We are as full of it || pro modulo noftro as London can be; continually acting, and houses crammed, and the + Lord Lieutenant feveral times there laughing his heart out. I did not understand that the scene of Locket and Peachum's quarrel, was an imitation of one between Brutus and Caffius, until I was told it. I wish Mackheath, when he was going to be hanged, had imitated Alexander the Great when he was dying. I would have had his fellow-rogues defire his commands about a Succeffor, and he to answer, let it be the moft worthy, &c. We hear a million of stories about the Opera, of the applaufe at the fong, That was levell'd at me, when two great ministers were in a box together, and all the world ftaring at them. I am heartily glad your Opera hath mended your purfe, although perhaps it may spoil your court.

Will you defire my Lord Bolingbroke, Mr. Pultney, and Mr. Pope, to command you to buy an annuity with two thousand pounds? that you may laugh at courts, and bid minifters kifs,

Ever preserve some spice of the Alderman, and prepare against age, and dulness, and ficknefs, and coldness, or death of friends. A whore hath a refourse left that she can turn bawd; but an old decayed Poet is a creature abandoned, and at mercy, when he can find none. Get

For our Small Sphere. + Lord Carteret.

:

Get me likewise Polly's Metzo-tinto. Lord, how the school-boys at Westminster and Univerfity lads adore you at this juncture! Have you made as many men laugh, as Minifters can make weep ?

I will excufe Sir William Wyndham the trouble of a letter: When Ambaffadors came from Troy to condole with Tiberius upon the death of his Nephew, after two years: the Emperor anfwered, that he likewife condoled with them for the untimely death of Hector. I always loved and refpected Sir William very much, and do still as much as ever; and it is a return fufficient, if he pleaseth to accept the offers of my most humble service.

The Beggar's Opera hath knocked down Gulliver: I hope to fee Pope's Dulness knock down the Beggars Opera, but not until it hath fully done its jobb.

To expofe vice, and make people laugh with innocence, doth more publick fervice than all the Ministers of ftate from Adam to Walpole, and fo adieu.

LET

LETTER XXVII.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT.

OPE charges himself with this letter; he hath been here two days, he is now hurrying to London, he will hurry back to Twickenham in two days more, and before the end of the week he will be, for ought I know, at Dublin, in the mean time his* Dulness grows and flourishes, as if he was there already. It will indeed be a noble work: the many will ftare at it, the few will smile, and all his Patrons from Bickerstaff to Gulliver will rejoice, to fee themselves adorn'd in that immortal piece.

I hear that you have had fome return of your illnefs which carried you fo fuddenly from us (if indeed it was your own illness which made you in fuch hafte to be at Dublin.) Dear Swift take care of your health, I'll give you a receipt for it, a la Montagne, or which is better, a la Bruyere. Nourifler bien votre corps; ne la fatiguer jamais: laiffer rouiller l'efprit, meuble inutil, voire outil dangereux: Laiffer fonner vos cloches le matin, pour eveiller les chanoines, et

* The Dunciad.

pour

Take care of your Body by good Eating, and be cautious of fatiguing it. You may fuffer your Wit to grow rufty, for it is an ufeless Piece of Furniture; and indeed, a dangerous Inftrument. Let the early Noife of the Morning Bells break VOL. VII.

H

the

pour faire dormir le Doyen, d'un fommeil doux et profond, qui luy procure de beaux fonges: Lever vous tard, et aller a l'Eglife, pour vous faire payer d'avoir bien dormi et bien dejeune. As to myfelf, (a perfon about whom I concern myfelf very little) I muft fay a word or two out of complaifance to you. I am in my farm, and here I shoot strong and tenacious roots: I have caught hold of the earth, (to ufe a Gardener's phrase) and neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an eafy matter to transplant me again. Adieu! let me hear from you, at least of you: I love you for a thousand things; for none more than for the juft efteem and love, which you have for all the fons of Adam.

P. S. According to Lord Bolingbroke's account I fhall be at Dublin in three days. I cannot help adding a word, to defire you to expect my foul there with you by that time; but as for the jade of a body that is tack'd to it, I fear there will be no dragging it after. I affure I have few friends here to detain me, you and no powerful one at Court abfolute to forbid my journey. I am told the * Gynocracy are

of

the Reft of the Canons, and lull the DEAN into a fweet and profound Repofe, which may give him pleafing Dreams. As for your own Part, rife late, and go to publick Prayers, to return Thanks for a good Night's Reft, and an hearty Breakfast. *Or the Petticoat Government.

of opinion, that they want no better writers than Cibber and the British Journalist; so that we may live at quiet, and apply ourselves to our more abftrufe ftudies. The only Courtiers I know, or have the honour to call my friends, are John Gay and Mr. Bowry; the former is at present so employed in the elevated airs of his Opera, and the latter in the exaltation of his high dignity (that of her Majefty's Waterman) that I can scarce obtain a categorical anfwer from either to any thing I fay to 'em. But the Opera fucceeds extremely, to yours and my extreme fatisfaction, of which he promises this post to give you a full account. I have been

in a worse condition of health than ever, and think my immortality is very near out of my enjoyment: so it must be in you, and in pofterity, to make me what amends you can for dying young. Adieu. While I am, I am yours. Pray love me, and take care of felf.

your