Sr.

LETTER V.

FENTON TO POPE.

Sept. 29th, 1718.

I have just now received the inclosed Papers from Cambridge. be pleas'd to favour me

* That Pope's metrical corrections of Fenton's share in the translation, were judicious, is evident to every correct ear; and his removal of many common-places must necessarily be agreeable to those who have read much of poetry; but in his original poetry, Fenton was sometimes able to equal his fellow-translator in the smoothness of his lines, and to surpass him in the strength of his expressions, and the grandeur of his sentiments.

In the epistle to Lambard we have the following noble sentence.

Nothing so much intoxicates the brain,

As Flatt'ry's smooth insinuating bane:
She, on th' unguarded ear employs her art,
While vain Self-love unlocks the yielding heart;
And Reason oft submits, when both invade,
Without assaulted, and within betray'd.

Alluding to Waller's poems on Sacharissa, he tells Lady Harley very poetically,

Nor think the lover's praise of love's delight
In purest minds may stain the virgin white;
How bright and chaste the poet and his theme!
So Cynthia shines on Arethusa's stream.

+ Notes for Homer, most probably.

wth yr orders about the remaining books, & they shall be wth great pleasure executed by

Sr.

Your most humble Servant,

E. FENTON.

In his translations he is singularly happy: his Basia, from Johannes Secundus, have all the lightness and elegance of the original, and sometimes he has improved upon it: for instance :

Cum Venus Ascanium super alta Cythera tulisset,
Sopitum teneris imposuit violis;

Albarum nymbos circumfuditque rosarum
Et totum liquido sparsit odore locum.

He has translated thus:

When Venus in the sweet Idalian shade,
A violet couch for young Ascanius made,
Their op'ning gems th' obedient roses bow'd,
And veil'd his beauties with a damask cloud;
While the bright goddess with a gentle show'r
Of nectar'd dews, perfum'd the blissful bower.

Who cannot perceive that the cold white roses are properly discarded, and the rich glowing red ones tastefully adopted?And that the frigidity of the Latin poet is a perfect contrast to the luxuriant warmth of the English versifier?

If Pope had not translated Sappho to Phaon,' so well as he did, Fenton's version would have been better appreciated: they are both elegant, and both have agreed in wandering from their author; Pope has added too much; and Fenton has made too

many omissions. His imitations of Horace induce us to wish he had attempted more of them; and his only failure is the 'Old Man of Verona,' which, indeed, is far inferior to Cowley's; and Cowley's, had it been better, would, I think, have been more like Claudian's.

I do not desire to represent Fenton as an original poet of the first class, for judging of him by all his works together, (and that is the proper way to estimate the character of a poet) we find much to blame, and, comparatively, little to applaud; by searching for them, many beauties may be found, but the labour of finding them is hardly repaid by the object of its pursuit. In a great poet it is not merely a selection of passages that deserves admiration, but it is the whole that delights us: we view him as one always great: but should occasional brilliancies be discovered in a minor poet, we are generally more surprised than delighted.

* One of the proofs of the Translation.

LETTER VII.

DR. EVANS TO POPE.

*

DEAR ST.

Yrs I rec. dated Oct. 11th, & 1 had sent to you, had I not heard from you about the middle

* Dr. John Evans, the Epigrammatist; whose name frequently appears in Pope's works.

To sieze his papers, Curl, was next thy care;
His papers light, fly diverse, toss'd in air;
Songs, sonnets, epigrams the winds uplift,

And whisk them back to Evans, Young, and Swift.

Dunciad, Book 2, l. 114.

The following couplet, in the fourth book of the Dunciad, is taken, verbatim, from one of Dr. Evans's Epigrams:

Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown
Such skill in passing all, and touching none.

Among the many sallies of wit for which this writer was justly celebrated, the two following may be considered as the best which have reached us. One is upon Blenheim, the palace of the Duke of Marlborough, who was, says Swift," detestably

covetous :"

The lofty arch his vast ambition shows,

The stream an emblem of his bounty flows.

The other is an epitaph for Sir John Vanbrugh, noticed by Walpole for his "inclination to ponderosity:"

Lie heavy on him earth, for he

Laid many a heavy load on thee!

of this month, & now I find you are got safe to Chiswick, I may perhaps be more frequent & more impertient in my Epistolary visits than you may well approve of. I will take due care about the sending of y' Books wch Lintot has not yet sent, who is a very careless fellow, & somewhat illmanner'd, or he woud take care to obleidge the Colledges, who are publick societies, & send em their Books. I am persuaded his mony woud be very safe. I will now, out of hand, acquaint those Colledges wch have not sent for their books, as for my Milton, you shall receive it by the first opportunity, & to y' care I commend it. I

sent and

LETTER VIII.

DEAR ST.

DR. EVANS TO POPE.

I rec some time since ten Homers third volumes; half of which I have deliver'd, and the rest will be dispos'd of this week, & I have taken up ye guineas, weh, when I have 'em all, I will pay to y' order at sight, those I have rec, are