gentleman,* at whose lodgings we wrote, is gone for France. I really value your judgment extremely in choosing your friends. I think worthy Mr Ford is an instance of it, being an honest, sensible, firm, friendly man, et qualis ab inceptu processerat, &c. Though, by the way, praising your judgment is a little compliment to myself, which I am apt to fall into of late, nobody now, being at the trouble of doing it for me. The Parnellian, who was to have carried this letter, seem to have changed his mind by some sudden turn in his affairs; but I wish his hopes may not be the effect of some accidental thing working upon his spirits, rather than any wellgrounded project. If it be any pleasure to you, I can assure you that you are remembered kindly by your friends, and I believe not altogether forgot by your enemies. I think both is for your reputation. I am told, that I am to lose my little preferment: † however, I hope to be able to keep a little habitation warm in town. I cannot but say, I think there is one thing in your circumstance, that must make any man happy: which is, a liberty to preach. Such a prodigious privilege, that if it did not border upon simony, I could really purchase it for a sum of money. For my part, I never imagine any man can be uneasy, that has the opportunity of venting himself to a whole congregation once a-week. And you may pretend what you will, I am sure you think so too, or you do not judge right. As for news, I never inquire about it. Fuimus Troes, &c. Sed nunc ferox Jupiter transtulit omnia ad Argos. *The Duke of Ormond.N. + His post of physician to the royal household. My present politics is to give no disturbance to the present folks in the due exercise of their power, for fear of forcing them to do very strange things, rather than part with what they love so well. Untoward reports in the country will make elections dearer, which I am sorry for. The dragon, I am afraid, will be struck at. Adieu, in haste. I must not forget to tell you a passage of the Pretender's declaration to this purpose "That he had, &c."* TO MONSIEUR GIRALDI. † De Dublin en Irelande, MONSIEUR, JE prens la liberté de vous présenter le porteur de celui-ci, Monsieur Howard, gentilhomme savant et de condition de ce pays-ci; qui prétend de faire le tour d'Italie; et qui étant chanoine en mon doyenné et professeur de college ici, veut en voyageant parmi les catholiques s'opiniatrer plus dans son hérésie. Et après tout, monsieur, il n'est que juste, puisque vous avez dérobé notre franchise Angloise pour l'ajouter à votre politesse Italienne, que quelques-uns de nous-autres tramontanes devoient en voyageant chez vous faire des représailles. Vous me souffrirez aussi de vous prier de présenter mes très humbles devoirs à son altesse royale le Grand Duc. As in the conclusion of his last letter. + Secretary to the Duke of Tuscany.-H. Pour mon particulier, monsieur, je prens la liberté de vous dire, que deux mois devant la mort de la reine, voyant, qu'il étoit tout-à-fait impossible de raccommoder mes amis du ministère, je me retirai à la campagne en Berkshire, d'où après ce triste événement je suis venu en Yrlande, où je demeure en mon doyenné, et attens avec la résignation d'un bon Chrétien la ruine de notre cause et de mes amis, menacés tous les jours par la faction dominante. Car ces messieurs sont tout-à-fait résolu de trancher une demi-douzaine de têtes des meilleures d'Angleterre, et que vous avez fort bien connues et estimées. Dieu sait quel en sera l'événement. Pour moi j'ai quitté pour jamais la politique, et avec la permission des bonnes gens qui sont maintenant en vogue, je demeurerai la reste de ma vie en mon hermitage pour songer à mon salut. Adieu, monsieur, et me faites la justice de croire, que je suis, avec beaucoup de respect, monsieur, votre, &c. TO MR POPE. Dublin, June 28, 1715. My lord Bishop of Clogher* gave me your kind letter full of reproaches for my not writing. I am naturally no very exact correspondent, and when I leave a country without probability of returning, I * Dr St George Ashe, formerly a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, (to whom the Dean was a pupil) afterward Bishop of Clogher, 1697; and translated to the see of Derry in 1716-17. It was he who married Swift to Mrs Johnson, 1716-17; and performed the ceremony in a garden.-Dr WARTON. * think as seldom as I can of what I loved or esteemed in it, to avoid the desiderium which of all things makes life most uneasy. But you must give me leave to add one thing, that you talk at your ease, being wholly unconcerned in public events: for if your friends the whigs continue, you may hope for some favour; if the tories return, † you are at least sure of quiet. You know how well I loved both Lord Oxford and Bolingbroke, and how dear the Duke of Ormond is to me: do you imagine I can be easy while their enemies are endeavouring to take off their heads; I nunc, et versus tecum meditare canoros-Do you imagine I can be easy, when I think of the probable consequences of these proceedings, perhaps upon the very peace of the nation, but certainly of the minds of so many hundred thousand good subjects? Upon the whole, you may truly attribute my silence to the eclipse, but it was that eclipse which happened on the first of August. + *Pope cannot, from his religion, be supposed to have had a violent partiality for the house of Hanover. But he had some powerful friends among the whig party, and for some time seem. ed to preserve a sort of literary.neutrality in politics. + In a manuscript letter of Lord Bolingbroke it is said, "that George I. set out from Hanover with a resolution of oppressing no set of men that would be quiet subjects. But as soon as he came into Holland a contrary resolution was taken at the earnest importunity of the allies, and particularly of Heinsius, and some of the whigs. Lord Townshend came triumphing to acquaint Lord Somers with all the measures of proscription and persecution which they intended, and to which the king had at last consented. The old peer asked what he meant, and shed tears on the foresight of measures like those of the Roman Triumvirate."-Dr WARTON. There was a great eclipse at this time. He alludes to the death of Queen Anne on the 1st of August.-BOWLES. I borrowed your Homer from the bishop (mine is not yet landed), and read it out in two evenings. * 1 If it pleases others as well as me, you have got your end in profit and reputation: yet I am angry at some bad rhymes and triplets, and pray in your next do not let me have so many unjustifiable rhymes to war and gods. I tell you all the faults I know, only in one or two places you are a little too obscure: but I expected you to be so in one or two and twenty. I have heard no foul talk of it here, for indeed it is not come over; nor do we very much abound in judges, at least I have not the honour to be acquainted with them. Your notes are perfectly good, and so are your preface and essay. You were pretty bold in mentioning Lord Bolingbroke in that preface. I saw the Key to the Lock but yesterday: I think you have changed it a good deal, to adapt it to the present times. § God be thanked I have yet no parliamentary *He was frequently carping at Pope for bad rhymes in many other parts of his works. His own were remarkably exact.Dr WARTON. + Given to him by Parnell; and with which Pope told Mr Spence, he was never well satisfied, though he corrected it again and again.-Dr WARTON. The notice is brief though respectful. It barely intimates, "That such a genius as my Lord Bolingbroke, not more distinguished in the great scenes of business than in all the useful and entertaining parts of learning, has not refused to be the critic of these sheets, and the patron of their writer."-POPE'S Preface to the Iliad. § Put these two observations together, and it will appear that Mr Pope was never wanting to his friends for fear of party, nor would he insult a ministry to humour them. He said of himself, and I believe he said truly, that " he never wrote a line to gratify the animosity of any one party at the expence of another." the "Letter to a noble Lord."-WARBURTON. See |
