upon the death of his nephew, after two years; the Emperor answered, that he likewise 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 fervice. THE Beggar's Opera hath knocked down Gulliver; I hope to fee Pope's Dulnefs 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 minifters of ftate from Adam to Walpole; and so adieu. LETTER XXIX. 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 fmile, and all his patrons, from Bickerstaff 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 so 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 veiller les chanoines, et pour faire dormir le Doyen d'un fommeil doux et profond, qui lui procure de beaux fonges: lever vous tard, et aller à l'églife, pour vous faire payer d'avoir bien dormi et bien dejeuné. As to myself, (a perfon about whom The Dunciad." 75 whom I concern myself very little), I muft fay a word or two out of complaifance to you. I am in my farm, and here I shoot ftrong 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 tranfplant 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 juft 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 journey. I am told the genocracy are of opinion, that they want no better writers than Cibber, and the British journalist; fo that we may live at quiet, and apply ourfelves to our more abftrufe ftudies. The only courtiers I know, or have the honour to call my friends, are John Gay and Mr Bowry. The former is at prefent 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 answer from either to any thing I fay to them. But the Opera fucceeds extremely, to yours and my extreme fatisfaction, of which he promifes this post 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, and in pofterity, to make me what amends you can for dying young. Adieu.. While I am, I am yours. Pray love me, and take care: of yourself. March 23.1727-8. Send you a very odd thing, a paper printed in Boston in New England, wherein you'll find a real perfor a member of their parliament, of the name of Jonathan Gulliver. If the fame of that traveller has travelled 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 fhould be united. Mr Gay's Opera has been acted near forty days running, and will certainly continue the whole feason. 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 other 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 defpife the world yet, I affure you, more than either Gay or you, and the court more than all the rest 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 Dunceiad), how much that neft of hornets are my regard, will eafily appear to you, when you read the treatife of the Bathos. Ar 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 : my Before Mr Gay had fenced this thoufand pounds, he had a confultation with his friends about the difpofal of it. Mr L. advifed him to intruft it to the funds, and live upon the intereft : Dr Arbuthnot, to intrust it to Providence, and live upon the principal; and Mr Pope was for purchafing 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 greatest, both by duty, gratitude, and humanity, time is shaking every moment, and it now hangs but by a thread! I am many years the older, for living fo much with one fo old; much the more helpless, 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 juftly to be both to her; and confequently the more melancholy and thoughtful; and thelefs fit for others, who want only in a companion or a friend, to be amused or entertained. My conftitution too has had its share of decay, as well as my spirits; and I am as much in the decline at forty as you at fixty. believe we should be fit to live together, could I get a little more health, which might make me not quite infupportable. Your deafness would agree with my dulnefs; you would not want me to fpeak when you could not hear. But God forbid you should be as deftitute of the focial comforts of life, as I muft when I lose my mo.. ther; or that ever you should lofe your more ufeful ac quaintance fo utterly, as to turn your thoughts to fuchà broken reed as I am, who could fo ill fupply your wants. I am extremely troubled at the returns of your deafnefs; you cannot be too particular in the accountsof your health to me; every thing you do or fay in this kind, obliges me, nay, delights me, to fee the justice you. do me in thinking me concerned in all your concerns; fo that tho' the pleasanteft 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 hap pieft 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 defign in falling upon these authors, whofe incapacity is not greater than their infin cerity; and of whom I have always found, (if I may quote myself), That each bad author is as bad a friend. Gedite, Romani fcriptores, cedite, Graii 3, 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 XXXL From Dr SWIFT. Dublin, May 10. 1728. Have with great pleafure 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 cause there, and loft it on his ill reputation of being a liar. These are not the only observations 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 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 subject 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 perfectly 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 prefent. This you cannot expect from any of thofe that eithe you, or I, or both are acquainted with on your fide; who are only fit for our healthy feasons, and have much bufiness * It did, in a little time, effectually filence them. Ward. Lord Carteret. |