name, The Dunciad) how much that neft of Hornets are my regard, will eafily appear to you when you read the Treatife of the Bathos. At all adventures, yours and my name fhall ftand link. ed as friends to pofterity, both in verfe and profe, and (as Tully calls it) in confuetudine Studierum, Would to God our Perfons could but as well, and as furely be infeparable! I find my other Tyes dropping from me : fome worn off, fome torn off, others relaxing daily: My greatest, both by duty, gratitude, and humanity, Time is fhaking every moment, and it now hangs but by a thread! I am many years the older, for living fo much with one so old; much the more helpless, for having been fo long help'd and tended by her much the more confiderate and tender, for a daily commerce with one who requir'd me justly to be both to her; and confequently the more melancholy and thoughtful; and the lets fit for others, who want only in a companion or a friend, to be amufed or entertained. My conftitution too has had its fhare of decay as well as my fpirits, and I am as much in the decline at forty as you at fixty. I believe we fhall be fit to live together, could I get a little more health, which might make me not quite infupportable: Your Deafnefs would agree with my Dulnefs: you would not want me to speak when you could not hear. But God forbid you fhou'd be as deftitute of the focial comforts of life, as I muft when I lofe my mother; or that ever you fhou'd lose your more ufeful acquaintance fo utterly, as to turn your thoughts to fuch a broken reed as I am, who could fo ill fupply your wants. I am extremely troubled at the returns of your Deafness; you cannot be too particular in the accounts of your health to me; every thing you do or fay in this kind obliges me, nay, delights me, to fee the juftice you do me in thinking me concern'd in all your concerns; fo that though the pleafanteft thing you can tell me be that you are better or eafier; next to that it pleases me, that you make me the perfon you would complain to As the obtaining the love of valuable men is the happieft end I know of this life, fo the next felicity is to get rid of fools and fcoundrels; which I cannot but own to you was one part of my defign in falling upon these Authors, whofe incapacity is not greater than their infincerity, and of whom I have always found (if I may quote myfelf) That each bad Author is as bad a Friend. This poem will rid me of those infects, Cedite, Romani Scriptores, cedite, Graii; I mean than my Iliad; and I call it Nefcio quid, which is a degree of modefty; but however if it filence these fellows*, it must be fometning greater than any Iliad in Christendom. Adieu. I LETTER XXX. From Dr. SWIFT. Dublin, May 10, 1728. Have with great pleasure fhewn the New-England News-paper, with the two names Jonathan Gulliver, and I remember Mr. Fortefcue fent you an account from the affizes, of one Lemuel Gulliver who had a Caufe there, and loft it on his ill reputation of being a liar. Thefe are not the only obfervations I have made upon odd ftrange accidents in trifles, which in things of great importance would have been matter for hiftorians. Mr. Gay's Opera hath been acted here twenty times, and my Lord Lieutenant tells me, it is very well perform'd; he hath feen it often, and approves it much. You give a moft melancholy account of yourself, and which I do not approve. I reckon that a man, fubject like us to bodily infirmities, fhould only occafionally converse with great people, notwithstanding all their good quali.. ties, eafineffes, and kindneffes. There is another race which I prefer before them, as Beef and Mutton for conftant diet before Partridges: I mean a middle kind both for understanding and fortune, who are perfectly easy, never impertinent, complying in every thing, ready to do a hundred little offices that you and I may often want, dine and fit with me five times for once that I go to them, and whom I can tell without offence, that I am otherwife engaged at present. This you cannot expect from any of thofe that either you or I or both are acquainted with on your fide; who are only fit for our healthy feafons, and have much business of their own. God forbid I fhould * It did in a little time effe&tually filence them, con Condemn you to Ireland (Quanquam O!) and for England I defpair; and indeed a change of affairs would come too late at my feafon of life, and might probably produce nothing on my behalf. You have kept Mrs. Pope longer, and have had her care beyond what from nature you could expect; not but her lofs will be very fenfible, whenever it fhall happen. I fay one thing, that both fummers and winters are milder here than with you; all things for life in general better for a middling fortune: you will have an abfolute command of your company, with whatever obfequioufnefs or freedom you may expect or allow. I have an elderly houfe-keeper, who hath been my W-lp-le above thirty years, whenever I liv'd in this kingdom. I have the command of one or two villas near this town: You have a warm apartment in this houfe, and two gardens for amusement. I have faid enough, yet not half. Except abfence from friends, I confefs freely that I have no difcontent at living here; befides what arifes from a filly fpirit of Liberty, which as it neither fours my drink, nor hurts my meat, nor fpoils my ftomach farther than in imagination, fo I refolve to throw it