business of their own. God forbid I should condemn you to Ireland, (quanquam O!); and for England L-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 natureyou could expect; not but her lofs will be very fenfible, whenever it shall happen. I fay one thing, that both fummers and winters are milder here than with you ; alb 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 housekeeper *, who hath been my W-lp-le above thirty years, whenever I lived in this kingdom. I have the command of one or two villa's near this town: you have a warm apartment in this houfe, and two gardens for amufement.. I have faid enough, yet not half. Except abfence from. friends, I confefs freely that I have no difcontent at li ving here; befides what arifes from a filly fpirit of liber.. ty, which as it neither fours my drink, nor hurts my meat, nor fpoils my fromach farther than in imagina, tion, 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 Beggars opera hath done its task; difcedat, uti con viva fatur. Adieu.. I LETTER XXXII. 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 schemes, and one of us (I wont fay which) upon very weak appearances, and this you have nothing to do with. I do profefs, without affectation, that your kind opinion of ⚫ Mrs Brent. me me as a patriot, (fince you call it fo), is what I do not deferve; because what I do is owing to perfect rage and refentment, and the mortifying fight of flavery, folly, and bafenefs about me, among which I am forced 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 least ill effect on your temper; and with regard to parti. cular 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 minifter.-Your long letter was the last I received till this by Dr Delany, although you mention another fince. The Doctor told me your fecret about the Dunciad; which does not please me, because it defers gratifying my vanity in the most tender point, and perhaps may wholly disappoint it. As to one of your inquiries, I am eafy enough in great matters; but 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 used by my chapter to tease me. I do not converfe with one creature of ftation or title, but I have a fet of eafy people whom I entertain when I have a mind. I have formerly defcribed them to you; but when you come, you fhall have the honours of the country asmuch as you pleafe; and I fhall, on that account, make a better figure as long as I live. Pray God preferve Mrs Pope for your fake and eafe; I love and esteem her too much to wish it for her own: if I were five and twenty, I would wish 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 best letter-writers I know; very good fenfe, civility, and friendship, without any stiffness 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 croud to kiss the hem of your garment. I am grieved to hear that my Lord Bolingbroke's ill health forced 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 ufe and improvement of the mind, and which philofophy allows to be the greatest felicities of life? believe, had health been given fo liberally to you, it would have been better husbanded without shame to your parts.. I LETTER XXXIII. Dawley, June 28. 1728. 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 eyeson the clouds, not in admiration of what you fay, but for fear of a shower. He is pleafed with your placing him in the triumvirate between yourself and me; though he fays, that he doubts he shall 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 scheme of retreat at least is not founded upon weak appearances. Upon his return from the Bath, all peccant humours, he finds, are purged out of him, and his great temperance and economy 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 inquire of his hay-makers; but as to his temperance, I can anfwer, 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 overheard him yesterday agree with a painter for 2001. to paint his country-ball with trophies of rakes, fpades, prongs, &'c. and other ornaments, merely to countenance his calling this place a farm. Now turn over a new leaf. - He bids me uffure you, he should be sorry not to have more fchemes of kindness för his friends, than of ambi-. tion for himself. There, though his fchemes may be weak, the motives at least are strong. 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, Tefiimonia Scriptorum, Index 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 and way of commenting of trivial critics; or humerous, upon the authors in the poem; or hiftorical, of perfons, places, times; or explanatory; or collecting the parallel paffages of the ancients. Adieu. I am pretty well, my mother not ill; Dr Arbuthnot vexed with his fever by intervals; I am afraid he declines, and we shall lofe a worthy man: I am troubled about him very much. I am, &c. LETTER XXXIV. From Dr SWIFT. July 16. 1728. Have often run over the Dunciad in an Irish edition, I (I fuppofe full of faults), which a gentleman fent me. The notes I could wish to be very large, in what relates to the perfons concerned; for I have long ob ferved, that twenty miles from London no body under. ftands hints, initial letters, or town facts and paffages; and in a few years not even those who live in London. I would have the names of thofe fcribblers printed indexically at the beginning or end of the poem, with an account of their works, for the reader to refer to. I .would have all the parodies (as they are called) refer red to the author they imitate.- -When I began this long paper, I thought I should have filled it with fetting Dr Swift did. fo. down down the feveral paffages I had marked in the edition I had; but I find it unneceffary, fo many of them falling under the fame rule. After twenty times reading the whole, I never, in my opinion, faw fo much good fatire, or more good fenfe, in fo many lines. How it paffes in Dublin I know not yet; but I am fure it will be a great disadvantage to the poem, that the persons and facts will not be understood, till an explanation comes out, and a very full one. I imagine it is not to be published till towards winter, when folks begin to gather in town. Again I infift, you must have your afterisks filled up with fome real names of real dunces. I am now reading your preceeding letter of June 28. and find, that all I have advised above is mentioned there. I would be glad to know whether the quarto edition is to come out anonymously, as published by the commentator, with all his pomp of prefaces, &c. and among many complaints of fpurious editions. I am thinking whether the editor fhould not follow the old ftyle of this exellent author, &c. and refine in many places when you meant no refinement; and into the bargain, take all the load of naming the dunces, their qualities, hiftories, and performances. As to yourself, I doubt you want a fpurrer-on to exercife and to amusements; but to talk of decay at your feafon of life, is a jest. But you are not fo regular as I. You are the moft temperate man God-ward, and the moft intemperate yourfelf-ward, of moft I have known. I fuppofe Mr Gay will return from the Bath with twenty pounds more flesh, and two hundred lefs in money. Providence never defigned him to be above two and twenty, by his thoughtleffinefs and cullibility. He hath as little forefight of age, fickness, poverty, or lofs of admirers, as a girl at fifteen. By the way, I muft obferve, that my Lord Bolingbroke (from the effects of his kindness to me) argues moft fophiftically: the fall from a million to a hundred thousand pounds is not fo great, as from eight hundred pounds a-year to one: befides, he is a controller of fortune, and poverty dares not look a great minifter in the face under his lowest declenfion. I never knew him live fo great and expenLively as he hath done fince his return from exile; fuch mortals |