselle de C upon sending her an Extract of the Church-register 149 ORIGINAL LETTERS By Mr. T. Brown To Dr. Baynard at the Bath 153 Melanissa to Alexis being a Defence of Love against Drinking 158 To a Litigious Country-Attorney 167 To Mr. Moult 171 To the same a News Letter 175 To the same from the Gun Musick-booth in Bartholomew-fair 184 A Consolatory Letter to my Lady on the Death of her Husband 190 To Mr. Moult upon the breaking up of Bartholomew-fair 194 To W. K. Esq being a Relation of a Journy to London 200 A Love-Letter from an Officer in the Army to a Widow whom he was desperately in Love with before he saw her 208 An Exhortatory Letter to an old Lady that Smok'd Tobacco 211 To Sir W. S. on the two incomparable Pieces The Satyr against Wit and Poeticae Britannici by another Hand 212 To a Physician in the Country being a true State of the Poetical-War between Cheapside and Covent-garden by another Hand 212 LOVE-LETTERS By Gentlemen and Ladies LOve-Letters written by Mr. to Madam 225 to 230 Four Love-Letters to a young Lady by another Hand 230 to 233 A Letter from a Lady to her Lover in the French Army with a Tuft of Hair inclosed in it 233 To Madam C ll's 234 Madam C ll's Answer 236 His Answer to the foregoing Letter 237 Madam C ll's Answer 239 To Mrs. by another Hand 241 To my Lady by the same Hand 242 Four Love-Letters to an old Lady 243 To a Lady that had got an Inflamation in her Eyes 247 Madam to Mr. B being an Account of a Journey to Exon c. 251 The Answer 255 To Dr. Garth 260 To his Poetical Friend advising him to study the Mathematicks Out of Quevedo By Mr. Savage 161 To W. Joy the strong Kentish-man from the Lady C dropt out of her Foot-man's Pocket and taken up by a Chair-man in the Pall-mall 265 LETTERS of Friendship By several eminent Hands MR. Dennis to Walter Moyle Esq 1 Mr. Wycherley at Cleave near Shrewfbury By the same Hand 6 Mr. Wycherley's Answer to Mr. Dennis 12 To Mr. Wycherley By 15 To Mr. Wycherley By 19 Mr. Wycherley to Mr. Dennis 21 To Mr. Wycherley By Mr. 24 Mr. Wycherley to Mr. on the Loss of his Mistress 27 Mr. 's Answer to the foregoing Letter 29 Mr. Wycherley to Mr. 31 Mr. Dennis to Mr. Wycherley 34 To Mr. Wycherley that a Blockhead is better qualified for Business than a Man of Wit 36 To Mr. Dryden 40 To the same 43 Mr. Dryden to Mr. Dennis 46 My Lady C to her Cousin W. of the Temple after the had receiv'd a Copy of Verses on her Beauty 52 Mr. at Will 's Coffee-house 56 To Walter Moyle Esq 61 To Mr. Congreve 64 To Mr. Congreve 66 Mr. Congreve to Mr. Dennis concerning Hemour in Comedy 69 To Mr. Congreve at Tunbridge 86 Mr. Congreve's Answer 87 Six Love-Letters to his Charming but Cruel Mistress by Mr. 92 to 102 To Walter Moyle Esq at the Back in Cornwal 102 Mr. to Mr. Congreve 105 Mr. Congreve to Mr. 107 To Mr. Congreve at Tunbridge 109 Mr. to Mr. Dennis 112 To Mr. Dennis 213 To the same 214 Familiar and Courtly LETTERS WRITTEN By Mons. VOITURE TO Persons of the greatest Wit Honour and Quality of both Sex in the Court of France Made English by several Eminent Hands To my Lord Cardinal de la Velette By Mr. Dryden My Lord I Am satisfy'd that you old Cardinals take more Authority upon you than those of the last Promotion because having written many Letters to you without receiving one from you yet you complain of my Neglect In the mean time seeing so many well-bred Men who assure me that you do me too much Honour to think of me at all and that I am bound to write to you and to give my Acknowledgments I am resolved to take their Counsel and to pass over all sorts of Difficulties and Considerations of my own Interest This then will give you to understand that six Days after the Eclipse and a Fortnight after my Decease Madam the Princess Mademoiselle de Bourbon Madam du Vigean Madam Aubry Mademoiselle de Rambouillet Mademoiselle Paulet Monsieur de Chaudebonne and my self left Paris about six in the Evening and went to La Barre where Madam du Vigean was to give a Collation to the Princess In our way thither we found nothing worth our Observation but only that at Ormesson an English Mastiff came up to the Boot of the Coach to make his Compliment to me Be pleased to take this along with you my Lord that as often as I express my self in the Plural Number as for Example We went we found or we beheld 't is always to be understood that I speak in the Quality of a Cardinal From thence we happily arriv'd at La

leave to cashire me the next Moment I 'm glad to find such a Reformation in your Sex but I doubt Madam you 'll hardly perswade many of 'em to be of your Mind For I tell you Madam Gold is the Womens God and there 's scarce a Dutchess in this Kingdom that can't find an use for a superfluous Sum. I deny your having Wit without Vanity if you mean in your self good Manners obliges me not to contradict you tho' I have much ado to help reminding you of the following Line in the Letter 't is out Faith before I was aware your Pardon for that If you mean the Lover I must tell you Madam that no Poet is without the Vanity of ten thousand a Year and I 'll warrant to assert his own Wit wou'd venture to Libel a Parliament-man for hissing his damn'd dull Plays though he had pick'd his Pocket of half a Crown Look ye Madam I have no occasion to expose the Product of my Brain the Product of my Estate is sufficient to afford me Necessaries and that 's more than your Poetical Friends can warrant from their spare Diet and hard Study And to answer the Postscript good Spelling is beneath a Gentleman so much by way of Answer Now Madam I wish I knew of what Metal this good Man of yours is made for I would fain be acquainted with him 't is the best way of Intriguing in the World If he is a Courtier Flattery makes him my Friend if he 's a Citizen Custom in his way of Trade if he serves the King a Bribe may do the Business if a Man below these a hard Word and a big Look makes you mine and if I once had Possession you shou'd find I had Courage enough to defend my own though with all the Submission to you imaginable For believe me Madam to be the sincerest of all your humble Servants An Answer I 'M very glad to hear Sir that you are a Member of Parliament for by that means you may prefer a Bill in favour of my Sex that may provide against the troublesome Suit of those we don't care for Pray Sir be kind to the D of N I don't think but an Act of Resumption in ease of a Wife may pass If an Act of Parliament make a Cuckold it may be of dangerous Consequence to all the Husbands in the Nation for the Subjects will be for following the Example of the higher Powers I imagine you to be of the Court Party you understand a Bribe so well but I can assure you my Husband falls not in your Road he 's no Courtier consequently no Knave no Soldier so not in your Power to use ill no trusting Cit to oblige your Squireship's Acquaintance nor Fool enough to be frighted with the Bray of an Ass thus much by way of Answer to your Wish And now Sir I tell you I want much of your Vanity to relish your Flattery I have Wit enough to distinguish the Arrogance of a Coach and Six from the Complaisance of a Man of Sence I despise your Price and nauseate your Person and if you don't desist I shall expose your Name in Print and your Years will shew you Bankrupt in Love as your Letters does of Sence and good Manners and that you are deficient in 'em all I believe the World will agree with Sir Your humble Servant To Mrs. By another Hand Madam I Must acquaint you in short that you must either pull out your Eyes or I must pull out mine either you must not be Handsome or I must be Blind Yet though my Passion is as violent perhaps as any Man's you must not expect I shou'd either Hang or Drown I shou'd betray great Want of Sense and little Knowledge of your Merit to be willing to leave the World while you are in it To deal sincerely with you Madam I choose infinitely the Happiness of Living with you before the Glory of Dying for you Besides I have that good Opinion of your Sense to believe you prefer the living Lover to the dead the Lips that are warm to those that are cold the Limbs which have Motion to those which have none If I must die Madam kill me with your Kindness but not with your Cruelty Let me expire rather upon your Bosom than at your Feet If you shall be tenderly inclined to give me a Death of this kind I am prepared to receive it on any Ground in the three Kingdoms Appoint but your place and I shall not fail to meet my fair Murderer To my Lady Madam I Am now at my Lady where we have had a very warm Debate Among many general Things we happen'd to fall into a Discourse of Queen Elizabeth and a Question arising what Complexion she was of one Lady said she was Fair another maintain'd she was Black a third contended she was Brown The Dispute was managed with very great Heat and little Certainty on all sides Speed Baker Camden were consulted but we found the Historians either silent or as much divided as the Company at last after a long Debate it was the unanimous Resolution of both Ladies and Gentlemen to refer it to your Ladiship 's Determination as a Person of greater Antiquity and consequently of better Authority than our Chronicles If you shall do us the favour to give us some Satisfaction in this Matter 't will be a general Obligation to the whole Company and a particular Honour done to Madam Your Ladiship 's obedient Servant To the same A Love-Letter to an old Lady Madam PAying a Visit Yesterday to Mrs. I was informed of your Ladiship 's Displeasure What shou'd occasion your Indignation I cannot well apprehend I do assure you no Man living has a greater Veneration for your Ladiship or has been readier upon all occasions to testifie it to the World To convince you of the Truth of what I say I will relate to you what happened last Saturday by which it will appear that I have been so far from ridiculing your Ladiship which is the Accusation you fasten upon me that no one could have given greater Demonstration of his Respect For being in Company where mention was made of your Ladiship not so honourable indeed as I could have wished or your Quality and Character might have required I took occasion to do Justice to your Merit Gentlemen said I you do my Lady wrong for my own part I must profess I think her a very agreeable Woman You cannot be serious sure replies a certain Gentleman who had more Malice than Wit in my whole Life I never saw so hideous a Complexion Sir said I 't is unjustly done to find fault with a Complexion which is none of her own if her Face displeases you blame her Woman who made it But I hope returned he you will not deny but that she is Red-hair'd With submission Sir I do to my certain knowledge she has not one hair on her Head But then her Teeth all the World must allow

