" I fhall with pleafure take upon me to draw this amiable, quiet,
deferving, unpretending, Chriftian and Philofophical character, in
His Epitaph. There Truth may be fpoken in a few words : as
for Flourifh, & Orator}', & Poetry, I leave them to younger
and more lively Writers, fuch as love writing for writing fake, &
w d rather mow their own fine Parts, y n Report the valuable ones
of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce.

*' I condole with you from my heart,on the lofs of fo worthy a
man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I muft tell you
he has done you many a good office, & fet your character in y
faireft light, to fome who either miftook you, or knew you not.
I doubt not he has done the fame for me.

" Adieu : Let us love his Memory, and profit by his example,
am very fincerely, dear Sir,

" Your affeaionate

" & real Servant,

Aug. 29 th 1730. A. POPE."

1 Of Queenfberry. W.



FROM MR. GAY. 171



LETTER XVI.

Dear Sir, O&. 6, 1727.

j HAVE many years ago magnified in my own mind,

and repeated to you, a ninth Beatitude, added to
the eighth in the Scripture ; " Blefled is he who ex-
" pefts nothing, for he mail never be difappointed."
I could find in my heart to congratulate you on this
happy difmiflion from all Court dependance ; I dare
fay I mail find you the better and the honefler man
for it many years hence ; v^ry probably the health-
fuller and the chearfuller into the bargain. You are
happily rid of many curfed ceremonies, as well as of
many ill and vicious Habits, of which few or no men
efcape the infection, who are hackneyed and tramelled
in the ways of a court. Princes indeed, and Peers
(the lackies of Princes), and Ladies (the fools of Peers),
will fmile on you the lefs ; but men of worth, and
real friends, will look on you the better. There is a
thing, the only thing which Kings and Queens can-
not give you, (for they have it not to . give,) Liberty,
and which is worth all they have ; which, as yet, I
thank God, Englifhmen need not afk from their
hands. You will enjoy that, and your own integrity,
and the fatisfaclory confcioufnefs of having not merited
fuch graces from courts as are beftowed only on the
mean, fervile, flattering-, interefted, and undeferving.

The



* 7 * LETTERS TO AND

The only fteps to the favour * of the Great are fuch
complacencies, fuch compliances, fuch diftant de-
corums, as delude them in their vanities, or engage
them in fheir paflions. He is their greateft favourite f
who is the falfeft ; and when a man by fuch vile
gradations, arrives; at the height of grandeur and
power, he is then at bed, but in a circumftance to be
hated, and hi a condition' to be hanged,- for ferving
their ends : fo many a Minifter has found it !

I believe you did not want advice in the letter you
fent by my Lord Grantham ; I prefume you writ
it not , without: and, you. cquld not have better,

-; woY .rfLigi'fid dfiiottii lofhrh^fb <jfh Ir;r,.rjlhn

. * Is the pifture of Minifters arid Courtier* and Great Men,
drawn by the mafterly hand of a perfon of much experience and
observation, Mad. Maintenon, faithful and true ?

" Je ne fuis point portee a la defiance, & j'aurois vecu long-temps
fans croire les hommefe aufli mauvais qu'on les dit ; mais la Cour
change les meilleurs. Prefque tous noyent leurs parens & leur
amis pour dire un mot de plus au Roi, & pour lui montrer qu'ils
lui facrifignt tout. Ce pays eft effroyable, il n'y a point de tete
qui n'y tourne. Enfin les homines font tres mal dans mon efprit,
& je ne regarde pas les femmes. Cependant je re5ois la compagnie ;
& quelle compagnie ! Je fuis obfedee ou de femmes qUe je meprife,
ou d'hommes qili ne m'aiment point. Je vois, j'entends des chofes
qui me deplaifent, ou qui m'indignent'. Je m'obferve fans cefle
pour retenir mon impatieilce, & pour empecher qu'on ne s'apper-
^oive que je la retiens. Nous avons des afTaiTmats de fang froid, des
envies fans fujet, des rages, des trahifons fans reflentimens, des
avarices infatiables, des defefpoirs au mdieu du bonheur, des baf-
fefles, qu'on couvre du nom de grandeui* d'ame. Je me tais, je
n'y puis p^nfer fans emportement."

t This fatire is carried to ex'ce&. The Great, as they are
called, are neither fo bad or fo good, as they are ufually repre-
fented to be.



