Siv

best Thanks

I cannot omit to return you my for your very blying present, from the Jenyal of which Ihan meived quat pleasure as well as information. One ought ferhaps & regut that so valuable a piece of

criticgm was not sooner communicated & the world; but, in another light, I confess I must consider the publication of it at the present moment as a fortunate cicumstance, for the interests of taste and good letters. I am in hope, your book may from a timely antidote & that poison, (swet sout poison; and suited, I fear to will, & the

that

venk

(ages tooth, ]) with which we have been lately overflow Under the shelter of your authority, one may perhaps & avow an

opinion,

that Portry is not confined & riming

complets, and that its greatest powers

in prologues

and epilegues .

Welbeck Thut

22 Jan 19 1702.

are not

I am, Sir, with real

displayed

Inspect.

Your most obedient

بر

humble Sewart

Tyrwhitt

AN

ESSAY

ON THE

GENIUS AND WRITINGS

OF

POPE.

SECTION VIII.

OF JANUARY AND MAY, THE WIFE OF BATH,

AND TRANSLATIONS OF STATIUS AND

OVID, AND THE IMITATIONS OF

SOME ENGLISH POETS.

THE first dawnings of polite literature in Italy, appeared in tale-writing and fables.. Boccace gave a currency and vogue to this species of composition. He collected many of the common

VOL. II.

B

tales

sical foundation, may at first sight appear paradoxical; but if the subject were examined to the bottom, I am inclined to think, that the wildest chimeras in those books of chivalry with which Don Quixote's library was furnished, would be found to have a close connection with ancient mythology.

We of this nation have been remarkably barren in our inventions of facts; we have been chiefly borrowers in this species of composition; as the plots of our most applauded plays, both in tragedy and comedy, may witness, which have generally been taken from the novels of the Italians and Spaniards.

The story of JANUARY and MAY, now before us, is of the comic kind; and the character of a fond old dotard betrayed into disgrace by an unsuitable match, is supported in a lively manner. POPE has endeavoured suitably to familiarize the stateliness of our heroic measure in this ludicrous narrative; but, after all his pains, this measure is not adapted to such subjects, so well as the