his Recovery from Love tho' for the time a pleasant Frenzy so that your Mistress's Father has rather been your Doctor than your Enemy And you should not be angry with him if he cures you of your Love-distemper tho' by a Means a little too violent for next to his Daughter's Cure of Love his may prove the best Well pray be not angry that I can be pleas'd with any thing that can so much displease you I own my Friendship for you has a little Selfishness in it for now you cannot be so happy as you wou'd in the Country I hope you will make us as happy as we can be in Town which we shall be as soon as we have your company For know my Friend change of Air after a Love-distemper may be as good as 't is after a Fever and therefore make haste to Town where a great many Doctors have engaged to compleat your Cure Your Friends will do any thing to root out the Remains of your Passion The Witty Club will grow Grave to instruct you and the Grave Club will grow Gay to delight you Wh will turn a Philosopher and I will grow a Good-Fellow and venture my own Health for the Recovery of your good Humour for I had rather be sick in your Company than for want of it who am Dear Sir Your most unalterable Friend and humble Servant W. WYCHERLEY POSTSCRIPT PRay pardon me for not writing to you before or rather for writing to you so dully now which I hope will be my best Excuse for my not writing sooner All your Friends of the Coffee-house are well and what is no News to you are in spight of your Absence your constant humble Servants The Answer to Mr. Wycherley Dear Sir I Have a colourable Excuse for my Silence for when you went out of Town you gave me the hopes of receiving a Letter from you as soon as you arriv'd at Cleve Besides since that I have been a Month in Northamptonshire But the Inclination which I have to converse with Mr. Wycherley is too violent to receive any Check from Punctillo's But alas I was restrain'd by too just an Impediment For ever since I saw you I have been so rackt by a cruel Passion that I have had no Power to do any thing but to to Complain And your Portion of Melancholy is not so small that you have need to be troubled with another Man's Spleen I would be sure to communicate my Happiness to my Friend nay I could be but half happy if I did not communicate it As in Love I never could be pleas'd to a Height with my own Pleasure if I did not find that it added to that of my Mistress But I should impart my ill Humour to my Friend if I found that it were not in his Power to ease me and that it were much in his Inclination with as much Regret as I should acquaint him with his own ill Fortune if I were clearly convinc'd that it were not in my Power to assist him You would not advise me to stifle this Passion You are too well acquainted with Love and me to do that You know that that would be to perswade me to a thing which you are already sensible that I am very willing and very unable to do I blush while I show this Weakness but sure there is some Force of Mind requir'd to shew some sorts of Weakness You remember the Maxim of the wise Duke La meme fermete qui sert a Resister al'amour Sertauffi queque fois a le rendre violent durable If that be true I beseech you to believe that this obstinate Lover is a constant Friend too and unalterably Dear Sir Your most humble Servant Mr. Wycherley's Letter to Mr. Dear Sir I Lately received from you so kind and so witty a Reproach for my not writing to you that I can hardly repent me of my Fault since it has been the Occasion of my receiving so much Satisfaction But you have had a reasonable Excuse for your Silence since you say I promis'd to write to you first which is very true and I had kept my Promise but for my Conjecture that you could not stay so long out of Northamptonshire nor was I it seems mistaken in that But be assur'd dear Sir I think there can be no better End or Design of my Writing than in its procuring me the Satisfaction of receiving something of yours especially since I have no other way left me now of Conversing with you But it seems you forbear to relieve me out of Charity since you say your Trouble was so great that you were unwilling to communicate it to me to mine I see your Wit can do any thing make an Omission of a Kindness a greater Obligation and if you complain but to your Mistress as wittily as you do to your Friend I wonder not at her Cruelty nor that she should take Pleasure to hear you Complain so long But my Friend have a care of Complaining to her with so much true Sence lest it should disparage your true Love and indeed that I fear is the only Cause you are suffer'd to Complain so long without the Success which is due to your Merit Love and Wit from one who you say has her self so much which with your Pardon I shall hardly believe tho' you are her Voucher if she does not do what you wou'd have her that is do you and herself Reason as fast as she can since she must needs believe you a warm and sincere Lover as much as I believe you a zealous and a true Friend And I am so well acquainted with Love and you that I believe no body is able to alter your Love or advise your Reason the one being as Unalterable as the other Infallible and you for ought I know are the only Man who at once can Love and be Wise. And to the Wise you know a Word is enough especially since you gave me a Caution against opposing your Passion because it would be in vain If Love be in you as in other Men a violent Passion it is therefore a short Frenzy and should be cur'd like other Distempers of that kind by your Friends humouring it rather than opposing it Yet pardon me if I prescribe the common Remedy of curing one Love with another But whether you will let me be your Doctor or no I must at least wish you well who am Dear Sir your most obliged affectionate Friend and humble Servant W. WYCHERLEY POSTSCRIPT PRay thank my Friend Mr. W. for putting his Surtout of a Letter over yours of a finer Stuff as the Lining of a Garment is often finer than the Outside Pray give all the honest Gentlemen of the Coffee-house of my Acquaintance and yours my humble Service whom with you I hope to see again within this three Weeks at London Mr. Dennis to Mr. Wycherley Dear Sir A Man who has the Vanity of pretending to Write must certainly love you extremely

whether I shall be able to bear up under yours But whatever happens I can't indure too much since it is for Love of you and the two Words which you have put in your Billet out of Rank from the rest are enough to render any thing supportable and make me cheerfully embrace Martyrdom I suppose you have no doubt of it and that you are assur'd of my Resolution since after having warned me of the Mischief you intend me you expect that I should come and meet you and that after Dinner I should voluntarily appear in a place where my Pains are to be encreas'd These Menaces wou'd terrifie any other but my self and make a wiser Man than I provide for his Security But whatsoever Danger I foresee it 's impossible for me to disobey you Or having the Honour of knowing you so well as I do to forbear being Madam To the same I Have forgot all that I shou'd say to to whom you wou'd reconcile me and I assure you'tis not because I have slept since I am sorry to have so little Concern for a Person so well recommended to me and that not being able to afford her any room in my Affection she had no more in my Memory It 's the part of my Soul in which I may with most Justice allow her a place being that which is most opposite to the Judgment and wherein things past are laid up But if I say any thing obliging to her after Dinner she shall not be able to complain that I talk to her by heart for I find that I 'm so much a Stranger to all that I have to say to her that if you do not quickly relieve me you shall see that I know no more than you either the Words or Time I wish you knew no better that of your departure For without lying I have not Courage to endure the