FROM MR. GAY. 173

if I guefs right at the perfon who agreed to your do-
ing it, in refpeft to any Decency you ought to ob-
ferve : for I take that perfon to be a perfect judge of
decencies and forms. I am not without fears even
on that perfon's account : I think it a bad omen :
but what have I to do with Court-omens? Dear
Gay, adieu. I can only add a plain uncourtly fpeech :
While you are nobody's fervant, you may be any
one's friend ; and, as fuch, I embrace you, in all
conditions of life. While I have a milling, you mail
have fix-pence, nay eighupence, if I can contrive to
live upon a groat. I am faithfully

Your, etc.



LETTER XVII.
MR. GAY TO MR. POPE.

Aug. 2, 1728.

two or three weeks ago that I writ you 3
letter ; I might indeed have done it fooner ; I
thought of you every poft-day upon that account, and
every other day upon fome account or other. I mud
beg you to give Mrs. B. my fincere thanks for her
kind way of thinking of me, which I have heard of
more than once from our friend at court, who feemed,
in the letter me writ, to be in high health and fpirits.

Confidering



i 7 4 LETTERS TO AND

Confidering the multiplicity of pleafures and delights
that one is over-run with in thofe places, I wonder
how any body hath health and fpirit enough to fup-
port them : I am heartily glad me has, and when-
ever I hear fo, I find it contributes to mine. You
fee I am not free from dependance, though I have
lefs attendance than I had formerly ; for a great deal
of my own welfare ftill depends upon hers. Is the
widow's houfe to be difpofed of yet? I have not
given up my pretenfions to the Dean : if it was to be
parted with, I wifh one of us had it ; I hope you wilh
fo too, and that Mrs. Blount and Mrs. Howard wilh
the fame, and for the very fame reafon that I wilh it.
All I could hear of you of late hath been by adver-
tifements in news-papers, by which one would think
the race of Curls was multiplied ; and by the indig-
nation fuch fellows mow againft you, that you have
more merit than any body alive could have. Homer
himfelf hath not been worfe ufed by the French.
I am to tell you that the Duchefs makes you her
compliments, and is always inclined to like any thing
you do ; that Mr. Congreve admires, with me, your
fortitude ; and loves, not envies, your performance ;
for we are not Dunces. Adieu,



FROM MR. GAY. 175



LETTER XVIIL

j 'I/O3 .1C ";

April 1 8, 1730.

TF my friendfliip were as effectual at it is fmcere,
you would be one of thofe people who would be
vaftly advantaged and enriched by it. I ever honoured
thofe Popes who were mofl famous for Nepotifm, 'tis
a fign that the old fellows loved Somebody, which is
not ufual in fuch advanced years. And I now honour
Sir Robert Walpole for his extenfive bounty and
goodnefs to his private friends and relations. But it
vexes me to the heart when I reflect, that my friend-
fhip is fo much lefs effectual than theirs ; nay fo
utterly ufelefs that it cannot give you any thing, not
even a dinner at this diflance, nor help the General,
whom I greatly love, to catch one fifh. My only confo-
lation is to think you happier than myfelf, and to begin
to envy you, which is next to hating you (an excellent
remedy for love). How comes it that Providence
has been fo unkind to me, (who am a greater object
of compamon than any fat man alive,) that I am forced
to drink wine, while you riot in water, prepared with
oranges by the hand of the Duchefs of Queeniberry ?
that I am condemned to live by a highway fide, like
an old Patriarch, receiving all guefts, where my por-
tico (as Virgil has it)

