unter seinen Gedichten haben mehrere die epistolische Form; jelbst sein Essay on Man, der aber, so wie die Moral Epistles, in die Klasse der Lehrgedichte gehdren. Auch hat er die erste, rechste und siebente horazische Episteln des ers hen, und die beiden ersten des zweiten Buchs in englischen Bersen fehr glücklich nachgeahmt, und an seine Freunde ges richtet. Außerdem findet man unter den, Werken dieses Dichters noch acht originale poetische Briefe, von welcher der folgende an Miß Blount, bei Uebersendung der Werke des damals mehr als jest gesch&gten und gelesenen, franzdfischen Dichters Voiture, gerichtet ist. In der Charakterisirung desselben spielt Pope auf cine lateinische, den hjartial nachgeahmte, Grabschrift an:

Etrufcae Veneres, Cainoenae. Iberae,
'Herines Gallicus, et Latina Siren,
Risus, Deliciae, et Dicacitates,
Lusus, Ingeniun, Joci, Lepores,
Et quicquid fuit elegantiarum,

Quo Većturius, hoc jacent sepulcro.
man hat indeß bald eingesehen, wie viel falscher Geschmack
und mübfam gesuchter Wis in Voiture's Schriften berrscht;
und das Gute in ihnen über das freilid, weit-håufigere Feh:
lerhafte vergeffen. --- Pope's Brief felbft ift, wie Dr.
Warton (Ejay, Vol. II. p. 395.) urtheilt, voller Munterkeit
und Galanterie. Die Anhånglichkeit unsers Dichters an
Diese Dame endigte erst mit seinem Leben. Ihre Ziererei
und üble Laune machten ihm indeß manche unruhige und
mifvergnügte Stunden. Als sie ihn in seiner letten Stranks
heit besuchte, und ihre Gesellschaft ihn wieder aufs neue zu
beleben schien, ließ die veraltete Spride sich doch nicht über:
reden, da gu bleiben, und eine Nacht zu Twickenham juzus
bringen, weil sie fürchtete, dadurch ins Gerede zu kommen.
Sie veranlaßte einen unglücklichen Bruch zwischen ihm une
feinem alten Freunde Auen.

та

Pope.

TO MISS BLOUNT,

with the Works of VOITURE; 1730.

In these gay thoughts the Loves' and Graces

shine,
And all the writer lives in ev'ry line;
His easy art may happy nature seem;
Trifles themselves are elegant in him.
Sure to charm all was his peculiar fate,
Who'without fatt'ry pleas'd the fair and great;
Still with esteem no less convers'd than read;
With wit well-natur'd, and with books well-bred:
His heart his mistress and his friend did 1 hare,
His time the Muse, the witty, and the fair.
Thus wisely careless, innocently gay,
Cheerful he play'd the trifle life away,
Till Fate scarce felt his gentle breath fupprest,
As smiling infants sport themselves to rest.
Ev'n rival wits did Voiture's death deplore,
And the gay mourn'd, who never mourn'd before.
The truett hearts for Voiture breath'd with fighs;
Voiture was wept by all the brightest eyes:
The Smiles and Loves had dy'd in Voiture's death,
But that for ever in his lines they breathe.

Let the stria live of graver morals be
A long, exact, and serious comedy;
In every scene some moral let it teach.
And, if it can, at once both please and preach:
Let mine an innocent gay farce appear,
And more diverting still than regular;
Have humour, wit, and native ease and grace,
Tho' not too strictly bound to time and place.
Critics in wit or life are hard to pleale;
Few write to those, and none can live to these.

Too pope.

too much your sex is by the forms confin'd,
Severe to all, but most to womankind;
Custom, grown blind with age, must be your guide;
Your plealure is a vice, but not your pride;
By nature yielding, stubborn but for fame,
Made flaves by honour, and made fools by shame.
Marriage may all those petty tyrants chale,
But sets up one, a greater, in their place:
Well might you wilh for change by those accurft;
But the last tyrant ever proves the worst.
Still in constraint your fuff'ring sex remains,
Or bound in formal or in real chains :
Whole years neglected for some months ador’d,
The fawning servant turns a haughty lord.
Ah! quit not the free innocence of life
For the dull glory of a, virtuous wife;
Nor let falfe Thews nor empty titles please:
Aim not at joy, but reft content with ease.

The gods, to curfe Pamela with her pray’rs,
Gave tbe gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares,
The shining robes, rich jewels, beds of state,
And, to complete her bless, a tool for mate.
She glares in balls, front boxes, and the ring,
A vain, unquiet, glitt'ring, wretched, thing!
Pride, pomp, and state, but reach her outward

part;
She fighs, and is no duchefs at her heart.

But, Madam, if the Fates withstand, and you
Are destin'd Hymen's willing victim too,
Trust not too much your now resistless charms,
Those age or fickness, foon or late, disarms:
Good humour only teaches charms to last,
Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past.
Love rais'd on beauty will like that decay,
Our hearts may bear its slender chain a day,
As Aow'ry bands in wantonness are worn,
A morning's pleasure, and at ev'ning torn;
This binds in ties more easy, yet more strong,
The willing heart, and only holds it long.

Thus

pope.

Thus Voiture's early care *) ftill Thone the

fame,
And Montausier was only changed in name:
By this ev'n now they live , 'ev'n, now they charm,
Their wit still 1parkling, and their flames still warm,

Now crown'd with myrtle on th’ Elysian coast,
Amid those lovers joys his gentle ghost;
Pleas'd while with smiles his happy lines you view,
And finds a fairer Rambouillet in you.
The brightest eyes of France inspir'd his Muse;
The brightest eyes of Britain now peruse;
And dead, as living, 'tis our author's pride
Ştill to charm those who charm the world beside

*) Mademoiselle Paulet,

Gay.

S. B. I. S. 33. 414.

Man findet zw8lf poetische Episteln unter seinen vermischten Gedichten, die ftellenweise viel Verdienft haben, ob sie gleich im Ganzen etwas zu kalt und einförmig find. Folgende ist eine der besten.

TO BERNARD LINTOTT.

On « Miscellany of Poems.
Ipfa varietate tentamus efficere, vt alia aliis, quaedam for-
Taffe omnibus placeant,

PLIN. Epift.

As when some skilful cook, to please each

guest,
Would in one mixture comprehend a Feast,
With due proportion and judicious care
He fills his dish with diff'rent sorts of fare,
Fishes and fowls deliciously unite,
To feast at once the taste, the smell, and fight;

S* So, Bernard! muft a Miscellany be
Compounded of all kinds of poetry,
The Muse's olio, which all tastes may fit,
And treat each reader with his darling wit.

Wouldft thou for Miscellanies raise thy fame,
And bravely riyat Jacob's mighty name,
Let all the Mules in the piece conspire;
The lyric Bard must strike th' harmonious lyre;
Heroic strains must here and there be found,
And nervous sense be fung in lofty found:
Let Elegy in moving numbers flow,
And fill some pages with melodious woe;
Let not your am'rous songs too num'rous prove,
Nor glut tby reader with abundant love;'

Satire