bare thought of it which stifles in me all others When I think that to Morrow you will be no longer here I am surpris'd that I am to Day in the World and I am ready to confess to you that there is some Faction in this Love which I testifie when I consider that I yet breathe and that my Displeasure has not yet finished my Days Others have lost their Speech and confin'd themselves to inaccessible Solitudes for less Misfortunes than mine I own that I could not go so far from you to vent my Grief but I am methinks to be excused for not seeking a Cell in the Desarts of Aegypt since I hope for a place in that which you are making It is this Hope only which keeps me in the World and my Life hangs only on this Expectation I know not whether all that I here say be within the bounds of a passionate Friendship but you cannot accuse me of speaking too intelligibly since all my words will bear a double Construction nor complain that I do not write to you in such Terms as you desire since I never met with the Person that shou'd inform me what those are So long as some Allowance is made for my Failings and that I may tell you some part of my thoughts I swear to you by the same Affection that I did Yesterday that the only Folly I shall ever be guilty of shall be always to love the most aimiable Person that ever was and that I will be content to be hated by you when ever I offer you my Friendship To Diana By the same Hand Madam IF you be as sensible of the Uneasiness of not seeing what you love as I am if you suffer during this Absence any thing like what I endure What Considerations charming Diana could prevail upon you to be two Days without seeing me Why do not we rather hazard the other Extremity than this which our Misfortune reduces us to Is it reasonable to hinder four or five People from prating and observingour Satisfaction we should sacrifice it and to prevent a little Noise endure so much Misery No no my dear Diana the greatest Misfortune that can befal us is to be separated from one another I know nothing that we ought so much to fear Do not think that our Love is a whit the more private for the pains we take to conceal it the Dejection which is visible in my Countenance speaks plainer than any body can do Let us then lay aside a Discretion which cost us so dear and give me after Dinner an Oppertunity of seeing you if you would have me live To the President of the Houshold By *** Sir MAdam de Marsilly believes that I have some Int'rest in you and I who am vain enough to be thought to have it have not inform'd her to the contrary She is a Lady esteem'd at Court and that may influence the Parliament and if she succeeds in a Cause to be heard before you believing that I have contributed to her Success you cannot imagine the Credit it will do me amongst the better part of the World I can propose nothing to byass you farther than by putting you in mind of my Interest because you know your own can never engage you To serve a Friend and to do Justice which is all we demand are things the severest Judges may be solicited for and I shall be sensible you do 'em both to me if you continue loving me as much as you have done hitherto and if you believe that I am Yours To Monsieur d'Emer Comptroler General of the King's Revenues By the same Hand Sir SInce you won't permit me to mention some of your Letters pray give me leave to take notice of that you writ to Monsieur d' Arses upon my Account and to tell you there are very few in France that can write in such a Manner particularly where you say that to accommodate my Affair you 'll advance a Sum of Money you must pardon me if I am of Opinion that to offer twenty thousand Livers to do a Friend a Service is so gallant a way of Writing that there are few capable of expressing themselves in such a Stile Even we of the Academy of the Beaux Esprits are not able to boast of any Turn of Thought equal to this The Abridgment of a Letter to Monsieur d'Avaux By the same Hand VIs ergo inter nos quid possit uterque vitissim Experiamur No I beg your Pardon Sir Apollo tells me I am overmatch'd and I am resolv'd to take his Advice nor am I concern'd that you have so far exceeded me in your last Letter because there you have even exceeded your self I must tell you I am jealous of the very Praises you give me they are so artful and ingenious that I shou'd be prouder of being capable of giving then receiving them and the very Words wherein you tell me how much I am above others shew me how much more you deserve that Compliment every Line of your Letter is extraordinary especially the Picture you draw of Madam de Longueville

have something to communicate to you which perhaps you will not be displeas'd to hear She accordingly commanded her Attendant to file off when the other in this manner persued his Discourse As I know that Love is no Camelion to live upon Air I am not so unreasonable as to demand any Favours of you gratis And on the other hand Madam I am sure you are too conscientious to put too high a Price on ' em Gold you know may be too dearly bought but I hope you 'll comply with the running Market-price I have Madam two things to plead for me Vigour and Wealth but I wou'd by my good Will husband both of 'em so as to make 'em hold out Come give me your Answer The Lady's Eyes sufficiently declar'd the Consent of her Heart she stood still and blush'd and such a beautiful Red streak'd her Cheeks as we find in the Heavens when the Sun is just a setting When my Friend found the Bargain was now as good as struck he turn'd about to me And what do you think now of my Skill in these Affairs you would have diswaded me forsooth from this Expedition but now you see how I have succeeded for at the expence of a few Words and a little Time I have brought the Nymph to surrender You alas are such a Heretick as to believe there are Women in the World above Flattery Corruption and Bribery but you are in a damn'd Mistake follow me and I 'll show you some Sport but in the mean time take this for granted That there is no Garrison so strong and no Woman so obstinately vertuous but by one Practice or other both may be brought to take a new Master Lamprias to Philippides Out of the same Epist. 16. Lib. 1. YOu remember me troubl'd with all the Symptoms of Love and desire to know how I got cur'd of it I us'd to entertain my Passion in the Fields and solitary Groves which instead of abating grew every Day fiercer and raged more violently in my Breast As I walk'd by the purling Streams May Cupid said I and his Mother for they and only they know what Torments I languish under give me Courage enough to make a Declaration of my Passion which hitherto I have stifl'd within me As Love has transfixt with his Darts this tender Breast of mine so I hope he will in the same manner treat the fair Insensible who has given me so many cruel Inquietudes One Day it happened that after I had amused my self with these Contemplations in the Woods I found I had Resolution enough to venture an Interview with my Mistress I went accordingly to her House and had a long Conversation with her wherein I found the Beauties of her Mind to be not at all inferiour to those of her Face Her Looks wore all the bewitching Marks of the most agreeable Innocence I admir'd her Hand the whitest and softest in the World I viewed with sacred Horror those charming Eyes that penetrate quicker and deeper than Lightning To compleat my Ruin she show'd me a delicious pair of Breasts as it were by accident on which the God of Love himself wou'd be proud to recline his Head All this while my Tongue was tied with a religious Awe and I had not Assurance enough to acquaint her with my Pain However I was very intent on my mental Devotion and pray'd to Cupid that since he knew my Imbecillity so well which I wholly imputed to himself he would so effectually touch my Mistress's Heart that she of her own accord should own her Affection for me I had no sooner concluded these pious Ejaculations but I found the God had heard my Prayers for my Mistress who look'd so Coy and Demure at my first coming into the Room on the sudden smiled very graciously upon me and gently squeez'd me by the Hand and then no longer able to conceal the Vehemence of her Desires she imprest so warm a Kiss on my Lips that I was in good hopes the Seal wou'd never have pared from the Wax All the Sweets of Arabia the Happy all the fragrant Odours of the Eastern World all the blooming Beauties of the Spring and the Wealth of Summer in short all the Incense that is offer'd on the Altars of our Gods comes infinitely short of the natural Sweetness of her Breath But here I will stop my Narration for what need I trouble my self to send every Particular to you who are old enough to imagine 'em of your self Only this I will add That we strove all Night long which of us should express their Love in the most Emphatical Manner and that that sawcy Intruder sleep found us too well employ'd to offer to interrupt us Philomatia to Eumusus Out of the same Epist. 