Mane falutantum totis vomit a?dibus undam,

while



i;6 LETTERS TO AND

while you are wrapt into the Idalian Groves, fprinkled
with rofe-water, and live in burrage, balm, and bur-
net, up to the chin, with the Duchefs of Queenfberry?
that I am doomed to the drudgery of dining at court
with the ladies in waiting at Windfor, while you are
happily bammed with the Duchefs of Queennberry ?
So partial is fortune in her difpenfations ! for I de-
ferved ten times more to be banifhed than you, and I
know fome Ladies who merit it better than even her
Grace. After this I muft not name any, who dare do
fo much for you as to fend you their fervices. But
one there is, who exhorts me often to write to you,
I fuppofe, to prevent or excufe her not doing it her-
felf ; me feems (for that is all I'll fay for a courtier)
to wifh you mighty well. Another, who is no cour-
tier, frequently mentions you, and does certainly wifh
you well. I fancy, after all, they both do fo.

I writ to Mr. Fortefcue, and told him the pains
you took to fee him. The Dean is well ; I have had
many accounts of him from Irifh evidence, but only
two letters thefe four months, in both which you are
mentioned kindly : he is in the north of Ireland, do-
ing I know not what, with I know not whom. Mr.
Cleland always fpeaks of you : he is at Tunbridge,
wondering at the fuperior carnivoracity of our friend :
he plays now with the old Duchefs, nay dines with
her, after me has won all his money. Other news I
know not, but that Counfellor Bickford has hurt
himfelf, and has the ftrongefl walking-ftaff I ever

faw.



FROM MR. GAY. 177

faw. He intends fpeedily to make you a vifit with it
at Amefbury. I am my Lord Duke's, my Lady
Duchefs's, Mr. Dormer's, General Dormer's, and

Your, etc.



LETTER XIX.

Sept. n, 1730.
j MAY with great truth return your fpeech, that I

think of you daily ; oftener indeed than is con-
fiftent with the character of a reafonable man, who is
rather to make himfelf eafy with the things and men
that are about him, than uneafy for thofe which he
wants. And you, whofe abfence is in a manner per-
petual to me, ought rather to be remembered as a
good man gone, than breathed after as one living.
You are taken from us here to be laid up in a more
blefied ftate with fpirits of a higher kind : fuch I
reckon his Grace and her Grace, fince their banifh-
ment from an earthly court to a heavenly one, in each
other and their friends ; for, I conclude, none but true
friends will confort or afibciate with them afterwards.
I can't but look upon myfelf (fo unworthy as a man
of Twit'nam feems, to be ranked with fuch rectified
and fublimated beings as you) as a feparated fpirit too
from Courts and courtly fopperies. But, I own, not
altogether fo diverted of terrene matter, not altoge-

VOL. viu. N ther



178 LETTERS TO AND

ther fo fpirituafized, as to be worthy of admiffion to
your depths of retirement and contentment. I am
tugged back to the world and its regards too often ;
and no wonder, when my retreat is but ten miles from
the Capital. I am within ear-mot of reports, within
the vortex of lies and cenfures. I hear fometimes of
the lampooners of beauty, the calumniators of virtue,
the jokers at reafon and religion. I prefume thefe are
creatures and things as unknown to you, as we of
this dirty orb are to the inhabitants of the planet
Jupiter ; except a few fervent prayers reach you on
the wings of the poft, from two or three of your
zealous votaries at this diftance ; as one Mrs. H. who
lifts up her heart now and then to you, from the
midft of the Colluvies and fink of human greatnefs
at W r j one Mrs. B. that fancies you may re-
member her while you lived in your mortal and too
tranfitory ftate at Peterfham ; one Lord B. who ad-
mired the Duchefs before me grew a Goddefs j and
a few others.

To defcend now to tell you what are our wants,
our complaints, and our miferies here; I muft ferioufly
fay, the lofs of any one good woman is too great to
be born eafily : and poor Mrs. Rollinfon, though a
private woman, was fuch. Her hufband is gone into
Oxfordfhire very melancholy, and thence to the Bath,
to live on, for fuch is our fate, and duty. Adieu. Write
to me as often as you will, and (to encourage you)
I will write as feldom as if you did not. Believe me

Your, etc.



