which is all I ask from courtiers, and all a wise man will expect from them. The duchess of Marlborough makes great court to me; but I am too old for her mind and body: yet I cultivate some young people's friendship, because they may be honest men; whereas the old ones experience too often proves not to be so, I having dropped ten where I have taken up one, and I hope to play the better with fewer in my hand. There is a lord Cornbury, a lord Polwarth, a Mr. Murray, and one or two more, with whom I would never fear to hold out against all the corruption of the world.

You compliment me in vain upon retaining my poetical spirit: I am sinking fast into prose; and, if I ever write more, it ought (at these years and in these times,) to be something, the matter of which will give a value to the work, not merely the manner.

Since my protest (for so I call my dialogue of 1738) I have written but ten lines, which I will send you. They are an insertion for the next new edition of the Dunciad, which generally is reprinted once in two years. In the second canto, among the authors who dive in Fleet ditch, immediately after Arnal, verse 300, add these:

Next plung'd a feeble but a desp'rate pack,
With each a sickly brother at his back;
Sons of a day! just buoyant on the flood,
Then number'd with the puppies in the mud.

*Hugh Hume Campbell, third and last earl of Marchmont. He died January 10, 1794, aged 87. See Gent. Mag. vol. LXIV, page 92.

+ Afterward, first earl of Mansfield, the celebrated lord chief justice of the king's bench.

CERTIFICATE TO A DISCARDED SERVANT *,

DEANERY HOUSE, JAN, 9, 1739-40.

WHEREAS the bearer served me the space of one year, during which time he was an idler and a drunkard;

The history of this singular çertificate is thus related by Mrs. Pilkington, vol. III, p. 78: " Dean Swift discharged a servant, only for rejecting the petition of a poor old woman; she was very ancient, and, on a cold morning, sat at the deanery steps a considerable time, during which the dean saw her through a window, and no doubt commiserated her desolate condition. His footman happened to come to the door; and the poor creature besought him, in a piteous tone, to give that paper to his reverence, The ser, vant read it; and told her, with infinite scorn, "His master had "something else to mind than her petition."-"What is that 66 you say, fellow?" said the dean, looking out at the window. "Come up here." The man tremblingly obeyed him.-He also desired the poor woman to come before him, made her sit down, and ordered her some bread and wine, After which, he turned to the man, and said, "At what time, sir, did I order you to open "a paper directed to me, or to refuse a letter from any one? Hark " ye, sirrah, you have been admonished by me, for drunkenness, ❝idling, and other faults; but, since I have discovered your "inhuman disposition, I must dismiss you from my service: so pull off my clothes, take your wages, and let me hear no more " of you."-The fellow did so; and, having vainly solicited a discharge, was compelled to go to sea, where he continued five years; at the end of which time, finding that life far different from the ease and luxury of his former occupation, he returned, and, humbly confessing in a petition to the dean his former manifold crimes, assured him of his sincere reformation, which the dangers he had undergone at sea had happily wrought; and begged

the

drunkard; I then discharged him as such; but how far his having been five years at sea may have mended his manners, I leave to the penetration of those who may hereafter choose to employ him.

J. SWIFT.

TO W. RICHARDSON, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

MAY 13, 1740.

I COULD never believe Mrs. Whiteway's gasconades in telling me of her acquaintance with you. But my age and perpetual disorders, and chiefly my vexatious deafness, with other infirmities, have completed the utter loss of my memory; so that I cannot recollect the names of those friends who come to see me twice or oftener every week. However, I remember to wish you a long lasting joy of being no longer a bachelor, especially because the teaser

the dean would give him some sort of discharge, since the honour of having lived with him would certainly procure him a place, Accordingly the dean called for pen, ink, and paper; and gave him a dismission, with which and no other fortune, he set out for London. Among others, he applied to me, who had known him at his late master's; and produced his certificate; which, for its singularity, I transcribed. I advised him to go to Mr. Pope, who, on seeing the dean's handwriting, which he well knew, told the man, "If he could produce any credible person, who could attest that he was the servant the dean meant, he would hire him." On this occasion he applied to me; and I gave him a letter to Mr. Pope, assuring him, that I knew the man to have been footman to the dean. Upon this, Mr. Pope took him into his service; in which he continued till the death of his master.

at

at my elbow assures me that the lady is altogether worthy to be your wife. I therefore command you both (if I live so long) to attend me at the deanery the day after you land; where Mrs. Precipitate, alias Whiteway, says I will give you a scandalous dinner. I suppose you will see your governor my old friend John Barber, whom I heartily love; and so you are to tell him. I am, dear sir, your most obedient and obliged servant,

JONATH. SWIFT.

MR. FAULKNER TO MR. BOWYER.

DEAR SIR,

DUBLIN, OCT. 1, 1745.

THE bank note for one hundred guineas came safe to hand. Enclosed you have part of the "Advice to "Servants." I wish I could get franks to send it in. Fix your day of publication, and I will wait until you are ready, that we may both come out the same day. I think the middle of November will do very well, as your city as well as Dublin, will be full at that time. I shall finish the volume with a Cantata*

of

Dr. Beattie, after censuring the practice of what he calls illicit imitation, observes, that "this abuse of a noble art did not escape "the satire of Swift; who, though deaf to the charms of musick,

was not blind to the absurdity of musicians. He recommended it "to Dr. Echlin, an ingenious gentleman of Ireland, to compose a « cantata in ridicule of this puerile mimickry. Here we have mo"tions imitated, which are the most inharmonious, and the least connected with human affections, as the trotting, ambling, and

"galloping

155

of the dean's, set to musick, which, in my opinion, will have a greater run with the lovers of harmony than any of the Corelli's, Vivaldi's, Purcell's, or Handel's pieces. When Arne, the famous composer, was last in Ireland, he made application to me for this cantata (which I could not then procure), to set it to musick: perhaps he may do it now, and bring it on the stage; which, if he does, will run more than the Beggar's Opera; and therefore I would have you get it engraved in folio, with scores for bass, &c., which will make it sell very well. I believe you might get something handsome for it from Rich, or the managers of Drury lane, for which I shall send you the original MS. I am thus particular, that you may have the profit to yourself, as you will have the trouble. I was in daily expectation, for six weeks, of going to London; but was prevented by many accidents-I cannot say business, for I never had less, as Mr. Hitch well knows, having had no order from me for two months past.

"galloping of Pegasus; and sounds the most unmusical, as crack. "ling and snivelling, and rough roistering rustick roaring strains; "the words high and deep have high and deep notes set to them;

a series of short notes of equal lengths are introduced, to imitate "shivering and shaking; an irregular rant of quick sounds, to ex"press rumbling; a sudden rise of the voice, from a low to a high

pitch, to denote flying above the sky, a ridiculous run of chro"matick d'visions on the words Celia dies; with other droll "contrivances of a like nature. In a word, Swift's cantata may "convince any person, that musick uniformly imitative would be "ridiculous. I observe in passing, that the satire of this piece is "levelled, not at absurd imitation only, but also at some other "musical improprieties; such as the idle repetition of the same "words, the running of long extravagant divisions upon one "syllable, and the setting of words to musick that have no "meaning."

The