14. Lib. 1. THis comes to let you know that we are not so bewitched to Musick as you imagine and that the best Lute and Guitar in the World will make but little Progress unless it comes attended with the more powerful Harmony of Mony Why then do you give your self and me the unnecessary trouble of so many Serenades Why must you employ your Hands to shew the Passion of your Heart Why do you persecute me with your Sonnets and sing under my Windows Since Beauty's Charms do hourly fade And a Scandal it is to be reckon'd a Maid Let not Love's Pleasures be delay'd You are old enough one wou'd think to know that Mony atones for all Defects with us Women and that Beauty and Vigour have no Merit with us if they have no Gold to recommend 'em But you think me an easy foolish good-natur'd Creature who am to be imposed on by any wheedling Stories You fancy'd I suppose that I never had been initiated the Misteries of our Profession and that I wou'd immediately surrender to you upon the first stroak of your Violin and the first touch of the Lute but to undeceive you know that I was bred up under the most experienc'd Mistress of her time who formed my tender Mind with wholsom Precepts telling me that nothing under the Sun was sincere or desirable but Mony and teaching me to despise every thing but that Under her Instructions and by her virtuous Example I have profited so much that I now measure Love not by vain empty Compliments that signify nothing but by the Presents that are made me and by the Almighty Rhetorick of Gold which will stand my Friend when a thousand such fluttering Weather-cocks as you have left me in the Lurch Terpsion to Polycles Out of the same Epist. 7. Lib. 2. TO convince you how insensibly Love gets Admission into the most innocent Hearts be pleased to read over the following Story A young Country Girl fell desperately in Love with her Mistress's Gallant and took Fire herself while she contributed to ease that of others Being obliged to keep Watch upon the Stairs lest the Lovers shou'd be surpriz'd she cou'd not but often hear their Murmuring and Sighing She saw

bargain with you before-hand that you shall send me your Poem in pieces just as you finish it Nay even before you have finish'd it by which means it will come the more fresh like Fruit newly gather'd from the Tree You will tell me 't is impossible that small Pieces shou'd please so well as an entire Work or that a Sketch should be so well liked as a finish'd Picture I confess it and therefore I will consider it as such and you shall bestow the last hand upon it at your leisure in my Library To your other Favours give me I beseech you this farther Mark of your Friendship as to communicate to me what you wou'd let no body else see For tho' I may the more commend and value your Writings as I see them come out more slowly and more correct yet I shall both Love and Honour your self infinitely the more as you send me these things with most dispatch in their Undress To his Wife Calphurnia Lib. 8. YOu send me word that my Absence does not a little afflict you and that you have no other Antidote against your Melancholy but my Letters 'T is no small Satisfaction to me that I am always in your Thoughts and that such Trifles can contribute to your Diversion For my part to let you see my Case is parallel with yours I am perpetually reading yours and the oftner I read them the more new they seem to me and I still discover some fresh Beauties in 'em which I did not observe before Tho' this in some measure alleviates my Pain yet it sets me a longing the more for your Company for if your Letters are so sweet and entertaining what Pleasures may I not expect from your Conversation Therefore let me conjure you to lose no Opportunities of Writing to me tho' as I hinted before at the same time this Commerce delights me it gives me some Uneasiness To the Same Lib. 7. 'T Is impossible for me to tell you how much I regret the want of your good Company and I have several good Reasons for it In the first place there is Love in the case Then 't is to be consider'd that you and I never lived asunder which is the reason why I pass the greatest part of the Night in thinking on you From the same Cause it proceeds that even in the Day-time at those Hours when I used to visit you in your Chamber my Feet of their own accord carry me to you and then when I miss you there I come back no less melancholy and sorrowful than if you had turn'd me out of your Room The only time that I am free from these Inquietudes is when I am pleading in the Hall and drudging for my Friends Judge then what a mortified Life I lead when I am forced to find Relaxation in Labour and Comfort in Care and Misery To his dear Friend Ferox Lib. 7. YOur last Letter is a convincing Argument that you Study and that you don't You 'll tell me I talk Riddles to you and so I do till I explain to you more distinctly what my Meaning is In short the Letter you sent me shows you did not study for it so easie and negligent it appears to be and yet at the same time 't is so polite that 't is impossible that any one should write it who did not weigh every word or else you are certainly the happiest Man in the World if you can write Letters so Entertaining without Care and Premeditation To Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 8. I Return you your Book which I read over very carefully having marked all along in the Margin what places I thought fit to be alter'd and what struck out For I am no less inclin'd to tell the Truth than you are to hear it 'T is a plain Case I believe that no Man suffers himself to be so patiently found fault with as he that deserves the highest Commendation And now I expect my own Book from you with your Corrections and Amendments These reciprocal Offices of Friendship that pass between us give me no little Satisfaction for if our Posterity will have any Concern for us I am pleased to think that they will tell with what Amity Concord and Integrity you and I have lived together It will be a remarkable and perhaps the only Instance in History that two Men almost of the same Age and Quality and of some Reputation for Learning I am oblig'd to speak the more sparingly of you because at the same time I speak of my self should promote one another's Studies so unanimously When I was but young and you had justly acquir'd a high Character in the World even then it was my greatest Ambition to imitate and follow you tho' at never so great a Distance We had then at Rome several Persons of Wit and Learning that were deservedly admired yet so great a Similitude was there between our Tempers and Dispositions that even then I endeavoured to Copy after you For this Reason 't is no small Satisfaction to me that whenever there is any Discourse about Learning and Learned Men you and I are still quoted together that when your Name is mention'd the Company immediately mentions mine and that when they prefer a third Man to one of us they mean it of both But 't is no matter to me whether you or I are mention'd first for if I am first it is only because I am the next to you I don't question too but you have observ'd that in the last Wills of the Deceas'd unless there was some particular Difference in the Case you and I have Legacies of the same Value generally bequeathed us The Conclusion I draw from all this is That we have the greatest Obligations that can be to entertain the strictest Amity since even our Studies our Manners our Reputations in short the united Testimony of the World are so many Arguments why the mutual Friendship between us shou'd still increase Farewel To Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 6. YOu desire me to send you an Account of my Uncle's Death that you may be the better able to relate it in your History I am obliged to you for this Favour for I foresee my Uncle's Name will be immortal if it has the Honour to be preserv'd by your Pen Tho' it was his Fate to die like great Cities memorable for their Calamities in the Universal Desolation of the finest Part of Italy Nay tho' he himself has written several learned Volumes which will propagate his Memory to future Ages yet that Eternity which seems to be intailed on every thing you write will not a little contribute to perpetuate his Name For my part I reckon those Men happy who by a particular Indulgence of Heaven are capable of doing things fit to be transmitted to Posterity or of writing Works that deserve to be read but I reckon those the happiest of all who posses both these Advantages Amongst the Number of these Latter I reckon my Uncle by means of yours