FROM MR. GAY. 179



LETTER XX.

Dear Sir, Odober i, 1730.

j AM fomething like the fun at this feafon, withdraw-
ing from the world, but meaning it mighty well,
and refolving to mine whenever I can again. But I
fear the clouds of a long winter will overcome me to
fuch a degree, that any body will take a farthing can-
dle for a better guide, and more ferviceable compa-
nion. My friends may remember my brighter days,
but will think (like the Irifliman) that the moon is a
better thing when once I am gone. I don't fay this
with any allufion to my poetical capacity as a fon of
Apollo, but in my companionable one, (if you'll fuffer
me to ufe a phrafe of the Earl of Clarendon's,) for I
mail fee or be feen of few of you this winter. I am
grown too faint to do any good, or to give any plea-
fure. I not only, as Dryden finely fays, feel my
notes decay as a poet, but feel my fpirits flag as a
companion, and mail return again to where I firft
began, my books. I have been putting my library
in order, and enlarging the chimney in it, with equal
intention to warm my mind and body (if I can) to
fome life. A friend (a woman friend, God help
me !) with whom I have fpent three or four hours a
day thefe fifteen years, advifed me to pafs more time
in my ftudies : I reflected, me muft have found fome
reafon for this admonition, and concluded fhe would
N a complete



!8c LETTERS TO AND

complete all her kindnefles to me by returning me to
the employment I am fitted for ; converfation with
the dead, the old, and the worm-eaten.

Judge therefore if I might not treat you as a bea-
tified fpirit, comparing your life with my flupid
flate. For as to my living at Windfor with the la-
dies, etc. it is all a dream; I was there but two
nights, and all the day out of that company. I mail
certainly make as little court to others as they do to
me ; and that will be none at all. My Fair-weather
friends of the fummer are going away for London,
and I mail fee them and the butterflies together, if
I live till next year ; which I would not defire to do,
if it were only for their fakes. But we that are
writers, ought to love pofterity, that pofterity may
love us ; and I would willingly live to fee the chil-
dren of the prefent race, merely in hope they may be

a little wifer than their Parents.

I am, etc.



LETTER XXI.

IT is true, that I write to you very feldom, and
have no pretence of writing which fatisfies me, be-
caufe I have nothing to fay that can give you much
pleafure : only merely that I am in being, which in
truth is of little confequence to one from whofe con-
verfation



FROM MR. GAY. 181

verfation I am cut off by fuch accidents or engage-
ments as feparate us. I continue, and ever fhall, to
wifh you all good and happinefs : I wifh that fome
lucky event might fet you in a ftate of eafe and inde-
pendency all at once ! And that I might live to fee you
as happy as this filly world and fortune can make
any one. Are we never to live together more, as once
we did ? I find my life ebbing apace, and my affec-
tions (lengthening as my age encreafes ; not that I
am worfe, but better, in my health than laft winter ;
but my mind finds no amendment nor improvement,
nor fupport to lean upon, from thofe about me : and
fo I find myfelf leaving the world, as faft as it leaves
me. Companions I have enough, friends few, and
thofe too warm in the concerns of the world, for me
to bear pace with ; or elfe fo divided from me, that
they are but like the dead whofe remembrance I hold
in honour. Nature, temper, and habit from my
youth made me have but one flrong defire ; all other
ambitions, my perfon, education, conflitution, reli-
gion, etc. confpired to remove far from me. That
defire was, to fix and preferve a few lading, depend-
able friendfliips : and the accidents which have dif-
appointed me in it, have put a period to all my aims.
So I am funk into an idlenefs, which makes me nei-
ther care nor labour to be noticed by the reft of man-
kind; I propofe no rewards to myfelf, and why
mould I take any fort of pains ? Here I fit and fleep
and probably here I fhall fleep till I fleep for ever, like
N 3 the



i8a LETTERS TO AND

the old man of Verona. I hear of what pafles in the
bufy world with fo little attention, that I forget it the
next day ; and as to the learned world, there is no-
thing pafles in it. I have no more to add, but that I
am, with the fame truth as ever,

Your, etc.



