ambaffadors came from Troy to condole with Tiberius upon the death of his nephew, after two years; the Emperor answered, that he likewife condoled with them for the untimely death of Hector. I always loved and refpected him very much, and do ftill as much as ever; and it is a return fufficient, if he pleases to accept the offers of my moft humble service.

The Beggar's opera hath knocked down Gulliver; I hope to fee Pope's Dulness knock down the Beggar's opera, but not till it hath fully done its job.

To expofe vice, and make people laugh with innocence, does more public fervice than all the ministers of ftate from Adam to Walpole; and fo adieu.

P

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr SWIFT.

Ope charges himself with this letter. He has been

*

here two days; he is now hurrying to London; he will hurry back to Twickenham in two days more; and, before the end of the week, he will be, for ought I know, at Dublin. In the mean time, his Dulness grows and flourishes, as if he was there already. It will indeed be a noble work. The many will stare at it, the few will smile, and all his patrons, from Bickerftaff to Gulliver, will rejoice, to fee themselves adorned in that immortal piece.

I hear that you have had fome return of your illness, which carried you fo fuddenly from us, if indeed it was your own illness which made you in fuch hafte to be at Dublin. Dear Swift, take care of your health. I'll give you a receipt for it, à la Montagne, or, which is better, à la Bruyere. Nourier bien votre corps; ne le fatiguer jamais: laiffer rouiller l'efprit, meuble inutil, voire outil dangereux: laiffer fonner vos cloches le matin, pour eveiller les chanoines, et pour faire dormir le Doyen d'un fommeil doux et profond, qui lui procure de beaux jonges : lever vous tard, et aller à l'églife, pour vous faire payer d'avoir bien dormi et bien dejeuné. As to myfelf, (a perfon about

* The Dunciad.

whom

whom I concern myself very little), I must say a word or two out of complaifance to you. I am in my farm, and here I shoot strong and tenacious roots. I have caught hold of the earth, (to ufe a gardener's phrase), and neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an eafy matter to transplant me again. Adieu. Let me hear from you, at least of you. I love you for a thoufand things; for none more than for the just esteem and love which you have for all the fons of Adam.

P. S. According to Lord Bolingbroke's account, I fhall be at Dublin in three days. I cannot help adding a word, to defire you to expect my foul there with you by that time; but as for the jade of a body that is tacked to it, I fear there will be no dragging it after. I affure you I have few friends here to detain me, and ́ no powerful one at court abfolutely to forbid my jour ney. I am told the gynocracy are of opinion, that they want no better writers than Cibber, and the Britifh journalifh; fo that we may live at quiet, and apply ourselves to our more abftruse studies. The only cour. tiers I know, or have the honour to call my friends, are John Gay and Mr Bowry. The former is at present fo employed in the elevated airs of his opera, and the latter in the exaltation of his high dignity, (that of her Majesty's waterman), that I can fcarce obtain a categorical anfwer from either to any thing I fay to them. But the opera fucceeds extremely, to yours and my extreme fatisfaction, of which he promises this poft to give you a full account. I have been in a worfe condition of health than ever, and think my immortality is very near out of my enjoyment: fo it must be in you, fterity, to make me what amends you can young. Adieu. While I am, I am your's. me, and take care of yourself.

and in pofor dying Pray love

March 23. 1727-8.

Send you a very odd thing, a paper printed in Boston in New England, wherein you'll find a real perfon,

a member of their parliament, of the name of Jona than Gulliver. If the fame of that traveller has tra-. velled thither, it has travelled very quick to have folks chriftened already by the name of the fuppofed author. But if you object, that no child fo lately christened, could be arrived at years of maturity to be elected into parliament; I reply, (to folve the riddle), that the perfon is an Anabaptift, and not christened till full age, which fets all right. However it be, the accident is very fingular, that these two names should be united.

Mr Gay's opera has been acted near forty days running, and will certainly continue the whole feafon. So he has more than a fence about his thousand pound *: he'll foon be thinking of a fence about his two thousand. Shall no one of us live as we would with each other to live Shall he have no annuity, you no fettlement on this fide, and I no profpect of getting to you on the o ther? This world is made for Cæfar, as Cato faid; for ambitious, falfe, or flattering people, to domineer in. Nay they would not, by their good will, leave us our very books, thoughts, or words in quiet. I defpise the world yet, Laffure you, more than either Gay or you, and the court, more than all the reft of the world. As for thofe fcribblers for whom you apprehend I would fupprefs my Dulness, (which, by the way, for the future, you are to call by a more pompous name, The Dunciad), how much that neft of hornets are my regard, will eafily appear to you, when you read the treatise of the Bathos.

At all adventures, yours and my name shall stand linked as friends to pofterity, both in verfe and profe, and, as Tully calls it, in confuetudine ftudiorum. Would to God our perfons could but as well and as furely be infeparable! I find my other ties dropping from me: fome worn off, fome torn off, others relaxing daily.:

Before Mr Gay had fenced this thousand pounds, he had a confultation with his friends about the difpofal of it. ML. advised him to intruft it to the funds, and live upon the intereft; Dr Arbuthnot, to intruft it to Providence, and live upon the principal; and Mr Pope was for purchasing an annuity for life. In this uncertainty he could only fay with the old man in Terence, Feciftis probe:

Incertior fum multo, quam dudum. Warb.

my

my greateft, both by duty, gratitude, and humanity, time is flaking every moment, and it now hangs but by a thread! Fam many years the older, for living fo much with one fo old; much the more helplefs, for having been fo long helped and tended by her; much the more confiderate and tender, for a daily commerce with one who required me justly to be both to her; and confe quently the more melancholy and thoughtful; and the lefs fit for others, who want only in a companion or a friend, to be amused 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 should 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 should be as deftitute of the focial comforts of life, as I muft when I lofe my mo ther; or that ever you should lose your more useful 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 fe the juftice you do me in thinking me concerned in all your concerns; fo that though the pleasantest thing you can tell me be that you are better or easier, 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 can't but own to you was one part of my design in falling upon these authors, whose incapacity is not greater than their infincerity;. and of whom I have always found, (if I may quote myself);

This

That each bad author is as bad a friend..
poem will rid me of thofe infects.
Cedite, Romani fcriptores, cedite, Graii;
Nefcio quid majus nafcitur Iliade;.

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 fomething greater than any Iliad: in Christendom. Adieu.

I

LETTER

From Dr. S.W.LE TO

XXXI.

Dublin, May 10.. 1728:

Have with great pleafure fhewn the New-England: news-paper with the two names. Jonathan Gulliver; and I remember Mr Fortefeue fent you an account from the affizes, of one Lemuel Gulliver, who had a cause there, and loft it on his ill reputation of being a. liar. These 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 historians. Mr Gay's opera hath been acted here twenty times; and my Lord Lieutenant tells me, it is very well performed; 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 subjec like us to bodily infirmities, fhould only occafionally converfe with great people, notwithstanding all their good qualities, 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 per. fectly eafy, never impertinent, complying in every thing, ready to do a hundred little offices that you and I may often want, who 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 feasons, and have much

It did, in a little time, effectually filence them. Warb. † Lord Carteret.

bufinefs