HERD'S WEEK of Gay, in the proem of which, that fimplicity, for which Mr. Phillips fo much valued himself, in his paftorals, is pleasantly ridiculed; as is the naiveté of the incidents of these pastorals in the SHEPHERD'S WEEK itfelf. Yet, this is remarkable, that they who were not in the secret, mistook Gay's paftorals for a burlesque on Virgil's. How far this goes towards a vindication of Phillips's manner in the conftruction of his poem, let others judge.

Our bard, nevertheless, was, in general, peculiarly happy in cultivating, improving, and preferving, a friendship with writers of reputation, though he fometimes gave offence by the ingenuous candour and freedom, which he himfelf fo ftrongly recommends in the following lines

"With mean complacence ne'er betray your "trust,

“Nor be fo civil as to prove unjust.”

He particularly difgufted Mr. Wycherley and Mr. Cromwell by this friendly liberty. He was fcarce eighteen, when he was fo high in the eftimation of the former, that he engaged him to correct his poems, which he had publifhed without fuccefs, in order to their paffing through the prefs a fecond time with greater advantage. Mr. POPE undertook this nice office, which he executed with great judgment, and with an honeft freedom. But the errors he corrected were fo numerous, and his criticisms fo juft,

that

that his old friend was hurt to fee his infufficiency fo expofed. Being aged and captious, he had not strength of understanding enough left to admire this noble exertion of one of the beft offices of friendship, nor to receive it with fuitable thanks and gratitude. Nevertheless,

though his pride was fo much offended that he, for fome time, difcontinued all correfpondence with Mr. POPE, yet his judgment was fo far corrected, that he defifted from his defign of republishing his poems.

This weak and ungenerous return, Mr. POPE resented with a moderation and dignity far above his years. For when Mr. Cromwell gave him the first hint of Wycherley's chagrin, he answered thus

"I may derive this pleasure from it, that whereas I must otherwise have been a little uneafy to know my incapacity of returning his obligations, I may now, by bearing his frailties, exercise my gratitude and friendship more, than himself either is, or perhaps ever will be fenfible of.

"Ille meos, primus qui fibi junxit, amores

Abftulit, ille habeat fecum, fervetque fepulchro."

In the laft vifit which Mr. POPE made to him, the breach was openly intimated. "He told me, (fays Mr. POPE in a letter to Cromwell) he was going inftantly out of town, and till his return was my humble fervant." Here

upon

upon Mr. POPE finding that this journey into the country was not fo inftantaneous as was pretended, did not spare to return the compliment. "I beg you," fays he, to the fame friend," do what you may with all truth, that "is, affure Mr. Wycherley I have ever born "all refpects and kindness imaginable to him. "I don't know to this hour, what it is that "has eftranged him from me; but this I know, "that he may for the future be more fafely my "friend, fince no invitation of his shall ever "make me fo free with him."

By the mediation of a common friend, Mr. Wycherley was afterwards prevailed on to refume the correfpondence, yet it never went farther than cool refpect or bare ceremonial.

Mr. POPE, however, has been heard to fay, that his old friend never did any thing unjust to him in his life. He ufed to complain indeed, that he was totally forgetful and fomewhat peevish, which now and then occafioned little mifunderstandings. But that, nevertheless, they were upon good terms to the laft, and that he went to see him on his death-bed *. But, how

ever

* Mr. POPE, in a letter to Mr. Blount, dated 21ft January, 1715, relates a pleafant anecdote, which ferves to characterize Mr. Wycherley. He had often told his acquaintance, that he would marry as foon as his life was despaired of. Accordingly, a few days before his death, he underwent the ceremony; and joined together thofe two facraments, which,

ever fenfible Mr. POPE was of the ill return which his old friend made to his fincerity, yet fome time after Mr. Wycherley's death, his poems being republifhed by fome mercenary editor in the year 1728, our author in the following year, printed feveral letters which paffed between them, in vindication of Mr. Wycherley's fame, against fome misconstructions prefixed to that edition: and throughout the whole of this misunderstanding, Mr. POPE, though a youth, displayed a moft manifeft fuperiority.

wife men say, should be the last we receive: " For, if you obferve," fays our author, " matrimony is placed after ex treme unction in our catechism, as a kind of hint of the order of time in which they are to be taken. The old man then lay down, fatisfied in the confcience of having by this one act, paid his juft debts, obliged a woman, who (he was told) had merit, and fhewn an heroic refentment of the ill-ufage of his next heir. Some hundred pounds, which he had with the lady, difcharged thofe debts; a jointure of four hundred a year, made her a recompence; and the ne phew he left to comfort himself, as well as he could, with the miferable remains of a mortgaged eftate. I faw our friend twice after this was done; lefs peevifh in his fickness, than he used to be in his health; neither much afraid of dying, nor (which in him had been more likely) much afhamed of marrying. The evening before he expired, he called his young wife to the bed-fide, and earneftly entreated her not to deny him one requeft, the laft he should make. Upon her affurances of confenting to it, he told her, "My dear, it is only this, that you will never marry on old man again." I cannot help remarking, that ficknefs, which often deftroys both wit and wifdom, yet feldom has power to remove that talent which we call humour: Mr. Wycherley fhewed his, even in this last compliment; though I think his request a little hard, for why fhould he bar her from doubling her jointure on the fame eafy terms ???

It is remarkable that our poet had afterwards the ill luck to disoblige Mr. Cromwell by the fame commendable franknefs and fincerity.

In Mr. POPE's firft letter to Mr. Gay, in the year 1712, he fays--- "Your Friend Mr. Crom"well has been filent all this year. I believe

he has been displeased at fome or other of my "freedoms, which I very innocently take; and "most with those I think most my friends." Now it appears by his letters to Mr. Cromwell, that our poet used to rally him on his turn for trifling and pedantic criticism. So he loft his two early friends, Cromwell and Wycherley, by his zeal to correct the bad poetry of the one, and the bad taste of the other.

The lofs of these two captious friends, however, was amply compensated by the patronage and efteem of the most eminent men of the age, which his rising fame procured him. Bur the uncommon applaufe which he fo deservedly obtained in his early years, did not make him remifs in his application, or negligent in his compofition. It ferved to animate, but not to intoxicate him.

Soon after his Paftorals, he published his Windfor-Foreft, which was written at different times; the first part of it, which relates to the country, in the year 1704, at the fame time with the pastorals, the latter not being added till the year 1713, in which it was published at the de