it, by following the advice of my Lord Bolingbroke, and your other phyficians. When you talked of cups and impreffions, it came into my head to imitate you in quoting fcripture, not to your advantage. I mean what was faid to David by one of his brothers; " I knew thy pride, and "the naughtiness of thy heart." I remember when' it grieved your foul to fee me pay a penny more than my club at an inn, when you had maintained me three months at bed and board; for which, if I had dealt with you in the Smithfield way, it would have coft me a hundred pounds; for I live worfe here upon more. Did you ever confider, that I am for life almost twice as rich as you, and pay norent, and drink French wine twice as cheap as you do Port, and have neither coach chair, nor mother? As to the world, I think you ought to fay to it with St. Paul, "If we have fown unto you 66 fpiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap "your carnal things?" This is more proper ftill, if you confider the French word fpiritual, in which fense the world ought to pay you better than they do. If you made me a prefent of a thousand pound, I would not allow myfelf to be in your debt; and if I made you a prefent of two, I would not allow myfelf to be out of it. But I have not half your pride witness what Mr. Gay fays in his letter, that I was cenfured for begging prefents, though I limited them to ten fhillings. I fee no reafon (at least my friendship and vanity fee none) why you should not give me a vifit, when you fhall happen to be difengaged. I will fend a perfon to Chefter to take care of you, and you. fhall be used by the best folks we have here, as well as civility and good-nature can contrive. I believe local motion will be no ill phyfic; and I will have your coming infcribéd' on my tomb, and recorded in never-dying verfe... I thank Mrs. Pope for her prayers; but I know the mystery. A perfon of my acquaintance, who ufed ufed to correfpond with the laft Great Duke of Tufcany, fhewing one of the Duke's letters to a friend, and profeffing great fenfe of his Highness's friendship, read this paffage out of the letters, "I "would give one of my fingers to procure your "real good." The perfon to whom this was read, and who knew the Duke well, faid, the meaning of real good was only, that the other might turn a good Catholic. Pray afk Mrs. Pope, whether this ftory is applicable to her and me? I pray God bless her, for I am fure fhe is a good Christian, and (which is almost as rare) a good woman. Adieu. LETTER XXVII. Mr. GAY to Dr. SWIFT. 08. 22. 1727. THE Queen's family is at laft fettled; and in the lift I was appointed Gentleman usher to the Princefs Louifa, the youngest Princefs; which, upon account that I am fo far advanced in life, I have declined accepting; and have endeavoured, in the best manner I could, to make my excufes by a letter to her Majefty. So now all my expectations are vanished; and I have no profpect but in depending wholly upon myself, and my own conduct. As I am ufed to disappointments, I can bear them; but as I can have no more hopes, I can no more be disappointed; fo that I am in a bleffed condition. You remember you were advifing me to go into Newgate to finish my scenes the more correctly. I now think I fhall, for I have no attendance to hinder me; but my opera is already finished. I leave the rest of this paper to Mr. Pope. Gay Gay is a free man, and I writ him a long congratulatory letter upon it. Do you the fame. It will mend him, and make him a better man than a court could do. Horace might keep his coach in Auguftus time, if he pleased; but I won't in the time of our Auguftus. My poem, (which it grieves me that I dare not fend you a copy of, for fear of the Curlls and Dennifes of Ireland, and still more for fear of the worst of traitors, our friends and admirers), my poem, I fay, will fhew what a diftinguifhing age we lived in. Your name is in it, with fome others, under a mark of fuch ignominy as you will not much grieve to wear in that company. Adieu, and God bless you, and give you health and fpirits, Whether thou chufe Cervantes' ferious air, Thefe two verfes are over and above what I have faid of you in the poem. Adieu. ********************** I LETTER XXVIII. Dr. SWIFT to Mr. GAY. Dublin, Nev. 23. 1727. Entirely approve your refufal of that employment, and your writing to the Queen. I am perfectly confident you have a keen enemy in the miniftry. God forgive him, but not till he puts himself in a state to be forgiven. Upon reafoning with myself, I fhould hope they are gone too far difcard you quite, and that they will give you 2 fome fomething; which, although much less than they ought, will be (as far as it is worth) better circumftantiated; and fince you already just live, a middling help will make you just tolerable. Your latenefs in life (as you fo foon call it) might be improper to begin the world with, but almoft the eldest men may hope to fee changes in a court. A minifter is always feventy: you are thirty years younger; and confider, Cromwell himself did not begin to appear till he was older than you. I beg you will be thrifty, and learn to value a fhilling, which Dr. Birch faid was a ferious thing. Get a ftronger fence about your 10co 1. and throw the inner fence into the heap, and be advised by your Twickenham landlord and me about an annuity. You are the most refractory, hon ft, good-natured man I ever have known. I could argue out this paper. I am very glad your opera is finifhed, 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. Firft, in the trite old maxim of a minifter's never forgiving thofe 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 thofe whom we really wish well, to a point of intereft or intrigue. Fifthly, in keeping every thing worth taking, for thofe who can do fervice or differvice. Now, why does not Pope publifh his Dulnefs? The rogues he marks will die of themfelves in peace, and fo will his friends, and fo there will be neither punishment nor reward.-Pray inquire how my Lord St. John does? There's no man's health in England I am more concerned about * The Dunciad, VOL. IX. G $ than than his.--I wonder whether you begin to taste the pleasure of independence; 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 purchase. money? 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 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 goüt. un 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 derstand, 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 hanged, had imitated Alexander the Great when he was dying. I would have had his fellow-rogues defire his commands about a fucceffor, and he to anfwer, Let it be the most worthy, &c. We hear a million of ftories about the opera, of the applause at the fong, that was levelled at me, when two great ministers were in a box together, and all the world ftaring at then. I am heartily glad your opera hath mended your purfe, though perhaps it may fpoil 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 may laugh at courts, and bid minifters you |