designed in the first place to have said something of the Nature and of the End of a Letter and thought to have prov'd that the Invention of it was to supply Conversation and not to imitate it for that nothing but the Dialogue was capable of doing that from whence I had drawn this Conlclusion That the Style of a Letter was neither to come quite up to that of Conversation nor yet to keep at too great a distance from it After that I determined to shew That all Conversation is not familiar that it may be Ceremonius that it may be Grave nay that it may be Sublime or that Tragedy mnst be allow'd to be out of Nature That if the Sublime were easy and unconstrain'd it might be as consistent with the Epistolary Style as it was with the Ditactique that Voiture had admirably joyn'd it with one of them and Longinus with both After this I resolv'd to have said something of those who had most succeeded in Letters amongst the Ancients and Moderns and to have treated of their Excellencies and their Defects To have spoken more particularly of Cicero and Pliny amongst the Ancients and amongst the Moderns of Balzac and Voiture to have shewn that Cicero is too simple and no dry and that Pliny is too affected and too refined that one of them has too much of Art in him and that both of them have too little of Nature That the Elevation of Balzac was frequently forced and his Sublime affected that his Thoughts were often above his Subject and his Expression almost always above his Thoughts and that whatsoever his Subjects were his Style was seldom alter'd That Voiture was eafie and unconstrain'd and natural when he was most exalted that he seldom endeavoured to be witty at the Expence of right Reason but that as his Thoughts were for the most part true and just his Expression was often defective and that his Style was too little diversifyed That for my own part as I came infinitely short of the extraordinary Qualities of these great Men I thought my self obliged to endeavour the rather to avoid their Faults and that consequently I had taken all the care that I could not to think out of Nature and good Sence and neither to force nor neglect my Expressions and that I had always taken care to suit my Style to my Subject whether it was Familiar or Sublime or Didactique and that I had more or less varied it in every Letter All this and more I designed to have said at large which I have only hinted now in a Hurry I have nothing to add but to desire the Reader to excuse my bad Performance upon the account of my good Endeavour and for striving to do well in a manner of Writing which is at all times useful and at this time necessary a manner in which the English would surpass both the Ancients and Moderns if they would but cultivate it for the very same Reason that they have surpassed them in Comedy But methinks I have a Title to the Reader 's Favour for I have more than made Amends for the Defects of my own Letters by entertaining him with those of my Friends A Collection of Letters Written by several Eminent Hands To Walter Moyle Esq Dear Sir YOU know a grave Fellow assures us that upon the Cessation of Oracles lamentable Cries were heard in the Air proclaiming along the Coasts the Death of the Great Pan And have not you upon this Dearth of good Sence and this Cessation of Wit tell me truly have not you heard These Sounds upon the Cornish Shore The Sage Will. Ur. is no more Gone is the Universal Lord of WIT He to whom all the Wits paid Homage For whom his Subjects set a Tax upon Words and laid exorbitant Customs on Thoughts He 's dead alas he 's dead Dead I mean Sir in a legal Capacity that is Outlaw'd and gone into the Fryars to go into which is once more to Outlaw himself He has done it Sir and ill Fortune has brought him to be a Felo de se that way For since the Law thought it but just to put Will out of its Protection Will thought it but prudent to put himself out of its Power And since the Law could use him with so much Contempt as to declare to all the World that it does not care for Will. Vr Will who is extreamly stout in Adversity has declar'd by his Actions That he does not care for the Law Virgil tells us in his Sixth Book that the Souls in Hell were busied about the same things in which they were employed upon Earth even so does Sage Will use the same Nutmeg-grater and the same Tea-pot in the Fryars that he handled before in Bowstreet Thus has he left the Wits without any Sorrow tho' he loves them and without taking any Leave of them For Will thinks they cannot be long from him and he says he expects that in a very little time his Old Company should be constant at his New House And dost not thou think that they too have reason to expect the very same thing For as the Death of any Man ought to put all his Friends in mind that he went before but to lead them the way so Will 's Departure from this miserable Life this lewd Covent-garden Life and his Ferrying from Somerset-stairs to the infernal Shore of Alsatia should be a Memento to the rest of the Wits that he is but gone whither they all must follow To leave off Poetical Similies this Body Politick is in a cursed Condition and cannot keep long together without a Head The Members are at present in a grave Debate how to get one To Morrow the Whole House will resolve it self into a grand Committee to consult about Ways and Means of making Provission for the Common Necessities Some talk of an Excise upon May-dew and Rasberry-brandy That there will be a Poll is strongly asserted in which every Man is to pay according to his respective Condition To Morrow it will be known to how much each Man 's Quota amounts As for Example How much a Poet is to pay how much a Wit how much a Politician and how much a Critick A Critick did I say I beg your Pardon They have voted Nemine Contradicente that they will Cess no Critick till Mr. Moyle returns I have given them my Sentiments upon the forementioned Poll which were That it was something hard to make a Man pay for being call'd Wit Poet or Critick That they saw by Experience lately in the State that poor Dogs grumbled to pay for their Titles How then could they think that People would be contented to be tax'd for their Nick-names That in setling this Tax they were to take a quite contrary Method to that which was taken upon setling a Tax in the State That in the State sometimes a Man paid for what he really had As for Example when a Country ' Sqnire paid for his Land

a Friend's Desert it takes too much Pleasure and too much Pride to consider its own Defects 'T is true that you are esteemed at this high Rate you owe to your Wit and your Penetration but that you are esteem'd without Envy that you are with Joy and Gladness esteem'd you owe to this that while the force of your Fancy and Judgment makes all the World admire you you remain yourself unmov'd by it that while your Excellence fills all Mouths but yours you alone appear to be unacquainted with it Thus while by the Merit of your extraordinary Qualities you are known to surpass all others it plainly appears that you have beyond all this a Greatness of Soul from whence you look down on your own Merit An infallible Sign that the Talants which we admire in you are no Illusions but real things things that were born with you and have been improv'd by you and which you have not acquir'd For Men are found to be Vainer upon the account of those Qualities which they fondly believe they have than of those which they really have and Hereditary Greatness gives Men 〈◊〉 to be humble whereas Preferment occasions Pride None but such real Greatness as yours can capacitate a Man to be truly humble for the Soul which by Nature is not seated high can hardly be said to descend If I have insisted too long on this shining Subject a Subject which is so conspicuous in you if you look upon this tedious Letter as one of those various Persecutions which every eminent Virtue provokes I desire you to consider that I have so many Obligations to this very Humility that I look'd upon my self as oblig'd by Gratitude to say as much as I have done For to what I owe the Happiness which I have frequently received in your Conversation to that I owe the present Satisfaction which your Permission to write to you gives me and to that I am indebted for the Hopes of your Answers when I have received them I shall then believe what you were pleas'd to tell me when I saw you last that you are much more Humble in the clear Air on your Mountain at Cleve than when you are in Fog and sulphurous Smoke in Bow-street But at the same time the Satisfaction of thinking that Distance does not make you forget me will render him very Proud who is at present Sir your very humble Servant JOHN DENNIS Mr. Wycherley's Answer to Mr. Dennis Dear Sir YOu have found a way to make me satisfyed with my Absence from London nay what is more with the Distance which is now betwixt you and me That indeed uses to lessen Friendship but gives me the greater Mark of yours by your kind Letter which I had miss'd if I had been nearer to you So that I who receive no Rents here yet must own if I did I cou'd not receive greater Satisfaction than I had from yours worth even a Letter of Exchange or Letters Pattents For I value your Friendship more than Money and am prouder of your Approbation than I should be of Titles For the having the good Opinion of one who knows Mankind so well argues some Merit in me upon which every Man ought to consider himself more than upon the Goods of Fortune I had rather be thought your Friend in proof of my Judgment and good Sense than a Friend to the Muses and had rather have you than them thought mine If I am as you say at once Proud and Humble 't is since I have known I have had the Honour to please you tho' your Praise rather humbles than makes me tho' a damn'd Poet more Vain for it is so great that it rather seems the Railery of a witty Man than the Sincerity of a Friend and rather proves the Copiousness of your own Invention than justifies the Fertility of mine But I fear I am forfeiting the Character of the Plain-dealer with you and seem like vain Women or vainer Men to refuse Praise but to get more and so by returning your Compliments shew my self grateful out of Interest as Knaves are punctual in some Payments but to augment their Credit And for your Praise of my Humility the only Mark of my Knowledge since it is a Mark of my knowing my self you have prais'd that to its Destruction and