FROM DR. SHERIDAN. DEAR SIR, Cavan, Sept. 17, 1735. Ei kav not butt reap rhyme and eù for wry tinn sow long an ape is till a bout bees knees, when Tom eye Noll edge é cool das eas i lyre eye't a pun no thing. Μυστῆρ Δὴν, what is ξυρ μῆνιν τὸ πλέονος in e veri epistolas vw Inn Angle owe Law Tigh no? Cann knot yew right in nap lean met hood, as I do? εἰ νώ ευ αρ ἅ πόνηρον all o key shuns. But cantu gay tann other subject toss at her eyes bis eyed my wife ?* The woman is grown good for nothing. However, I would not have her so much abused, but when she deserves it. I no use itis e veri de of her life, but I sea it is not rue; for itis only e veri our o fit. She swears if heu come tuck have Ann, she will give you a dous Inn the chops.t I beg pardon for troubling you so long with business, and therefore I will now be as merry as I can. The devil a farthing I can get among my tenants but cows, bullocks, and sheep. Will you let me know whether such coin can pass in Dublin? that I may pay you some money which I owe. My purse, God help me, is grown as slender as a "I cannot but reprimand you for writing so long an epistle about business, when to my knowledge you could as easily write upon nothing. Mr. Dean, what is your meaning to play on us in every epistle as you do in Anglo-Latino? Cannot you write in a plain method, as I do! I know you are a punner on all occasions. But cannot you get another subject to satirise beside my wife?" "I know you say it is every day of her life, but I say it is not true, for it is only every hour of it. She swears if you come to Cavan, she will give you a dowse in the chops." famished weasel. I long much to see it have an alderman's belly but Quando, Mr. Dean, quando? We cannot say that our weather is the devil here; for it is all water. If it continues, I must have thoughts of building an ark; but I shall not, like Noah, let any unclean beast enter. Eat pone linck waiter conjux.* My mutton is growing too fat, and I want you much to eat of it, while it is in its prime. I hear of no cadger going to Dublin, or I would send you a basket full of it. All I can do now is to send a fine roasted shoulder in my wishes, and pray invite Mrs. Whiteway to share of it. I wish you both a good stomach to it, with all my heart. Pray do not chide her for asking you to eat, as you used to do. I assure you (if I may be allowed to judge) she presses you to her victuals out of pure good nature and friendship. I am sorry that the shortness of my last letter gave you cause to complain. This shall may cup for that deaf he she Ann she,t for I have laid in a good stock of learning this last week: and therefore quoniam tu inter literatos primaria sedes in classe, quorundam decanorum nomina (minime nostratium) qui scientiis omnigenis inclaruerunt, tibi mittam. This part I mention in Latin, for fear the letter should fall into Dean Crosse's hands. Having lately read a very entertaining book, whose title-page runs thus-Histoire générale des Pais-bas, I met with accounts of several great men, whose names I never read before, and every one of them were deans, some became bishops, others cardinals All of them on account of their great learning and merit. Lord, have mercy upon us! Christ, have mercy upon us! How the world is altered since! * "Et pone linquetur conjux." But you must know, that Charles the Great lived in that age, alias Char Lay Main. Now for the great scholars I promised. Among those, who became bishops of Antwerp, you will find Philip Nigri, Aubert Vanden Eade, Jean Ferdinand de Benghem, Pierre Joseph Franken-Sierstorff. Among those of Bois-le-Duc, Clement Crabeels, Gisbert Masins, Michel Ophove, Joseph de Bergaigne. In the same town you will find among the Vicaires Apostoliques, Henry Van Leempute, Josse Houbraecken, Martin Steyaert, Pierre Govaerts, &c. &c. &c. The next place you dine you may make a figure with those names, and silence even Robin Leslie.* But a pox upon learning, I say. It is enough to turn a man's head. I have a great mind to have done with it; for the devil a thing is to be got by it. Idcirco libris valedico. I cannot, now my memory serves me, omit an account of some learned physicians, which I read of in other authors, viz., Hermannus Conringius, Lucas Schrochius, Melchior Sebizius, Sebastian Schefferus, Guernerus Rolfinckius, Hoffmannus Altorfi, Seb. Jovius Lugani, Petrus Dapples, Theodore Kerchringius, Regnerus de Graef, Swammerda, Antonius Scarellius, Hieronymus Copelazzi, Jacobus Gonzato, Bernardinus Malacreda, Johannes Petrus Lotichius, Christianus Keekins, Keekins, Julius Richeltus, Joan. Christoph. Vaganseilius, Jacobus Kerscherus, Antonius Magliabechius, and many others. Pray ask Grattan how many of these he has read. You say, (I thank you for that,) That you know nobody. No matter for that; so much the better * Mr. Leslie was the most incessant talker, one of them, in the world. However, he had a great variety of learning, and talked well.-D. S. If for me, because I know everybody knows you, and therefore more likely to succeed in subscriptions for mice cool. Pray is this letter long enough? it be not, send it back, and I will fill the other side. In the meantime I remain your most obedient and very humble serve aunt, THOMAS SHERIDAN. Mice or vice two awl my if rends.* Send me word what o'clock it is, that I may set my watch by yours. FROM DR. KING. London, Sept. 20, 1735. SIR, I am Soon after I came into England I was obliged to cross the seas again, and go into France, upon a business of consequence to my private affairs. but just returned to this place, where I have met with your letter of 21st of last month. Since you are so kind as to repeat the promise you made me when I was in Ireland, I shall expect the paper with the greatest impatience. While I was reading your letter, a person called on me, who does business for you. I was in hopes he had brought it with him; but he told me, it would be sent by another hand. I will say nothing more of it here, than that I am very sure it will please the public, and do honour to the author. The gentleman concerning whom you inquire, is a * "My service to all my friends." 1 member of our hall; but I have never yet seen him. He had left Oxford about the time I came from Dublin, to spend the summer vacation in Herefordshire. My son, who is well acquainted with him, assures me that he is very sober, that he studies hard, and constantly attends the exercises of the house. But I shall be able to give you a more particular account of him the next term, when I shall probably meet him in the hall; and he shall find me ready to do him any kind of service that may be in my power. I do not know whether my law-suit will force me into Ireland again the next term; as yet I have not received any summons from my managers. I should indeed be well pleased to defer my journey till the next spring, for Dublin is not a very good winter abode for a water-drinker.* However, I do not neglect my defence, especially that part of it which you mention. It is now in such forwardness that * Cardinal Polignac, observing that Dr. King drank only water, told him, "that whilst ambassador at Rome, and since he returned to France, he had entertained five hundred Englishmen, but the doctor was the only water-drinker in the whole number." † Dr. King's meaning in this place requires some elucidation. Provoked at some ill usage which he supposed himself to have received during a law-suit in Ireland, he had commenced a satirical poem called the Toast, bearing the name of Scheffer the Laplander, as author, of Peregrine O'Donald, Esq., as translator. Öf this satire, he himself informs us, "I began the Toast in anger, but I finished it in good humour. When I had concluded the second book, I laid aside the work, and I did not take it up again till some years afterwards, at the pressing instances of Dr. Swift. In the last letter which I received from him, (to which that in the text seems to be an answer,) he writes thus: 'In malice I hope your law-suit will force you to come over [to Dublin] the next term, which I think is a long one, and will allow you time to finish it; in the meantime I wish I could hear of the progress and finishing of another affair [the Toast] relating to the same law-suit, but tried in the courts above, upon a hill with two heads, where the defendants will as infallibly and more effec |
