Letters to His Son 1752 | Page 9

do not trouble him
with a letter in answer, since you can execute the commission. Pray
make my compliments to him, and assure him that I will do all I can to
procure him Mr. Spencer's business; but that his most effectual way
will be by Messrs. Hoare, who are Mr. Spencer's cashiers, and who will
undoubtedly have their choice upon whom they will give him his credit.
As for the postage of the letters, your purse and mine being pretty near
the same, do you pay it, over and above your next draught.
Your relations, the Princes B-----, will soon be with you at Paris; for
they leave London this week: whenever you converse with them, I
desire it may be in Italian; that language not being yet familiar enough
to you.
By our printed papers, there seems to be a sort of compromise between
the King and the parliament, with regard to the affairs of the hospitals,
by taking them out of the hands of the Archbishop of Paris, and placing
them in Monsieur d'Argenson's: if this be true, that compromise, as it is
called, is clearly a victory on the side of the court, and a defeat on the
part of the parliament; for if the parliament had a right, they had it as
much to the exclusion of Monsieur d'Argenson as of the Archbishop.
Adieu.

LETTER CLVIII

LONDON, February 6, O. S. 1752.
MY DEAR FRIEND: Your criticism of Varon is strictly just; but, in
truth, severe. You French critics seek for a fault as eagerly as I do for a
beauty: you consider things in the worst light, to show your skill, at the
expense of your pleasure; I view them in the best, that I may have more
pleasure, though at the expense of my judgment. A 'trompeur trompeur
et demi' is prettily said; and, if you please, you may call 'Varon, un
Normand', and 'Sostrate, un Manceau, qui vaut un Normand et demi';
and, considering the 'denouement' in the light of trick upon trick, it
would undoubtedly be below the dignity of the buskin, and fitter for the
sock.
But let us see if we cannot bring off the author. The great question
upon which all turns, is to discover and ascertain who Cleonice really is.
There are doubts concerning her 'etat'; how shall they be cleared? Had
the truth been extorted from Varon (who alone knew) by the rack, it
would have been a true tragical 'denouement'. But that would probably
not have done with Varon, who is represented as a bold, determined,
wicked, and at that time desperate fellow; for he was in the hands of an
enemy who he knew could not forgive him, with common prudence or
safety. The rack would, therefore, have extorted no truth from him; but
he would have died enjoying the doubts of his enemies, and the
confusion that must necessarily attend those doubts. A stratagem is
therefore thought of to discover what force and terror could not, and the
stratagem such as no king or minister would disdain, to get at an
important discovery. If you call that stratagem a TRICK, you vilify it,
and make it comical; but call that trick a STRATAGEM, or a
MEASURE, and you dignify it up to tragedy: so frequently do ridicule
or dignity turn upon one single word. It is commonly said, and more
particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth;
for that it will not stick where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in
a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humor,
may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far that the truth is
only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule. The
overturn of Mary of Medicis into a river, where she was half-drowned,
would never have been remembered if Madame de Vernuel, who saw it,
had not said 'la Reine boit'. Pleasure or malignity often gives ridicule a
weight which it does not deserve. The versification, I must confess, is

too much neglected and too often bad: but, upon the whole, I read the
play with pleasure.
If there is but a great deal of wit and character in your new comedy, I
will readily compound for its having little or no plot. I chiefly mind
dialogue and character in comedies. Let dull critics feed upon the
carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing.
I am very glad you went to Versailles to see the ceremony of creating
the Prince de Conde 'Chevalier de l' Ordre'; and I do not doubt but that
upon this occasion you informed yourself thoroughly of the institution
and rules of that order. If you did, you were