have given me so much you have left me none like those Admirers who praise a young Maid's Modesty till they deprive her of it But let me tell you 't is not to my Humility that you owe my Friendship but to my Ambition since I can have no greater than to be esteem'd by you and the World your Friend and to be known to all Mankind for Dear Sir your humble Servant W. WYCHERLEY POSTSCRIPT My Dear Friend I Have no way to shew my Love to you in my Absence but by my Jealousie I would not have my Rivals in your Friendship the C s the D s the W s and the rest of your Tavern-friends enjoy your Conversation while I cannot Tho' I confess 't is to their Interest to make you dumb with Wine that they may be heard in your Company tho' it were more the Demonstration of their Wit to hear you than to be heard by you For my own part I am ambitious of your Company alone in some Solitude where you and I might be all one For I am sure if I can pretend to any Sence I can have no Instruction or Satisfaction of Life better than your Example and your Society My Service pray to all my Friends that is to all yours whom I know and be charitable as often as you can to the Absent which you good Wits seldom are I mean be charitable with your Letters to Your humble Servant POSTSCRIPT PRay let me have more of your Letters tho' they would rally me with Compliments undeserv'd as your last has done for like a Country Esquire I am in love with a Town Wit 's Conversation tho' it be but at a Distance that I am forced to have it and tho' it abuses me while I enjoy it To Mr. Wycherley Dear Sir NOT long after I writ my last to you I was hurried up to Town by a kind of a Cholick which was ended in a Destruction upon one of my Feet You know Sir a Defluction is a general name which some pleasant French Men have given an Infant Gout too young to be yet baptiz'd But tho' the Distemper rag'd in each Hand I would in spight of it answer your admirable Letter a Letter which I had certainly known to be yours tho' it had been sent me without a Name nay and transcrib'd by a Chancery-Clerk in his own hideous manner of Copying But I must confess I was surpriz'd to hear you say in it that you took the Sincerity of a Man who so much esteems you for Railery yet tho' you declare it you can never believe it I am willing to believe you exceeding humble but you can never be humble to that

than an Offence tho' the greatest Injury indeed you can do your Friends is to leave 'em against their Will which you must needs do You tell me you converse with me in my Writings I must confess then you suffer a great deal for me in my Absence which tho' I would have you love me I would not have you do but for your truer Diversion pray change my Country Wife for a better of your own in the Country and exercise your own Plain Dealing there then you will make your Country ' Squire better Company and your Parson more sincere in your Company than his Pulpit or in his Cups But when you talk of Store of Delights you find in my Plain Dealer you cease to be one and when you commend my Country Wife you never were more a Courtier and I doubt not but you will like your next Neighbour's Country Wife better than you do mine that you may pass your time better than you can do with my Country Wife and like her Innocence more than her Wit since Innocence is the better Bawd to Love but enjoy my Wife and welcome in my Absence I shall take it as civilly as a City Cuckold I was sorry to find by you that your Head ak'd whilst you writ me your Letter since I fear 't was from Reading my Works as you call them not from your own Writing which never gave you Pain tho' it would to others to Imitate it I 've given your Service to your Friends at the Rose who since your Absence own they ought not to go for the Witty Club nor is Will 's the Wits Coffee-house any more since you left it whose Society for want of yours is grown as Melancholy that is as dull as when you left them a Nights to their own Mother-wit their Puns Couplets or Quibbles therefore expect not a Witty Letter from any of them no more than from me since they nor I have conversed with you these three Weeks I have no News worth sending you but my next shall bring you what we have In the mean time let me tell you what I hope is no News to you that your Absence is more tedious to me than a Quibbler's Company to you so that I being sick Yesterday as I thought without any Cause reflected you were forty or fifty Miles off and then found the Reason of my Indisposition for I cannot be well so far from you who am My Dear Mr. Dennis Your obliged humble Servant W. WYCHERLEY POSTSCRIPT PRay pardon me that I have not sooner answer'd your Letter for I have been very busie this last Week about Law-affairs that is very Dull and Idle tho' very Active Your Friends of the Coffee-house and the Rose whether Drunk or Sober Good Fellows or Good Wits show at least their Sence by valuing you and yours and send you all their Service and never are more Wits and less Poets that is less Lyars than when they profess themselves your Servants For News W lives soberly Ch goes to bed early D'Vrfy sings now like a Poet that is without being ask'd And all the Poets or Wits-at-wills since your departure speak well of the Absent Bal says his ill Looks proceed rather for want of your Company than for having had that of his Mistress even the Quibblers and Politicians have no double Meaning when they speak well of you To Mr. Wycherley Dear Sir THE sight of your Letter reviv'd me It appear'd like the Rays of the new Sun to one who has winter'd under the Pole and brought with it Light Warmth and Spirit The Raillery in it was very obliging for the Lust of Praise is as powerful with Men as the Itch of Enjoyment is with Women and it is as hard for us to think that our Friends ridicule us when they commend our Wit as it is for them to believe that their Gallants abuse them when they extol their Beauty Yet generally in both Cases whatever is said is said for the Satisfaction of him that speaks it But then as he delights in Deceiving the Person to whom he speaks is deceiv'd with Pleasure and both Parties are satisfied But Mr. Wycherley is to be excepted from this general Rule who commends his Friend for his Friend's sake You never are witty to please your self to whom Wit has so long been habitual that you are often hardly mov'd your self when you say those admirable things with which we are transported Not that I am so far betray'd by Vanity as to take your Compliments at the Foot of the Letter or to suppose that you believ'd all that you said but I am willing for your sake to believe that you meant something of it and that not being without Kindness for me which is only owing to the Sweetness of your Nature that is to your Merit and not to mine your Reason as the Duke de la Rochefoucaut says has been bubbled by your Affection And here Sir I have much the Advantage of you for when I declare that I have the greatest Opinion in the World of you none will mistrust my Sincerity and all will applaud my Discernment but you cannot express your Zeal at so high a rate for any Friend but it must considerably lessen the World's Opinion of your Judgment But if it is Mr. Wycherley's peculiar Praise never to have shewn Want of Judgment in any thing unless in that only thing in which Errour is honourable How few are they who are capable of Erring at your Rate Vellem in amicia sic erraremus isti Errori virtus nomen posuisset honestum And how happy is the Man who has a Friend so accomplish'd that Errour in him is Virtue I am that happy Man and am so far exalted by my Happiness that I am never less humble than when I subscribe my self Dear Sir Your most humble and faithful Servant Mr. Wycherley's to Mr. on the Loss of his Mistress Dear Sir I Have had yours of the 31st of March to which I should sooner have returned an Answer had I not been forced to take a little turn out of Town but your Letter to me brought me not more Satisfaction than your last to Mr. Moyle gave me Disquiet for you Since by that I find how uneasie you are Yet know my Friend from one sufficiently experienced in Love-disasters that Love is often a kind of losing Loadam in which the Loser is most often the Gainer If you have been deprived of a Mistress consider you have lost a Wife and tho' you are disappointed of a short Satisfaction you have likewise escaped a tedious Vexation which Matrimony infallibly comes to be one way or another so that your Misfortune is an Accident which your true Friends should rather felicitate than commiserate You told me in your last that you were no more Master of your self Then how should I help Rejoycing at the Restoration of your Liberty A Man might as reasonably be sorry for his Friend's Recovery from Madness as for

