only. There was another Character written of her Grace by herfelf (with what help, I know not) but fhe fhewed it me in her blots, and preffed me, by all the adjurations of Friendship, to give her my fincere opinion of it. I acted honeftly and did fo. She feemed to take it patiently, and upon many exceptions which I made, engaged me to take the whole, and to felect out of it just as much as I judged might ftand, and return her the Copy. I did fo. Immediately fhe picked a quarrel with me, and we never faw each other in five or fix years. In the mean time fhe fhewed this Character (as much as was extracted of it in my hand-writing) as a Compofition of my own in her praise. And very probably it is now in the hands of Lord Harvey. Dear Sir, I fincerely with you, and your whole family (whofe welfare is fo clofely connected) the best health and trueft happinefs; and am (as is alfo the Master of this place) Your, etc. A LETTER A LETTER to NOBLE LORD. On occafion of fome Libels written and propagated at Court, in the year 1732-3. MY LORD, Nov. 30, 1733. YOUR OUR Lordship's Epiftle has been publifh'd fome days, but I had not the pleasure and pain of fecing it till yefterday: Pain, to think your Lordship should attack me at all; Pleasure, to find that you can attack me fo weakly. As I want not the humility, to think myfelf in every way but one your inferior, it feems but reasonable that I fhould take the only method either of felf-defence or retaliation, that is left me, against a person of your quality and power. And as by your choice of this weapon, your pen, you generoufly (and modeftly too, no doubt) meant to put yourfelf upon a level with me; I will as foon believe that your Lordship would give a wound to a man unarm'd, as that you would deny me the use of it in my own defence,. I prefume you will allow me to take the fame liberty, in my answer to fo candid, polite, and ingenious a Nobleman, which your Lordship took in yours, to fo grave, religious, and refpectable a Clergyman+: As you anfwered his Latin in English, permit me to answer your Verfe in Profe. And tho' your Lordship's reason for not writing in Latin, might be ftronger than mine for not writing in Verfe, yet I may plead Two good ones, for this conduct: the one that I want the Talent of spinning a thousand lines in a Day (which, I think, is as much Time as this fubject deferves) and the other, that I take your Lordship's Verje to be as much Profe as this letter. But no doubt it was your choice, in writing to a friend, to renounce all the Pomp of Poetry, and give us this excellent model of the familiar. When I confider the great difference betwixt the rank your Lordship holds in the World, and the rank which your writings are like to hold in the learned world, I prefume that diftinction of style is but neceffary, which you will see ob * Entitled, An Epifile to a Doctor of Divinity from a Nobleman at HamptonCourt, Aug. 28, 1733, and printed the November following for J. Roberts. Fol. + Dr. S. ferv'd thro' this letter. When I fpeak of you, my Lord, it will be with all the deference due to the inequality which Fortune has made between you and myfelf: but when I fpeak of your writings, my Lord, I muft, I can do nothing but trifle. I fhould be oblig'd indeed to leffen this Refpect, if all the Nobility (and especially the elder brothers) are but fo many hereditary fools, if the privilege of Lords be to want brains †, if noblemen can hardly write or read ||, if all their bufinefs is but to drefs and vote §, and all their employment in court to tell lies, flatter in public, flander in private, falfe to each other, and follow nothing but selfintereft 4. Blefs me, my Lord, what an account is this you give of them? and what would have been faid of me, had I immolated, in this manner, the whole body of the Nobility, at the ftall of a well-fed Prebendary ? Were it the mere Excess of your Lordship's Wit, that carried you thus triumphantly over all the bounds of decency, I might confider your Lordship on your Pegasus, as a fprightly hunter on a mettled horfe; and while you were trampling down all our works, patiently fuffer the injury, in pure admiration of the Noble Sport. But should the cafe be quite otherwife, fhould your Lordship be only like a Boy that is run away with; and run away with by a Very Foal; really common charity, as well as refpect for a noble family, would oblige me to ftop your career, and to help you down from this Pegafus. : Surely the little praife of a Writer fhould be a thing below your ambition You, who were no fooner born, but in the lap of the Graces; no fooner at fchool, but in the arms of the Mufes; no fooner in the World, but you practis'd all the fkill of it; no fooner in the Court, but you poffefs'd all the art of it! Unrival'd as you are, in making That to good blood by old prefcriptive rules Gives right bereditary to be Fools. † Nor wonder that my Brain no more affords, And when you see me fairly write my nome; § Whilst all our bus’nefs is to dress and vote. ibid. Courts are only larger families, lies: