LETTER

VIII.

Lord Chancellor HARCOURT to Mr. POPE

I

Dec. 6, 1722.

CANNOT but fufpect myself of being very unrea fonable in begging you once more to review the inclofed. Your friendlhip draws this trouble on you. I may freely own to you, that my tenderne fs makes me exceeding hard to be fatisfied with any thing which can be faid on fuch an unhappy subject. I caufed the Latin epitaph to be as often altered before I could approve of it.

When once your epitaph is fet up, there can be no alteration of it, it will remain a perpetual monument of your friendship, and, I affure myfelf, you will fo fettle it, that it shall be worthy of you. I doubt whether the word, denied, in the third line, will justly admit of that conftruction which it ought to bear, (viz.) renounced, deferted, &c. Denied is capable, in my opinion, of having an ill fenfe put upon it, as too great uneafinefs, or more good-nature, than a wife man ought to have. I very well remember you told me, you could fcarce mend thofe two lines, and therefore I ean fcarce expect your forgivenefs for my defiring you

to reconfider them.

HARCOURT flands dumb, and POPE is forc'd to speak. I cannot perfectly, at leaft without further difcourfing you, reconcile myfelf to the fift part of that line; and the word forced (which was my own, and, I perfuade myfelf, for that reafon only fubmitted to by you) feems to carry too doubtful a conftruction for an Epitaph, which, as I apprehend, ought as eafily to be underflood as read. I fhall acknowledge it as a very particular favour, if at your beft leifure you will perufe the inclofed, and vary it, if you think it capable of being amended; and let me fee you any morning next week. I am, &c.

LETTER

IX.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE..

I

Sept. 21, 1721.

AM now confined to my bed-chamber, and to the matted room, wherein I am writing, feldom ven. turing to be carried down even into the parlour to dinner, unless when company, to whom I cannot excufé myfelf, comes, which I am not ill pleafed to find is. now very feldom. This is my cafe in the funny part of the year: what muft I expect, when

Inverfum contriftat Aquarius annum ?

If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Excufe me for employing a fentence of Scripture on this occafion; I apply it very seriously. One thing relieves me a little under the ill profpect I have of fpending my time at the Deanry this Winter; that I fhall have the opportunity of feeing you oftener; though, I am afraid, you will have little pleasure in: feeing me there. So much for my ill ftate of health ;. which I had not touched on, had not your friendly let-ter been fo full of it. One civil thing that you fay in it, made me think you had been reading Mr. Waller ; and poffeffed of that image at the end of his copy, à la malade, had you not beftowed it on one who has no right to the leaft part of the character. If you have not read the verfes lately, I am fure you remember them, because you forget nothing..

With fuch a grace you entertain,

And look with fuch contempt on pain, &c:

I mention them not on the account of that couplet, but one that follows; which ends with the very fame rhymes and words (appear and clear) that the couplet but one after that does ;-and therefore in my Waller

there

there is a various reading of the first of these couplets ;; for there it runs thus:

So lightnings in a formy air

Scorch more,

than when the fky is fair.

You will fay that I am not very much in pain, nor very bufy, when I can relifh thefe amufements; and you will fay true; for at present I am in both these respects very easy.

I had not ftrength enough to attend Mr. Prior to his grave; elfe I would have done it, to have fhewed his friends that I had forgot and forgiven what he wrote on me. He is buried, as he defired, at the feet of Spenfer, and I will take care to make good in every refpect what I faid to him when living; particularly as to the triplet he wrote for his own epitaph; which, while we were in good terms, I promised him fhould never appear on his tomb, while I was Dean of Weftminster.

I am pleafed to find you have fo much pleasure, and (which is the foundation of it) so much health at Lord Bathurst's. May both continue till I fee you! May my Lord have as much fatisfaction in building the house in the wood, and ufing it when built, as you have in defigning it! I cannot fend a wifh after him that means him more happinefs, and yet I am fure I with him as much as he wishes himself.

I am, &c.

LETTER X.

From the fame.

Broomley, Oct. 15, 1721.

even, to acknowledge the receipt of yours this morning; yet I forefee it will not reach you till Wednef. day morning. And, before fet of fun that day, I hope to

Y 3

reach

reach my Winter-quarters at the Deanry. I hope, did I fay? I recal that word, for it implies defire; and God knows, that is far from being the cafe: for I never part with this place but with regret, though I generally keep here what Mr. Cowley calls the wort of company in the world, my own, and fee either none befide, or what is worse than none, fome of the Arri or Sebaft of my neighbourhood; characters, which. Tully paints fo well in one of his Epiftles, and com plains of the too civil, but impertinent interruption they gave him in his retirement. Since I have named thofe gentlemen, and the book is not far from me, I will turn to the place, and, by pointing it out to you, give you the pleasure of perufing the epiftle; which is. a very agreeable one, if my memory does not fail me.

I am furprised to find, that my Lord Bathurst and you are parted fo foon. He has been fick, I know, of fome late tranfactions; but, fhould that fickness conti, nue ftill in fome measure, I prophefy, it will be quite off by the beginning of November. A letter or two from: his London friends, and a furfeit of folitude, will foon make him change his refolution and his quarters. I vow to you, I could live here with pleasure all the Winter, and be contented with hearing no more news than the London Journal, or fome fuch trifling paper, affords me, did not the duty of my place require, abfolutely require, my attendance at Westminster; where, I hope, the prophet will now and then remember he has a bed and a candlestick. In fhort, I long to fee you, and hope you will come, if not a day, yet at least an hour fooner to town than you intended, in order to afford me that fatisfaction. I am now, I thank God,. as well as ever I was in my life, except that I can walk fcarce at all without crutches: and I would willingly compound the matter with the gout, to be no better, could I hope to be no worse. But that is a vain thought; I expect a new attack long before Chriftmas Let me fee you therefore while I am in a condition to relifh you, before the days (and the nights) come, when i hall (and muft) fay, I have no pleasure in them.

I will bring your fmall volume of paftorals along with me, that you may not be difcouraged from lend... ing me books, when you find me fo punctual in returning them. Shakefpeare fhall bear it company, and be put into your hands as clear and as fair as it came out of them, though you, I think, have been dabbling. here and there with the text. I have had more reverence for the writer and the printer, and left every thing ftanding juft as I found it. However, I thank you for the pleasure you have given me in putting me upon reading him once more before I die.

I believe I fhall fearce repeat that pleasure any more, having other work to do, and other things to think of; but none that will interfere with the offices of friendfhip, in the exchange of which with you, Sir, I hope to live and die

Your, &c.

P. S. Addifon's works came to my hands yefterday. I cannot but think it a very odd fet of incidents, that the book should be dedicated by a dead man to a dead mant; and even that the new patron, to whom Tickell chofe to infcribe his verfes, fhould be dead alfo before they were published. Had I been in the editor's place, I fhould have been a little apprehenfive for myfelf, under a thought that every one who had any hand in that work was to die before the publication of it. You fee, when I am converfing with you, I know not how to give over, till the very bottom of the paper admonishes me once more to bid you adieu!

Mr. Addifon.

↑ Mr. Craggs.

Lord Warwick,

LET