have hitherto had of my self I have so great a Value for your Judgment that for the sake of that I shall be willing henceforward to believe that I am not wholly Desertless but that you may find me still more Supportable I shall endeavour to compensate whatever I want in those glittering Qualities by which the World is dazled with Truth with Faith and with Zeal to serve you Qualities which for their Rarity might be Objects of Wonder but that Men dare not appear to admire them because their Admiration would manifestly declare their Want of ' em Thus Sir let me assure you that tho' you are acquainted with several Gentlemen whose Eloquence and Wit may capacitate them to offer their Service with more Address to you yet no one can declare himself with greater Chearfulness or with greater Fidelity or with more profound Respect than my self Sir your most c. Mr. Dryden to Mr. Dennis My dear Mr. Dennis WHen I read a Letter so full of my Commendations as your last I cannot but consider you as the Master of a vast Treasure who having more than enough for your self are forc'd to Ebb out upon your Friends You have indeed the best Right to give them since you have them in Propriety but they are no more mine when I receive them than the Light of the Moon can be allowed to be her own who shines but by the Reflection of her Brother Your own Poetry is a more powerful Example to prove that the Modern Writers may enter into Comparison with the Ancients than any which Perrault could produce in France yet neither he nor you who are a better Critick can persuade me that there is any room left for a solid Commendation at this time of Day at least for me If I undertake the Translation of Virgil the little which I can perform will shew at least that no Man is fit to write after him in a barbarous modern Tongue Neither will his Machines be of any service to a Christian Poet. We see how ineffectually they have been try'd by Tasso and by Ariosto 'T is using them too dully if we only make Devils of his Gods As if for Example I would raise a Storm and make use of Eolus with this only Difference of calling him Prince of the Air. What Invention of mine would there be in this or who would not see Virgil thorough me only the same Trick play'd over again by a bungling Juggler Boileau has well observed that it is an easie matter in a Christian Poem for God to bring the Devil to Reason I think I have given a better Hint for new Machines in my Preface to Juvenal where I have particularly recommended two Subjects one of king Arthur's Conquest of the Saxons and the other of the Black Prince in his Conquest of Spain But the Guardian Angels of Monarchies and Kingdoms are not to be touch'd by every Hand A Man must be deeply conversant in the Platonick Philosophy to deal with them And therefore I may reasonably expect that no Poet of our Age will pre-sume to handle those Machines for fear of discovering his own Ignorance or if he should he might perhaps be Ingrateful enough not to own me for his Benefactor After I have confess'd thus much of our Modern Heroick Poetry I cannot but conclude with Mr. Rym that our English Comedy is far beyond any thing of the Ancients And notwithstanding our Irregularities so is our Tragedy Shakespear had a Genius for it and we know in spite of Mr. R that Genius alone is a greater Virtue if I may so call it than all other Qualifications put together You see what Success this learned Critick has found in the World after his Blaspheming Shakespear Almost all the Faults which he has discover'd are truly there Yet who will read Mr. Rym or not read Shakespear For my own part I reverence Mr. Rym 's Learning but I detest his Ill Nature and his Arrogance I indeed and such as I have reason to be afraid of him but Shakespear has not There is another Part of Poetry in which the English stand almost upon an equal Foot with the Antients and 't is that which we call Pindarique introduced but not perfected by our Famous Mr. Cowley and of this Sir you are certainly one of the greatest Masters You have the Sublimity of Sence as well as Sound and know how far the Boldness of a Poet may lawfully extend I could wish you would cultivate this kind of Ode and reduce it either to the same Measure which Pinder us'd or give new Measures of your own For as it is it looks like a vast Tract of Land newly discover'd The Soil is wonderfully fruitful but unmanur'd overstock'd with Inhabitants but almost all Salvages without Laws Arts Arms or Policy I remember poor Nat. Lee who was then upon the Verge of Madness yet made a sober and a witty Answer to a bad Poet who told him It was an easie thing to write like a Madman No said he 't is very difficult to write like a Madman but 't is a very easie matter to write like a Fool. Otway and He are safe by Death from all Attacks but we poor Poets Militant to use Mr. Cowley's Expression are at the Mercy of wretched Scribblers and when they cannot fasten upon our Verses they fall upon our Morals our Principles of State and Religion For my Principles of Religion I will not justifie them to you I know yours are far different For the same reason I shall say nothing of my Principles of State I believe you in yours follow the Dictates of your Reason as I in mine do those of my Conscience If I thought my self in an Error I would retract it I am sure that I suffer for them and Milton makes even the Devil say That no Creature is in love with Pain For my Morals betwixt Man and Man I am not to be my own Judge I appeal to the World if I have Deceiv'd or Defrauded any Man And for my private Conversation they who see me every Day can be the best Witnesses whether or no it be Blameless and Inoffensive Hitherto I have no reason to complain that Men of either Party shun my Company I have never been an impudent Beggar at the Doors of Noble Men My Visits have indeed been too rare to be unacceptable and but just enough to testifie my Gratitude for their Bounty which I have frequently received but always unask'd as themselves will witness I have written more than I needed to you on this Subject for I dare say you justifie me to your self As for that which I first intended for the principal Subject of this Letter which is my Friend's Passion and his Design of Marriage on better consideration I have chang'd my Mind For having had the Honour to see my dear Friend Wycherley's Letter to him on that Occasion I find nothing to be added or amended But as well as I love Mr. Wycherley I

that plague you However I am so sensible of your being mindful of me in Town that I should be ungrateful if I should complain that you do not remember me where you are Mr. Moyle tells me that you have made a favourable Mention of me to a certain Lady of your Acquaintance whom he calls But then to mortifie the Old Man in me or indeed rather the Young he assur'd me that you had given a much better Character of him However for that which you gave of me I cannot but own my self obliged to you and I look upon your Kindness as so much the greater because I am sensible that I do not deserve it And I could almost wish that your good Qualities were not quite so numerous that I might be able to make you some Return in Specie For Commending you now I do you but Justice which a Man of Honour will do to his Enemy whereas you by partial Praise have treated me like a Friend I make no doubt but that you do me the Justice to believe that I am perfectly yours and that your Merit has engag'd me and your Favours oblig'd me to be all my Life-time Dear Sir your most humble Servant J. DENNIS Mr. Congreve to Mr. Dennis Dear Sir IT is not more to keep my Word than to gratifie my Inclination that I write to you and tho' I have thus long deferr'd it I was never forgetful of you nor of my Promise Indeed I waited in Expectation of something that might enable me to return the Entertainment I received from your Letters but you represent the Town so agreeable to me that you quite put me out of Conceit with the Country and my Designs of making Observations from it Before I came to Tunbridge I proposed to my self the Satisfaction of Communicating the Pleasures of the Place to you But if I keep my Resolution I must transcribe and return you your own Letters since I must own I have met with nothing else so truly Delightful When you suppose the Country agreeable to me you suppose such Reasons why it should be so that while I read your Letter I am of your Mind but when I look off I find I am only charm'd with the Landskip which you have drawn So that if I would see a fine Prospect of the Country I must desire you to send it me from the Town as if I would eat good Fruit here perhaps the best way were to beg a Basket from my Friends in Covent-garden After all this I must tell you there is a great deal of Company at Tunbridge and some very agreeable but the greater part is of that sort who at home converse only with their own Relations and consequently when they come abroad have few Acquaintance but such as they bring with them But were the Company better or worse I would have you expect no Characters from me for I profess my self an Enemy to Detraction And who is there that can justly merit Commendation I have a mind to write to you without the Pretence of any manner of News as I might drink to you without naming a Health for I intend only my Service to you I wish for you very often that I might recommend you to some new Acquaintance that I have made here and think very well worth the keeping I mean Idleness and a good Stomach You would not think how People eat here every Body has the Appetite of an Oastrich and as they drink Steel in the Morning so I believe at Noon they could digest Iron But sure you will laugh at me for calling Idleness a new Acquaintance when to your Knowledge the greatest part of my Business is little better Ay but here 's the Comfort of the Change I am Idle now without taking Pains to be so or to make other People so for Poetry