* lantern is not so great a consumer of the fat of the land as disaffected persons have said: For your reputation, we keep to ourselves your not hunting nor drinking hogan, either of which here would be sufficient to lay your honour in the dust. To-morrow se'nnight I hope to be in town, and not long after at Cambridge. Burnham, Sept. 1737. XI. I am, &c. FROM MR. WEST TO MR. GRAY. RECEIVING no answer to my last letter, which I writ above a month ago, I must own I am a little uneasy. The slight shadow of you which I had in town, has only served to endear you to me the more. The moments I passed with you made a strong impression upon me. I singled you out for a friend, and I would have you know me to be yours, if you deem me worthy. Alas, Gray, you cannot imagine how miserably my time passes away. My health and nerves and spirits are, thank my stars, the very worst, I think, in Oxford. Four-and-twenty hours of pure unalloyed health together, are as unknown to me as the 400,000 characters in the Chinese vocabulary. One of my complaints has of late been so over-civil as to visit me regularly once a monthjam certus conviva. This is a painful nervous headache, which perhaps you have sometimes heard me speak of before. Give me leave to say, I find no * A favourite object of Toxy satire at the time. physic comparable to your letters. If, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus, “ Friendship be the physic of the mind," prescribe to me, dear Gray, as often and as much as you think proper, I shall be a most obe'dient patient. Non ego Fidis irascar medicis, offendar amicis. I venture here to write you down a Greek epigram, which I lately turned into Latin, and hope you will excuse it. Perspicui puerum ludentem in margine rivi At gelido ut mater moribundum e flumine traxit Adieu! I am going to my tutor's lectures on one Puffendorff, a very jurisprudent author as you shall read on a summer's day. Believe me yours, &c. Christ Church, Dec. 2, 1738. XII. TO MR. WEST. LITERAS mî Favonî ! † abs te demum, nudiustertius credo, accepi plane mellitas, nisi forte quâ de ægritu * Of Posidippus. Vide Anthologia, II. Stephan. p. 220. Mr. Gray, in all his Latin compositions, addressed to this gentleman, calls him Favonius, in allusion to the name of West. dine quâdam tuâ dictum : atque hoc sane mihi habitum est non paulo acerbius, quod te capitis morbo implicitum esse intellexi; oh morbum mihi quam ́ odiosum! qui de industriâ id agit, ut ego in singulos menses, Dii boni, quantis jucunditatibus orbarer! quam ex animo mihi dolendum est, quod Medio de fonte leporum Surgit amari aliquid! Salutem, mehercule, nolo, tam parvipendas, atque amicis tam improbe consulas: quanquam tute fortassis æstuas angusto limite mundi, viamque (ut dicitur) affectas Olympo, nos tamen non esse tam sublimes, utpote qui hisce in sordibus et fæce diutius paululum versari volumus, reminiscendum est: illæ tuæ Musæ, si te ameut modo, derelinqui paulisper non nimis ægre patientur: indulge, amabo te, plusquam soles, corporis exercitationibus: magis te campus habeat, aprico magis te dedas otio, ut ne id ingenium quod tam cultum curas, diligenter nimis dum foves, officiosarum matrum ritu, interimas. Vide quæso, quam ¡7pxwę tecum agimus, ηδ επιθησω · Φαρμαχ' α κεν παυσησι μελαιναων οδυναων. Si de his pharmacis non satis liquet, sunt festivitates meræ, sunt facetiæ et risus; quos ego equidem si adhibere nequeo, tamen ad præcipiendum (ut medicorum fere mos est) certe satls sim; id, quod poetice sub finem epistolæ lusisti, mihi gratissimum quidem accidit; admodum Latine coctum et conditum tetrasticon, Græcam tamen illam αλɛα mirifice sapit: tu quod restat, vide, sodes, hujusce hominis ignorantiam; cum, unde hoc tibi sit de VOL. I. C promptum, (ut fatear) prorsus nescio: sane ego equidem nihil in capsis reperio quo tibi minimæ partis solutio fiat. Vale, et me ut soles, ama. A. D. 11 Kalend. Februar. XIII.* FROM MR. WEST. I OUGHT to answer you in Latin, but I feel I dare not enter the lists with you-cupidum, pater optime, vires deficiunt. Seriously, you write in that language with a grace and an Augustan urbanity, that amazes me: Your Greek too is perfect in its kind. And here let me wonder that a man, longe Græcorum doctissimus, should be at a loss for the verse and chapter whence my epigram is taken. I am sorry I have not my Aldus with me, that I might satisfy your curiosity; but he, with all my other literary folks, are left at Oxford, and therefore you must still rest in suspense. I thank you again and again for your medical prescription. I know very well that those "risus, festivitates, et facetiæ" would contribute greatly to my cure, but then you must be my apothecary as well as physician, and make up the dose as well as direct it; send me, therefore, an electuary of these drugs, made up "secundum artem, et eris mihi magnus Apollo,' in both his capacities, as a god of poets and god of * This was written in French, but as I doubted whether it would stand the test of polite criticism, so well as the preceding would of learned, I chose to translate so much of it as I thought necessary in order to preserve the chain of correspondence. physicians. Wish me joy of leaving my college, and leave yours as fast as you can. I shall be settled at the Temple very soon. Dartmouth-Street, Feb. 21, 1737-8. XIV. TO MR. WEST. BARBARAS ædes aditure mecum Estuat agmen ! Dulcius quanto, patulis sub ulmi Fallere Musâ? Sæpe enim curis vagor expedita Mente; dum, blandam meditans Camœnam, * Cedere nocti; Et, pedes quo me rapiunt, in omni Fonte Aganippen. Risit et Ver me, facilesque Nymphæ Surripit aura: * I choose to call this delicate Sapphic Ode the first original production of Mr. Gray's muse; for verses imposed either by schoolmasters or tutors, ought not, I think, to be taken into the consideration. There is seldom a verse that flows well from the pen of a real poet if it does not flow voluntarily. |