you, that both Mr. Gay and myself have written feveral letters in vain; and that we were conftantly enquiring, of all who have feen Ireland, if they faw you, and that (forgotten as we are) we are everý day remembering you in our moft agreeable hours. All this is true; as that we are fincerely lovers of you, and deplorers of your abfence, and that we form no with more ardently than that which brings you over to us, and places you in your old feat between us. We have lately had fome diftant hopes of the Dean's defign to revifit England; will not you accompany him? or is England to lofe 6 every thing that has any charms for us, and muft we pray for banishment as a benediction ?—I have once been witnefs of fome, I hope all of your fplenetic hours come, and be a comforter in your turn to me, in mine. I am in fuch an unfettled ftate, that I can't tell if I fhall ever fee you, unless it be this year; whether I do or not, be ever affured, you have as large a fhare of my thoughts and good wishes as any man, and as great a portion of gratitude in my heart as would enrich a monarch, could he know where to find it. I fhall not die without teftifying fomething of this nature, and leaving to the world a memorial of the friendship that has been fo great a pleasure and pride to me. It would be like writing my own epitaph, to acquaint you with what I have ' loft fince I faw you, what I have done, what I have thought, where I have lived, and where I now repofe in obfcurity. My friend Jervas, the bearer of this, will inform you of all particulars concerning me; and Mr. Ford is charged with a thoufand loves, and a thoufand complaints, and a thoufand ⚫ commiffions to you on my part. They will both tax you with the neglect of fome promifes which 'were too agreeable to us all to be forgot; if you care for any of us tell them fo, and write fo to me. I 6 can can fay no more, but that I love you, and am, in fpite of the longest neglect of happiness, Your most faithful affectionate friend, 'A. POPE. Gay is in Devonshire, and from thence he goes to Bath. My father and mother never fail to commemorate you.' Among the number of his moft intimate friends was Lord Oxford, whom Pope has fo finely complimented upon the delicacy of his choice. For him thou oft haft bid the world attend, Pope himself was not only exceffively fond of his company, but under feveral literary obligations tohim for his affiftance in the tranflation of Homer. Gay was obliged to him upon another account; for, being always poor, he was not above receiving from Parnell the copy-money which the latter got for his writings. Several of their letters, now before me, are proofs of this; and as they have never appeared before, it is probable the reader will be much better pleafed with their idle effufions, than with any thing I can hammer out for his amusement. DEAR SIR, Binfield, near Oakingham, Tuefday. I BELIEVE the hurry you were in hindered your giving me a word by the laft poft, so that I am yet to learn whether you got well to town, or continue fo there? I very much fear both for your health and your quiet; and no man living can be more truly concerned in any thing that touches either than myself. I would comfort myself, however, ⚫ with hoping that your bufinefs may not be unfuccefsful for your fake; and that at leaft it may foon be put into other proper hands. For my own, I beg earneftly of you to return to us as foon as poffible. You know how very much I want you; and that, however your bufinefs may depend upon any other, my business depends entirely upon you; and yet ftill I hope you will find your man, even though I lofe you the mean while. At this time, the more I love you, the more I can fpare you; which alone will, I dare fay, be a reafon to you to let me have you "back the fooner. The minute I loft you, Euftathius with nine hundred pages, and nine thousand 'contractions of the Greek characters, arofe to view ! Spondanus, with all his auxiliaries, in number a ⚫ thousand pages, (value three fhillings), and Dacier's three volumes, Barnes's two, Valterie's three, Cuperus, half in Greek, Leo Allatus, three parts in Greck, Scaliger, Macrobius, and (worfe than them all) Aulus Gellius! all thefe rufhed upon my foul at once, and whelmed me under a fit of the headach. I curfed them all religioufly, damn'd my best friends among the reft, and even blafphemed Homer himfelf. Dear fir, not only as you are a friend, and a good-natured man, but as you are a christian and a divine, come back fpeedily, ⚫ and prevent the increase of my fins; for, at the rate I have begun to rave, I fhall not only damn all the poets and commentators who have before me, but be damn'd myfelf by all who come after me. To be ferious; you have not only left me to the laft gone degree degree impatient for your return, who at all times. fhould have been fo (though never fo much as fince I knew you in beft health here), but you have wrought feveral miracles upon our family; you have made old people fond of a young and gay per¶ son, and inveterate papifts of a clergyman of the Church of England; even Nurse herself is in 6 danger of being in love in her old age, and (for all I know) would even marry Dennis for your fake, because he is your man, and loves his master. In 'fhort, come down forthwith, or give me good reafons for delaying, though but for a day or two, by the next poft. If I find them juft, I will come up to you, though you know how precious my time is at prefent; my hours were never worth fo much money before; but perhaps you are not fenfible of this, who give away your own works. You are a generous author; I a hackney fcribbler; you a Grecian, and bred at a Univerfity; I a poor Eng'lifhman, of my own educating; you a reverend parfon, I a wag; in fhort, you are Dr. Parnelle (with an e at the end of your name) and I "Your moft obliged and 'Affectionate friend and 'Faithful fervant, 'A. POPE. My hearty fervice to the Dean, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Ford, and the true genuine fhepherd, J. Gay, of Devon. I expect him down with you." We may eafily perceive by this, that Parnell was not a little neceffary to Pope in conducting his translation; however, he has worded it fo ambiguously, that it is impoffible to bring the charge directly against him. But he is much more explicit, when he mentions mentions his friend Gay's obligations in another letter, which he takes no pains to conceal. • DEAR SIR, "I WRITE to you with the fame warmth, the fame zeal of good-will and friendship with which I used 6 to converfe with you two years ago, and can't think ، myfelf abfent, when I feel you fo much at my heart ; the picture of you, which Jervas brought me over, is infinitely lefs lively a reprefentation than that I $ carry about with me, and which rifes to my mind • whenever I think of you, I have many an agreeable reverie through thofe woods and downs where • we once rambled together; my head is fometimes at the Bath, and fometimes at Letcomb, where the • Dean makes a great part of my imaginary entertainment, this being the cheapeft way of treating me; I hope he will not be difpleafed at this manner of paying my refpects to him, inftead of following my friend Jervas's example, which to fay the truth, ، I have as much inclination to do as I want ability. I have been ever fince December laft in greater variety of bufinefs than any fuch men as you (that is, divines and philofophers) can poffibly imagine a • reasonable creature capable of. Gay's play, among ، the reft, has coft much time and long fuffering, to • ftem a -tide of malice and party, that certain authors have raifed against it; the beft revenge upon fuch fellows is now in my hands, I mean your Zoilus, which really tranfcends the expectation I ، had conceived of it. I have put it into the prefs, beginning with the poem Batrachom: for you feem, by the first paragraph of the dedication to it, to defign to prefix the name of fome particular perfon, 'I beg therefore to know for whom you intend it, that the publication may not be delayed on this ac 'count, |