LETTER XXII.

O&ober 23, 1730.

-TT-OUR letter is a very kind one*, but I can't fay fo
pleafmg to me as many of yours have been,
through the account you give of the dejection of
your fpirits. I wilh the too conftant ufe of water does
not contribute to it ; I find Dr. Arbuthnot and ano-
ther very knowing phyfician of that opinion. I alfo
wifti you were not fo totally immerfed in the country;
I hope your return to town will be a prevalent remedy
againft the evil of too much recollection. I wifh it
partly for my own fake. We have lived little toge-
ther of late, and we want to be phyficians for one
another. It is a remedy that agreed very well with
us both, for many years, and I fancy our conftitutions
would mend upon the old medicine of Studiorum Si-

militudo,

* In all this correfpondence with Gay, there appears to be a
vein of more natural fentiments, and eafy unaifcdted language,
than in moft of his other Letters.



FROM MR. GAY. 183

mitttudo, etc. I bdievc we both of us want whetting ;
there are feveral here who will do you that good
office, merely for the love of wit, which feems to be
bidding the town a long and laft adieu. I can tell
you of no one thing worth reading, or feeing ; the
whole age feems refoived to juftify the Dunciad, and
it may ftand for a public Epitaph or monumental In-
icripdon like that at Thermopylae, on a whole people
perijhcd! There may indeed be a Wooden image or
two of Poetry fet up, to preferve the memory that
there once were bards in Britain; and (like the
Giants in Guildhall) mew the bulk and bad tafte of
our anceftors : at prefent the poor Laureat ! and
Stephen Duck ferve for this purpofe ; a drunken fot
of a Parfon holds forth the emblem of Infpiration, and
an honed induftrious Threjher not unaptly reprefents
Pains and Labour. I hope this Phenomenon of
Wiltmire has appeared at Amefbury, or the Duchefs
will be thought infenfible to all bright qualities and
exalted geniufes, in court and country alike. But he
is a harmlefs man, and therefore I am glad.

This is all the news talked of at Court, but it will
pleafe you better to hear that Mrs. Howard talks of
you, though not in the fame breath with the Treflier,
as they do of me. By the way, have you feen or
converfed with Mr. Chubb, who is a wonderful phe-
nomenon of Wiltmire * ? I have read through his

whole

* Eufden. W.

* He was a glover at Salisbury. How came the Commentator
to imagine that the City fet him up to rival Locke ?

N 4



1 84 LETTERS TO AND

whole volume k with admiration of the writer ; though
not always with approbation of the doctrine. I have
paft juft three days in London in four months, two at
Windfor, half an one at Richmond, and have not
taken one excurfion into any other country. Judge
now whether I can live in my library. Adieu. Live
mindful of one of your firft friends, who will be fo
till the laft. Mrs. Blount deferves your remem-
brance, for me never forgets you, and wants nothing
of being a friend '.

I beg the Duke's and her Grace's acceptance of my
fervices : the contentment you exprefs in their com-
pany pleafes me, though it be the bar to my own, in
dividing you from us. I am ever, very truly,

Your, etc.

k This was his quarto Volume, written before he had given any
figns of thefe extravagancies, which have fince rendered his name
fo noted. As the Court fet up Mr. Duck for the rival of Mr.
Pope, the City at the fame time confidered Chubb, as one who
would eclipfe Locke. The modefty of the Court Poet kept him
fober in the very intoxicating fituation, while the vanity of this
new-fangled Philofopher affifted his fage admirers in turning his
head. W.

