LETTER CLVII.

To Mrs. THROCKMORTON.

April 1, 1791.

My dear Mrs, Frog, a word or

two before breakfast; which is all that I shall have time to send

you!

in

You have not, I hope, forgot to tell Mr. Frog, how much I am obliged to him for his kind, though unsuccessful, attempt my favour at Oxford. It seems not a little extraordinary, that persons so nobly patronized themselves, on the score of literature, should resolve to give no encouragement to it in return. Should I find a fair opportunity to thank them hereafter, I will not neglect it.

Could Homer come himself, distress'd and poor,
And tune his harp at Rhedicina's door,

The rich old vixen would exclaim (I fear)

I have read your Husband's Pamphlet through and through. You may think, perhaps, and so may he, that a question so remote from all concern of mine, could not interest me; but if you think so, you are both mistaken. He can write nothing that will not interest me, in the first place for the writer's sake, and in the next place, because he writes better and reasons better than any body,

VOL. I.

FFF

with

with more candour, and with more sufficiency; and, consequently, with more satisfaction to all his readers, save only his opponents, They, I think, by this time wish that they had let him alone.

Tom is delighted past measure with his wooden nag, and gallops at a rate that would kill any horse that had a life to lose.

W. C.

MY DEAR JOHNNY,

LETTER CLVIII.

TO JOHN JOHNSON, Esqr.

Weston, April 6, 1791:

A thousand thanks for your splendid

assemblage of Cambridge luminaries. If you are not contented

with your collection, it can only be because you are unreasonable; for I, who may be supposed more covetous on this occasion than any body, am highly satisfied, and even delighted with it. If indeed you should find it practicable to add still to the number, I have not the least objection; but this charge I give you,

Αλλο δε τοι ερέω, συ δ' ενι φρεσι βάλλεο σησι.

Stay not an hour beyond the time you have mentioned, even though you should be able to add a thousand names by doing so; for I cannot afford to purchase them at that cost. I long to see you, and so do we both, and will not suffer you to postpone your

visit for any such consideration. No, my dear boy, in the affair of subscriptions, we are already illustrious enough; shall be so at least when you shall have enlisted a College or two more, which perhaps, you may be able to do in the course of the ensuing week. I feel myself much obliged to your University, and much disposed to admire the liberality of spirit they have shewn on this occasion. Certainly I had not deserved much favour of their hands, all things considered; but the cause of literature seems to have some weight with them, and to have superseded the resentment they might be supposed to entertain on the score of certain censures that of. It is not so at Oxford.

you wot

sity of Oxford. He did so, but without success.

Their answer

was, "that they subscribe to nothing."

Pope's subscriptions did not amount, I think, to six hundred ;
Noble doings, at a

and mine will not fall very far short of five.

time of day when Homer has no news to tell us, and when all other

comforts of life having risen in price, Poetry has of course fallen. I call it a "comfort of life :" it is so to others, but to myself, it is become even a necessary.

1

These holiday times are very unfavourable to the Printer's progress. He and all his Demons are making themselves merry,

Did I not know that you are never

more in your element than when you are exerting yourself in my cause, I should congratulate you on the hope there seems to be that your labour will soon have an end.

You will wonder perhaps, my Johnny, that Mrs. Unwin by my desire, enjoined you to secrecy concerning the Translation of the Frogs and Mice. Wonderful it may well seem to you, that I should wish to hide for a short time, from a few, what I am just going to publish to all. But I had more reasons than one for this mysterious management; that is to say, I had two. In the first place, I wished to surprize my readers agreeably; and secondly, I wished to allow none of my friends an opportunity to object to the

measure,

measure, who might think it perhaps a measure more bountiful than prudent. But I have had my sufficient reward, though not a pecuniary one, It is a Poem of much humour, and accordingly I found the translation of it very amusing. It struck me too, that I must either make it part of the present publication, or never publish it at all; it would have been so terribly out of its place in any other volume.

I long for the time that shall bring you once more to Weston, and all your et ceteras with you. Oh! what a month of May has this been! Let never Poet, English Poet at least, give himself to the praises of May again.