inner fence into the heap, and be advised by your Twickenham landlord and me about an annuity, You are the most refractory, honeft, good-natur'd man I ever have known; I could argue out this paper-I am very glad your Opera is finished, and hope your friends will join the readier to make it fucceed, because you are ill-ufed by others.

I have known Courts thefe thirty-fix years, and know they differ; but in fome things they are extremely conftant: First, in the trite old maxim of a Minister's never forgiving those he hath injured; Secondly, in the infincerity of those who would be thought the best friends: Thirdly, in the love of fawning, cringing, and tale bearing: Fourthly, in facrificing those whom we really wifh well, to a point of intereft, or intrigue: Fifthly, in keeping every thing worth taking, for those who can do fervice or dif-fervice.

Now why does not Pope publish his dulnefs? the rogues he marks will die of themselves in peace, and fo will his friends, and fo there will be neither punishment nor reward -Pray enquire how my Lord St. John does? there's no man's health in England I am more concerned about than his. I wonder whether you begin to taste the pleasure of Independency? or whether you do not fometimes leer upon the Court, oculo retorto? Will you not think of an Annuity, when you are two years older, and have doubled your purchasemoney? Have you dedicated your Opera, and got the ufual dedication-fee of twenty guineas? How is the Doctor? does he not chide that you never called upon him for hints? Is my Lord Bolingbroke at the moment I am writing, a planter, a philofopher, or a writer? Is Mr. Pultney in expectation of a fon, or my Lord Oxford of a new old manufcript?

I

I bought your Opera to-day for fixpence, a curfed print. I find there is neither dedication nor preface, both which wants I approve; it is in the grand gout.

We are as full of it pro modulo noftro as London can be; continually acting, and houses cramm'd, and the Lord Lieutenant feveral times there laughing his heart out. I did not understand that the fcene of Locket and Peachum's quarrel was an imitation of one between Brutus and Caffius, till I was told it. I wish Mackheath, when he was going to be hang'd, had imitated Alexander the great when he was dying: I would have had his fellowrogues 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 applause at the fong, That was level'd at me, when two great Minifters were in a box together, and all the world ftaring at them. I am heartily glad your Opera hath mended your purfe, though 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

Ever preferve fome fpice of the Alderman, and prepare against Age and Dulness, and Sicknefs, and Coldnefs or Death of Friends. A Whore has a resource left, that she can turn bawd; but an old decay'd Poet is a creature abandon'd, and at mercy, when he can find none. Get me likewife Polly's Meffo-tinto. Lord, how the school-boys at Weftminfter, and Univerfity-lads adore you at this juncture! Have you made as many men laugh, as Minifters can make weep ?

I will excufe Sir- -the trouble of a letter: When Ambaffadors came from Troy to condole with Tiberius upon the death of his Nephew, after

two

two years; the Emperor anfwered, that he likewife condoled with them for the untimely death of Hector. I always loved and respected him very much, and do ftill as much as ever; and it is a return fufficient, if he pleases to accept the offers of my moft humble service.

The Beggar's Opera hath knock'd down Gulliver; I hope to fee Pope's Dulness knock down the Beggar's Opera, but not till it hath fully done its jobb.

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

LETTER XXVIII.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT.

OPE charges himself with this letter; he

has 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 fmile, and all his Patrons from Bickerstaff to Gulliver will rejoice, to fee themfelves 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, à la *The Dunciad.

Montagne,

Montagne, or which is better à la Bruyere. Nourifler bien votre corps; ne le fatiguer jamais: laiffer rouiller l'efprit, meuble inutil, voire outil dangereux: Laiffer fonner vos cloches le matin pour eveiller les chanoines, et pour faire dormir le Doyen d'un fommeil doux et profond, qui luy procure de beaux fonges: Lever vous tard, et aller à l'Eglife, pour vous faire payer d'avoir bien dormi et bien dejeuné. As to myfelf (a perfon about whom I concern myself very little) I must say a word or two out of complaifance to you. I am in my farm, and here I fhoot strong and tenacious roots: I have caught hold of the earth (to ufe a Gardener's phrafe) and neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an eafy matter to tranfplant me again. Adieu. Let me hear from you, at leaft of you: I love you for a thousand things, for none more than for the just esteem and love which you have for all the fons of Adam.

P. S. According to Lord Bolingbroke's account I shall 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 you I have few friends here to detain me, and no powerful one at Court abfolutely to forbid my journey. I am told the Gynocracy are of opinion, that they want no better writers than Cibber and the British journalist ; fo 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 prefent fo 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

to yours and my extreme fatisfaction, of which he promises this poft to give you a full account. I have been in a worfe condition of health than ever, and think my immortality is very near out of my enjoyment: fo 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 yourself.

I

LETTER XXIX.

March 23, 1727-8.

Send you a very odd thing, a paper printed in Boston in New-England, wherein you'll find a real perfon, a member of their Parliament, of the name of Jonathan Gulliver. If the fame of that Traveller has travel'd thither, it has travel'd very quick, to have folks chriften'd already by the name of the fuppofed Author. But if you object, that no child fo lately chriften'd could be arrived at years of maturity to be elected into Parliament, I reply (to folve the Riddle) that the perfon is an Anabaptif, and not chriften'd till full age, which fets all right. However it be, the accident is very fingu lar, that these two names fhould be united.

: Mr. Gay's Opera has been acted near forty days running, and will certainly continue the whole feafon. So he has more than a fence about his thoufand pound *: he'll foon be thinking of a fence

*Before Mr. Gay had fenced this thousand pounds, he had a confultation with his friends about the difpofal of it. Mr. L. advifed him to intruft it to the funds, and live upon the intereft: Dr. Arbuthnot, to intrust it to Providence, and live upon the principal; and Mr. Pope was for purchafing an annuity for life. In this uncertainty he could only fay with the old man in Terence, feciftis probe:

Incertior fum multo, quam dudum.

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