1 Alluding to thofe lines in the Epift. on the CharaQers of
Women,

" With ev'ry pleafing, ev'ry prudent part,

" Say, what can Chloe want ? She wants a heart. W,



FROM MR. GAY. 185



LETTER XXIII.

Odlober 2, 1732.

QIR Clem. Cottrel tells me you will fhortly come to
town. We begin to want comfort in a few friends
about us, while the winds whittle,] and the waters
roar. The fun gives us a parting look, but 'tis a
cold one ; we are ready to change thofe diflant fa-
vours of a lofty beauty, for a grofs material fire that
warms and comforts more. I wifli you could be here
till your family come to town : you'll live more in-
nocently, and kill fewer harmlefs creatures, nay none,
except by your proper deputy, the butcher. It is fit
for confcience fake, that you mould come to town,
and that the Duchefs mould flay in the country,
where no innocents of another fpecies may fuffer by
her. I hope me never goes to church : the Duke
mould lock you both up, and lefs harm would be
done. I advife you to make man your game, hunt
and beat about here for Coxcombs, and trufs up
Rogues in Satire : I fancy they'll turn to a good ac-
count, if you can produce them frefh, or make them
keep : and their relations will come, and buy their
bodies of you.

The death of Wiiks leaves Gibber without a col-
league, abfolute and perpetual dictator of the ftage,
though indeed while he lived he was but as Bibulus
to Csefar. However, ambition finds fomething to be

gratified



186 LETTERS TO AND

gratified with in a mere name ; or elfe, God have
mercy upon poor ambition ! Here is a dead vacation
at prefent, no politics at Court, no trade in town, no-
thing flirring but poetry. Every man, and every
boy, is writing verfes on the Royal Hermitage : I
hear the Queen is at a lofs which to prefer : but for
my own part I like none fo well as Mr. Poyntz's in
Latin. You would oblige my Lady Suffolk if you
tried your Mufe on this occafion. I am fure I would
do as much for the Duchefs of Queenfberry, if me
defired it. Several of your friends allure me it is ex-
pected from you : one mould not bear in mind, all
one's life, any little indignity one receives from' a
Court; and therefore I am in hopes, neither her
Grace will hinder you, nor you decline it.

The Volume of Mifcellanies is juft publiihed, which
concludes all our fooleries of that kind. All your
friends remember you, and, I allure you, no one
more than
turf ; Your, etc.



. !I;



FROM MR. GAY. 187

LETTER XXIV.
FROM MR. GAY TO MR. POPE.

O&ober 7, 1732.

T AM at laft returned from my Somerfetmire expe-

dition, but fmce my return I cannot fo much boaft

of my health as before I went, for I am frequently

out of order with my colical complaints, fo as to

make me uneafy and difpirited, though not to any

violent degree. The reception we met with, and the

little excurfions we made, were every way agreeable.

I think the country abounds with beautiful profpects.

Sir William Wyndham is at prefent amufing himfelf

with fome real improvements, and a great many vi-

fionary caftles. We are often entertained with fea-

views, and fea-fifh, and were at fome places in the

neighbourhood, among which I was mightily pleafed

with Dunfter Caftle, near Minehead. It ftands upon

a great eminence, and hath a profpecl of that town,

with an extenfive view of the Briflol channel, in which

are feen two fmall Iflands called the Steep Holms and

Flat Holms, and on t'other fide we could plainly dif-

tinguifh the divifions of fields in the Welfh coaft. All

this journey I performed on horfeback, and I am very

much difappointed that at prefent I feel myfelf fo

little the better for it. I have indeed followed riding

and exercife for three months fucceflively, and really

think I was as well without it ; fo that I begin to fear

the



i88 LETTERS TO AND

the Jllnefs I have fo long and fo often complained of,
is inherent in my conftitution, and that I have no-
thing for it but patience m .

As to your advice about writing Panegyric *, 'tis
what I have not frequently done. I have indeed done
it fometimes againfl my judgment and inclinations,
and I heartily repent of it. And at prefent, as I
have no defire of reward, and fee no jufl reafon of