I private jatyrize, in pablic flatter. a figure a figure, and in making a fpeech, methinks, my Lord, you may well give up the poor talent of turning a Diftich. And why this fondnefs for Poetry? Profe admits of the two excellencies you moft admire, Diction and Fiction: It admits of the talents you chiefly poffefs, a most fertile invention, and moft florid expreffion; it is with prose, nay the plaineft profe, that you beft could teach our nobility to vote, which, you juftly obferve, is half at leaft of their bufinefs*: And, give me leave to prophefy, it is to your talent in profe, and not in verse, to your speaking, not your writing, to your art at court, not your art of poetry, that your Lordship muft owe your future figure in the world. My Lord, whatever you imagine, this is the advice of a Friend, and one who remembers he formerly had the honour of fome profeffion of Friendship from you: Whatever was his real fare in it, whether fmall or great, yet as your Lordfhip could never have had the leaft Lofs by continuing it, or the leaft Intereft by withdrawing it; the misfortune of lofing it, I fear, must have been owing to his own deficiency or neglect. But as to any actual fault which deferved to forfeit it in fuch a degree, he protefts he is to this day guiltless and ignorant. It could at most be but a fault of omiffion; but indeed by omiffions, men of your Lordship's uncommon merit may fometimes think themselves fo injur'd, as to be capable of an inclination to injure another; who, tho' very much below their quality, may be above the injury. I never heard of the leaft difpleasure you had conceived against me, till I was told that an imitation I had made of + Horace had offended fome perfons, and among them your Lordship. I could not have apprehended that a few general frokes about a Lord fcribling carelefly, a Pimp or a Spy at Court, a Sharper in a gilded chariot, etc. that thefe, I say, fhould be ever applied as they have been, by any malice but that which is the greatest in the world, the Malice of ill people to themfeives. Your Lordfhip fo well knows (and the whole Court and town thro' your means fo well know) how far the refentment was carried upon that imagination, not only in the Nature of the Libel you propagated againft me, but in the extraordinary manner, place, and prefence in which it was All their business is to dress and vote. + The first Satire of the fecond Book, printed in 1732, Verfes to the Imitator of Horace, afterwards printed by J. Roberts, 1732, Fol. VOL. 1V. Hh propa propagated; that I fhall only fay, it seem'd to me to exceed the bounds of juftice, common fenfe, and decency. I wonder yet more, how a Lady, of great wit, beauty, and fame for her poetry, (between whom and your Lordhip there is a natural, a jujt, and a well grounded esteem) could be prevailed upon to take a part in that proceeding. Your refentments againft me indeed might be equal, as my offence to you both was the fame; for neither had I the leaft misunderstanding with that Lady, till after I was the Author of my own misfortune in difcontinuing her acquaintance. I may venture to own a truth, which cannot be unpleafing to either of you; 1 affure you my reafon for so doing, was merely that you had both too much wit for me +; and that I could not do, with mine, many things which you could with yours. The injury done you in withdrawing myself could be but small, if the value you had for me was no greater than you have been pleas'd fince to profefs. But furely, my Lord, one may fay, neither the Revenge, nor the Language you held, bore any proportion to the pretended offence: The appellations of Foe to human kind, an Enemy like the Devil to all that have Being; ungrateful, unjust, deferving to be whipt, blanketed, kicked, nay killed; a Monster, an Affaffin, whofe converfation every man ought to hun, and against whom all doors fhould be fhut; I beseech you, my Lord, had you the leaft right to give, or to encourage or juftify any other in giving fuch language as this to me? Could I be treated in terms more ftrong or more atrocious, if, during my acquaintance with you, I had been a Betrayer, a Backbiter, a Whisperer, an Eves-dropper, or an Informer? Did I in all that time ever throw a false Dye, or palm a foul Card upon you? Did I ever borrow, steal, or accept, either Money, Wit, or Advice from you? Had I ever the honour to join with either of you in one Ballad, Satire, Pamphlet, or Epigram, on any perfon living or dead? Did I ever do you fo great an injury as to put off my own Verfes for yours, especially on thofe Perfons whom they might most offend? I am confident you cannot aniwer in the affirmative; and I can truly affirm, that, ever fince I loft the happiness of your converfation, I have It was for this reason that this Letter, as foon as it was printed, was communicated to the Q Once, and but once, his heedless youth was bit, And lik'd that dang'rous thing, a female Wit. See the Letter to Dr. Arbuthnot amongst the Variations. See the aforefaid Verfes to the Imitator of Horace. not |