off. You talk of this Dunciad, but I am impatient to have it volare per ora-there is now a vacancy for fame; the Beggar's Opera hath done its talk, difcedit uti conviva fatur. Adieu. I LETTER XXXI. From Dr. SWIFT. June 1, 1728. Look upon my Lord Bolingbroke and us two as a peculiar Triumvirate, who have nothing to expect, or to fear; and fo far fittest to converfe with one another: Only he and I are a little fubject to fchemes, and one of us (I won't fay which) upon very weak appearances, and this you have nothing to do with. I do profess without affectation, that your kind cpinion of me as a Patriot (fince you call it fo) is what I do not deserve; because what I do is owing to perfect rage and refentment, and the mortifying fight of flavery, folly and bafeness about me, among which I'm forc'd to live. And I will take my oath that you have more Virtue in an hour, than I in feven years; for you defpife the follies, and hate the vices of mankind, without the leaft ill effect on your temper; with regard to particular men, you are inclined always rather to think the better, whereas with me it is always directly contrary. I hope, however, this is not in you, from a fuperior principle of virtue, but from your fituation, which hath made all parties and interefts indifferent to you, who can be under no concern about high and low-church, Whig and Tory, or who is first Minister -Your long letter was the laft I received till this by Dr. Delany, although you mention another fince. The Dr. told me your fecret about the Dunciad, which does not please me, because it defers gratifying my vanity in the moft tender point, and perhaps may wholly disappoint it. As to one of your enquiries, I am eafy enough in great matters, and have a thousand paltry vexations in my little ftation, and the more contemptible, the more vexatious. There might be a Lutrin writ upon the tricks ufed by my Chapter to teize me. I do not converfe with one creature of Station or I itle, but I have a fet of eafy people whom I entertain when I have a mind; I have formerly describ'd them to you, but, when you come, you fhall have the honours of the country as much as you please, and I shall on that account make a better figure as long as I live. Pray God preferve Mrs. Pope for your fake and ease; I love and efteem her too much to with it for her own: If I were five and twenty, I would with to be of her age, to be as fecure as fhe is of a better life. Mrs. P. B has writ to me, and is one of the beft Letter-writers I know; very good fenfe, civility and friendship, without any ftiffness or constraint. The Dunciad has taken wind here, but if it had not, you are as much known here as in England, and the University-lads will crowd to kifs the hem of your garment. I am griev'd to hear that my Lord Bolingbroke's ill health forc'd him to the Bath. Tell me, is not Temperance a neceffary virtue for great men, fince it is the parent of Eafe and Liberty? fo neceffary for the use and improvement of the mind, and which Philofophy allows to be the greateft felicities of life? I believe, had health been given fo liberally to you, it would have been better husBanded without fhame to your parts, LETTER LETTER XXXII. Dawley, June 28, 1728. 1 Now hold the pen for my Lord Bolingbroke, who is reading your Letter between two Hay cocks; but his attention is fomewhat diverted by cafting his eyes on the clouds, not in admiration of what you fay, but for fear of a fhower. He is pleafed with your placing him in the Triumvirate, between yourfelf and me; tho' he fays that he doubts he fhall fare like Lepidus, while one of us runs away with all the power, like Auguftus, and another with all the pleasures, like Anthony. It is upon a forefight of this, that he has fitted up his farm, and you will agree, that this fcheme of retreat at leaft is not founded upon weak appearances. Upon his return from the Bath, all peccant humours, he finds, are puig'd out of him; and his great Temperance and Oeconomy are fo fignal, that the firft is fit for my conftitution, and the latter would enable you to lay up fo much money as to buy a Bishoprick in England. As to the return of his health and vigour, were you here, you might enquire of his Hay-makers; but as to his temperance, I can answer that (for one whole day) we have had nothing for dinner but mutton-broth, beans and bacon, and a barn-door fowl. Now his Lordship is run after his Cart, I have a moment left to myself to tell you, that I over-heard him yefterday agree with a painter for 2007. to paint his countryhall with Trophies of rakes, fpades, prongs, etc. and other ornaments, merely to countenance his calling this place a farm-now turn over a new leaf He bids me affure you, he fhould be forry not to have more schemes of kindnefs for his friends, than of ambition for himself: There, tho' his fchemes may be weak, the motives at leaft are ftrong; and he fays further, if you could bear as great a fall, and decrease of your revenues, as he knows by experience he can, you would not live in Ireland an hour. The Dunciad is going to be printed in all pomp, with the infcription, which makes me proudeft. It will be attended with Proeme, Prolegomena, Teftimonia Scriptorum, In-. dex Authorum and Notes Variorum. As to the latter, I defire you to read over the Text, and make a few in any way you like beft, whether dry raillery, upon the ftyle, Dr. Swift did fo. and ་་་ |