is neither in my Head nor in my Heart I know not whether these Waters may have any Communication with Lethe but sure I am they have none with the Streams of Helicon I have often wonder'd how those wicked Writers of Lampoons could crowd together such quantities of execrable Verses tag'd with bad Rhimes as I have formerly seen sent from this place But I am half of Opinion now that this Well is an Anti-Hypocrene What if we should get a quantity of the Water privately convey'd into the Cistern at Will 's Coffee-house for an Experiment But I am extravagant Tho' I remember Ben. Johnson in his Comedy of Cynthia's Revels makes a Well which he there calls the Fountain of Self-love to be the Source of many entertaining and ridiculous Humours I am of Opinion that something very Comical and New might be brought upon the Stage from a Fiction of the like Nature But now I talk of the Stage pray if any thing new should appear there let me have an Account of it for tho' Plays are a kind of Winter-fruit yet I know there are now and then some Wind-falls at this time of Year which must be presently served up lest they should not keep till the proper Season of Entertainment 'T is now the time when the Sun breeds Insects and you must expect to have the Hum and Buz about your Ears of Summer-flies and small Poets Cuckows have this time allow'd 'em to Sing tho' they are damn'd to Silence all the rest of the Year Besides the approaching Feast of St. Bartholomew both creates an Expectation and bespeaks an Allowance of unnatural Productions and monstrous Births Methinks the Days of Bartholomew-fair are like so many Sabbaths or Days of Privilege wherein Criminals and Malefactors in Poetry are permitted to creep abroad They put me in mind tho' at a different time of Year of the Roman Saturnalia when all the Scum and Rabble and Slaves of Rome by a kind of Annual and limited Manumission were suffer'd to make abominable Mirth and Profane the Days of Jubilee with vile Buffoonry by Authority But I forget that I am writing a Post-letter and run into length like a Poet in a Dedication when he forgets his Patron to talk of himself But I will take care to make no Apology for it lest my Excuse as Excuses generally do should add to the Fault Besides I would have no appearance of Formality when I am to tell you that I am your real Friend and Humble Servant W. CONGREVE Letters of LOVE Written by Dear Madam NOT believe that I love you You cannot pretend to be so incredulous If you do not believe my Tongue consult my Eyes consult your own You will find by yours that they have Charms by mine that I have a Heart which feels them Recal to mind what happen'd last Night That at least was a Lover's Kiss It s Eagerness its Fierceness its Warmth express'd the God its Parent But oh its Sweetness and its melting Softness express'd him more With Trembling in my Limbs and Fevers in my Soul I ravish'd it Convulsions Pantings Murmurings shew'd the mighty Disorder within me The mighty

one another this indeed may be done upon the Stage but in Nature it is highly improbable Well then since the Rules are nothing but Nature it self and nothing but Nature can please and since the more that any Play has of Nature the more that Play must Delight it follows that a Play which is regularly written ceteris Paribus must please more than a Play which is written against the Rules which is a Demonstration Rule may be said to be a Play what Symmetry of Parts is known to be to a Face The Features may be regular and yet a great or a delicate Air may be wanting And there may be a commanding or engaging Air in a Face whose Features are not regular But this all the World must allow of that there can never be seen any Soveraign Beauty where Air and Regularity of Features are not united Thus is Rea-son against this Author but the mischief is that Experience is against him too For all your Dramatick Poets must confess that the Plays which they have writ with most Regularity have been they which have pleased most I must trouble you with another Dramatical Criticism but not till the next Opportunity I am yours c. Mr. to Mr. Congreve Dear Sir I Came home from the Land's End Yesterday where I found three Letters from Mr. Dennis and one from you with a humerous Description of John Abassus A Country Poet. since the dubbing of Don Quixote and the Coronation of Petrarch in the Capitol there has not been so great a Solemnity as the Consecration of John Abassus In all the Pagan Ritual I never met with the Form of Poetical Orders but I believe the Ceremony of Consecrating a Man to Apollo is the same with Devoting a Man to the Dii Manes for both are Martyrs to Fame I believe not a Man of the Grave Club durst assist at this ridiculous Scene for fear of laughing out-right W. was in his Kingdom and for my part I would have rather sat there than in the House of Commons Would to God I could laugh with you for one Hour or two at all the ridiculous things that have happen'd at Will 's Coffee-house since I left it 't is the merriest Place in the World Like Africa every Day it produces a Monster and they are got there just as Pliny says they are in Africa Beasts of different kinds come to drink mingle with one another and beget Monsters Present my humble Duty to my new Lord and tell him that I am preparing an Address to Congratulate his Accession to the Throne of the Rabble Tell the Lady who was the Author of the Hue and Cry after me she might have sent out a hundred Hues and Cries before she would have found a Poet. I took an effectual Course not to be apprehended for a Poet for I went down clad like a Soldier with a new Suit of Cloaths on and I think there could not have been a better Disguise for a Poet unless I had stol'n Dr. B 's Coat Mr. Dennis sent me down P M 's Parodie I can say very little of the Poem but as for the Dialogue I think 't was the first time that M suffered any body to talk with him though indeed here he interrupts Mr. Boileau in the midst of the first word My humble Service to Mr. Wycherley I desire you would write me some News of the Stage and what Progress you have made in your Tragedy I am your affectionate Friend and Servant Mr. Congreve to Mr. Dear Sir I Can't but think that a Letter from me in London to you in C is like some ancient Correspondence between an Inhabitant of Rome and a Cimmerian May be my way of Writing may not be so modestly compared with Roman Epistles but the Resemblance of the Place will justifie the other part of the Parallel The subterraneous Habitations of the Miners and the Proximity of the Bajae help a little and while you are at B let B be Cumae and do you supply the Place of Sybilla You may look on this as Railery but I can assure you nothing less than Oracles are expected from you in the next Parliament if you succeed in your Election as we are pretty well assured you will You wish your self with us at Will 's Coffee-house all here wish for you from the President of the Grave Club to the most puny Member of the Rabble they who can think think of you and the rest talk of you There is no such Monster in this Africa that is not sensible of your Absence even the worst natured People and those of least Wit lament it I mean half Criticks and Quiblers To tell you all that want you I should name all the Creatures of Covent-garden which like those of Eden-garden would want some Adam to be a Godfather and give them Names I can't tell whether I may justly compare our Covent-garden to that of Eden or no for tho' I believe we may have Variety of strange Animals equal to Paradise yet I fear we have not amongst us the Tree of Knowledge It had been much to the Disadvantage of Pliny had the Coffee-house been in his Days for sure he would have described some who frequent it which would have given him the Reputation of a more fabulous Writer then he has now But being in our Age it does him a Service for we who know it can give Faith to all his Monsters You who took care to go down into the Country unlike a Poet I hope will take care not to come up again like a Politician for then you will add a new Monster to the Coffee-house that was never seen there before So you may come back again in your Soldier 's Coat for in that you will no more be suspected for a Politician than a Poet. Pray come upon any Terms for you are wished for by every body but most wanted by your Affectionate Friend and Servant W. CONGREVE To Mr. Congreve at Tunbridge Dear Sir MY Business and my Thanks for your Kindness you will find in the Inclos'd which I had sent by the last Post had not an accident hinder'd it All the Return that I can make you at present is to acquaint you with such News as we have Our Friend Mr. went last Friday to the Bath He promis'd to write to me from that place but it would be unreasonable indeed to expect it For W takes up his Afternoons and his Mornings I suppose are spent in Contemplation at the Cross Bath Most of your Friends of the Coffee-house are disper'd Some are retreated into the Country in hopes of some Favours which they expect from the Muses two or three of them are retir'd in Town to ruminate on some Favours which they have receiv'd from their Mistresses So that the Coffee-house is like to grow into Reputation again For if any one gives it the scandalous Denomination of the Wits Coffee-house he must call it so by Antiphrasis because there