THE HUMBLE PETITION OF GOSSIP JOAN TO HER FRIEND, A NORTH BRITAIN LADY,' WHO HAD PROMISED HER SOME SNUFF AT HER RETURN OUT OF SCOTLAND. IN forma pauperis I to you Thus by petition humbly show: Our little isle being barren of mundungus, Our promises, I do yours claim ; Which you may break, as we, at will, Or, if it please, you may fulfil. Since thus united we possess you, When you make us sneeze, we cry, God bless The snuff which you encouraged me To hope for, will be charity; Which to your slave when you convey, you. B. C. * "Whom he brings in among us, And bribes with mundungus."-Lady's Lamentation. A LETTER OF ADVICE TO THE REVEREND DR. D-LA—Y, HUMBLY PROPOSED TO THE CONSIDERATION OF A CERTAIN GREAT LORD. This curious libel upon Dr. Delany takes the same tone with the rebuke administered to him by Swift, for boasting of his intimacy with Carteret. See Vol. XIV. p. 408 and 438, and also Vol. I. p. 352, where it is observed that there occurred some coldness between the Dean and Delany. I have a copy of verses upon Lord Carteret, supposed to be written by Dr. Delany himself, in which his lordship's taste for society is characterized by the last line : "He chooses Delany and Tickell for friends." This affectation of holding himself forth as the chosen favourite of the lord-lieutenant's easier hours, called down the censure of Tisdal, Smedley, and others, to one of whom we owe the following lines. They are here inserted as throwing some light on Swift's literary history. WHAT, Doctor, if great Carteret condescends To chat with Swift and you as private friends, Must you so silly be to tell the town, You shew your patron, for so great a favour? If you. you presume too far, you miss that end, But pray, great sir, what friend of common sense, Retrench then, and be modest if you can, sir, " And something else, which you have still forgot, If Attend some one at least, and quit Glass-Nevin, END OF VOL. X. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. |